“It is with real regret that we find a work of so much intrinsic worth defaced by the inclusion of so much which is unnecessary and irritating to read.”
+ – Acad. 71: 155. Ag. 18, ’06. 1520w. + Am. Hist. R. 12: 201. O. ’06. 40w.
“It is the commonplace book of an industrious worker. The history of the Florentine guilds has yet to be written.”
– Ath. 1906. 2: 555. N. 3. 1450w.
“In it one finds, conveniently, the answer to so many questions that arise through a morning’s wanderings in narrow and alluring byways. Even its dry statistics of revenues and taxes help you to repeople the dead centuries by the sense of activity and enterprise which the mere figures convey.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
+ + Bookm. 24: 371. D. ’06. 1420w.
“In treating of the minor corporations such as those of inn-keepers, saddlers, bakers, etc., this indefatigable author enters into the very life of the people, so that his book is not only to a great extent a history of art, of literature, of science, and of commerce, but of social manners and customs.”
+ + Int. Studio. 30: 91. N. ’06. 500w.
“When he is bestowing information, which he does both copiously and clearly, his style is concise and business like, and he says well what he has to say. But when he is afraid of being dull—which real information never is—he is by no means so happy.”