liberty of his country in 1531. It was not
published till fifty years after his death; even then the editors
suppressed many passages which are found in manuscript in the libraries
of Florence and Venice, with other historical documents of this noble
and patriotic historian.

About the same time the senator Philip Nerli was writing his
"_Commentarj de' fatti civili_," which had occurred in Florence. He gave
them with his dying hand to his nephew, who presented the MSS. to the
Grand Duke; yet, although this work is rather an apology than a
crimination of the Medici family for their ambitious views and their
overgrown power, probably some state-reason interfered to prevent the
publication, which did not take place till 150 years after the death of
the historian!

Bernardo Segni composed a history of Florence still more valuable, which
shared the same fate as that of Nerli. It was only after his death that
his relatives accidentally discovered this history of Florence, which
the author had carefully concealed during his lifetime. He had abstained
from communicating to any one the existence of such a work while he
lived, that he might not be induced to check the freedom of his pen, nor
compromise the cause and the interests of truth. His heirs presented it
to one of the Medici family, who threw it aside. Another copy had been
more carefully preserved, from which it was printed in 1713, about 150
years after it had been written. It appears to have excited great
curiosity, for Lenglet du Fresnoy observes that the scarcity of this
history is owing to the circumstance "of the Grand Duke having bought up
the copies." Du Fresnoy, indeed, has noticed more than once this sort of
address of the Grand Duke; for he observes on the Florentine history of
Bruto that the work was not common, the Grand Duke having bought up the
copies to suppress them. The author was even obliged to fly from Italy
for having delivered his opinions too freely on the house of the Medici.
This honest historian thus expresses himself at the close of his
work:--"My design has but one end--that our posterity may learn by these
notices the root and the causes of so many troubles which we have
suffered, while they expose the malignity of those men who have raised
them up or prolonged them, as well as the goodness of those who did all
which they could to turn them away."

It was the same motive, the fear of offending the great personages or
their families, of w