I do not forget that the falsehood has been acted upon as a truth in Italy for some centuries; but political piracy cannot win the moral approval of our times on the plea that it has been practised for a long period. The real effect of the doctrine, whatever be its force from a history made by applying it, is to condemn a whole people to a certain dependence on other nations, to give France, Austria and Spain--or to go back to the sixteenth century, France and the Empire--rights or duties in Italy which must impair the rights of the Italians. A creed which has this fatal element may be pushed to its logical consequence--the assassination of a nation. In the sixteenth century this was done. It was cruel--too cruel to be described--when history accused the fallen of cowardice, incapacity for liberty and superstitious devotion to Rome. From such atrocious slanders, the Italians of the sixteenth century deserve a vindication. M. Celesia has felt this part of his office so warmly that his word may seem those of an advocate rather than of an historian to those who forget the wrongs done to his people in the name of history. But he who fully weighs the injustice against which our author protests will rather wonder at the moderation and critical calmness of the greater part of the book than complain of the glow of honest indignation which lights up some of his periods. The critical reader will regret that the work is not fortified by more copious references. The truth is that it is not the fashion in Italy to quote authorities, and the citations given were prepared by the author for this edition. I have added a few explanatory foot-notes; but the reader is referred for fuller information regarding events in earlier Genoese history to a forthcoming work on that subject. D. H. WHEELER. GENOA, _June, 1865_. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE COUNTS OF LAVAGNA. The Valley of Entella and Lavagna--The Origin of the Counts of Fieschi--Their Conflicts with the Commune of Genoa--The Treaty of Peace between the Fieschi and Genoa--Civil Contentions--The Riches and Power of the Counts Fieschi--Innocent IV. and Hadrian V.--Cardinal Gianluigi Fieschi--The Fieschi Bishops and Lords of Vercelli and Biella--Famous Fieschi Warriors--Isabella, wife of Lucchino Visconti--St. Catherine--The Arms of the Family--Liberality and munificence of the Fieschi--Gianluigi II.--Sinibaldo, lord of thirty-three walled castles. CHAPTER II. THE ITALIAN STATES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Leo X., and his false glories--Desperate condition of the Italian states in the sixteenth century--Their aversion to the Austrian power--The Sack of Rome--Wars and Plagues--Charles V. and Francis I.--The Despotism of Christian powers causes Italian peoples to desire the yoke of the Turks--The Papal theocracy renews with the empire the compact of Charlemagne. CHAPTER III. ANDREA DORIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF GENOA.