Cola di Rienzo and Garibaldi: The History of the Italian Nationalists Who Failed and Succeeded in Unifying Italy

Cola di Rienzo was a man whose life and actions have reverberated down the centuries, as his charismatic, yet unsuccessful dictatorship has spawned legends and comparisons with movements of later ages. His attempt to bring the greatness of Roman antiquity into the reality of the 14th century, the city's lowest point, is inspiring on its face. In 1938, Iris Origo saw how Cola was being used by her present era and noted that "within the last century Emperor, Communist and Fascist in turn hav...