Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/95

 TUSCANY 83 river, at the head of steamboat navigation, 90 m. N. W. of Montgomery; pop. in 1870, 1,689, of whom 787 were colored ; in 1875, about 2,500. The Alabama and Chattanooga railroad passes within a mile. The streets are wide and well shaded. A mile above the town are the grounds of the university of Alabama. The buildings, with their contents, were burned in 1865, and have been only partially restored. In 1874-'5 the university had eight professors, besides other officers, 74 students, and a library of 4,000 volumes. The Alabama insane hos- pital, about a mile beyond the university, has a front of 780 ft., with extensive outbuildings and grounds. It was opened in 1860, and now has about 360 inmates. Situated at the head of the cotton-planting and at the foot of the mineral region of Alabama, Tuscaloosa is the centre of trade for a district containing rich resources, as yet but imperfectly developed. It has a considerable trade in cotton, wheat, coal, &c. There are flour mills, a shoe and leather manufactory, and an extensive cotton factory in the vicinity. It has a national bank with a capital of $56,000, two weekly news- papers, and one male and four female semina- ries, one of the latter being in the old state cap- itol. There are five churches : Baptist, Episco- pal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Cath- olic. The city, county, and river take their name from the Indian chief Tuscaloosa (" black warrior "), who was defeated by De Soto in the bloody battle of Mavilla, Oct. 18, 1540. TUSCANY (It. Toscana), a division of central Italy, bordering on the Mediterranean, and including the provinces of Arezzo, Florence, Grosseto, Leghorn with the island of Elba, Lucca, Massa e Carrara, Pisa, and Siena ; area, 9,287 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 2,142,525. It is divided from Piacenza, Parma, and Reggio by the Ligurian Apennines, and from Modena and the Romagna by the Tuscan Apennines, begin- ning with Monte Cimone and extending S. E. about 80 m. (See APENNINES.) The princi- pal rivers, besides the Tiber, the head waters of which are in the province of Arezzo, are the Arno, Cecina, and Ombrone, all flowing into the Mediterranean. The coast from the mouth of the Arno to the border of Latium is occasionally bold, but generally low and swampy, and on the south are several bays. The climate is severe in the mountains, but in the valleys vegetation is hardly interrupted ; and excepting in the marshy regions, which in autumn are deserted (see MAREMME), the coun- try is very salubrious. Grain, wine, silk, olives and olive oil, and cheese are produced in great abundance ; sheep and pigs and large asses abound; woollen and. silk goods and many other articles are made. The purest Italian is spoken in Tuscany, and education is advanced. The principal seaport is Leghorn. Capital, Florence. The ancient Etruria or Tuscia com- prised the present division of Tuscany and ad- joining territories to the east and southeast. (See ETEURIA.) After the fall of the Roman empire it passed from the Goths to the Lom- bards, and Charlemagne governed it through local counts or marquises, who continued to rule, under the Carlovingians or the German emperors, and occasionally almost indepen- dently, till the latter part of the 12th century. The most celebrated of these Tuscan rulers was the countess Matilda (died 1115), who figured so conspicuously on the papal side in the strug- gle of Gregory VII. and his successors against the emperor Henry IV., and whose sway ex- tended beyond the limits of Tuscany. She be- queathed her dominions to the papal see, but this bequest was disregarded by the emperors, of whom Frederick I. finally acquired Tuscany by purchase from the last marquis. Pope In- nocent III. subsequently renewed the claims of Rome to the heritage of Matilda, and Tuscany, distracted by Guelph and Ghibelline feuds, was split up into numerous states, among which the republics of Florence, Pisa, Siena, and Lucca, which had long been rising into power, became the most important. After a bitter contest with Pisa and other cities, the republic of Flor- ence became the ruling power. (See FLOR- ENCE, and MEDICI.) Despite civil and foreign wars, the republic flourished and became cel- ebrated in letters and art, especially under Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici. In 1532 Ales- sandro de' Medici was made duke by Pope Clement VII., with the assistance of the em- peror of Germany and the king of France. After his assassination in 1537, Cosmo the Great was first appointed chief of the repub- lic, and then assumed the title of grand duke of Tuscany (1569). His line becoming ex- tinct in 1737, Francis, duke of Lorraine, con- sort of Maria Theresa of Austria, became by treaty grand duke of Tuscany as Fran- cis II., and was subsequently elected emperor of Germany as Francis I. After his death the grand duchy was ruled by Leopold I. (afterward the emperor Leopold II.) and his son Ferdinand III. In 1799 it was invaded by the French. Napoleon created in 1801 the kingdom of Etruria, which he gave to Louis, crown prince of Parma, whose wife, Maria Louisa of Spain, succeeded him as regent. In 1808 Napoleon made his sister Elisa Bacciochi grand duchess of Tuscany. In 1814 it was occupied by the allies on behalf of Ferdinand III., who was restored in 1815, Elba and other territories being added to his dominions ; and Lucca, comprised in the possessions of Napo- leon's widow Maria Louisa, grand duchess of Parma, reverted to Tuscany in 1847. The grand duke Leopold II., son of Ferdinand III., was compelled to abdicate in 1859 ; his son and nominal successor, Ferdinand IV., was dispos- sessed in 1860 by Victor Emanuel, and Tus- cany became part of the kingdom of Italy. (See ITALY.) See Storia civile della Toscana dal 1738 al 1848, by Zobi (5 vols., Florence, 1853); "Tuscany in 1849 and 1859," by Mrs. Trollope (London, 1859); and La Toscane au moyen age, by G. R. de Fleury (Paris, 1870).