Note 294 — Front matter (continued 6)

F. Nitti, Leo X. e la sua politica (1892), seeks to defend Leo against the charge of excessive nepotism. He strains the evidence at times, and quite admits that duplicity was the essential feature of the Pope's policy. See also his Documenti ed osservazioni riguardanti la politica di Leone X. (1893). A biography of Leo was written by the contemporary Bishop of Nocera, Paolo Giovio, but this Vita Leonis X. is the work of a courtier. Guicciardini (Storia d'Italia), Sanuto (Diarii), and Bembo (Opere) are more critical, and the letters of the Roman ambassadors are valuable. P. de Grassis, Master of Ceremonies at the Papal Court under Julius and Leo, wrote a Diary of Leo X., but there seems to be some reluctance to publish it. The work published by Armellini (Il diario di Leone X., 1884) is merely a discreet compendium of it. Fabroni's Leonis X. Vita is too ancient (1797), and The Medici Popes (1908) by H.M. Vaughan, is an excellent popular work. Roscoe's stately Life and Pontificate of Leo X. (1805) is too flattering to its hero and is discredited in places by more recent research.