When he died in 1794 he left behind the unfinished drafts of his Memoirs, which were posthumously edited by his friend Lord Sheffield, and remain an astonishing portrait of a rich, full life. Recounting Gibbon's sickly childhood in London, his disappointment with an Oxford steeped in 'port and prejudice', his successful years in Lausanne, his first and only love affair and the monolithic achievement of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, he distils his genius for history into a remarkable gift for autobiography. Candid and detailed, these writings are filled with warmth and intellectual passion.

    Excerpt from The Life of Lorenzo De Medici, Called the MagnificentAmongst the numerous distinguished critics who'agree with this 'udgment the following may be recorded z - Pietro Bembo in his rose hum-m Castiglione (in his Cortigiano) Paullo Giovio (in his ogia Clnrorum Virorum) Giovanni Vitale of Palermo, and Pietro Mirteo of Udine (in their Latin poems); Benedetto Vat-chi, Guicciardini, Giam matteo Toscano of Milan, (in a letter to Catherine of Medici, preceding Ilia Carmina Illustrium l'octarum) Michele l'occianti (catalogo do' Saittnri Fiorcnti); Crescimbcni, Quadrio, Muratori, and many others.