Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... King Humbert on the Quirinal, the "king elect" of one Italy, free and independent, is more dreaded by the unkinged pope in the Vatican, than the spectre of Giordano Bruno haunting the Field of Flowers. From the breach of Porta Pia was hurled the thunderbolt that for ever felled the temporal power; from the field where Bruno's monument will soon arise* already floats the banner on which is inscribed, "Free thought and secular schools." f * The erection of this monument is but a question of time; the money is subscribed by Italians of all provinces, and the life-size figure of Bruno is already modelled by the great sculptor and patriot, Hector Ferrari. All that is now wanting is the sanction of the Eoman municipality, from which body at the last elections the Eomans eliminated the champions of Papa Pecci, substituting Italian lovers of an Italian Eome. Once the few metres of ground, municipal property, conceded,1 the monument of the monk of Nola will arise on the spot where he suffered martyrdom. Thence, his daring brow and piercing eyes gleaming from his monkish cowl, he may watch the jubilees of the nineteenth century, compare to-day's motley crew with the jubilant pilgrims who gloated over his death-agony on February 17, 1600. He may watch also the 20th of September processions, lowering their colours as they pass him; and, hearing the cry of "Viva Giordano Bruno!" mingle (as it now invariably does in Eome) with the "Viva lTtalia!" "Viva Mazzini!" "Viva Garibaldi!" "Viva the king elect!" may answer with that jovial, whimsical laugh of his, "Evviva, my brave disciples, my well-beloved sous; you are convinced now that the universe has no walls at all save the immaginata circonferenza which surrounds the imaginary prisoner in the Vatican?..".
