The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-01
SOME NEW BOOKS.
nomo in the Fourteenth Century.

We have had occasion TO notice earlier volumes
Of the English version Of the History Of the Cfty
Of Rome In the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregor.
ovius, translated by Annie Hamilton London.
George Bell Sonsl Tho two latest volumes
TO DO issued. the sixth and the seventh cover tho
story OF Rome from A. ID. 1905 up to 1920. They
present 70 us, not only the outcome Of profound
antiquarian research but also a consecutive
account Of the political relations OF the Eternal
City to the rest Of Italy and TO Europe at large.
II was In tho fourteenth century that Rome. from
many points Of view. reached the lowest stage Of
decadonco Tho Popes removed to Avignon.
aud remained there some seventy years For
the papacy. this voluntary exile had momentous
consequences, for il WIS followed. first, by the
great schism. then by general Council. and
ssfimateiy. by the Reformation. II was at this
time that tbs mother country OF Western civil
tzation seemed In momentary danger OF becoming
extinct, like Heas or Byzantium The great
institutions OF the Middle Ages had arisen upon
her soil But what object was now left to
Italians to struggle for when the Ancient Church
and the ancient empire fell TO decay, and when
Popes and Emperors forsook tho country? Moth
ing was left II seemed, but a destructive war OF
factions tho Guef and Ghibclline survivals Of
the age-long contest between the Church and the
Empire Possessing no national constitution,
and exhibiting tumultuous chaos of combatant
cities and tyrants OF antagonistic mobiles and
peoples. the dismcmbcred land bcheld the
fall Of the m liDval system with the same dismay
with which she had witnessed the overthrow Of
the first Roman Empire in the West. and now,
as then. she foTcsaw the rule Of the foreigner
her inevitable destiny. Italy, the utterly
hausted f,ld Of the duel between the Church and
tho socalled Holy Roman Empire, invoked in
her abandonment the return of Emperor and
"a h,al cha ,,l. hat
had been inflicted by factional hatred. Neither
Pope nor Emperor provided the necessary bal
sans. but tho genius Of the Italians themselves
discovered the means Of reconciling the com
batants through a higher intellectual medium.
In the renascencs OF classic culture. the factions
of Guelf and Ghibene. of Church and State,
were merged as distinctions unimportant to the
world at large. The fourteenth century was the
age which saw the beginning Of the resuscitaton
Of classical learning in Italy. The revival OF the
ancient culture was the greatest national work
Of tho Italians ii saved them from the fate OF
Greece. and, Tor the third time, gave them intel
lectual supremacy Europe. To their mis-
fortune, they unable to create, along with
the literary and artistic rcnascence a national
constitution and, consequently, for the second
time, Italy failed to escape foreign rule. Such
being tn, period OF which tho book before treats,
we inevitably hear good deal about Dante and
Petrarch, and a little about Boccaccio and Poggo
and other leading humanists of the time. New
light Is also thrown on Cola d Rien2o that inter
esting and enigmatic figure, who, by the long
obsolete Office which he assumed, earned for him
self the title OF the las. of the Tribunes" For
the political history, however. Of the City OF Rome
during thu critical period under review. we must
refer the reader to tho book ITSELF and confne
ourselves TO survey OF the monuments Of an
tiQuity which still survived and to the social liter