Battle of Meloria

Naval loss that sparked decline of Pisa as trading power

An artist's visualisation of the Battle of Meloria

The decline of the Republic of Pisa as one of Italy’s major naval and commercial powers began with a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Meloria on this day in 1284.

A fleet of 72 galleys was routed by the forces of the rival Ligurian Sea port of Genoa in a confrontation fought close to the islet of Meloria, about 10km (6 miles) off the coast, near what is now Livorno.

More than 5,000 Pisan crew were killed with 10 galleys sunk and at least 25 captured before other vessels fled the scene and the Genovese claimed victory.

Pisa and Genoa had once been allies, joining forces to drive the Saracens out of Sardinia in the 11th century, but subsequently became fierce rivals for trade, particularly from the eastern Mediterranean and the Byzantine Empire.

The city’s participation in the Crusades secured valuable commercial positions for Pisan traders in Syria, and thereafter Pisa grew in strength to rival Genoa and Venice.

A scene from the battle displayed in a commemorative
plaque in Diano Castello, Liguria

However, in the 13th century, Genoa conquered numerous settlements in Crimea, establishing a colony at Caffa. The Byzantine Empire granted free trading rights to Genoa, increasing their wealth and simultaneously reducing commercial opportunities for Venice and Pisa.

Matters came to a head in the tense relationship between Pisa and Genoa in 1282 when Pisa tried to seize control of the commerce and administration a part of Corsica then held by Genoa, on the pretext of responding to a call for help after an uprising.

The Genovese retailiated by blockading Pisan commerce near the River Arno and both sides began preparing for war. Pisa recruited soldiers from Tuscany and appointed captains from its noble families. The Genovese leader Oberto Doria massively expanded his fleet, hiring between 15,000 to 17,000 rowers and seamen.

In early 1284, the Genovese fleet acted to provoke a conflict by attempting to conquer Porto Torres and Sassari in Pisan-controlled Sardinia. Pisa responded but the force they sent to engage the Genovese was defeated.

The drawing on which a lunette fresco by Giovanni David
in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa 

The Genovese fleet then blocked Porto Pisano, the city’s naval base and commercial harbour, and attacked Pisan ships travelling in the Mediterranean Sea. Meanwhile a Genovese force of thirty ships led by Benedetto Zaccaria travelled to Porto Torres to support Genovese forces besieging Sassari.

Eventually the entire Genovese fleet massed near Meloria, where tactics were employed to draw the Pisan fleet out of the mouth of the River Arno, where they had assembled, and into conflict on the open sea.

This was achieved by the Genovese splitting into two lines of galleys, the first, under the command of Admiral Doria, comprising around 66 ships. The second, commanded by Admiral Zaccaria, was positioned so far behind Doria’s force that the Pisans would not be able to determine whether they were warships or merely support vessels.

The Pisan fleet, under the command of the city’s ruler - the Podestà Alberto Morosini - advanced on Doria’s ships with the intention of ramming and boarding them in accordance with the customary tactics of the time but were taken by surprise when Zaccaria’s fleet arrived and attacked them from the flanks, with the result that the Pisan force was almost annihilated.

Two years later, Genoa captured Porto Pisano, the city's access to the sea, and filled in the harbour. Pisa thus lost its role as a major Mediterranean naval power and its power in Tuscany diminished accordingly. In 1406 it was conquered in 1406 by Florence.

The Basilica of San Piero a Grado occupies the site
where Porto Pisano once stood as the port of Pisa

Travel tip:

After the Battle of Meloria, Porto Pisano, also known as Triturrita, was rebuilt as a port and sold by Genoa to Florence. But it suffered from increasing alluvial deposits, which meant that the Tuscan coastline grew steadily further away. Florence subsequently began to use Livorno as its port and after the 16th century Porto Pisano ceased entirely to be used and disappeared. The site it formerly occupied, now some 9km (4.5 miles) inland from the Marina di Pisa, is occupied by the Romanesque Basilica of San Piero a Grado and a small village of the same name.

Marina di Pisa has become a stylish holiday destination

Travel tip:

Marina di Pisa is a seaside town located 12km (7 miles) from Pisa that began to develop in the early 17th century when Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decided to move the mouth of the Arno river in a bid to reduce the effect of silting up, which he believed caused flooding in Pisa. On the left bank, a new customs building was erected and fishermen began to build houses around this structure. The official foundation of the town was in 1872. In June 1892 a steam railway line from Pisa to the Marina was opened, contributing to its rapid growth as a tourist destination, which saw the construction of many beautiful Art Nouveau and neo-medieval villas.

More reading:

How the Battle of Solferino led to the founding of the Red Cross

Galileo Galilei - Pisa's most famous son

The kidnapping of Pope Boniface VIII

Also on this day:

1519: The birth of the singer and composer Barbara Strozzi

1994: The death of singer and songwriter Domenico Modugno

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Antonio Cesti – opera composer

Singer and organist wrote operas and church music

An illustration of the stage set, meant to represent the
underworld, for a production of Il pomo d'oro in Vienna

Composer Pietro Marc’Antonio Cesti was baptised on this day in 1623 in Arezzo in Tuscany. It was also probably the date of his birth.

One of the leading composers of the 17th century, Cesti is said to have written about 100 operas, although only 15 are known of today.

He joined the order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans, a Catholic religious group founded by St Francis of Assisi in 1637.

Cesti studied first in Rome and then moved to Venice, where his first known opera, Orontea, was produced in 1649.

In 1652 he became chapel master to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at Innsbruck and from 1669 he was vice chapel master to the imperial court in Vienna.

Throughout the 17th century his operas were widely performed in Italy. His most famous operas, Il pomo d’oro, Dori, and Orontea, have survived to this day.

Il pomo d’oro was a lavish production, written for the wedding of Emperor Leopold I in 1666 in Vienna.

An important manuscript collection of 18 secular and three sacred cantatas by Cesti are preserved in Oxford.

His cantatas and religious works show Roman influences, whereas his operas demonstrate the influence of the Venetian school and foreshadow the operatic developments that were to come in the 18th century.

Cesti was also an acclaimed tenor and an organist and has been described as the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation. He died in Venice in 1669.

The Basilica of San Francesco
in Arezzo

Travel tip:

Arezzo, where Cesti was born, is an interesting old town in eastern Tuscany. The 13th century Basilica of San Francesco in the centre of the town is famous for containing Piero della Francesco’s cycle of frescoes, The Legend of the True Cross, painted between 1452 and 1466.

The Basilica of St Mark in Venice

Travel tip:

One of the focal points for music in Venice during the 17th century was St Mark’s Basilica in the square of the same name. St Mark’s is the cathedral church of Venice and one of the best examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture in existence. Because of its opulent design and gold ground mosaics it became a symbol of Venetian wealth and power and has been nicknamed Chiesa d’Oro (Church of Gold).

More reading:

How the castrato Farinelli became music's first superstar

The oldest opera still being performed

The 17th century musician who invented the piano

Also on this day:

1953: The birth of Felice Casson, the magistrate who uncovered NATO's top-secret Operation Gladio

2002: The death of crime novelist Franco Lucentini


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Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici - politician

Art enthusiast who was Botticelli’s major patron

Botticelli's 1479 Portrait of a Young Man,
is thought to be Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco

The Florentine banker and politician Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, who was a significant figure in Renaissance art as the main sponsor and patron of the painter Sandro Botticelli, was born on this day in 1463.

The great-grandson of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, the founder of the Medici bank, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco belonged to the junior, sometimes known as ‘Popolani’ branch of the House of Medici.

In 1476, when he and his brother, Giovanni, were still boys, their father, Pierfrancesco de’ Medici the Elder, died. They became wards, effectively, of their cousin, Lorenzo il Magnifico - Lorenzo the Magnificent - a member of the senior branch of the family and the effective ruler of Florence.

Relations between the two branches had been tense for some years and were not helped when Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco discovered, on becoming an adult, that Lorenzo had plundered a considerable sum from he and his brother’s joint inheritance in order to stave off a threatened bankruptcy of the family’s financial empire.

Although Lorenzo had provided the boys with the best education money could buy - the notable Florentine Renaissance humanists Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano and Giorgio Antonio Vespucci (uncle of Amerigo) were among their tutors - and given them a number of properties in compensation, the incident created a lingering bitterness.

Meanwhile, thanks to the curiosities stirred by the education he received, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco developed a reputation as an art connoisseur. In around 1485, he commissioned an illuminated manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy featuring artwork by Botticelli, to whom he had been introduced by the Vespucci family, who were neighbours of the Botticellis in Florence.

Botticelli's Primavera is thought to have been commissioned
to celebrate Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's marriage

Two of Sandro Botticelli’s most famous works may have been commissioned to celebrate the marriage that Lorenzo il Magnifico arranged between Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and Semiramide Appiano, daughter of the Appiani lord Jacopo III of Piombino.

It is thought that Lorenzo il Magnifico commissioned Botticelli's Pallas Athene Taming a Centaur as a wedding gift to the new couple, while either Lorenzo il Magnifico or Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco himself had Botticelli paint his allegorical work Primavera as a celebration, with Mercury representing Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and Semiramide by the central figure of Grace.

After the wedding, both paintings were displayed on the walls of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco’s villa in the centre of Florence. Some accounts suggest that he also commissioned Botticelli's best known work, The Birth of Venus, one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance by any artist.

The tension that still existed between him and Lorenzo il Magnifico came to a head in October 1484, when his cousin, determined to protect the primacy of the senior branch of the Medici family, had Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's name removed from the lists of persons eligible for election to the Florentine political institutions.

Angelo Bronzino's portrait of the Florentine
leader Lorenzo il Magnifico

A settlement was agreed in 1485 by which Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother were given the Medici family property of Villa Cafaggiolo in the Mugello region. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was unhappy, though, at having to shelve his political ambitions.

When Lorenzo il Magnifico died in 1492, Lorenzo and Giovanni sided against il Magnifico's son, Piero. They were exiled as a result but returned when King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and Piero was ousted from Florence by a Republican government.

The nickname Popolano - meaning ‘of the people’ - was coined for the brothers and Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco became a popular figure in the new administration. He extended his patronage of the arts to protect Botticelli, Michelangelo, Filippino Lippi and Bartolomeo Scala, and in 1494 he founded a workshop of ceramics at Cafaggiolo.

He was pushed out when the hellfire preacher Girolamo Savonarola swept to power in 1494 with his denunciation of clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor, yet refused to return even after the controversial Dominican friar was burned at the stake in the main square of the city in 1498.

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco died in Florence in 1503, aged only 39. Years later, his grandson Lorenzino de' Medici murdered Alessandro de' Medici, the last ruler of Florence from the senior branch of the Medici, thereby passing power to Lorenzo's great-grandson Cosimo I de' Medici.

The Villa del Trebbio, which Cosimo de' Medici turned
into a fortified castle

Travel tip:

One of the properties owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was the Villa del Trebbio, which he inherited from his grandfather Lorenzo the Elder.  Located near San Piero a Sieve in the Mugello region, the area from which the Medici family originated, it was possibly the first of the Medici villas built outside Florence, on top of a hill dominating the Val di Sieve. It had earlier belonged to Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the founder of the Medici bank, and was remodelled by his son, Cosimo de' Medici, whose architect, Michelozzo, restyled it as a fortified castle.

The Piazzale between the two wings of the Uffizi, which links
Piazza della Signoria with the Arno river

Travel tip:

Primavera, Pallas Athene Taming a Centaur and The Birth of Venus are among a number of Botticelli paintings displayed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which is one of the largest and best known art museums in the world. Its collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance, owes much to Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, the last Medici heiress, who bequeathed the family’s entire art collection to the city of Florence. The Uffizi was open to visitors by request as early as the 16th century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public.

More reading:

Why Lorenzo the Magnificent was seen as a benign despot

Cosimo de' Medici  - the first Medici ruler of Florence

How Sandro Botticelli's paintings became forgotten works of genius

Also on this day:

1521: The birth of Pope Urban VII

1994: The death of politician Giovanni Spadolini

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Antonio da Sangallo the Younger - Architect

Talented Florentine was commissioned by the Popes

The Church of Santa Maria de Loreto in
Rome was Sangallo's first major commission

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who left his mark on Rome during the Renaissance, died on this day in 1546 in Terni in Umbria.

Sangallo was the chief architect on St Peter’s Basilica from 1520 onwards and built many other beautiful churches and palaces in the city and throughout the Papal States.

He was born Antonio Cordiani in Florence in 1484. His grandfather had been a woodworker and his uncles, Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo, were architects.

The young man followed his uncles to Rome to pursue a career in architecture and ended up taking the name Sangallo himself.

He became an assistant to Donato Bramante and started by preparing sketches for his master.

Recognising his talent, Bramante gave Sangallo projects to complete with no more than an outline of the design and motifs.

Sangallo’s first major commission was for the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in 1507.

He came to the attention of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who later became Pope Paul III, and was commissioned to design the Farnese Palace in Piazza Farnese and a palace and church in the Cardinal’s home town of Gradoli.

Sangallo designed the Palazzo Farnese
on behalf of the future Pope Paul III

Sangallo designed the Palazzo Baldassini for Melchiore Baldassini and was responsible for the final design of the Villa Madama for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici.

Having acquired a reputation in Rome as a master architect, he was appointed by Pope Leo X to oversee the construction of St Peter’s Basilica.

He was also responsible for some inspired engineering feats, such as building the foundations for the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini on the banks of the Tiber, following Jacopo Sansovino’s design, which called for the church to extend into the river.

He shored up the foundations for the Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto and did similar work on the Vatican loggias. His reinforcements are still standing today.

His last engineering project was the draining of the Rieti Valley. Because of the marshy environment he was working in, Sangallo contracted malaria and died before finishing the task.

When Cardinal Farnese became Pope Paul III in 1534 he asked for the Palazzo Farnese design to be expanded. In 1546 during the construction he became dissatisfied with Sangallo’s original design for the cornice and held a competition for a new design, which was won by Michelangelo.

At the time it was said that Sangallo had died from shame soon afterwards, but his biographer, Giorgio Vasari, later wrote that he was an excellent architect whose achievements deserved to be celebrated. Antonio Sangallo the Younger was buried in St Peter’s Basilica.

Sangallo's construction of St Patrick's Well in Orvieto is
considered one of his most accomplished engineering feats

Travel tip:

One of Sangallo’s amazing engineering feats was St Patrick’s Well in Orvieto, built for Pope Clement VII. Ramps around a central open shaft allowed oxen carrying water to do down one of the ramps and up the other without having to turn round. Despite the depth of the well, the ramps were well lit through windows cut into the centre section.

The Scala Regia was built by Sangallo and later restored
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Travel tip:

Sangallo was capomaestro in charge of the day-to-day construction of St Peter’s Basilica from 1513 until about 1536. A wooden model of his design for the basilica is still in existence. He also worked on the Vatican apartments, building the Pauline Chapel and the Scala Regia, the main staircase to the Apostolic Chapel. Therefore it was fitting that the architect was allowed to be buried in St Peter’s.

More reading:

The Renaissance pope who turned Rome into the cultural heart of Europe

How Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted Rome

The story of La Pietà - Michelangelo's ultimate masterpiece

Also on this day:

1486: The birth of Imperia Cognati - courtesan

1778: Milan's Teatro alla Scala opens for business

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