Author: Charles River Editors
Narrator: Michelle Humphries
Unabridged: 3 hr 54 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 10/20/2023
Genre: History - Europe - Italy
Cola di Rienzo was a man whose life and actions have reverberated down the centuries, as his charismatic, yet unsuccessful dictatorship has spawned legends and comparisons with movements of later ages. His attempt to bring the greatness of Roman antiquity into the reality of the 14th century, the city’s lowest point, is inspiring on its face. In 1938, Iris Origo saw how Cola was being used by her present era and noted that "within the last century Emperor, Communist and Fascist in turn have paid tribute to Cola di Rienzo as a kindred spirit or precursor. But historical parallels are deceptive. To measure a man of one century against a man of another is to see neither of them in the light of his own time…"
The different Italian states on the peninsula experienced Napoleonic rule in the early 1800s, followed by a brief restoration that led to widespread political upheavals in the 1820s. As the 1840s came to a close, the Italian peninsula was in major disarray. In 1847, the Austrian Chancellor Klement von Metternich referred to Italy as merely a “geographical expression,” and to some extent, he was not far off the mark.
The Italian state may have come together thanks to ideals, but the success of the Second Italian War of Independence owed a lot of its success to chance, foreign intervention, and the wheeling and dealing of a few powerful men. Its story is long and complex, and the ultimate unification of Italy as it’s recognized today would require no less than four wars. Nonetheless, despite its difficult birthing process and rocky start, the Italian state has survived over 150 years, and it even managed to remain united in the aftermath of World War II, escaping the fate of Nazi Germany.
In the 18th century, Italy was still divided into smaller states, but differently than during medieval times when the political entities were independent and were flourishing economic and cultural centers almost unrivaled in Europe. During the 18th ...
In 1494, there were five sovereign regional powers in Italy: Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. In 1536, only one remained: Venice. These decades of conflict precipitated great anxiety among Western thinkers, and Italians respond...
However diverse Sicily might be, it is also paradoxically considered to be an emblem of Italy itself, a paradox it shares with Naples. In fact, Frederick II was the last ruler of a fully autonomous Sicily, and his son, Manfred (r. 1254-1258), was t...
“As in the Arsenal of the Venetians Boils in winter the tenacious pitch To smear their unsound vessels over again For sail they cannot; and instead thereof One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks The ribs of that which many a voyage has ma...
If you want to discover the captivating history of the Gallic Wars, then keep reading...As Rome swelled with tradespeople, artisans, slaves, and wealthy merchant families, its politicians struggled to maintain the fundamental democratic properties o...
It is hard to find an island on the map more central than Sicily. Located at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, Sicily has rarely been governed as an independent, unified state. Nonetheless,...
It is hard to find an island on the map more central than Sicily. Located at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, Sicily has rarely been governed as an independent, unified state. Nonetheless,...
The mystical floating city of Venice has inspired awe for generations, and it continues to be one of the most visited European cities for good reason. Tourists are drawn to the stunning blend of classical, Gothic, and Renaissance-inspired architect...
The history of Naples is long and tortured, or at least for centuries that was how its history has been told.[1] Inhabited almost continuously from the Neolithic era to the present, Naples was founded by the Greeks and conquered by the Romans. Afte...