Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

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CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. XIIL

nurseries of reviving literature, and under the
auspices of republican liberty, rivalled the most
celebrated academies of Italy, at a time when
they all teemed with genius and science. When
Pisa was subjugated by the Florentines, the
University felt the decay of public prosperity,
gradually lost its fame, was forsaken by its
students, and at length sunk into insignificance.
It was afterwards restored by Lorenzo de Medici,
and many professors of eminence were engaged*
to fill its different chairs. But it again declined;
and it was again restored by the Grand Duke
Cosmo the First. Since that period it has con-
tinued the seat of many eminent professors,
though it has never recovered the number of its
students, or regained all its ancient celebrity.
It has more than forty public professors, and
most of those now resident are authors and men
of high reputation in their respective lines. It
is moreover abundantly furnished with all the
apparatus of an academy. Colleges, libraries,
an observatory, with all the astronomical instru-
ments in great perfection; a most extensive and
well ordered botanical garden ·, to which we
may add, that the beauty of the country, the
mildness of the climate, the neighborhood of the

* An. 1472.