From the frightful spectacle of poverty, barbarity and ignorance, from the oppression of illiterate masters, and the sufferings of a degraded peasantry, which the annals of England and France present to us, it is delightful to turn to the opulent and enlightened states of Italy, to the vast and magnificent cities, the ports, the arsenals, the villas, the museums, the libraries, the marts filled with every article of comfort or luxury, the factories swarming with artisans... With peculiar pleasure every cultivated mind must repose on the fair, the happy, the glorious Florence, the halls which rang with the mirth of Pulci, the cell where twinkled the midnight lamp of Politian, the statues on which the young eye of Michelangelo glared with the frenzy of a kindred inspiration, the gardens in which Lorenzo meditated some sparkling song for the May-Day dance of the Etrurian virgins...

IN our efforts to realise the leading events of our own history we experience no small difficulty from the fact that so much of the face of England has completely altered its outward appearance under the stress of modern development, so that we find it particularly hard to picture to ourselves their original setting. Our overgrown yet ever-spreading capital owns scarcely a feature to-day in common with the London of the Tudors or Plantagenets; the relentless pushing of industrial enterprise has turned whole shires from green to black, from verdant countryside to smoke-grimed scenes of commerce. It is therefore well-nigh impossible for us in many cases to conjure up the old-world conditions of Merrie England. But in writing of Italian annals we are confronted by no such problem: altered to a certain extent no doubt is the present aspect of Italy, yet in Florence, Venice, Siena and most of her cities we still possess the empty stages of the pageants and deeds of long ago, all ready prepared for us to people with the famous figures of the historic past...

The stories of seven popes who ruled at seven different critical periods in the 600 years leading into the Reformation.

Published in 1908, this vintage text by Herbert Millingchamp Vaughan (1870-1948), provides a fascinating insight into the realm of the Medici Popes in Italy. Featuring the original illustrations, this edition is a must-have for any historian or enthusiast for Renaissance history. Contents include: Pedigree of the Senior Branch of the House of Medici; 1 Childhood and Youth in Florence; 2 Misfortune and Exile; 3 Rise to Power Under Julius II; 4 Return of the Medici to Florence; 5 Leo Decimus Pontifex Maximus; 6 Medicean Ambition; 7 The Court of Leo X; 8 Leo’s Hunting; 9 Leo X and Raphael; 10 Conspiracy of the Cardinals; 11 Death and Character of Leo X; 12 Clemens Septimus Pontifex Maximus; 13 The Sack of Rome; 14 Last Years of Clement VII; 15 The Later Medici Popes; Appendix. We are republishing this early work in a high quality, modern and affordable edition, complete with a specially written concise biography.