A straw plaiting used for bonnets and hats, made from the straw of a particular kind of wheat, grown for the purpose in Tuscany, Italy; -- so called from Leghorn, the place of exportation.
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Leghorn
Encyclopedia Britannica
LEGHORN (Italian, Livorno), a city of Italy, the chief town of the province of Leghorn (which includes the island of Elba), the see of a bishop, and next to Genoa and Naples the greatest commercial port in the kingdom, is situated on the coast of the Ligurian Sea, in 43° 33' N. lat. and 10° 16' E. long., 15 miles south-west of Pisa, with which it is connected by a branch from the main west coast line. It is built on low-lying ground backed by a ridge of hills, of which the most striking though not the highest is Monte Nero, with its ancient monastery. In some respects one of the least Italian of Italian cities, Leghorn owes its prosperity as a port not so much to any special advantages of situation as to wise legislation and labour. Broad and well-kept streets, spacious squares, and large substantial houses are the general characteristics of the city, which has room enough within the circuit of its walls (built 1835-37), though it has scattered its villas on the neighbouring hills and coast. Of note among the buildings are the old cathedral (a Latin cross with a single nave—the façade designed by Inigo Jones), the town-hall, the great oil warehouses erected by Cosmo III. in 1705, the reservoir (a subterranean structure dating from the time of Ferdinand III.), and the Jewish synagogue, which ranks next to that of Amsterdam. Near the port stands the statue of Ferdinand I. by Giovanni dell’ Opera, with four slaves in bronze, by Pietro Tacca, chained to the pedestal; and the Piazza Carlo Alberto is adorned with statues of the grand dukes Ferdinand III. and Leopold II. The old English cemetery (closed 1839), which was up to the present century the only Protestant burial-place in Italy, contains the tombs of Smollett and Francis Horner. The Torre del Marzocco, or ...“Tower of the Sculptured Lion,” is one of the leading landmarks of the city from the sea, and almost the only relic of the republican period. Among the public institutions are the “Chambers of Public Payments,” similar to the London clearing-house, a large naval academy opened in 1881, a chamber of commerce dating from 1801, a public library of 40,000 volumes, and a technical and nautical institute. Great changes have been effected in the port of Leghorn since the middle of the century. The “new port” is formed by a breakwater finished in 1863, which extends north and south for 3300 feet, at a distance of 6 furlongs from the shore. It has a general depth of from 24 to 32 feet. Vessels moored to the breakwater are sheltered from all winds, but those in the open part of the basin are exposed to the southerly gales. The inner or old port, formed by a pier projecting half a mile in a northnorth-west direction from the shore, measures 1800 by 1500 feet, and is perfectly secure on all sides. To the south and east lie a number of docks, which in turn are connected with a system of canals complex enough to justify the name Little Venice applied to part of the city. The Canale dei Navicelli extends north to the Arno. Dredging operations for deepening the harbour having been carried on between 1868 and 1878 with little permanent result, a much more extensive and effective series of improvements (including the construction of a new breakwater from the shore south of the town to the old lighthouse, and the lengthening of the dry dock so as to take in the largest ships now obliged to dock at Marseilles), received the Government sanction in 1881. Shipbuilding is the principal local industry, and even ironclads have been sent out from the dockyards. The following table shows the foreign trade of the port to have declined since 1860, but a counterbalancing increase to have taken place in the coasting trade :— [table]
In the early part of the century Leghorn became a great depot of British commerce with the Levant, and about twenty British firms were settled in the town. It was a free port, and had an excellent bonding system. But about 1833 the increase of direct intercourse between Britain and her customers began to tell on the trade, and it gradually disappeared altogether. At present the activity of the port is due to exportation of Italian produce (especially from Tuscany), and the importation of iron, coal, fish, and general goods. Marseilles, Cardiff, and Newcastle are the three ports with which the dealings are most extensive. A considerable trade is also maintained with the United States. The population of Leghorn city increased from 33,000 in 1807 to 83,543 in 1861; but in 1871 it was 80,948, and in 1881 only 77,781,—a decrease due mainly to the distribution of the population beyond the city limits, especially along the coast. The communal population was 97,096 in 1871, and 97,615 in 1881. Between the city and the village of Ardenza are many seaside residences, occupied mostly by foreign visitors during the bathing season.
The earliest mention of Leghorn occurs in a document of the year 891 relating to the first church; in 1017 it is called a castle. In the 13th century the Pisans tried to attract a population to the spot, but it was not till the. 14th that Leghorn began to be the rival of Porto Pisano, which it was destined ultimately to supplant. It was at Leghorn that Urban V. and Gregory XL landed on their return from Avignon. When in 1405 the king of France sold Pisa to the Florentines he kept possession of Leghorn; but he afterwards (1407) sold it for 26,000 ducats to the Genoese, and from the Genoese the Florentines purchased it in 1421. In 1496 the city showed its devotion to its new masters by a successful defence against Maximilian and his allies. With the rise of the Medici came a rapid increase of prosperity; Cosmo, Francis, and Ferdinand erected fortifications and harbour works, warehouses and churches, with equal liberality, and the last especially gave a stimulus to trade by inviting ‘ ‘men of the East and the West, Spanish and Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Hebrews, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians, and others,” to settle and traffic in the city. Declared free and neutral in 1691, Leghorn was permanently invested with these privileges by the Quadruple Alliance in 1718; but in 1796 Napoleon seized all the hostile vessels in its port. It ceased to be a free city by law of 1867.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 416
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