Giannone together with clerical intrigues, led to his expulsion from the Republic. Geneva On 23 September 1735 Giannone was seized and conveyed to Ferrara. He wandered under an assumed name for three months through Modena, Milan and Turin, he at last reached Geneva, where he enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished citizens, and was on excellent terms with the great publishing firms. But he was induced to visit a Catholic village within Sardinian territory, in order to hear mass on Easter day. Giannone was there kidnapped by the agents of the Sardinian government, conveyed to the castle of Miolans and transferred to Ceva and Turin. Turin In the fortress of Turin he remained imprisoned for the last twelve years of his life, although part of his time was spent in composing a defence of the Sardinian interests as opposed to those of the papacy. He was also forced to sign a retraction of statements in his books that were most obnoxious to the Vatican. After his recantation his detention was made less severe and he was allowed many alleviations. In spite of his stay in a Turin prison he endured the sufferings in the manner of a confessor and martyr in the cause of what he deemed historical truth. Style Giannone's style failed miserably to rise to the contemporary standards of literary style; he is often inaccurate as to the facts, for he very seldom made use of original documents (see A. Manzoni, Storia della colonna infame), and he was often guilty of unblushing plagiarism. But his staunch anticlericalism has helped to make his volumes more popular than many works of much greater value during the Age of Enlightenment. In England the appreciation of his labours by Edward Gibbon, and the ample use made of them in the later volumes of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, early secured him an undeserved place in the estimation of English scholars. Bibliography Istoria civile del regno di Napoli Volume 7, 1822 Nicolo Bettoni. Milan Volume 9, 1812 Capolago Cantone Ticino Tipografia Elvetica External links Istoria civile del regno di Napoli, Italia, 1821 Il Triregno, Italia, 1940 Vita scritta da lui medesimo, Italia, 1960 Pietro Giannone, Vita scritta da lui medesimo References 18th-century Italian historians People excommunicated by the Catholic Church 1676 births 1748 deaths Enlightenment philosophers