'I am much interested by Pignotti's history, which [underlined] though I bought [end underlining], I am reading, and have got into the seventh volume. The squabbles and turbulence of the little Italian Republics, puts one in mind of the Greeks, where so much of the same spirit reigned. The gradual progress to celebrity of the Medici family keeps up ones attention, and the little that is interspersed concerning the other Italian rulers, the Visconti, the Gonzagni, the Sforza family, & the great Condottieri of the day, is all very entertaining'.