I see it not unfrequently
quoted by writers on Italian subjects. Then I made a more ambitious
attempt, and produced a _History of the Commonwealth of Florence_, in
four volumes.
Such a work appeals, of course, to a comparatively limited audience.
But that it was recognised to have some value among certain
Anglo-Saxons whose favourable judgment in the matter was worth having,
may be gathered from the fact that it has been a text-book in our own
and in transatlantic universities; while a verdict perhaps still
more flattering (though I will not say more gratifying) was given by
Professor Pasquale Villari (now senator of the kingdom of Italy), who,
in a letter in my possession, pronounces my history of Florence to be
in his opinion the best work on the subject extant.
Professor Villari is not only an accomplished scholar of a wide
range of culture, but his praise of any work on Italian--and perhaps
especially on Tuscan--history comes from no "prentice han'." His
masterly _Life of Macchiavelli_ is as well known in our country as
in his own, through the translation of it into English by his gifted
wife, Linda Villari, whilom Linda White, and my very valued friend.
All these historical books were written _con amore_. The study of
bygone Florentines had an interest for me which was quickened by the
daily and hourly study of living Florentines. It was curious to mark
in them resemblances of character, temperament, idiosyncrasy, defects,
and merits, to those of their forefathers who move and breathe before
us in the pages of such old chroniclers as Villani, Segni, Varchi, and
the rest, and in sundry fire-graven strophes and lines of their mighty
poet.
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