288 The Tuscan artist. Galileo was born at Pisa, in 1564, he was the author of several noble and useful discoveries in astronomy, geometry, and mechanics, and was the first person who improved telescopes, so as to answer astronomical purposes. 288 From the top of Fesole. A part of the Appennine mountains in Umbria. 290 Or in Valdarno. 303 305 The valley on the river Arno, which runs through Tuscany, and by Florence into the Tuscan sea. Where th' Etrurian Shades. Etruria, a celebrated country of Italy, at the west of the Tyber. It originally contained twelve different nations, which had each their respective monarch. The inhabitants were particularly famous for their superstition, and strict confidence in omens, dreams, auguries, &c.; they all proved powerful and resolute enemies to the rising empire of the Romans, and were conquered only after much effusion of blood. Etruria is the modern Tuscany, Florence, its capital, is extremely fruitful and well cultivated, producing great quantities of corn, wine, and oil, and during the reigns of the illustrious house of Medici, was the cabinet of all that is valuable, rich, and masterly, in architecture, literature, and the arts, especially those of painting and sculpture. It contains above seventy thousand inhabitants. Orion arm'd. A celebrated hunter of superior strength and stature, after death, he was made a constellation, |