The Count of Virtue

First edition, first printing. 244pp. In blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on spine (spine a little sunned, minor bump on lower edge, cloth perhaps a tad faded). Internally neat, clean and bright. Firmly bound. In its original, faded and edge worn, dust jacket with remnant of previous price label and a few minor marks. Chamberlin paints a picture of Giangaleazzo Vicscounti, who during his lifetime increased the power of Milan until it dominated fourteenth century Northern Italy. One of the most criminal men of history, avaricious, adulterous, delighting in luxury, his political immortality was a matter of common knowledge but he was also a man of great intellectual gifts and a brilliant administrator and a shrewd rules. Fascinating. 8vo.