Rare, 1860, Franco Mistrali, Fra Hieronimo Savonarola, Monaco e Papa, First Edition, 4 Vol. in 1

Published by Francesco Pagnoni, Milan in 1860

Contemporary Half Leather Binding with signs of age and use

1st rare Edition

8vo, 15.3 cm x 9.5 cm

158 + 158 + 149 + 166 pages

Including 3 Lithographs

Luigi Francesco Corrado Mistrali, better known as Franco Mistrali (1833 – 1880), was an Italian journalist, novelist and historian. A former officer in the Austrian navy, he was the author of numerous historical and popular novels, published in particular between 1860 and 1865. Son of Giangiacomo Mistrali and nephew of the famous Baron Vincenzo Mistrali, Franco Mistrali made his mark on the chronicles of the period immediately following the Unification for three significant events, unrelated but at the same time emblematic of his complex figure. The first significant fact, as a delegate of workers’ associations and a convinced Garibaldian and revolutionary, can be found in the organization of the famous trip to Caprera, to meet Garibaldi, whom Mistrali himself interviewed to write his biography. The second event is the publication of the volume Vita di Gesù, dedicated to the French philologist and historian of religions Ernest Renan (himself the author of a famous work with the same title, which was placed on the Index by the Catholic Church in March 1863. The third significant fact of his biography is connected to the publication of a volume on vampires which, published almost thirty years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is considered the first Italian novel on the “lords of the night”. Here, taking up one of his first writings of the Gothic genre, Mistrali narrates the story of a secret sect that practices, precisely, the cult of blood.

Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor. In September 1494, when King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, Savonarola’s prophecies seemed on the verge of fulfillment. While the friar intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medicis and, at Savonarola’s urging, established a “well received” republic, effectively under Savonarola’s control. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity and “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”,[9] he instituted an extreme moralistic campaign, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth. In 1495, when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed, and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, Pope Alexander excommunicated Savonarola in May 1497 and threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hung, and burned the bodies of the three friars in the main square of Florence.