«At last, a history of Livorno from its origins to the present day, up-to-date albeit brief. Required reading for anyone in Tuscany who looks at much older cities with a far richer artistic heritage (Pisa, Lucca, Florence) and thinks Livorno lacks a history that deserves to be known and remembered. Livorno's origins are medieval; between the 17th and 18th centuries it was the first, and then the second port by volume of traffic on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, and its status as a free port, granted in 1676 by Pope Cosimo III, was imitated by other Italian and European ports. The tolerance enjoyed by non-Catholic communities was known throughout Europe and aroused the admiration of the most progressive intellectuals even before receiving the acclaim of the Lumières. In this climate, in the second half of the 18th century, the Livorno publishing house printed the third edition of Beccaria's great work, the Encyclopédie, and other enlightened avant-garde works, repudiated by the indefatigable defenders of tradition. In 1849 Livorno was one of the few Italian cities where democratic ideas enjoyed mass consensus, and one of the very few that attempted armed resistance against the Austrian Empire. Certainly there are many aspects still to be clarified: a description of the social structure which, in the modern age, cannot be reduced to the often dialectical presence of foreigners and Tuscans, Catholics and non-Catholics; the role of fascism in shaping society and economic development; the importance of the free port in the politics of the great Mediterranean powers; the lively activity of cultural academies and theatres: the list could go on. This is not a criticism of the authors who, given the limited space and partial study material available, have done an excellent job. I say this in the hope that a broad and comprehensive history of Livorno can be produced as soon as possible, so that the city's identity can be examined in more detail, partly through new research methods.» (Furio Diaz)