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Pisa and the sea
Ponte a Mare
Even though the year of building is not known, Ponte a Mare may well have existed many years before 1333, the year in which the Council of the Commune ordered its restoration. This bridge was commonly known as Ponte Novo della Degazia (New Bridge of the Customs) or as Ponte della Degazia del Mare, because it stood near the customs offices of the city. Another name for this bridge was Ponte di Ponte, due to its proximity to the quarter with the same name.
Location(s)
The shipyards in the age of the Medici.
Around the mid 16th century, one of the first things Cosimo de’ Medici cared of was to restore the Pisan shipyards. This made part of a larger programme of redevelopment which included the excavation of a channel, the so-called Canale dei Navicelli, linking the port of Leghorn with Pisa and the river Arno, the development of the city of Leghorn as the main port and trade center in Tuscany and the foundation of the Order of the Knights of Santo Stefano.
Location(s)
- R. Mazzei, Pisa medicea: l’economia cittadina da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III, Firenze 1991
- R. Mazzei, L’economia pisana e la dinamica del commercio internazionale nell’età moderna, in Pisa e il Mediterraneo: uomini, merci, idee dagli Etruschi ai Medici, a cura di M. Tangheroni, Catalogo della mostra di Pisa (13 settembre-9 dicembre 2003), Milano 2003, pp. 293-297
- E. Fasano Guarini, Pisa nel Cinquecento mediceo. La città, il fiume, il mare, la campagna, in Pisa e il Mediterraneo: uomini, merci, idee dagli Etruschi ai Medici, a cura di M. Tangheroni, Catalogo della mostra di Pisa (13 settembre-9 dicembre 2003), Milano 2003, pp. 281-285
- E. Tolaini, Le città nella storia d’Italia: Pisa, Roma-Bari 1992
The 15th century shipyards
Towards the end of the 14th century the Pisan shipyards were loosing their old function. At that time the city was preparing itself to resist Florentine attacks, without mentioning the threat represented by the Genoese. Consequently in those years the shipyards were increasingly transformed into fortified defensive structures. So the area came to be known as “Cittadella” (citadel).
Location(s)
- M. Mallett, The florentine galleys in the fifteenth century, Oxford 1967
- F.C. Lane, Le navi di Venezia fra i secoli XIII e XVI, Torino 1983
- M. Tangheroni, Commercio e navigazione nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari 1996
- O. Banti, Storia illustrata di Pisa, Pisa 2006
- I. Del Punta, I cantieri navali, in Toscani al lavoro. Le grandi produzioni di una terra piena di storia, a cura di I. Del Punta e L. Fezzi, III, Firenze 2005
The shipyards in the age of the republic
Since the early XIIIth century, and in a few cases even before, the main maritime cities constructed a complex of docks and buildings exclusively intended for building and fixing ships, usually galleys and sailing ships, but also boats. This kind of structures had a number of docks and basins (sometimes artificial basins), which were surrounded by stocks, warehouses and workshops. The Italian words “arsenale” and “darsena” come from the Arabic dar-as-sina‘a, originally meaning “building house”.
Location(s)
- M. Tangheroni, Commercio e navigazione nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari 1996
- E. Concina, Arsenali e città nell’Occidente europeo, Roma 1987
- E. Concina, L’arsenale della repubblica di Venezia: tecniche e istituzioni dal medioevo all’età moderna, Milano 1984
- E. Dummer, A voyage into the mediterranean seas (1685), Londra, British Library, King’s manuscripts, 40