Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots, Volume 1Smith, Elder, & Company, 1880 - 574 pages |
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Alexander ancient authority beneath Bologna burghers burghs Cardinal centre Cesare Borgia chief Chronicle Church citizens civilisation commonwealth Condottieri constitution Corio corruption Cosimo court crimes cruelty culture Dante death despotism Dino Compagni duchy Duke Emperor Empire Europe exile factions Ferrara feudal fifteenth century Filippo Firenze Florence Florentine florins force Francesco Francesco Sforza Frederick freedom genius Genoa Ghibelline Gian Galeazzo Gian Galeazzo Visconti Giovanni Giovanni Villani Giuliano Gonfalonier Greek Guelf Guicciardini historians honour human independence Italian despotism Italy kingdom liberty Lombard Lorenzo Machiavelli Maria mediæval Medicean Medici Milan military modern moral murder Naples Nardi nation nobles Orsini Papacy Papal party passions Pavia period Perugia philosophy Pisa Podestà political Pope Popolo princes Principe Renaissance republic Romagna Roman Rome rule Savonarola says Segni Sforza Sixtus spirit tion towns Tuscany tyranny tyrants Urbino Varchi Venetian Venice Villani Visconti wealth whole
Popular passages
Page 508 - They relieved him of the difficulty of forcing his way along a narrow belt of land, which is hemmed in on one side by the sea and on the other by the highest and most abrupt mountain range in Italy.
Page 430 - 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 years.
Page 148 - Aveano usato ogni industria per levar via a se e a' soldati la fatica e la paura, non s'ammazzando nelle zuffe, ma pigliandosi prigioni e senza taglia.' At the same time the license they allowed themselves against the cities and the districts they invaded is well illustrated by the pillage of Piacenza in 1447 by Francesco Sforza's troops. The anarchy of a sack lasted forty days, during which the inhabitants were indiscriminately sold as slaves, 01 tortured for their hidden treasure.
Page 108 - O thou soft natural death, that art jointtwin To sweetest slumber ! no rough-bearded comet Stares on thy mild departure ; the dull owl Beats not against thy casement ; the hoarse wolf Scents not thy carrion : pity winds thy corse, Whilst horror waits on princes.
Page 12 - Delight at every sense ; you can believe Sordello foremost in the regal class Nature has broadly severed from her mass Of men and framed for pleasure as she frames Some happy lands that have luxurious names 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 12 - Lake Leman, and noticing neither the azure of the waters, nor the luxuriance of the vines, nor the radiance of the mountains with their robe of sun and snow, but bending a thought-burdened forehead over the neck of his mule ; even like this...
Page 70 - O è preparazion, che nell' abisso Del tuo consiglio fai, per alcun bene, In tutto dall' accorger nostro scisso? Chè le terre d' Italia tutte piene Son di tiranni, ed un Marcel diventa Ogni villan che parteggiando viene.
Page 13 - ... humanity had passed, a careful pilgrim, intent on the terrors of sin, death, and judgment, along the highways of the world, and had scarcely known that they were sightworthy, or that life is a blessing.
Page 484 - He will assist me to prove and sustain, in the face of the world, the holiness of the work for the sake of which I so greatly suffer : and He will inflict a just punishment on those who persecute me and would impede its progress. As for myself, I seek no earthly glory, but long eagerly for death. May your Holiness no longer delay but look to your salvation.
Page 99 - But if we answer this question in the affirmative, we shall have to place how many Visconti, Sforzeschi, Malatesti, Borgias, Farnesi, and princes of the houses of Anjou and Aragon in the list of these maniacs ? Ezzelino was indeed only the first of a long and horrible procession, the most terror-striking because the earliest, prefiguring all the rest.