On the History of Italy from Its Origins to Our Times: A Summary. Vol. 2

Balbo, Cesare, conte, 1789-1853Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
641K words
Chapters
65

Tags

Foreign Language Books World History Historical ReappraisalAcademic StudyIntellectual CommentaryNational NarrativeItalian History

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Della storia d'Italia dalle origini fino ai nostri giorni, sommario. v. 2 by BalboAuthor: Balbo, Cesare, conte, 1789-1853,Language: Italian, Class: DG: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Italy, Vatican City, Malta, Release Date: Nov 28, 2014

Editor's review

This is the second volume of Cesare Balbo's Summary of the History of Italy, written in Italian, narrating from the origins down to the author's own time as a general historical overview. Balbo was a nineteenth-century Italian historian and political figure, and his account bears the distinct imprint of his era and of the ideological background of the Risorgimento; the book can therefore serve both as an introduction to the broad contours of Italian history and as a sample of nineteenth-century Italian historical thought. It is best read alongside more modern general histories, noting how the author selects his material and judges key events, so as to distinguish factual narrative from value judgment. For readers of Italian, it is also suitable material for practising the reading of historical texts and building a vocabulary of proper names, though it should not be the only reference.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read Volume One or the table of contents first to establish the timeline, then proceed to the chapters of this volume.
  2. Keep a modern chronology of Italian history at hand to check events and dates as you read.
  3. Mark evaluative passages to distinguish factual statements from the author's stance.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65

FAQ

Is this book in Italian or English? The original text is in Italian, by Cesare Balbo. Readers need a reasonable reading knowledge of Italian, especially the ability to follow long sentences in historical narrative. If your Italian is limited, begin with a translation or bilingual materials to grasp the overall framework.
Can Volume Two be read on its own? Yes, but since it continues a general summary, starting directly with Volume Two may leave you without the earlier groundwork. It is advisable to skim Volume One or the full table of contents first to grasp the timeline and the starting point of the narrative; the volume will then read more coherently.
Is the historical narrative in this book reliable? Balbo was a nineteenth-century historian, and his work reflects the source conditions and intellectual stance of his time; it should not be equated with modern scholarship. It is better suited to understanding the basic contours of Italian history and nineteenth-century historiography, and specific facts should be checked against modern general histories.

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About the author

Balbo, Cesare, conte, 1789-1853 Author

Cesare Balbo (1789–1853) was an Italian writer and historian, author of the two-volume Della storia d'Italia dalle origini fino ai nostri giorni, sommario (A Summary of Italian History from Its Origins to Our Own Times). The work presents a concise outline of Italian history from antiquity to the modern era, arranged chronologically and focused on political and national developments, so that readers may quickly grasp the overall course of events. Balbo's writing is characterized by its summarizing approach, aiming to give Italian readers a clear and orderly account of their national history. Because public information is limited, details of his life and specific positions are not set out here; the two volumes held in the collection show that his work occupies a place in the tradition of Italian historical writing and offers some reference value for later understanding of how Italian history has been narrated.