William Heywood (1857 1919) experiencd a variety of jobs, including working as a lawyer, a cowboy and a newspaper editor, before retiring to Siena in Italy in 1894 and becoming a specialist in medieval Italian history. His unorthodox background is shown in his holistic interpretation of the growth of Pisa in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in contrast to the treatment of historical material by contemporary historians. Heywood examines the politics, society and religion of Pisa to chart the growth of the city from a small port at the end of the Roman period to a powerful city-state by the...