TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: --Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. --Superscript letter “T” has been rendered as text^T. THE CONSPIRACY OF GIANLUIGI FIESCHI. [Illustration: Painted by Luca Combiaso Engraved by H. Adlard. PORTRAIT OF FIESCHI AS S.^T GEORGE. _SEE PAGE 195._] SAMPSON LOW, SON & MARSTON, MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, 1867 THE CONSPIRACY OF GIANLUIGI FIESCHI, OR, GENOA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. BY EMANUELE CELESIA. TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN, BY DAVID H. WHEELER. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON & MARSTON, MILTON HOUSE, 59, LUDGATE HILL. 1866. [_The Right of Translation is Reserved._] PREFACE. IT is perhaps matter for just surprise that English literature has been so little enriched during the last quarter of a century by archivic researches in Italy. While these studies have greatly modified the views of Italian historians, it may be safely said that, with few exceptions, English history of Italy remains substantially as it was in 1840. The conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi, now presented to the English reading public, is one of those works which strongly mark the progress of historical research in the Italian Peninsula; and though it treats of an episode, that episode is so woven into the great events which surrounded it as to give a vivid picture of the condition of Italy in the sixteenth century. The work has therefore seemed to me to have sufficient historical value to merit translation into our language.