The First Two Centuries of Florentine History. By Professor Pasquale
Villari. Translated by Linda Villari. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—Professor Villari concludes in this volume his work on Florentine history, for such it is rather than a history of Florence. A " history" it is indeed, in the original sense of the word, for it is an inquiry into various questions which the ordinary narrator of wars and revolutions does not concern himself with. It is, in fact, a study of various motive powers—largely racial, for the author sees a perpetual struggle between Latin and German elements—which were at work in shaping the course of Florentine history. The first chapter (seven in the whole work) is devoted to a disquisition on "The Family and the State in Italian Communes ; " following this we have an account of the " Enact- ments of Justin," and after this again " The Florentine Republic in Dante's Time," and " Dante, Florentine Exiles, and Henry VII." In an appendix Professor Villari discusses the chronicle attributed to Brunette Latini, and proceeds to give the text.
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