Even autobiography takes here and there
in Italy a bold and vigorous flight, and puts before us, together with
the most varied incidents of external life, striking revelations of the
inner man. Among other nations, even in Germany at the time of the
Reformation, it deals only with outward experiences, and leaves us to
guess at the spirit within from the style of the narrative. It seems as
though Dante's 'Vita Nuova,' with the inexorable truthfulness which
runs through it, had shown his people the way.
The beginnings of autobiography are to be traced in the family
histories of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which are said to
be not uncommon as manuscripts in the Florentine libraries--unaffected
narratives written for the sake of the individual or of his family,
like that of Buonaccorso Pitti.
A profound self-analysis is not to be looked for in the 'Commentaries'
of Pius II. What we here learn of him as a man seems at first sight to
be chiefly confined to the account which he gives of the various steps
in his career. But further reflection will lead us to a different
conclusion with regard to this remarkable book. There are men who are
by nature mirrors of what surrounds them. It would be irrelevant to ask
incessantly after their convictions, their spiritual struggles, their
inmost victories and achievements.
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