An emperor once more in Italy, 126. Milan seditions; Genoa and Venice at war, 128. Henry’s coronation and sudden death, 130. Rival emperors; ecclesiastical dissensions, 131. Castruccio Castracani, 133. Florence menaced, 135. The Florentine army under Raymond of Cardona, 137. Raymond temporises, 139. A brilliant skirmish, 140. Battle of Altopascio, 141. Castruccio adds insult to injury, 143. Florence in despair calls on the duke of Calabria, 144. Charles and his army, 145. The Ghibellines call on Ludwig of Bavaria, 147. Successes of Count Novello, 148. Ludwig comes to Italy, 149. Castruccio goes to Rome, 150. Castruccio’s new conquest; his sudden death, 152. Estimates of Castruccio, 153. Duke of Calabria dies; Ludwig retires, 155. Can’ Grande Della Scala, 155. John of Bohemia comes to Italy, 156. Lucca a bone of contention, 158. The duke of Athens made protector of Florence, 162. Growing unpopularity of the duke of Athens, 164. The duke driven from the city, 165. Attempted reforms, 167. War of the factions in Florence, 169. The Great Plague, 171. Boccaccio’s account of the plague in Florence, 173. Napier’s reflections on the plague, 176. CHAPTER VI THE VANGUARD OF THE RENAISSANCE (_ca._ 1250-1400 A.D.) 178 European culture in general, 181. The universities and nascent scholarship, 183. Latin and the vernacular, 184. The master poet, and his theme, 186. Dante the man, 187. Lesser contemporaries of Dante, 190. Petrarch, 191. Early Italian prose, 194. Boccaccio, 198. Lesser contemporaries of Petrarch and Boccaccio, 202. Art in the thirteen and fourteenth centuries, 203. The Tuscan school of painters, 207. Ruskin’s estimate of Giotto’s tower, 209. CHAPTER VII ROME UNDER RIENZI (1347-1354 A.D.) 211 The rise of Rienzi, 213. Lord Lytton on the speech of Rienzi, 216. Rienzi’s opponents; his friends; his proclamations, 218. Disaster succeeds victory, 220. Anarchy and jubilee in Rome, 223. Rienzi in exile; his renewed opportunity; his death, 224. CHAPTER VIII DESPOTS AND TYRANTS OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES (_ca._ 1309-1496 A.D.) 230 The kingdom of Naples, 231. Joanna II, 234. Alfonso the Magnanimous, 237. Ferdinand, 238. The tyrants of Lombardy, 240. Companies of adventure, 241. Florence menaced by the Visconti, 243. Charles IV in Italy, 244. The “war of Liberation,” 248. The papal schism, 249. Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 251. Filippo Maria Visconti, 257. The house of Sforza, 258. CHAPTER IX THE MARITIME REPUBLICS IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 261