The richest part is the chapel of St. John the Baptist, into which no woman can enter except on one day in the year, in recollection of the daughter of Herodias. In it is preserved the sacro catino, affirmed to be one of the gifts of the queen of Sheba to Solomon, and the vessel from which Christ ate the paschal lamb. It was a part of the spoil taken at Caesarea in 1101. It was long supposed to be cut from a single emerald, but is now known to be glass. In the piazza di Acqua, a public promenade, stands a statue of Columbus on a circular pedestal with protruding prows of galleys; at the feet of the statue kneels the figure of America. Genoa has a university with an observatory and a library of 50,000 volumes, a naval school, a lyceum, technical schools, seminaries, normal schools, and many societies for the promotion of arts and sciences.

Palazzo Doria.

The foundling hospitals, orphan asylums, hospitals for the sick, crippled, insane, and deaf, and poorhouses, are in a praiseworthy condition. About two miles from the city is the campo santo (cemetery), with a magnificent circular chapel and many artistic monuments and vaults. The most delightful excursion in the environs is to the villa Pallavicini at Pegli, where the park extends to a considerable height on the slopes of the coast, affording charming views of Genoa, the sea, and the mountains. Luxuriant vegetation, kiosks in Poinpeian, Turkish, and Chinese styles, a mausoleum, the remains of an ancient Roman burial place, and a stalactite grotto heighten the interest of the place.-The railway to Alessandria brings to Genoa a large trade with the provinces of northern Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Cotton industry employs about 3,000 workmen, and about 9,000 are employed in the manufacture of silk goods. There are large establishments producing lace, embroideries, and filigree work. The hat factories export yearly about 100,000 hats to South America. Other considerable industries are the extraction of oil, the fabrication of soap, the preparation of chemicals, the making of artificial flowers, and the packing of candied fruit.

The furniture factories employ several thousand workmen, and the construction of boats and ships is steadily increasing. In 1871 vessels of the aggregate tonnage of 50,000 were launched. Among them were two iron steamers, the first iron vessels built in Italy. Genoa is a free port. About 7,000 sailing vessels of 700,000 tons, and 3,000 steamers of 600,000 tons, enter every year. In 1871 the entries of vessels engaged in foreign trade were 3,009, with an aggregate tonnage of 934,263; the tonnage of coasting vessels entering in the same year was 406,265. The total imports amounted to $51,500,000; exports, $22,250,000. Numerous lines of steamers ply between Genoa and Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Spezia, Naples, Messina, Nice, Tunis, and other ports on the Mediterranean. The population of Genoa has increased but little during the past ten years, on account of the excessive octroi duties levied on almost everything that passes the gates. To escape these, many people have settled in the neighboring communes, and Sampierdarena and other villages have grown largely in consequence.-The history of Genoa may be traced in legendary traditions to a time preceding the foundation of Rome. Livy mentions it first, at the beginning of the second Punic war, as a town in friendly relations with the Romans. It was subdued and partly destroyed during that war by a Carthaginian fleet, which sailed from the Balearic isles under the command of Mago; the Romans rebuilt it, and it afterward became a Roman municipium.

In the time of Strabo it was an emporium for the produce of the interior, exchanged by the Ligurians for the wine and oil of other parts of Italy. After the fall of the western empire it suffered greatly from the invading Gotlis, was taken by the Lombards in the 7th century, and conquered from them in the 8th by Charlemagne, who appointed a count for the government of the coast of Ligu-ria. After the dismemberment of the Frank-ish empire, it became independent, and shared the fate of the Lombard cities, participating in their bloody struggles during the long contest for the iron crown of Lombardy between the emperors of Germany, the Berengarii, and others. After having been pillaged in 936 by the Saracens, Genoa strengthened its navy, entered into an alliance with Pisa, and expelled the Mohammedans from the islands of Corsica, Capraja, and Sardinia (1016-'21), of the two former of which it kept possession. But the increasing maritime importance of the Genoese aroused the jealousy of their commercial neighbors, and they had to struggle for the maintenance of their power in the western part of the Mediterranean against the rival republic of Pisa, and in its eastern part against Venice. The hostilities with the former commenced in the year 1070. The services of the Genoese in the first crusade were rewarded with a strip of the coast of Palestine. After the second war with Pisa (1118-'32) they undertook an expedition against the Moors of Spain, with a large fleet carrying a land force of 12,000 men, conquered the island of Minorca (1140), Almeria (1147), where they found immense booty, and, in concert with the Catalo-nians, Tortosa (1148). Their power was also rapidly extended over the coast of the Mediterranean; before the close of the 12th century they were masters of Monaco, Nice, Montfer-rat, Marseilles, and nearly the whole coast of Provence. The third struggle with Pisa commenced in 1102, and lasted for nearly a century.

The early part of the fourth was marked by a great naval victory near Meloria (1284) of the Genoese over the Pisans, who lost 3,000 killed and 13,000 prisoners, most of whom were doomed by the cruelty of the victors to perish in chains; it was virtually ended by the conquest of Elba, and the destruction of the harbor of Pisa, under Corrado Doria (1290). Thus peace was conquered, and the power of the rival republic destroyed. No less severe had been the struggle with Venice since the conquest of Constantinople by the Franks (1204). Having assisted Michael Palaeologus to reconquer the capital of the Byzantine empire (1201), the Genoese were rewarded with the suburbs of Pera and Galata, and the port of Smyrna, which made them masters of the Black sea. This brought them into collision with the Venetians, who disputed their supremacy in those seas; but after several naval battles a truce was concluded in 1271. On the termination of the wars with Pisa a powerful Genoese fleet crossed the Adriatic, and won a great victory near Curzola, where 84 Venetian galleys were taken or burned, and 7,000 captives made, among them the admiral Dandolo. This was followed by a treaty of peace (1299), which surrendered the commerce of the Black sea to the exclusive dominion of the Genoese, whose flourishing colonies and factories defended by forts soon lined all its coasts.