VI
PREFACE.
Some slight transposition has been made in the chapters, in order to improve the connection between the subjects which they treat. The orthography of the manuscript has been kept, except in a few well known names: hence the proper names are to be read as in Italian.
It cannot be necessary to enumerate the difficulties experienced in conducting a large English work through a foreign press. Independently of the great labour of correction, it required some courage to think of imitating the beauty of typography which distinguishes the works printed by the parent committee in London. We flatter ourselves that we have done as much as circumstances would allow us, and that our present attempt will be indulgently received, as an earnest of our desire to forward the useful and noble objects of the Fund.
N. WISEMAN.
Rome 1 June, 1835 .