Coordinates: 43°42′59.436″N 10°23′54.456″E / 43.71651°N 10.39846°E / 43.71651; 10.39846

University of Pisa
Università di Pisa
Motto	In supremae dignitatis
Motto in English	The supreme dignity
Established	1343[1]
Type	State-supported
Rector	Prof. Massimo Augello
Admin. staff	1,900
Students	57,000
Doctoral students	3,500
Location	Pisa, Italy
Sports teams	CUS Pisa (www.cuspisa.it)
Affiliations	Consortium Tyrrhenum, Consorzio ICoN, EUA, PEGASUS
Website	www.unipi.it/

The University of Pisa (Italian Università di Pisa), is a public university in Pisa, Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in the country. It was officially founded on September 3, 1343^[1] by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century. The University has Europe's oldest academic botanical garden (Orto botanico di Pisa), founded in 1544.

The University of Pisa is part of the Pisa University System, together with the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. It offers a wide range of courses. The Computer Science course at University of Pisa was the first one in the area to be activated in the whole Italy, during the 1960s.^{[clarification needed]} The aerospace MSc courses^[2] are the first in Italy to be offered entirely in the English language.^{[citation needed]} The university has about 57,000 students (of which 53,000 in undergraduate and postgraduate studies and 3,500 in doctoral and specialization studies). In the field of Italian philology, the University of Pisa leads the Consorzio ICoN, an inter-university consortium of 21 Italian universities supported by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. It's also the only university in Italy which has become a member of Universities Research Association.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011 the University of Pisa came in first place among the Italian universities, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.^[3][4][5]

History[link]

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Palazzo alla Giornata on the riverbank Lungarno Pacinotti, home of the Rectorate

The University of Pisa was officially established in 1343,^[1] although a number of scholars claim its origin dates back to the 11th century.^{[weasel words]}

The first reliable data on the presence of secular and monastic schools of law in Pisa is from the eleventh and the second half of the twelfth century, when Pisa had already achieved a remarkable economic development. Further, the next century form the first documents that prove the presence of doctors of medicine and surgery.

The earliest evidence of a Pisan “Studium” dates to 1338, when the renowned jurist Ranieri Arsendi transferred to Pisa from Bologna. He along with Bartolo da Sassoferrato, a lecturer in Civil Law, were paid by the Municipality to teach public lessons.

The papal bull ‘In supremae dignitatis', granted by Pope Clement VI on September 3, 1343, recognized the ‘Studium' of Pisa as a ‘Studium Generale'; an institution of further education founded or confirmed by a universal authority, the Papacy or Empire. Pisa was one of the first European universities that could boast this papal attestation, which guaranteed the universal, legal value of its educational qualifications.

The first taught subjects were theology, civil law, canon law and medicine. In 1355 Francesco da Buti, the well-known commentator of Dante's Divine Comedy, began teaching at the “Studium”.

Pisa and its Studium underwent a period of crisis around the turn of the 15th century: the Florentines' conquest of the town led to the university's closure in 1403. In 1473, thanks to Lorenzo de Medici, the Pisan Studium resumed its systematic development and the construction of a building for holding lessons was provided for in 1486. The building – later known as Palazzo della Sapienza (The Building of Knowledge) – was located in the fourteenth-century Piazza del Grano. The image of a cherub was placed Above the Gate “Dell'Abbondanza” (the Gate of Abundance), leading to the Piazza, still today the symbol of the University.

Following the rebellion against Florence in 1494 and the war following, the Pisan Studium suffered a period of decline, and was transferred to Pistoia, Prato and Florence. The ceremonial re-opening of the University, on November 1, 1543, under rule by Duke Cosimo I de Medici, was considered as a second inauguration. The quality of the University was furthered by the statute of 1545 and the Pisan Athenaeum became one of the most significant in Europe for teaching and research. The chair of “Semplici” (botany) was held by Luca Ghini, founder of the world's first Botanical Gardens, succeeded by Andrea Cesalpino, who pioneered the first scientific methodology for the classification of plants and is considered a forerunner in the discovery of blood circulation. Gabriele Falloppio and Marcello Malpighi lectured in anatomy and medicine.

Galileo Galilei, who was born and studied in Pisa, became professor of mathematics at the Pisan Studium in 1589.

The University's role as a state institution became ever more accentuated during the Medici Grand Duchy period. A protectionist policy ensured a consistent nucleus of scholars and teachers: laws issued by Cosimo I, Ferdinando I and Ferdinando II obliged those who intended to obtain a degree to attend the Studium of Pisa. This period sees various illustrious figures lecture at Pisa, especially in the field of law and medicine.

The University's development continued under the Lorenas. They completed the construction of the astronomic observatory (a project initiated by the Medicis), as well as enriching the University Library with important publications, developing the Botanical Gardens and Natural Science Museum and they established new chairs, such as experimental physics and chemistry.

The annexation of Tuscany to the Napoleonic Empire resulted in the transformation of the Studium into an Imperial Academy: the Athenaeum became a branch of the University of Paris and the courses and study programs were structured following the French public education model. Five new faculties were established (Theology, Law, Medicine, Science and Literature), along with examinations, different qualification titles and graduation theses. In 1813 ‘La Scuola Normale Superiore' was established, as a branch of the 'École Normale Supérieure' in Paris.

The Restoration wasn't able to cancel the effects of the Napoleonic experience. The first Congress of Italian Scientists was held in Pisa in 1839. 421 scientists and over 300 experts of various disciplines discussed zoology, comparative anatomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, agronomy, technology, botany, vegetation physiology, geology, mineralogy, geography and medicine.

In 1839–1840 the Director of Education, Gaetano Giorgini, brought about the most important reform in the University of Pisa by raising the number of faculties to six (Theology, Law, Literature, Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and created the world's first chair of Agriculture and sheep farming.

In 1846 the Scuola Normale was re-opened. Meanwhile, liberal and patriotic ideals were spreading at Athenaeum and a battalion of the University – composed of lecturers and students – distinguished itself in the Battle of Curtatone and Montanara in 1848.

During the ‘Second Restoration', in 1851, Leopoldo II united the universities of Pisa and of Siena in a unique Etruscan Athenaeum motivated partly by economic reasons, but primarily for political control. The faculties of Theology and Law rested at Siena; while those of Literature, Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences remained at Pisa. Following the Florentine insurrection and the fleeing of the Grand Duke in 1859, one of the initial measures imposed by the Provisory Government was the restitution to the city of Pisa of its Studium with all six of its faculties.

With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, the University of Pisa became one of the new state's most prestigious cultural institutions. Between the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries the following prestigious lecturers taught at Pisa: the lawyers Francesco Carrara and Francesco Buonamici, philologists Domenico Comparetti and Giovanni D'Ancona, historians Pasquale Villari, Gioacchino Volpe and Luigi Russo, philosopher Giovanni Gentile, economist Giuseppe Toniolo and mathematicians Ulisse Dini and Antonio Pacinotti. The first European institute of Historical Linguistics was founded in Pisa in 1890.

During the years of fascism the Pisa Athenaeum was an active centre for political debate and antifascist organisation.

After the second world war the University of Pisa returned to the avant-garde in many fields of knowledge. To the faculties of engineering and pharmacy, established pre-war, were added economics, foreign languages and literature and politics. In 1967 the ‘Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento S. Anna' was founded which, together with ‘La Scuola Normale', formed a highly prestigious learning and teaching centre.

Today the University of Pisa boasts eleven faculties and fifty-seven departments, with high level research centres in the sectors of agriculture, astrophysics^{[citation needed]}, computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and veterinary medicine. Furthermore the University has close relations with the Pisan Institutes of the National Research Council, with many cultural institutions of national and international importance, and with industry, especially that of information technology, which went through a phase of rapid expansion in Pisa during the nineteen sixties and seventies.

Organization of the university[link]

The University of Pisa consists of 11 faculties and 56 departments. These faculties offers several courses in their related field of studies:

• Agriculture
• Economics
• Engineering
• Foreign Languages and Literature
• Law
• Literature and Philosophy
• Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences
• Medicine and Surgery
• Pharmacy
• Political Sciences
• Veterinary Medicine

PhD studies are instead usually offered and arranged by the departments. The lectures are mostly given in Italian, except for a number of courses at the faculty of foreign languages and literatures and some scientific programmes, such as the international MSc in aerospace engineering (EuMAS), the Master of Science in Space Engineering^[6] and the Master in Computer Science and Networking,^[7] jointly offered with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. Students have at their disposal also a Language Centre, where they can attend to courses of foreign languages, a Sports Centre (Cus Pisa), who also arrange for many Sports Intramural Leagues and allows to make the sports practice in almost all the disciplines available in Italy, and three University Refectories (Mense universitarie).

The University of Pisa is not organized in the form of one unique campus, but its many buildings are scattered in the whole Pisa area, especially in the city centre.

Rankings[link]

University of Pisa rankings:

• In 2011 the University of Pisa came in first place among the Italian universities (National Rank # 1), according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities and within the best 30 universities in Europe.^[3][4][5]
• Times Higher Education World University Rankings rank University of Pisa among 300 best world universities ^[8]
• QS World University Rankings has particular rankings on Natural Sciences(115), Arts & Humanities (148), Engineering & IT (168), Life Sciences (298) ^[9]
• The U.S. News & World Report places University of Pisa among world's 300 best universities.^[10]
• The European Research Ranking, a ranking based on publicly available data from the European Commission database puts University of Pisa among the best in Italy and best performing European research institutions .^[11]

Notable alumni and faculty[link]

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• Francesco Accarigi, professor of civil law
• Giuliano Amato, politician and former Prime Minister of Italy, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies
• François Carlo Antommarchi, Napoleon's physician from 1818 to his death in 1821.
• Stefano Arduini, scholar of linguistics, rhetoric, semiotics and translation

• Adolfo Bartoli, physicist, who is best known for introducing the concept of radiation pressure from thermodynamical considerations
• Andrea Vaccá Berlinghieri, 19th century surgeon
• Enrico Betti, mathematician, now remembered mostly for his 1871 paper on topology that led to the later naming after him of the Betti numbers
• Luciano Bianciardi, journalist, translator and writer of short stories and novels
• Emilio Bizzi, neuroscientist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Andrea Bocelli, tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist
• Sandro Bondi, politician, Culture Minister in Silvio Berlusconi's fourth cabinet
• Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafro, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino and Urbino, Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church, an Italian^[12][13][14] condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei
• Philippe Buonarroti, 18th century egalitarian and utopian socialist, revolutionary, journalist, writer, agitator, and freemason; he was mainly active in France

• Piero Calamandrei, author, jurist, soldier, university professor and politician, one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure
• Francesco Cappè, United Nations official and Head, Security Governance/Counter-Terrorism for the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).,^[15] a member of the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) of the UN General Assembly.^[16]
• Adán Cárdenas, President of Nicaragua between March 1, 1883 and March 1, 1887.^[17]
• Giosuè Carducci, poet, 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature
• Antonio Cassese, jurist who specialized in public international law, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies
• Sabino Cassese, Professor of Administrative Law and a judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies
• Benedetto Castelli, mathematician
• Bonaventura Cavalieri, mathematician, known for his work on the problems of optics and motion, work on the precursors of infinitesimal calculus, and the introduction of logarithms to Italy. Cavalieri's principle in geometry partially anticipated integral calculus
• Carlo Chiti, Italian racing car and engine designer, best known for his long association with Alfa Romeo's racing department
• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006. He is currently a Senator for life in the Italian Senate, also studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore
• Pope Clement XII, 17th century Pope i.e. Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church (which is composed of the Latin Rite and the Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the see of Rome), regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle
• Mauro Cristofani, linguist and researcher in Etruscan studies

• Massimo D'Alema, politician and former 77th Prime Minister from 1998 to 2000, and later he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008, also studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore

• Luigi Fantappiè, mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis and for creating the theory of analytic functionals: he was a student and follower of Vito Volterra, also proposed scientific theories of sweeping scope

• Enrico Fermi, physicist, 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity, particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. Fermi is widely regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 20th century, highly accomplished in both theory and experiment.^[18] Along with J. Robert Oppenheimer,^[19] he is frequently referred to as "the father of the atomic bomb".,^[20][21] also studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore
• Lando Ferretti, journalist, politician and sports administrator
• Clara Franzini-Armstrong, FMRS an American electron microscopist,^[22] and Professor Emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of Pennsylvania.^[23][24]
• Guido Fubini, mathematician

• Luca Gammaitoni, scientist in the area of noise and nonlinear dynamics
• Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy",^[25] the "father of modern physics",^[26] the "father of science",^[26] and "the Father of Modern Science".^[27] According to Stephen Hawking, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science".^[28]
• Giovanni Gentile, minister and neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce, described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism (1932) for Benito Mussolini, also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism, and Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore
• Giovanni Gronchi, former President of the Italian Republic

• David Levi (Italy), Italian-Jewish poet and patriot

• Lorenzo Magalotti, philosopher, author, diplomat and poet
• Girolamo Maggi, 16th century scholar
• Paolo Malanima, Italian economic historian
• Mario Monicelli, movie director

• Alessandro Natta, former secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI)

• Jože Pirjevec, Slovene historian from Italy, one of the most prominent diplomatic historians of the west Balkans region, and member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• René Préval, President of Haiti

• Francesco Redi, 17th century physician, naturalist, and poet
• Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Roman Catholic archbishop in the mid-17th century
• Luigi Rizzi (linguist), linguist
• Carlo Rubbia, Knight Grand Cross particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN, also studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore

• Giovanni Salvemini, FRS, 18th-century mathematician and astronomer
• Carlo Sforza, President of the Italian National Consult, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Adriano Sofri, writer

• Atto Tigri, 19th century anatomist
• Tiziano Terzani, journalist and writer
• Elio Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome

• Vito Volterra, mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to mathematical biology and integral equations.^[29][30]

See also[link]

• Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
• Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies
• Pisa University System
• École Normale Supérieure
• Superior Graduate Schools in Italy
• List of Italian universities
• List of medieval universities
• Pisa
• ICoN Interuniversity Consortium for Italian Studies

References[link]

External links[link]

• University of Pisa Website (Italian) (English) (Chinese)
• MSSE – Master of Science in Space Engineering (English)
•  "University of Pisa". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

Pisa
—  Comune  —
Comune di Pisa
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Coat of arms
Pisa Location of Pisa in Italy
Coordinates: 43°43′N 10°24′E / 43.717°N 10.4°E / 43.717; 10.4Coordinates: 43°43′N 10°24′E / 43.717°N 10.4°E / 43.717; 10.4
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Pisa (PI)
Frazioni	Marina di Pisa, Tirrenia, Calambrone, Barbaricina, Riglione, Oratoio, Putignano, San Piero a Grado, Coltano, Sant'Ermete, Ospedaletto
Government
• Mayor	Marco Filippeschi (Democratic Party)
Area
• Total	185 km2 (71 sq mi)
Elevation	4 m (13 ft)
Population (November 2010)
• Total	88,332
• Density	480/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
Demonym	Pisan (Italian: Pisani)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	56100
Patron saint	San Ranieri
Saint day	17 June
Website	Official website

Pisa ( /ˈpiːzə/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈpiːsa]^[1]) is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city of over 88,332 residents (around 200,000 with the metropolitan area) contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces and various bridges across the River Arno.

The city is also home of the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century and also has the mythic Napoleonic Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies as the best Superior Graduate Schools in Italy.

History[link]

Ancient times[link]

Pisa lies at the junction of two rivers, the Arno and the Serchio, which form a laguna at the Tyrrhenian Sea. The origin of the name, Pisa, is a mystery. While the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city. Archaeological remains from the 5th century BC confirmed the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks and Gauls. The presence of an Etruscan necropolis, discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991, confirmed its Etruscan origins.

Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Strabo referred Pisa's origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; the settlers from the Alpheus coast have been credited with the founding of the city in the 'Etruscan lands'. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti, or Pelops, the king of the Pisaeans, founded the town thirteen centuries before the start of the common era.

Old half of Pisa (view from Leaning Tower)

The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast from Genoa (then a small village) to Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls and Carthaginians. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in Colonia Iulia obsequens.

Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages[link]

During the later years of the Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably thanks to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the 7th century Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevailing. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia and the southern coasts of France and Spain.

Piazza del Duomo, Pisa *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Italy
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iv, vi
Reference	395
Region **	Europe
Inscription history
Inscription	1987 (11th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis but soon recovered. Politically it became part of the duchy of Lucca. In 930 Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia. Lucca was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of 10th century Liutprand of Cremona, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and one century later the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 1003 Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca of course. From the naval point of view, since the 9th century the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to expand its fleet: in the following years this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828 Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. In 871 they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970 they gave also strong support to the Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts.

11th century[link]

The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical Maritime Republics of Italy (Repubbliche Marinare).

At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in the south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with the Saracens, who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017 Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these mighty marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051–1052 the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063 admiral Giovanni Orlando, coming to the aid of the Norman Roger I, took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo.

In 1060 Pisa had to engage in their first battle with Genoa. The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077 the new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a Council of Elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092 Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising the town to the rank of archbishopric.

Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia. A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands: the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert, the future patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant. In particular the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, Latakia and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea, plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo, Alexandria and of course Constantinople, where the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century the Pisan quarter in the Eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century Pisa was the most prominent merchant and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself.

12th century[link]

Historical walls

In 1113 Pisa and the Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors: the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Even though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped the Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean.

In the following years the mighty Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi, drove away the Saracens after ferocious combats. Though short-lived, this success of Pisa in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with the Languedoc and Provence (Noli, Savona, Fréjus and Montpellier) were an obstacle to the Genoese interests in cities like Hyères, Fos, Antibes and Marseille.

The war began in 1119 when the Genoese attacked several galleys on their way to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults.

In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of pope Innocent II against those of pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support but was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing the sphere of influence of Pisa and Genoa. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily. Amalfi, one of the Maritime Republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on 6 August 1136: the Pisans destroyed the ships in the port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa. This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later its soldiers sacked Salerno.

In the following years Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I. He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with the following grants: apart from the jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole Empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, a half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno and Naples, the whole of Gaeta, Mazara and Trapani, and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily. Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI, Otto IV and Frederick II. They marked the apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of cities like Lucca, Massa, Volterra and Florence, who saw their aim to expand towards the sea thwarted. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena, the main trade route between Rome and France. Last but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa.

Genoa had acquired a largely dominant position in the markets of Southern France. The war began presumably in 1165 on the Rhône, when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse failed. Pisa on the other hand was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily, where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI. In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III, allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon he stipulated a pact with Genoa too, further weakening the Pisan presence in Southern Italy.

To counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with their Spanish and French traditional bases (Marseille, Narbonne, Barcelona, etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180 the two cities agreed to a non-aggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation. Soon there were attacks on Venetian convoys. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona, Pula, Zara, Split and Brindisi: in 1195 a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima managed soon to reconquer the rebel sea town.

One year later the two cities signed a peace treaty which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa. But in 1199 the Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Puglia. In the following naval battle they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase the trading benefits in Constantinople.

13th century[link]

In 1209 there were in Lerici two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa. A twenty-year peace treaty was signed. But when in 1220 the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a strong dispute with the Empire. And indeed the pope tried to deprive the town of its dominions in northern Sardinia.

In 1238 Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa too. One year later he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On 3 May 1241, a combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the Emperor's son Enzo, attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from Northern Italy and France, next to the Isola del Giglio, in front of Tuscany: the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about thousand sailors, two cardinals and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this outstanding victory the council in Rome failed, but Pisa was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243.

The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici, conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256.

The great expansion in the Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned and in 1230 the new city rulers named a Capitano del Popolo ("People's Chieftain") as civil and military leader. In spite of these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti. In 1237 the archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains did not cease. In 1254 the people rebelled and imposed twelve Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the Commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had the power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate.

Decline[link]

The decline began on 6 August 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria, in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered: in 1290 the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's Port), and covered the land with salt. The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but the end came when the River Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. It seems also that nearby area became infested with malaria. Within 1324 also Sardinia was entirely lost in favour of the Aragonese.

Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under the command of Uguccione della Faggiuola. Eventually, however, divided by internal struggles and weakened by the loss of its mercantile strength, Pisa was conquered by Florence in 1406. In 1409 Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism. Furthermore in the 15th century, access to the sea became more and more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494 Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples, Pisa grabbed the opportunity to reclaim its independence as the Second Pisan Republic.

But the new freedom did not last long. After fifteen years of battles and sieges, Pisa was reconquered in 1509 by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja, Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi. Its role of major port of Tuscany went to Livorno. Pisa acquired a mainly, though secondary, cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa, created in 1343. Its decline is clearly shown by its population, which has remained almost constant since the Middle Ages.

Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei. It is still the seat of an archbishopric; it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II.

View of the Piazza dei Miracoli (Cathedral Square)

Since the Early 1950's the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area.^[2], ^[3]

Geography[link]

Climate[link]

Pisa experiences a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa) characteristic of Central and Southern Italy.

Main sights[link]

The Monumental Camposanto Monumentale in the Piazza del Duomo

Façade of Santa Maria della Spina

St. Francis' church

Palazzo della Carovana or dei Cavalieri

Cittadella

While the Leaning Tower is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo, also known, since 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Camposanto Monumentale (the monumental cemetery).

Other interesting sights include:

• Knights' Square (Piazza dei Cavalieri), where the Palazzo della Carovana, with its impressive façade designed by Giorgio Vasari may be seen.
• In the same place is the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, also by Vasari. It had originally a single nave; two more were added in the 17th century. It houses a bust by Donatello, and paintings by Vasari, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Fei, and Jacopo Chimenti da Empoli. It also contains spoils from the many naval battles between the Cavalieri (Knights of St. Stephan) and the Turks between the 16–18th century, including the Turkish battle pennant hoisted from Ali Pacha's flagship at the 1571 Battle of Lepanto.
• Also close to the square is the small church of St. Sixtus. It was formally consecrated in 1133, but previously used as a seat of the most important notarial deeds of the town, also hosting the Council of Elders. It is today one of the best preserved early Romanesque buildings in town.
• The church of St. Francis, designed by Giovanni di Simone, built after 1276. In 1343 new chapels were added and the church was elevated. It has a single nave and a notable belfry, as well as a 15th‑century cloister. It houses works by Jacopo da Empoli, Taddeo Gaddi and Santi di Tito. In the Gherardesca Chapel are buried Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons.
• Church of San Frediano, built by 1061, has a basilica interior with three aisles, with a crucifix from the 12th century. 16th century paintings were added during a restoration, including works by Ventura Salimbeni, Domenico Passignano, Aurelio Lomi, and Rutilio Manetti.
• Church of San Nicola, built by 1097, was enlarged between 1297 and 1313 by the Augustinians, perhaps by the design of Giovanni Pisano. The octagonal belfry is from the second half of the 13th century. The paintings include the Madonna with Child by Francesco Traini (14th century) and St. Nicholas Saving Pisa from the Plague (15th century). Noteworthy are also the wood sculptures by Giovanni and Nino Pisano, and the Annunciation by Francesco di Valdambrino.
• The small church of Santa Maria della Spina, attributed to Lupo di Francesco (1230), is another excellent Gothic building.
• The church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, founded around 952 and enlarged in the mid-12th century along lines similar to those of the Cathedral. It is annexed to the Romanesque Chapel of St. Agatha, with an unusual pyramidal cusp or peak.
• The Borgo Stretto, a neighborhood where one can stroll beneath medieval arcades and the Lungarno, the avenues along the river Arno. It includes the Gothic-Romanesque church of San Michele in Borgo (990). Remarkably, there are at least two other leaning towers in the city, one at the southern end of central Via Santa Maria, the other halfway through the Piagge riverside promenade.
• The Medici Palace, once a possession of the Appiano family, who ruled Pisa in 1392–1398. In 1400 the Medici acquired it, and Lorenzo de' Medici sojourned here.
• The Orto botanico di Pisa is Europe's oldest university botanical garden.
• The Palazzo Reale ("Royal Palace"), once of the Caetani patrician family. Here Galileo Galilei showed to Grand Duke of Tuscany the planets he had discovered with his telescope. The edifice was erected in 1559 by Baccio Bandinelli for Cosimo I de Medici, and was later enlarged including other palaces.
• Palazzo Gambacorti, a Gothic building of the 14th century, is now the town hall. The interior shows frescoes boasting Pisa's sea victories.
• Palazzo Agostini, a Gothic building also known as Palazzo dell'Ussero, with its 15th century façade and remains of the ancient city walls dating back to before 1155. The name of the building comes from the coffee rooms of Caffè dell’Ussero, historic meeting place founded on 1 September 1775.
• The mural Tuttomondo, the last public work of Keith Haring, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio, painted in June 1989.

Pisa boasts several museums:

• Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: exhibiting among others the original sculptures of Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano and the treasures of the cathedral.
• Museo delle Sinopie: showing the sinopias from the camposanto, the monumental cemetery. These are red ocher underdrawings for frescoes, made with reddish, greenish or brownish earth colour with water.
• Museo Nazionale di S. Matteo: exhibiting sculptures and painting from 12th century–15th century, among them the masterworks of Giovanni and Andrea Pisano, the Master of San Martino, Simone Martini, Nino Pisano and Masaccio.
• Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale: exhibiting the belongings of the families that lived in the palace: paintings, statues, armors, etc.
• Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti per il Calcolo: exhibiting a collection of instruments used in science, between whose a pneumatic machine of Van Musschenbroek and a compass probably belonged to Galileo Galilei.
• Museo di storia naturale e del territorio dell'Università di Pisa, located in the Certosa di Calci, outside the city. It houses one of the largest cetacean skeletons collection in Europe.

Pisa hosts the University of Pisa, especially renowned in the fields of Physics, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and the Scuola Normale Superiore, the Italian academic élite institutions, mostly for research and the education of graduate students.

Construction of a new leaning tower of glass and steel 57 meters tall, containing offices and apartments was scheduled to start in summer 2004 and take 4 years. It was designed by Dante Oscar Benini and raised criticism.

Educational Institutions[link]

• The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa i.e. Scuola Normale or Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris. Recognized as a "national university" in 1862, one year after Italian unification, and named during that period as "Normal School of the Kingdom of Italy". (Superior Graduate Schools in Italy i.e. Scuola Superiore Universitaria)

Located at: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa - Piazza dei Cavalieri, 7 - 56126 Pisa (Italia)

• The Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa or Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna is a special-statute public university located in Pisa, Italy, emerging from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and operating in the field of applied sciences, (Superior Graduate Schools in Italy i.e. Scuola Superiore Universitaria)

Located at: Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, P.zza Martiri della Libertà, 33 - 56127 - Pisa (Italia)

• The University of Pisa or Università di Pisa, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century. The University has Europe's oldest academic botanical garden i.e. Orto botanico di Pisa, founded 1544.

Located at: Università di Pisa - Lungarno Pacinotti, 43 - 56126 Pisa (Italia)

Churches[link]

• Baptistry
• San Francesco
• San Frediano
• San Michele in Borgo
• San Nicola
• San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno
• San Paolo all'Orto
• San Pietro a Grado
• San Pietro in Vinculis
• San Sisto
• San Zeno
• Santa Caterina
• Santa Cristina
• Santa Maria della Spina
• Santo Sepolcro

Palaces, towers and villas[link]

• Palazzo del Collegio Puteano
• Palazzo della Carovana
• Palazzo delle Vedove
• Torre dei Gualandi
• Villa di Corliano

Notable people associated with Pisa[link]

For people born in Pisa, see People from the Province of Pisa; among notable non-natives long resident in the city:

• Gaetano Bardini, tenor
• Sergio Bertoni, Italian footballer
• Andrea Bocelli, tenor
• Andrea Buscemi, actor
• Giancarlo Ceccarini, baritone
• Giorgio Chiellini, Italian footballer
• Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia, physicists & Nobel prize winners
• Galileo Galilei, physicist
• Antonio Pacinotti, physicist, inventor of the dynamo
• Andrea Pisano, sculptor
• Bruno Pontecorvo, physicist
• Leonardo Fibonacci, mathematician
• Giosuè Carducci, poet & Nobel prize winner
• Antonio Tabucchi, writer
• Orazio Gentileschi, painter
• Leo Ortolani, comic writer
• Afro Poli, baritone
• Gillo Pontecorvo, filmmaker
• Marcello Rossi, baritone
• Titta Ruffo, baritone
• Jason Acuña, appears in Jackass
• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Giovanni Gronchi, politicians, former Presidents of the Republic of Italy
• Giuliano Amato, politician, former Premier and Minister of Interior Affairs
• Giovanni Gentile, philosopher & politician
• Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, noble (see also Dante Alighieri)
• Rustichello da Pisa, writer

Transport[link]

This section requires expansion.

Airport[link]

Pisa is home to the Galileo Galilei Airport. The centre can be reached in 10 minutes by city bus — the bus line L.A.M. Rossa (Linea ad Alta Mobilità) connects the airport, the central railway station and Piazza dei Miracoli. Otherwise the centre can be reached in 5 minutes by train from Pisa Airport's railway station.

Buses[link]

Local bus service in Pisa is managed by Compagnia Pisana Trasporti (CPT). Intercity buses depart from the main bus station in Piazza Sant'Antonio. There are also several privately run bus services going from the airport to Florence, Siena and other cities in Tuscany.

Trains[link]

The city is served by three railway stations: Pisa Centrale, Pisa Aeroporto and Pisa San Rossore.

Pisa Centrale is the main railway station and is located along the Tyrrhenic railway line. It connects Pisa directly with several other important Italian cities such as Rome, Genoa, Turin, Naples, Livorno, Grosseto and Florence.

Pisa Aeroporto connects the airport to the central railway station, as well as Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station in the city of Florence. It is located next to the Galileo Galilei International Airport.

Pisa San Rossore links the city with Lucca (25 minutes from Pisa) and Pistoia and is also reachable from Pisa Centrale. It is a minor railway station located near the Leaning Tower zone.

Cars[link]

Pisa has two exits on the A11 Genoa-Livorno road, Pisa Nord and Pisa Centro-aeroporto.

Pisa Centro leads visitors to the city centre.

Sports[link]

This section requires expansion.

Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa, currently^[5] plays in the Italian Lega Pro Prima Divisione (formerly Serie C1), and has had a top flight history throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world class players such as Diego Simeone, Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time.

Shooting was one of the first sports to have their own association in Pisa. The Società del Tiro a Segno di Pisa was founded on July 9, 1862. In 1885, they acquired their own training field. The shooting range was almost completely destroyed during World War II.

Cultural events[link]

• Capodanno pisano (25 March)
• Gioco del Ponte (folklore)
• Luminara di San Ranieri (16 June)
• Regate delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare
• Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa
• Pisa Book Festival
• Metarock
• Internet Festival
• Nessiáh (Jewish Cultural Festival, November)

International relations[link]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

Pisa is twinned with:^[6]

References[link]

• Official Abitants statistics
• Pisa Metropolitan Area

Bibliography[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pisa

• Portale di Pisa e provincia
• Official site of the Pisa Tourist Board
• Pisa travel guide from Wikitravel
• Official site of the Municipality of Pisa, including webcams
• Moving Postcards of Pisa

v t e Maritime republics Duchy of Amalfi • Republic of Ancona • Republic of Genoa • Republic of Pisa • Republic of Ragusa • Republic of Venice

Round Table
King Arthur presides at the Round Table with all of his Knights.
Plot element from Arthurian legend
First appearance	Roman de Brut
Created by	Wace
Genre	Fantasy
In-story information
Type	Fictional table
Element of stories featuring	King Arthur

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.

History[link]

The Round Table first appears in Wace's Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155. Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others.^[1] Layamon added to the story when he adapted Wace's work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, saying that the quarrel between Arthur's vassals led to violence at a Yuletide feast. In response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute.^[1] Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table; both he and Layamon credit it instead to the Bretons. Some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true.^[1] There is some similarity between the chroniclers' description of the Round Table and a custom recorded in Celtic stories, in which warriors sit in a circle around the king or lead warrior, in some cases feuding over the order of precedence as in Layamon.^[1] There is a possibility that Wace, contrary to his own claims, derived Arthur's round table not from any Breton source, but rather from medieval biographies of Charlemagne—notably Einhard's Vita Caroli and Notker the Stammerer's De Carolo Magno—in which the king is said to have possessed a round table decorated with a map of Rome.^[2]

Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned until Wace, the concept of Arthur having a marvellous court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur "increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it."^[3] The code of chivalry so important in later romance figures in as well, as Geoffrey says Arthur established "such a code of courtliness in his household that he inspired peoples living far away to imitate him."^[3] Long before Geoffrey, Arthur's court was well known to Welsh storytellers; in the romance Culhwch and Olwen, written around 1100, the protagonist Culhwch invokes the names of 225 individuals affiliated with Arthur.^[4] In fact, the fame of Arthur's entourage became so prominent in Welsh tradition that in the later additions to the Welsh Triads, the formula "Arthur's Court" in the titles of the triads began to supersede the older "Island of Britain" formula.^[5] Though the code of chivalry crucial to later continental romances dealing with the Round Table is mostly absent from the earlier Welsh material, some passages of Culhwch and Olwen seem to prefigure it, for instance when Arthur explains the ethos of his court, saying "[w]e are nobles as long as we are sought out: the greater the bounty we may give, the greater our nobility, fame and honour."^[6]

Though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. The earliest of these is Saint Carannog's mystical floating altar in that saint's 12th century Vita; in the story Arthur has found the altar and attempts unsuccessfully to use it for a table, and returns it to Carannog in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a meddlesome dragon.^[7] Arthur's household furniture figures into local topographical folklore throughout Britain as early as the early 12th century, with various landmarks being named "Arthur's Seat", "Arthur's Oven," and "Arthur's Bed-chamber."^[8] A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as "King Arthur's Round Table".^[9] The still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table^[10] and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend.^[11]

In 2010, following archaeological discoveries at the Roman ruins in Chester, some writers suggested that the Chester Roman Amphitheatre was the true prototype of the Round Table^[12] but English Heritage, acting as consultants to a History Channel documentary in which the claim was made, declared that there was no archaeological basis to the story.^[13]

Later development[link]

Sir Galahad takes the "Siege Perilous"

The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimathea's Holy Grail table. This table, here made for Arthur's father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and one empty place to mark the betrayal of Judas. This seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail. The Didot Perceval, a prose continuation of Robert's work, takes up the story, and the knight Percival sits in the seat and initiates the Grail quest.^[1]

The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, further adapt the chivalric attributes of the Round Table. Here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous. Galahad's arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era.^[1] In these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uther's death; Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrance's daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Italian Arthurian works often distinguish between the "Old Table" of Uther's time and Arthur's "New Table."^[14]

Round Table tournaments[link]

Winchester Round Table

During the Middle Ages, festivals called Round Tables were celebrated throughout Europe in imitation of Arthur's court. These events featured jousting, dancing, and feasting, and in some cases attending knights assumed the identities of Arthur's knights.^[15] The earliest of these was held in Cyprus in 1223 to celebrate a knighting. Round Tables were popular in various European countries through the rest of the Middle Ages and were at times very elaborate; René of Anjou even erected an Arthurian castle for his 1446 Round Table.^[15] On 19 December 1566, in Stirling Castle, Mary Queen of Scots gave a feast with 30 guests at an imagined replica of Arthur's round table during the masque-themed celebrations of the baptism of the future James VI.^[16][17]

Winchester Round Table[link]

The artifact known as the "Winchester Round Table," a large tabletop hanging in Winchester Castle bearing the names of various knights of Arthur's court, was probably created for a Round Table tournament.^[18] The current paintwork is late; it was done by order of Henry VIII of England for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's 1522 state visit, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor rose. The table itself is considerably older; dendrochronology calculates the date of construction to 1250–1280—during the reign of Edward I—using timber from store felled over a period of years.^[19] Edward was an Arthurian enthusiast who attended at least five Round Tables and hosted one himself in 1299, which may have been the occasion for the creation of the Winchester Round Table.^[18] Martin Biddle, from an examination of Edward's financial accounts, links it instead with a tournament Edward held near Winchester on April 20, 1290, to mark the betrothal of one of his daughters.^[20]