the great
church of the northern part of the city, is set just within the walls
far away from the Borgo, so here, in the southern part of Pisa, S. Paolo
a Ripa d'Arno is abandoned by the riverside on the verge of the country,
for the fields are at its threshold. And indeed, this desolate church is
really older than the Duomo, for, as some say, it served as the Great
Church of Pisa while the Cathedral was building. Founded, as the Pisans
assert, by Charlemagne in 805, it was rather the model of the Duomo, if
this be true, than, as is generally supposed, a copy of it. Bare for the
most part and empty, its original beauty and simplicity still remain to
it; nor should any who find it omit to pass into the priest's house, to
see the old Baptistery now in the hands of Benedictine nuns.

On our way back to Pisa by the Lung' Arno Gambacorti, we may look always
with new joy at the Torre Guelfa, almost all that is left of the great
arsenal built in 1200. And then you will not pass without entering, it
may be, S. Maria della Spina, where of old the huntsmen used to hear
Mass at dawn before going about their occasions.

And many another church in Pisa is devout and beautiful. S. Sepolcro,
which Diotisalvi made, he who built the Baptistery, a church of the
Knights Templars below the level of the way; S. Martino too, both in
Chinseca, that part of the city named after her who gave the alarm
nearly a thousand years ago when the Saracen sails hove in sight.--Ah,
do not be in a hurry to leave Pisa for any other city. Let us think of
old things for a little, and be quiet. It may be we shall never see that
line of hills again--Monti Pisani; it were better to look at them a
little carefully. A little while before to-day the most precious of our
dreams was not so lovely as that spur of the Apennines.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Muratori, _Annali ad ann._: He quotes from _Annali Pisani_ (see
tom. vi., Rer. Ital. Scrip): "Fecerunt bellum Pisani cum Lucensibus in
Aqua longa, et vicerunt illos." See Arch. St. It. VI. ii. p. 4. Cron.
Pis. ad annum.

[18] Muratori, _Annali ad ann. 1050_: "et Pisa fuit firmata de tota
Sardinia a Romana sede."--_Ann. Pis._, R.I.S., tom. vi.

[19] Tronci, _Annali Pisani_, Livorno, 1682, p. 21.

[20] Ibid. p. 22.

[21] Muratori (_Annali ad ann._) says Pope Alexander visited in this
year S. Martino the Duomo of Lucca. Ad ann. 1118 he suggests 1092 for
the foundation of the Duomo of Pisa.

[22] Thus Tronci; but Volpe,