Mazsitii : Scritti Editi e Inediti 643 Scritti Editi e Inediti. Di Giuseppe jMazzixi. Edizione Nazion- ale. 'olume I. ( Imola : Cooperativa Editrice B. Galeatti. 1906. Pp. xxxiii, 414.) No other Italian of the nineteenth century has exerted so wide an influence upon his country through his writings as Joseph Mazzini, apostle of freedom and of national unity. His eloquent appeals in the name of patriotism and the religion of duty served more potently than any other force to rouse his countrymen to the repeated acts of heroism and sacrifice from which was born the modern spirit of Italian nation- ality ; while his masterly direction of intricate and tireless conspiracy against oppression was a primary factor in the expulsion of the foreigner and the despot, and in the consummation of Italian unity. It will not therefore be an exaggeration to characterize in anticipation the publica- tion of which the first volume is noted above as the most important single source for the history of Italy during the period of its awakening. Two important editions of Mazzini's collected works already exist. The first, Scritti Lettcrari di un Italiano Vivente, appeared anonymously in three volumes at Lugano in 1847. The second, Scritti Editi e Inediti, which was commenced under Mazzini's own direction in 1861, and was continued first under that of Safifi, then under that of a private Maz- zinian commission, covered a period of forty-three years in its publica- tion, and comprises twenty volumes. The last two volumes alone of this edition contain letters, and these come down only to 1837, a mere fragment of Mazzini's vast correspondence, which in its entirety will constitute a chronicle of over forty years of European conspiracy and revolutionary agitation. Other separate and equally fragmentary vol- umes of his letters have been published at different times by Countess d'Agoult, Cagnacci, Diamilla Muller, Giannelli, Giuriati, Melegari, Mez- zatinti, and Ordono De Resales. All of the material of these editions, together with a mass of impor- tant uncollected writings and a great quantity of unpublished corre- spondence, will be contained in the new national edition, which is de- signed to be complete. It will comprise not less than sixty volumes, of which five will contain literary essays and book-reviews, twenty-five political essays, and thirty correspondence. A commission of ten, ap- pointed by royal decree, has charge of the editing, under the presidency of the minister of public instruction. It is intended to publish four volumes each year, ordering the material chronologically. Mazzini's first published writings were literary, and none of his letters prior to 1831 are known. The first volume therefore contains literary essays and notices. It may be observed, however, that in Mazzini's mind from the first, political and patriotic motives maintained a constant and pre- dominating ascendancy, and even his literary writings have a strong political flavor; classification is not always easy; in fact there are in- cluded in the present volume two writings which Mazzini himself classed in 1861 as political: Pensieri: Ai Poeti del Sccolo XIX.; and Rome
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