Sardinia, an island of Italy, after Sicily the largest in the Mediterranean, lies 135 miles W. of the Tiber mouth, and immediately south of Corsica, being separated from it by the Strait of Bonifacio, 7½ miles wide. In shape it resembles an oblong set on end, with a deep wide bay, the Gulf of Cagliari, in the south, and another, the Gulf of Porto Torres, in the north. From north to south it measures 170 miles, and from east to west, on the average, 75 miles. Area, 9206 sq. m. Off various points along the shores lie islands, the largest being San Antioco, San Pietro, Dell'Asinara, Maddalena, Caprera, Tavolara, &c. The surface is generally mountainous, the configuration that of a tableland running up into ranges and isolated peaks. The highest points occur along the eastern side of the island, and reach 6233 feet in Gennargentu in the centre, and 4287 in the mountains of Limbara in the north. The western side of the island ranges at about 1240 feet, though the extinct volcano of Monte Ferru reaches 3400. The south-west corner is separated from the main mass of the island by the low alluvial plain of Campidano, which stretches from the Gulf of Cagliari to the Gulf of Oristano, on the west coast; at both extremities of it there are extensive salt lagoons. The only other low-lying tracts are the lower portions of the river valleys. The streams, however, are mostly short, the longest not exceeding 65 miles. The north-eastern shores are high and rocky. On the west the coast-line is more irregular than on the east; the grotto of Neptune, on this west coast, is one of the finest in Europe. Ever since the time of the Roman possession the climate of the island has been in evil repute. This is because of the malaria that prevails in the low-lying tracts, where there is often much stagnant water after the rains, and much decaying vegetable matter in the hot season. The parts that lie at a higher level are quite as healthy as the corresponding districts of Italy. A more extended cultivation of the soil and the drainage of the marshes or inland lagoons would greatly diminish the malaria, as experiment in certain districts has proved.
Sardinia is in nearly all respects a backward island. It has fine natural resources—fertile soil, valuable mines, extensive forests, rich fisheries, and excellent facilities for manufacturing industry. But owing to the old-fashioned conservatism of the people, their apathy, their primitive methods of agriculture, lack of enterprise and capital, and want of means of communication, and long years of negligent if not inefficient government, its resources are by no means developed to the extent they could be; many lucrative industries are in the hands of foreigners, others are neglected by the Sardes, and those that they do carry on are often carried on in a half-hearted manner and with obsolete methods. Feudalism was not finally abolished in the island until 1856. Of the total area about one-third is arable land, one-third pasture, and nearly one-third (28 per cent.) forest. The first place amongst the natural resources is taken by the agricultural products, in spite of the backward farming, the heavy taxation, and the extremely minute subdivision of the soil. The principal produce is wheat, barley, beans, potatoes, wine (21,500,000 gallons per annum), olive-oil (1½ million gallons), oranges, lemons, tobacco, flax and hemp, cheese, butter, and wool. The breeding of horses is an important industry; and large numbers of cattle, sheep, swine, and goats are kept. The growing of fruits and the breeding of the domestic animals are both carefully attended to, and the products of both industries are improving; but the only improvement in the management of the soil is the drainage of the marshes by the government (who own one-fifth of the area) and private individuals. Besides being in ancient times the granary of Rome, Sardinia was renowned for its mineral wealth. After lying unused from the fall of the Roman empire the mines were again worked by the Pisans in the 14th and 15th centuries; but work was not resumed in them with any degree of energy until towards the middle of the 19th century. At the present time some 10,000 persons are employed in extracting of lead (with silver) and zinc, and to a less extent lignite, antimony, and manganese. Iron and copper also exist. Granite, marble, and clay for pottery are quarried. Salt is manufactured from sea-water, chiefly by convicts at Cagliari. The mines are mostly situated in the south-west, in the neighbourhood of Iglesias. The total produce for a year averages £675,000 in value. The centre and north of the island are chiefly covered with forests, though they are being all too rapidly diminished. The commonest as well as the most valuable trees are the oak, ilex, cork, and wild olive, which yield timber, cork, bark for tanning, acorns, and charcoal to the annual value of close upon £300,000. The seas yield large quantities of tunny, sardines, anchovy, and coral, though the fisheries, except for tunny, are not prosecuted by Sardinians, but by Italians; the native fishermen prefer to catch trout, eels, lobsters, crabs, &c. in the rivers and inland lagoons. Sardinia has no extensive manufacturing industries, though there is some tanning and making of cigars, aerated waters, macaroni, flour, and spirits. There are, however, a variety of domestic industries for home use; most of the women still ply the spinning-wheel. Until the year 1828 Sardinia had no roads for wheeled vehicles, the Roman roads having gone to ruin centuries ago. Now there are good roads throughout the island; and they are supplemented by 350 miles of railway. In spite of their maritime situation the Sardinians are not fond of the sea. The island has numerous fairly good ports—Cagliari (the capital), Porto Torres, Terranova, Tortoli, Alghero, Carloforte, and Bosa—most of which are being improved by the construction of harbour-works. About 6000 vessels of million tons enter every year. The inhabitants are for the most part of mixed race, Spanish and Italian elements predominating. Pop. (1815) 352,867; (1840) 524,000; (1871) 636,660; (1881) 682,000; (1895) 751,255; (Sicily, with an area of 9961 sq. m., has a pop. of 3,484,125). This gives a density of 81 persons to the square mile; Italy has 280 to the square mile. Education is in a very backward state, 83 per cent. of the population being unable to read and write. The two universities at Cagliari and Sassari are frequented by only 260 students in all. The practice of the vendetta and brigandage were extremely prevalent amongst this people; but both have now almost entirely ceased. The language is a mixture of Latin, Spanish, and Italian; but the dialects of different parts differ considerably. Classical Italian is the official language, and is used by the educated classes. The moufflon or wild sheep, with red deer, fallow deer, wild boar, and an abundance of smaller game, such as hares, partridges, woodcock, snipe, &c., are the creatures chiefly hunted. Administratively the island is divided into the two provinces of Cagliari and Sassari. There are three archbishoprics, Cagliari, Sassari, and Oristano, and eight bishoprics. Sardinia sends twelve members to the Italian chamber of representatives and three to the senate.
There are numerous remains of a remote and now wholly forgotten antiquity, about which nothing is known beyond the nurhags or Nuraghe (q.v.) and 'giants' graves,' and other memorials. The 'giants' graves' are excavated spaces, 15 to 30 feet long and 4 to 6 feet wide, surrounded by stones.
History.—The aboriginal inhabitants are believed to have been of Iberian stock, though this is by no means certain. They seem to have been conquered by the Phœnicians at an early period; but little authentic is known before the conquest by the Carthaginians in 512 B.C. For two centuries and a half this people bitterly oppressed the native inhabitants, so that when the Romans came in the 3d century they were hailed as deliverers. But the Sardinians did not at first bear the Roman yoke very patiently, though afterwards, from the reign of Tiberius onwards, they enjoyed three hundred years of continuous peace, and prospered greatly. After the fall of the Roman empire evil days again fell upon the island: it was overrun by Vandals and Goths, and then for many years was incessantly harassed by the Saracens. During this time its nominal masters were the Byzantine emperors (till 774) and the popes. In the beginning of the 11th century the Pisans and Genoese undertook the task of driving out the Saracens and holding the island against them; but they had a hard task for twenty years or more. Then, the Moslems beaten off, they took to quarrelling with one another, and only agreed to divide the island between them in 1299, Genoa taking the north, Pisa the south. But the real internal government was in the hands of four 'judges' or chiefs, each ruling a separate province; this arrangement existed several centuries before the Pisans came, and continued to exist for several centuries longer. The pope, who still claimed the over-lordship, at this time gave Sardinia to the king of Aragon; and he made himself definitively master of it in 1416. The Aragonese and their sovereign successors, the Spaniards, kept possession of it till the treaty of Utrecht (1713); it then passed to Austria, but in 1720 was given to the
House of Savoy in exchange for Sicily. United with Savoy and Piedmont, it gave title to a new kingdom, the kingdom of Sardinia. See SAVOY.
See Tennant, Sardinia and its Resources (Rome, 1885), Tyndale, Island of Sardinia (3 vols. 1849); C. Edwardes, Sardinia and the Sardes (Lond. 1889); Annali di Statistica, No. XI. (Rome, 1887); Nineteenth Century (June 1887); La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne (5 vols. 2d ed. Paris, 1837-57); and the historical works of Manno (4 vols. Turin, 1825, and 1 vol. Florence, 1858).