This city is under the Grand Duke of Florence, and stands on the plain of the Arno, which runs through the middle of it and enters the sea six miles farther on. By it ships of divers sorts can reach Pisa. The University was now closed, as it always is during the three hot months, but we found there a company of very good players, the Disiosi. The hotel was not to my liking, wherefore I hired a house with four rooms and one salle. The landlord did the cooking and provided furniture; an excellent house and all for eight crowns a month. But because the provision of table linen which he promised to make was very scanty (and in Italy they hardly ever change the napkins save when they change the tablecloth, which is done twice a week), we let our servants buy some more. At the inn we had paid four julli a day.72

This house was in a most pleasant situation, commanding a delightful prospect right over the channel through which the Arno flows. This channel is very wide and more than five hundred paces in length, slightly curved, and offering a charming object to the view, the bend aforesaid allowing the spectator to see easily both ends of the channel, full of merchant shipping and crossed by three bridges. The quays on either side are of fine masonry, with supports to the very top, like those on the Quai des Augustines at Paris, with wide streets, at the side of which are rows of houses, one of which is the one I hired.

On Wednesday, July 5th, I visited the cathedral, built on the site of the palace of the Emperor Hadrian. Here are columns of various marbles, infinite in number and differing in form and workmanship, and most beautiful doors of metal. It is enriched by various trophies brought from Greece and Egypt, and itself is constructed out of ancient ruins, so that here may be seen inscriptions upside down, and there divided in the middle.73 In some places are to be seen indecipherable characters said to be written by the Etruscans.74 I saw the Campanile, which is marvellous in appearance, being inclined seven cubits out of the perpendicular. At Bologna and other places there are leaning towers. Pillars and open colonnades are set round it from top to bottom. Also the church of Saint John near thereto, which is very richly adorned with painting and sculpture.75 Amongst other rarities is a marble pulpit set very thickly with statues, which are so beautiful that Lorenzo, the same who slew Duke Alexander dei Medici, is said to have carried off the heads of certain of them,76 and presented them to the queen. In shape this church resembles the Rotonda at Rome.77

The natural son of the duke aforesaid lives at Pisa.78 He is an old man, and I chanced to see him. He lives at his ease on the bounty of the present duke, and takes no part in public affairs, being content to amuse himself with the excellent hunting and fishing to be enjoyed in the neighbourhood. In no other city of Italy is to be found such vast store of holy relics and exquisite works, and stone and marble work of such rarity, grandeur, and marvellous workmanship. I was immensely pleased with the cemetery, which they call the Campo Santo. It is of extraordinary size, and rectangular, three hundred paces long and one hundred wide, and surrounded by a corridor forty paces wide, covered with lead and paved with marble. The walls are covered with old paintings, and amongst them is a portrait of the Florentine Gondi, by whom the family of that name was founded.

The nobles of the city have their burial-places under this covered corridor. Here are to be seen the names and armorial devices of some four hundred families, of whom not more than four now dwell in Pisa, the survivors of the wars and destruction which have fallen upon this ancient city. The population is now very scanty, the place being chiefly taken up by strangers. Many persons of rank belonging to the noble families referred to are still living in other parts of Christendom whither they have betaken themselves. In the midst of this enclosure is an open space where the dead are still buried. I was told positively by every one that any corpse interred there swells so greatly some eight hours afterwards that the ground may be seen to rise; in the next eight it subsides, and in eight hours more the flesh is entirely consumed, so that four-and-twenty hours after burial nothing is left but bare bones.79 This strange fact resembles another told of that cemetery at Rome which rejects immediately the body of any Roman buried therein. This enclosure is paved, like the corridor, with marble, upon which is laid earth one or two cubits deep, which earth, they declare, was brought from Jerusalem, the Pisans having sent a great expedition for the carrying out of this purpose. With the bishop’s consent a little of this earth may be taken and mixed with that of other graves, the belief being that the corpses within will thereby consume away rapidly; and this belief is a plausible one, because in this particular cemetery bones are very rarely seen, scarcely any indeed, neither is there any place where they are collected and reinterred, as in other cities.

From the neighbouring mountains they quarry the finest marble, which is here worked by divers distinguished craftsmen. At this time they were preparing for the King of Fez, in Barbary, materials for a theatre of the richest design, the plan being drawn to include fifty most sumptuous marble columns. The arms of France are to be seen in countless places all about this city,80 besides a column which King Charles VIII. gave to the Duomo. On the wall of a certain house looking upon the street the king aforesaid is represented, life-size, kneeling before the Virgin, who seems to be giving him counsel. An inscription set thereupon declares that the king, after supping in this house, was seized with the determination to give the Pisans their ancient freedom, and that by this act he surpassed the greatness of Alexander. He is there described as King of Jerusalem, Sicily, &c.81 The words which refer to the grant of liberty have been designedly defaced and are half-erased. Many private houses still exhibit these arms as badges of honour, the king having granted the same to the owners.

Here are a few remains of ancient buildings. One is the fine brick ruin, which stands near the site of Nero’s palace, the name of which it still retains,82 and another the church of Saint Michael, formerly a temple of Mars.83 Thursday was the Feast of Saint Peter, and report says it was formerly the custom for the bishop to go in procession on this day to the church of Saint Peter,84 which stands four miles outside the city, and thence on to the sea, into which he would cast a ring as a token of espousal, this city being a great maritime power. Now they simply send one of the University teachers to perform this ceremony. The priests go in procession only as far as the church, where they hold a great sale of pardons. A papal bull, dating back some four hundred years (taking as its authority a book more than twelve hundred years old), declares that this church was built by Saint Peter himself, and that one day when Saint Clement was performing the office on a marble altar, three drops of blood from the Saint’s nose fell down upon this altar, where the stain made by them still remains as plain as if they had fallen three days ago. The Genoese mutilated this table and carried away one of the drops aforesaid, wherefore the Pisans removed what remained from the church into the city. But every year, on Saint Peter’s Day, it is carried back in procession to its original place, and all night long people are passing hither and thither in boats.

On Friday, June 7th, I went early to see the dairy farm of Don Piero de’ Medici,85 about two miles distant. This prince has vast estates, which he cultivates on his own account, engaging every five years a fresh set of labourers, who receive as wages half the produce of the soil, which is here very fertile in grain. In the pastures animals of all sorts are kept. I dismounted in order to inspect more minutely the farmstead, where a vast number of people were at work making curd and butter and cheese, and using divers implements made for the purpose.

Onward from thence over the plain I went as far as the beach of the Tyrrhenian Sea, getting a sight of Lerici on the right, and on the left of Leghorn, a town with a castle close to the sea and nearer than Lerici. From here I could also see the island of Gorgona, beyond this Capraia,86 and Corsica beyond all. I turned to the left and followed the shore as far as the mouth of the Arno, which is of ill-fame amongst sailors because the many small streams which fall into it bring down great quantities of earth and mud and form a bar at the mouth. Here I bought some fish, which I despatched as a present to the ladies of the theatre. Along the river are many thickets of tamarisk. On Saturday I bought, for six giulios, a small barrel made of this wood, which I caused to be hooped with silver, paying the silversmith three crowns for the work. Besides this, I spent six giulios on a walking-stick of Indian cane, and eight more on a small vessel and a cup made of Indian nut, which is quite as efficacious against spleen and the gravel as tamarisk.

The man who made these wares, an artist of great talent and famous as a maker of fine mathematical instruments, informed me, that all trees, when cut through, show as many rings as they have years, and he gave me demonstration of this from all the different sorts of wood he had in his shop, he being a carpenter. The part of the tree which faces the north is always of closer grain and with circles nearer together than the other parts. Wherefore, he boasts that, whatever specimen of wood may be brought to him, he can always determine how old was the tree from which it was cut, and the aspect towards which it faced.87

Only a short time ago this city bore an evil name for its unhealthy air, but this is vastly improved since Duke Cosimo has drained the marshes by which it is surrounded. Formerly the place was so unhealthy that when the government wanted to banish any one, and at the same time get rid of him, they always banished him to Pisa, where in a few months the job was done. There are no partridges here, though the Duke has taken great pains to foster them.

I received several visits at my lodging from Girolamo Borro,88 a physician and doctor of philosophy, and when I went to see him on July 14, he made me a present of his book on the flux and reflux of the sea, written in Italian. At the same time he showed me another book he had written in Latin on the diseases of the body.

On this same day, twenty-one Turkish slaves escaped from the arsenal near my house and fled the place, having taken possession of a bark, with full equipment, which the Signor Alessandro di Piombini had left there while he went fishing. Except the Arno itself, and the navigable channel so admirably contrived, and the churches and ancient buildings and others of particular merit, there is little in Pisa that is distinguished or worth seeing. The place is like a desert, and in this respect, and in the fashion of the buildings, and in its size, and in the wideness of the streets, it strongly resembles Pistoia. Its chief disadvantage is its bad water, which has everywhere a marshy smell.

These people are very poor, but at the same time very arrogant and unfriendly, and discourteous towards strangers, and towards the French especially since the death of their late bishop, Pietro Paulo Borbonio, who claimed kinship with our royal house.89 Certain of his relations still reside here. This prelate was so liberal and so well disposed to our nation that he made it a rule to entertain in his palace at once any Frenchman who might arrive in Pisa. To the Pisans he has left an honoured memory of his righteous life and bounty. He died only five or six years ago.

On July 17th, I joined with twenty-five others, at a crown each, in a raffle for some things belonging to Fargnocola, one of the aforenamed players. We began by drawing lots as to who should play first, second, and so on; and then made the rule that, as there were several lots of things to play for, they should be divided into two equal parts. One of these was to fall to the player who threw highest, the other to the lowest throw. It chanced that I threw second highest.

On the 18th, at the church of S. Francesco, a grave tumult arose between the priests of the cathedral and the friars. On the previous day a Pisan gentleman was brought to be buried in the cathedral, whereupon the priests got ready all their paraphernalia for the funeral office, asserting their ancient right and privilege. But the friars on their part declared that they and no others had the right to say mass in their church. One of the priests attempted to get possession of the table, having gone up to the high altar, but a friar forced him away, whereupon the vicar, the head of the priests of this church, gave the friar a buffet. Then arose a hand-to-hand fight, fists, bludgeons, candlesticks, and tapers being used freely, and the upshot was that no mass was said by either party. This outbreak of rage and riot caused a great scandal. As soon as I heard the report thereof, I went to the cathedral, where I received true report of what had happened.

At daybreak on the 22nd three Turkish pirate ships made a raid on the adjoining sea coast and carried off fifteen or twenty poor fishermen and shepherds as captives. On the 25th I paid a visit to Cornacchino,90 a famous Pisan physician and teacher. He lived according to a rule of his own, which differed vastly from the rules of his art. Immediately after dinner he would go to sleep and would drink a hundred times a day. He read to me some rhymes of his own written in the Pisan dialect which were not unpleasing. According to him the baths near the city are of no great account, but he had a high opinion of those of Bagno Acqua,91 about sixteen miles distant, which he declared to be marvellously good for liver complaints, detailing to me some wonderful cures, and for the stone and colic as well. He recommended me, however, before taking these waters, to drink some of the Della Villa spring. He is of opinion that, after blood-letting, medicine has no curative agent to compare with baths, if only they be used with understanding. He also told me that at Bagno Acqua the lodgings are good, and that I might make myself very comfortable there.

On Thursday, July 27th, I left Pisa early in the morning, being highly gratified by the courteous and friendly treatment I had received from Signor Vintavinti, Signor Lorenzo Conti, Signor Miniato in whose house lived the Cavaliere Camillo Gatani—who offered to let his brother return with me to France—Signor del Borro, and divers other craftsmen and merchants with whom I had dealings. I am certain that I could have raised money from them, had I needed it, albeit the Pisans have the name for churlishness and arrogance. But in every case a courteous man wins a return for his courtesy.

This country abounds in pigeons, nuts, and mushrooms. We went for a certain distance over the plain and arrived at the baths of Pisa, of which there are several. One of these bears an inscription cut in marble which I could not rightly decipher. It is in rhymed Latin verses and seems to celebrate the virtues of these springs. As far as I could gather it was written in 1300.

The largest and the most seemly of these baths is square-built with one side open, very well fitted, and having marble staircases. It measures thirty paces square, and in one corner the spring flows in through a spout. I took a draught of it to test it, and found it lacking in taste and in smell also. I only detected a slight roughness on the tongue. It is scarcely warm at all and very pleasant to drink. I looked at the water as it flowed from the spout, and perceived therein the same minute particles, white atoms, which had offended me at Baden, and which I judged to be some dirt come in from without. Now, I believe these atoms to be connected with the mineral properties of the water. Round about the outflow these atoms are thicker, where forsooth the waters ought to be the clearest, as I found them to be at Baden. This place is a desert and the lodging very bad; indeed these baths are almost forsaken, the few people who use them preferring to come out in the morning from Pisa, which is only four miles distant, and return in the evening. The chief bath is uncovered, and is the only one which shows any trace of antiquity. It is called the bath of Nero, and the story goes that this Emperor caused water therefrom to be led by an aqueduct to his palace at Pisa.92

There is another covered bath, filled with the purest water, which is used by the people of the district. It is said to be good for the liver and for the eruptions caused by liver disorders. The same draught is prescribed here as at other baths, and exercise after drinking is commonly taken: or you may take a sweating bath, or use it in other forms. By ascending this hill I got a very fine view, looking over the great plain, the sea, the islands, Leghorn, and Pisa. After coming down we again traversed the plain in which Lucca is situated, and arrived there after a journey of ten miles.