And if they had attempted any measure tending to this result, they would undoubtedly have been resisted by an alliance of the European powers.

What they sought, and what they gained, was preponderating influence in each of the parcels which they recognized as nominally independent.
The intellectual and social life of the Italians, though much reduced in vigor, was therefore still, as formerly, concentrated in cities marked by distinct local qualities, and boastful of their ancient glories.

The Courts of Ferrara and Urbino continued to form centers for literary and artistic coteries.

Venice remained the stronghold of mental unrestraint and moral license, where thinkers uttered their thoughts with tolerable freedom, and libertines indulged their tastes unhindered.

Rome early assumed novel airs of piety, and external conformity to austere patterns became the fashion here.