Excerpt from The Quarterly Review, Vol. 170: January and April, 1890 In some of the principal cities, such as Florence, Pisa, and Siena, the democracy had driven out the nobles and had established a republic or Commune. In others, such as Milan, Padua, and Verona, some member of a powerful family had usurped the supreme power, and governed despotically, usually meriting the title which he received of 'tyrant.' The Com munes existed chiefly in Central Italy the despots, such as the Visconti, the Carraresi, and the Scalas, ruled in the north. In the south the dominions of the Pope and the kingdom of Na les formed more extensive and permanent States. 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.