Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots |
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Alexander Alfonso authority Bologna burghers burghs Cardinal Cesare Borgia Charles VIII chief Chronicle Church citizens commonwealth Condottieri Corio corruption Cosimo court crimes cruelty culture death despotism Dino Compagni Duchy Duke Emperor Empire ence Europe factions Ferdinand Ferrara feudal fifteenth century Filippo Fior Firenze Flor Florence Florentine florins force France Francesco Francesco Sforza Francesco Vettori freedom French Ghibelline Gian Galeazzo Giovanni Giuliano Gonfalonier Guelf Guicciardini historian honor Italian Italy king kingdom liberty Lodovico Lodovico Sforza Lombard Lorenzo Machiavelli Maria Medicean Medici ment Milan modern moral murder Naples Nardi nation nobles Orsini Papacy Papal party passion Pavia period Perugia philosophy Pisa political Pope Popolo preaching princes Renaissance republic Romagna Roman Rome ruin rule Savonarola says Segni Sforza Siena Signory Sixtus spirit tion took tyranny tyrants Urbino Varchi Venetian Venice Vettori vices Villani Visconti whole
Popular passages
Page 336 - I count religion but a childish toy And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
Page 559 - 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 473 - 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 year.
Page 119 - 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 13 - 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 318 - Tu proverai si come sa di sale Lo pane altrui, e com' e duro calle Lo scendere e '1 salir per 1
Page 162 - 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 13 - Bernard traveling along the shores of the 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 monk, humanity...
Page 402 - Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock ; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
Page 315 - I rise with the sun, and go into a wood of mine that is being cut, where I remain two hours inspecting the work of the previous day and conversing with the woodcutters, who have always some trouble on hand among themselves or with their neighbours. When I leave the wood, I proceed to a well, and thence to the place which I use for snaring birds, with a book under my arm — Dante, or Petrarch, or one of the minor poets, like Tibullus or Ovid.