As realism in art gained ground, the positive method in criticism kept pace with it. History returned to its spirit of learned research, as is shown in such works as the "Archivio storico italiano", established at Florence by Giampietro Vieusseux, the "Storia d'Italia nel medio evo" by Carlo Troya, a remarkable treatise by Manzoni himself, "Sopra alcuni punti della storia longobardica in Italia", and the very fine history of the Vespri siciliani by Michele Amari. Alongside the great artists Leopardi and Manzoni, alongside the learned scholars, there was also in the first half of the 19th century a patriotic literature. Vieusseux had a distinct political object when in 1820 he established the monthly review "Antologia". His "Archivio storico italiano" (1842) was, under a different form, a continuation of the "Antologia", which was suppressed in 1833 owing to the action of the Russian government. Florence was in those days the asylum of all the Italian exiles, and these exiles met and shook hands in Vieusseux's rooms, where there was more literary than political talk, but where one thought and one only animated all minds, the thought of Italy.