Italy

During the fifteenth century the Medici banking house in Florence ‘almost passed belief’ in power and influence.

Having been moved to London from Nazi Germany, the esteemed library of Renaissance culture played a key role in restoring links between international scholars after the Second World War.

In 1701, writes L.R. Betcherman, a leading member of the Whig Junto retired to Rome for the sake of his health.

The visit of the Baroque master in 1665, writes Michael Greenhalgh, coincided with a rejection of Italian influence by French taste.

During the War of the Spanish Succession the Austrian commander marched westward from the Alps across Italy to win a remarkable battle.

The first professional revolutionist was a descendant of Michelangelo’s brother; W.J. Fishman describes how, in Italy, France, and in exile, Filippo Buonarroti spent his life in radical conspiracy.

Noel Blakiston describes the actions of an ebullient British Consul in the Papal State during the final stages of Italian unification.

The Italian patriot’s visit to England was extraordinarily successful. But Queen Victoria deplored the scenes it provoked; and Karl Marx described them as “a miserable spectacle of imbecility”.

From 1858 to 1870, a privileged and gifted English observer, Odo Russell, watched the declining fortunes of the Papal government. Russell reported in his strong and lucid style, writes Noel Blakiston, “as though they formed a chapter of medieval history.”

W. Baring Pemberton introduces the most intrepid of the Italian Liberator's English volunteers.