+NORTH ITALY.+ Between 1450 and 1490 the Renaissance presented in Sienna, in a number of important palaces, a sharp contrast to the prevalent Gothic style of that city. The +P. Piccolomini+--a somewhat crude imitation of the P. Riccardi in Florence--dates from 1463; the +P. del Governo+ was built 1469, and the +Spannocchi Palace+ in 1470. In 1463 _Ant. Federighi_ built there the +Loggia del Papa+. About the same time _Bernardo di Lorenzo_ was building for Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini) an entirely new city, +Pienza+, with a cathedral, archbishop’s palace, town hall and Papal residence (the +P. Piccolomini+), which are interesting if not strikingly original works. Pisa possesses few early Renaissance structures, owing to the utter prostration of her fortunes in the 15th century, and the dominance of Pisan Gothic traditions. In Lucca, besides a wealth of minor monuments (largely the work of Matteo Civitali, 1435-1501) in various churches, a number of palaces date from this period, the most important being the +P. Pretorio+ and P. Bernardini. To Milan the Renaissance was carried by the Florentine masters _Michelozzi_ and _Filarete_, to whom are respectively due the +Portinari Chapel+ in S. Eustorgio (1462) and the earlier part of the great +Ospedale Maggiore+ (1457). In the latter, an edifice of brick with terra-cotta enrichments, the windows were Gothic in outline--an unusual mixture of styles, even in Italy. The munificence of the Sforzas, the hereditary tyrants of the province, embellished the semi-Gothic +Certosa+ of Pavia with a new marble façade, begun 1476 or 1491, which in its fanciful and exuberant decoration, and the small scale of its parts, belongs properly to the early Renaissance. Exquisitely beautiful in detail, it resembles rather a magnified altar-piece than a work of architecture, properly speaking. Bologna and Ferrara developed somewhat late in the century a strong local school of architecture, remarkable especially for the beauty of its courtyards, its graceful street arcades, and its artistic treatment of brick and terra-cotta (+P. Bevilacqua+, +P. Fava+, at Bologna; +P. Scrofa+, +P. Roverella+, at Ferrara). About the same time palaces with interior arcades and details in the new style were erected in Verona, Vicenza, Mantua, and other cities.