Excerpt from Italy, Mediaeval and Modern: A History IT is no wonder that Italian history should be invested, ' in the eyes of Englishmen, with a perennial fascination, considering how profoundly we have been influenced at critical stages of our national development by the Italian genius. The catalogue of our obligations is too lengthy to be recited in a preface. A few examples must suffice. It is to an Italian, Gregory the Great, that we owe our Christian faith; to Benedict of Nursia and to Francis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.