Dedicating his Istorie Pisane to the Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici at the turn of the Seicento, Raffaello Roncioni deplored the fact that the glorious history of Pisa, his “most sweet and most loved fatherland (patria),” had fallen into oblivion. To remedy this sorry state of affairs, he promised the grand duke an epic account of the great deeds (gran fatti) of his most illustrious subject city, which would bring back to memory the power, the riches, the glory, the triumphs, the victories, and the greatness she once had enjoyed. From Roncioni we learn that the Pisans for centuries had fought the Saracens and defended and advanced the cause of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean, from the Balearic Islands in the West to the Holy Land in the East. Like other great cities, she had not remained quiet for long but pursued her conquests with relentless appetite.