part of the fifth century, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours,
on whose day Stilicho, that Roman general who was by birth a Vandal,
gained a victory over Radaugasius and his army of some 400,000 Goths,
who had ravaged the country as far as Florence in 406. However this may
be, in 589 the church was finally rebuilt, and certainly re-dedicated to
S. Zenone, the Bishop of Verona, who, so it was said, had saved the
Pistojese from the floods by breaking through the Gonfolina Pass, that
narrow defile beyond Signa through which the Arno flows, with the
Ombrone in her bosom, into the Empolese. After being dedicated at
various times to many saints, in 1443 it was given to S. Zenone, whose
name it still bears. The present church is for the most part a work of
the twelfth century, and certainly not the work of Niccolo Pisano. The
facade, like the rest of the church, has suffered an unfortunate
restoration. The marble loggia is a work of the fifteenth century, and
the two statues are, one of S. Jacopo, by Scarpellino, the other of S.
Zenone, by Andrea Vacca. The beautiful terra-cotta over the great door
of Madonna and Child with Angels, and the roof above, are the work of
Andrea della Robbia. The frescoes of the story of S. Jacopo are
fourteenth-century work of Giovanni Balducci the Pisan.

The splendid and fierce Campanile, still called Torre del Potesta, stood
till about the year 1200, alone, a stronghold of the city. Giovanni
Pisano converted it to its present form in 1301.

Within, the church has been greatly spoiled. The monument to Cino da
Pistoja, poet and professor, was decreed in 1337 by the Popolo
Pistojese, and was moved about the church from one place to another,
till in 1839 it was erected in its present position. There you may see
him lecturing to his students, and one of them is a woman; can it be
that Selvaggia whom he loved?

"Ay me, alas! the beautiful bright hair ..."

"Weep, Pistoja," says Petrarch, in not the least musical of his perfect
sonnets, in celebrating the death of his master--

"Pianga Pistoia e i cittadin perversi
Che perdut' hanno si dolce vicino;
E rallegres' il ciel or' ello e gito."

Dante, who exchanged sonnets with Cino and rallied him about his
inconstancy, calls the Pistojese worthy of the Beast[141] who dwelt
among them; Petrarch calls them _i cittadin perversi_; the truth being
that the Neri were in power and had exiled "il nostro amoroso messer
Cino."

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