DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0163
Bit. THROUGH ITALY. 153
ternal government, have enjoyed an unusual
- share of opulence, consideration, and public feli-
city. Mantua, Verona, and Vicenza, owe all
their magnificence to their governors or to their
senate, during that period ; since their subjec-
tion or annexation to greater states, they have
lost their population and riches, and seem to
subsist on the scanty remains of their former
prosperity.
Sienna and Pisa could once count each a hun-
dred thousand inhabitants, and though their terri-
tories scarce extended ten miles around their
walls, yet their opulence enabled them to erect
edifices that would do honor to the richest mo-
narchies. These cities yielded in time to the
prevailing influence of their rival Florence ; and
under its Dukes they withered away into secon-
dary towns; while their wide circumference,
stately streets, and marble edifices daily remind
the few scattered inhabitants, of the greatness
and of the glory of their ancestors.
Lucca still retains its independence and its
liberty, and with them, its population, its opu-
lence, and its fertility. Parma and Modena
possess the latter advantages because indepen-
dent, but in an inferior degree comparatively,
because not free. Bologna is (I am afraid I may
ternal government, have enjoyed an unusual
- share of opulence, consideration, and public feli-
city. Mantua, Verona, and Vicenza, owe all
their magnificence to their governors or to their
senate, during that period ; since their subjec-
tion or annexation to greater states, they have
lost their population and riches, and seem to
subsist on the scanty remains of their former
prosperity.
Sienna and Pisa could once count each a hun-
dred thousand inhabitants, and though their terri-
tories scarce extended ten miles around their
walls, yet their opulence enabled them to erect
edifices that would do honor to the richest mo-
narchies. These cities yielded in time to the
prevailing influence of their rival Florence ; and
under its Dukes they withered away into secon-
dary towns; while their wide circumference,
stately streets, and marble edifices daily remind
the few scattered inhabitants, of the greatness
and of the glory of their ancestors.
Lucca still retains its independence and its
liberty, and with them, its population, its opu-
lence, and its fertility. Parma and Modena
possess the latter advantages because indepen-
dent, but in an inferior degree comparatively,
because not free. Bologna is (I am afraid I may