monument of the industry and patience of its authors.

Another luckless Italian historian flourished in the sixteenth century,
John Michael Bruto, who was born A.D. 1515, and was the author of a very
illustrious work, _Historia Florentina_ (Lyons, 1562). The full title of
the work is: _Joh. Michaelis Bruti Historiae Florentinae, Libri VIII.,
priores ad obitum Laurentii de Medicis_ (Lugduni, 1561, in-4). He wrote
with considerable elegance, judgment, and force, contradicting the
assertions of the historian Paolo Giovio, who was a strong partisan of the
Medicis, and displaying much animosity towards them.

This book aroused the ire of the powerful family of the Medicis, and was
suppressed by public authority. Bruto encouraged the brave citizens of
Florence to preserve inviolate the liberties of their republic, and to
withstand all the attempts of the Medicis to deprive them of their rights.
On account of its prohibition the work is very rare, for the chiefs of the
Florentines took care to buy all the copies which they could procure. In
order to avoid the snares which the Medicis and other powerful Italian
factions knew so well how to weave around those who were obnoxious to
them--an assassin's dagger or a poisoned cup was not then difficult to
procure--Bruto was compelled to seek safety in flight, and wandered
through various European countries, enduring great poverty and privations.
His exile continued until his death, which took place in Transylvania,
A.D. 1593.

The Jesuit Isaac Joseph Berruyer was condemned by the Parliament of Paris
in 1756 to be deposed from his office and to publicly retract his opinions
expressed in his _Histoire du Peuple de Dieu_. The first part, consisting
of seven volumes, 4to, appeared in Paris in 1728, the second in 1755, and
the third in 1758. The work was censured by two Popes, Benedict XIV. and