[591] Cp. The Dynamics of Religion, by "M.W. Wiseman" (J.M. R.), 1897, pp. 175, 176, 181.
[592] "Non partecipavi Firenze nelle faccende d'Europa così largamente, come Venezia e Genova, sì per essere continuamente straziata dalle fazioni e sì per non avere dominio di mare. Dal che nasceva, che niun cittadino potesse sorgere in lei di nome e di appichi esterni tanto possente che potesse stabilirvi da per se o la libertà o la tyrannide" (C. Botta, Storia d' Italia, 1837, i, 124). But Genoa also had countless strifes of faction, so that the vera causa of the greater inner development of Florence must be held to be her lack of external dominion and occupation.
[593] Vol. cited, p. 3. Cp. Burckhardt, Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, pt. iv, ch. iv, p. 309. Both writers adopt the language of Michelet.
[594] Burckhardt, p. 317. The Counter-Reformation, of course, must always be taken into account in estimates of the latter period of Italian history. The regeneration of the Papacy after the Reformation is to be credited jointly to Spain and the Reformation itself.
[595] Pignotti, Hist. of Tuscany, Eng. tr. iii, 282-92.
[596] Study suffered in Florence particularly from the faction troubles. The Studio or college, founded in 1348, was closed between 1378 and 1386; reopened then, shut in 1404, again opened in 1412, and so on. Cp. Napier, Florentine History, 1846, iv, 75; Perrens, Histoire de Florence, Eng. tr. of vol. vii, pp. 172-77; and von Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici, Eng. tr. i, 428-30.
[597] Mr. Symonds notes (Age of the Despots, p. 34) how Guicciardini argued this (Op. Ined. i, 28), as against Machiavelli's lament over the lack of Italian unity.