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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAL-MAR |
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MANTUA (Ital. Mantova) , a fortified city of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the province of Mantua, the see of a bishop, and the centre of a military district, 25 M. S.S.W. of Verona and too m. E.S.E. of Milan by rail. Pop. (1906), 31,783. It is situated 88 ft. above the level of the Adriatic on an almost insular site in the midst of the swampy lagoons of the Mincio. As the belt of marshy ground along the south side can be laid under water at pleasure, the site of the city proper, exclusive of the considerable suburbs of Borgo di Fortezza to the north and Borgo di San Giorgio to the east, may still be said to consist, as it formerly did more distinctly, of two islands separated by a narrow channel and united by a number of bridges. On the west side lies Lago Superiore, on the east side Lago Inferiore the boundary between the two being marked by the Argine del Mulino, a long mole stretching northward from the north-west angle of the city to the citadel.On the highest ground in the city rises the cathedral, the interior of which was built after his death according to the plans of Giulio Romano; it has double aisles, a fine fretted ceiling, a dome -covered transept, a bad .baroque
Andrea
dome also belongs. Mantegna is buried in one of the side chapels, S. Sebastiano is another work of Alberti's. The old ducal palaceone of the largest buildings of its kind in Europewas begun in 1302 for Guido Bonaccolsi, and probably completed in 1328 for Ludovico Gonzaga; but many of the accessory apartments are of much later date, and the internal decorations are for the most part the work of Giulio Romano and his pupils. There are also 'some fine rooms of the early loth century. ' Close by are the Piazza dell' Erbe, and the Piazza Sordello,. with Gothic palaces. The Castello di Corte here, the old castle of the Gonzagas (1395-1+406), erected by Bartolino da Novara, the architect of, the castle of Ferrara, now contains the archives, and has some fine frescoes by Mantegna with scenes from the life of Ludovico Gonzaga. Outside of the city, to the south of Porta Pusterla, stands the Palazzo del Te, Giulio's architectural masterpiece, erected' for Frederick Gonzaga in 1523I535; Of the numerous fresco-covered chambers which it contains, perhaps the most celebrated is the Sala dei Giganti, where, by a combination of mechanical with artistic devices, the rout of the Titans still contending with artillery of uptorn rocks against the pursuit and thunderbolts of Jove appears to rush downwards ' on the spectator. The architecture of Giulio's own house in the town is also good. Mantua has an academy of arts and sciences (Accademia Vergiliana), occupying a fine building erected by Piermarini, a public library founded in 1780 by Maria Theresa, a museum of antiquities dating from 1779, many of which have been brought from Sabbioneta, a small residence town of the Gonzagas in the late
S. Maria delle Grazie, standing
Mantua had still a strong Etruscan element in its population during the Roman period. It became a Roman municipium, with the rest of Gallia Transpadana; but Martial calls it little Mantua, and had it not been for Virgil's interest
and from that time till the death of Ferdinando Carbo in 17o8 the Gonzagas were masters of Mantua, (see GONZAGA). Under Gian Francesco IL, the first marquis, Ludovico IIL, Gian Francesco III. (whose wife was Isabella d'Este); and Federico II., the first duke of Mantua, the city rose rapidly into importance as a seat of industry and culture. It was stormed and sacked by the Austrians in 1630, and never quite recovered. Claimed in 1708 as a fief of the empire by Joseph L, it was governed for the greater part of the century by the Austrians. In June 1796 it was besieged by Napoleon
See Gaet. Susani, Nuovo prospetto delle iitture, di'Mantbtia (Mantua, 183o); Carlo d'Arco, Delle arti e degli arlefieidi Mantova (Mantua, 1857) ; and Storia di Mantova (Mantua, 1874). MA'IU (Sanskrit, " man "), in Hindu mythology, the first man, ancestor of the world. In the Satapatha-Brahmana he is represented as a holy man, the chief
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