Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots, Volume 1Smith, Elder, 1898 - 495 pages |
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Alexander Alfonso authority Baglioni Bologna burghers burghs Cardinal Cesare Borgia Charles VIII chief Chronicle Church citizens commonwealth Condottieri Corio corruption Cosimo Council court crimes cruelty culture death despotism Dino Compagni Duchy Duke Emperor Empire Europe factions Ferdinand Ferrara feudal fifteenth century Filippo Firenze Florence Florentine florins force France Francesco Francesco Guicciardini Francesco Sforza Francesco Vettori freedom French Ghibelline Gian Galeazzo Gian Galeazzo Visconti Giovanni Giuliano Gonfalonier Guelf Guicciardini historians honour Italian Italy King kingdom liberty Lodovico Lodovico Sforza Lombard Lorenzo Machiavelli Maria Medicean Medici Milan modern moral murder Naples nation nobles Orsini Papacy Papal party passions Pavia period Perugia philosophical Pisa political Pope Popolo princes Principe Renaissance republic Romagna Roman Rome rule Savonarola says Segni Sforza Siena Signory Sixtus spirit tion took tyranny tyrants Urbino Varchi Venetian Venice Vettori vices Villani Visconti whole
Popular passages
Page 264 - I count religion but a childish toy And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
Page 282 - ... charged them never to do outrageousity nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no means to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordship of King Arthur for evermore; and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succour, upon pain of death.
Page 11 - ... humanity had passed, a careful pilgrim, intent on the terrors of sin, death, and judgment, along the highways of the world, and had not known that they were sightworthy, or that life is a blessing.
Page 370 - I was once in Italy myself; but I thank God my abode there was but nine days ; and yet I saw in that little time, in one city, more liberty to sin, than ever I heard tell of in our noble city of London in nine year.
Page 18 - The Aldi, the Stephani, and Froben toiled by night and day, employing scores of scholars, men of supreme devotion and of mighty brain, whose work it was to ascertain the right reading of sentences, to accentuate, to punctuate, to commit to the press, and to place beyond the reach of monkish hatred or of envious time that everlasting solace of humanity which exists in the classics.
Page 11 - ... Church. The Renaissance shattered and destroyed them, rending the thick veil which they had drawn between the mind of man and the outer world, and flashing the light of reality upon the darkened places of his own nature. For the mystic teaching of the Church was substituted culture in the...
Page 10 - For loose fertility ; a footfall there Suffices to upturn to the warm air Half-germinating spices, mere decay Produces richer life, and day by day New pollen on the lily-petal grows, And still more labyrinthine buds the rose.
Page 112 - False and pitiless, he joined to immeasurable ambition a genius for enterprise, and to immovable constancy a personal timidity which he did not endeavor to conceal. The least unexpected motion near him threw him into a paroxysm of nervous terror. No prince employed so many soldiers to guard his palace, or took such multiplied precautions of distrust.
Page 248 - When I leave the wood, I proceed to a well, and thence to the place which I use for snaring birds, with a book under my arm — Dante, or Petrarch, or one of the minor poets, like Tibullus or Ovid. I read the story of their passions, and let their loves remind me of my own, which is a pleasant pastime for a while. Next I take the road, enter the inn door, talk with the passers-by, inquire the news of the neighborhood, listen to a variety of matters, and make note of the different tastes and humors...