Liverani, Monsignor Francesco. La Dottrina Cattolica e la Rivoluzione Italica. Firenze: Felice Le Monnier, 1862. 1st. [1102]
Vellum spine & corners, green leather spine title label, marbled boards, 18.5 x 12 cm, 248 pp., top edge dyed red and has bled into the edge of the top margin of the pages, tight. Very good. Hardcover.
Francesco Liverani (1823-1894), once favored by the Vatican, but by 1861 in voluntary exile in Tuscany. His father was murdered by revolutionaries in Romagna when he was a boy, and the turbulent times in Italy - the power struggles between the Vatican and the Italian States - somewhat define the man. In this book he "hurled barbs sharp in his quiver against fanatical conservatism of the Jesuits, their sophistries, their intrigues for the need to define the dogma of papal temporal power...and also he denied the pope the right to issue canonical sanctions for political issues." - trans. from La Storia di Castel Bolognese, edited by Andrea Soglia.