History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages

This is a history of Italy in medieval times, tne the creation of the city-states in the wake of the Roman Empire's collapse. 6th century that focuses on the Byzantine Empire and its most famous emperor, Justinian, who attempted to reconquer the former Western Roman Empire. From the preface:"When, in the early part of the eighteenth century, Italy was in measure released from Spanish subjection, the immediate revival of letters and scholarship gave evidence that the natural force and genius of the people had, indeed, been silenced by oppression, but were still quick. Giambattista Vico and others investigated the laws of progress; Ludovico Antonio Muratori, aided by Scipione Maffei of Verona and Apostolo Zeno of Venice, examined original sources of information, and their stupendous labours issued in a multitude of ponderous tomes that remain the precious possessions of the scholar, and furnish him, not merely with a vast body of authentic fact, but even with the beginnings of explanation. These Italians concerned themselves with the mediaeval records of their country; then, as when Italy became united, the first effort of her sons was to discover and reconstruct her history. Building on the foundation thus raised, Jean Charles Simonde de Sismondi ransacked archives and studied documents to which Muratori had no access, and carried on the work of explanation a stage further. Nearly a hundred years ago there appeared in Zurich the first of the many volumes that contain the fruit of Sismondi's labours. The exact scholarship, comprehensive grasp, and clear flowing statement of the " Histoire des R?publiques Italiennes " gained it immediate success; and it has taken rank as the classic account of the remote memories of Mediaeval Italy, and the remarkable phenomena of the Renaissance. In our own time brilliant historians, such as Professor Pasquale Villari and Fran?ois Perrens, give evidence of their indebtedness to this renowned work. Muratori and Sismondi, alone of great historians, traverse the entire field of Mediaeval Italy; and, apart from Muratori's edition of original authorities, Sismondi, as Hallam observed, replaced Muratori."