Rienzi
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Rienzi. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
re-en'zee (1313-1354), an Italian patriot. His father was a tavern keeper, his mother a washerwoman. The assassination of his brother by a Roman noble, and the impossibility of bringing the murderer to punishment, is said to have fired Rienzi with the ambition of rescuing Rome from the misgovernment and tyranny of a dissolute nobility. He appears in some way to have received a liberal education, including grammar, rhetoric, and the classic poets. He made himself the advocate of orphans, widows, and the poor. The pope at this time resided at Avignon, France. Rienzi went thither in hope of receiving his assistance, or at least countenance, in renovating Rome. Here he formed a close friendship with the poet Petrarch. On his return to Rome, he succeeded in instituting a popular revolution. He surrounded himself with a bodyguard and drove the nobles from power. The people clothed him with the powers of a dictator. The favor of the populace is proverbially fickle. Although a man of integrity and an ardent advocate of popular liberty, there is no doubt that he became arbitrary and permitted himself to be surrounded with too much pomp and circumstance. A congress of 200 delegates assembled by him from all parts of Italy created alarm. The pope withdrew his moral support. Rienzi was driven from Rome after a tenure of power lasting only seven months. Three years later he endeavored to interest the powers of Europe in the affairs of Rome. He was summoned to Avignon and condemned to death by a papal court of inquiry. His life was spared at the entreaty of Petrarch. In the meantime, disorder at Rome became worse. Rienzi was sent with a representative of the pope to restore order. He entered Rome in a triumphal procession and was again received with acclamation by the populace. Again, as before, the nobles defied his government and shut themselves up in their castles. The people grumbled at the necessity for taxation. Rienzi became suspicious and severe. In two short months a riot broke out, a crowd drew him from the capitol, put him to death with indignity, and dragged his body through the streets. Bulwer-Lytton has followed the facts of his life with historical accuracy in his Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. See Rome
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
NICOLA GA- BRINI, a Roman patriot; born about 1310. He was of obscure but ing received an excellent education, which he improved by a strong will and vigorous his understanding, he was sent by fellow citizens to Clement VI., at Avignon, non, in NICOLA GABRINI RIENZI order to prevail on that pontiff to return to Rome. His eloquence pleased the Pope, though it did not persuade him; and Rienzi on his return formed the design of making himself master of Rome, with the title of tribune. Having gained a considerable number of partisans, he enthe people, tered the capitol, harangued ed and elevated the standard of liberty. He designed to unite the whole of Italy into one great republic, with Rome for its capital. For some time he was successful, his government was popular, and even Petrarch wrote in his favor, comparing him to Brutus. But at length a conspiracy was formed against him; and having lost the popular favor by his arrogance and tyranny, he was compelled to seek safety in flight, but was taken and cruelly put to death in 1354.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline both accounts give still holds: Cola di Rienzo seized power in Rome as "tribune" in May 1347, fell after seven months, returned in 1354 under papal authority and was lynched on the Capitol that October. What has shifted is the name and the framing — historians now write of Cola di Rienzo rather than "Rienzi," and they read him through his own surviving letters and the fourteenth-century Roman chronicle known as the Anonimo romano, which fills in the episode Aiton's 1910 account skips: that after his fall he went to the Emperor Charles IV in Prague in 1350 and was handed over to Avignon as a prisoner. Aiton's claim that Bulwer-Lytton's 1835 novel "followed the facts of his life with historical accuracy" would find no defenders now; nor would either entry's easy verdict of "arrogance and tyranny," since modern readers are more struck by how Italian nationalists, and later Mussolini, made a patriotic emblem of him. Neither entry mentions Wagner's early opera Rienzi (1842), the form in which most people now meet the name.
Written for this edition, 2026.