Note 453 — Front matter (continued 15)

When, in 1860, writing Italy in Transition, I read, on the recommendation of an Italian gentleman, a book by a well-known writer professing to describe the interior life of the Vatican; but found it too low to allow me even to allude to it, much less to quote it. What was my surprise when, a year or so later, appeared the work of Liverani, to find this very book—which even now I do not care to name—cited with that of About and of others, as a work the substantial accuracy of which the learned Domestic Prelate and Protonotary of the Holy See could not deny.