[Illustration: VICTOR EMMANUEL] BUILDERS OF UNITED ITALY BY RUPERT SARGENT HOLLAND WITH EIGHT PORTRAITS [Illustration printer's imprint] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1908 Copyright, 1908, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published, August, 1908 THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS RAHWAY, N. J. _To That Spirit of Italy Which Calls to Men in All Lands Like the Charmed Voice of Their Own History_ There is no history more alternately desperate and hopeful than that of the scattered Italian states in their efforts to form a united nation. Many forces fuse in the progress of such a popular movement, and each force has its own particular spokesman or leader. The prophet and the soldier, the poet and the statesman, each gives his share of genius. Those men who seemed to represent the most potent forces in this history are included here. CONTENTS PAGE ALFIERI, THE POET 1 MANZONI, THE MAN OF LETTERS 40 GIOBERTI, THE PHILOSOPHER 63 MANIN, THE "FATHER OF VENICE" 87 MAZZINI, THE PROPHET 125 CAVOUR, THE STATESMAN 165 GARIBALDI, THE CRUSADER 223 VICTOR EMMANUEL, THE KING 283 [Illustration: ALFIERI] ALFIERI, THE POET Alfieri was more than a great poet, he was the discoverer of a new national life in the scattered states of Italy. Putting aside consideration of his tragedies as literature, no student of the eighteenth century can fail to appreciate his influence over Italian thought. It was as though a people who had forgotten their nationality suddenly heard anew the stories of their common folk-lore. The race of Dante, of Petrarch, and of Tasso spoke again in the words of Alfieri. It was high time that disunited Italy should find a poet's voice. There was no vigor, no resolution, no originality from Turin to Naples, people of all classes were sunk in apathy. No wonder that foreign lovers of mediæval Italy turned their eyes away from the seats of so much former glory; there seemed little hope in a people given over to trivial personal enjoyment. There was no liberty of speech or action--sentiment, reason, passion were all measured by the grand-ducal yard-stick.