that they told of nothing but external wars and business while the heart
of the history of Florence was left unbared. The work was to do again in
very different manner, and in that manner he did it. Throughout he
maintains and insistently insinuates his unfailing explanation of the
miseries of Italy; the necessity of unity and the evils of the Papacy
which prevents it. In this book dedicated to a Pope he scants nothing of
his hatred of the Holy See. For ever he is still seeking the one strong
man in a blatant land with almost absolute power to punish, pull down,
and reconstruct on an abiding foundation, for to his clear eyes it is
ever the events that are born of the man, and not the man of the events.
He was the first to observe that the Ghibellines were not only the
Imperial party but the party of the aristocrats and influential men,
whereas the Guelphs were the party not only of the Church but of the
people, and he traces the slow but increasing struggle to the triumph of
democracy in the Ordinamenti di Giustizia (1293). But the triumph was
not final. The Florentines were 'unable to preserve liberty and could
not tolerate slavery.' So the fighting, banishments, bloodshed, cruelty,
injustice, began once more. The nobles were in origin Germanic, he
points out, the people Latin; so that a racial bitterness gave accent to
their hate. But yet, he adds impartially, when the crushed nobility were
forced to change their names and no longer dared be heard 'Florence was
not only stripped of arms but likewise of all generosity.' It would be
impossible to follow the History in detail. The second, seventh and
eighth books are perhaps the most powerful and dramatic. Outside affairs
and lesser events are lightly touched. But no stories in the world have
been told with more intensity than those of the conspiracies in the
seventh and eighth books, and none have given a more intimate and
accurate perception of the modes of thought and feeling at the time. The
History ends with the death of Lorenzo de Medici in 1492. Enough has
been said of its breadth of scope and originality of method. The spirit