Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806

A well regarded poet and member of Elizabeth Montagu's Bluestocking Circle, Carter was also regarded as one of eighteenth-century Britain's leading female intellectuals for her translation, All the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant (1758), a milestone in the learned achievements of women. The first publication of her collected verse appeared as Poems upon Particular Occasions (1738). The subsequent Poems on Several Occasions came out in 1762 and was subsequently reprinted in an enlarged edition.

Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881

Carlyle's humorous, idiosyncratic Sartor Resartus (1836) presents spiritual and philosophical reflections in the form of a biography of the fictional professor Diogenes Teufelsdröckh. The French Revolution (1837) offered a dramatic reassessment of recent historical events that presented the revolution as an inevitable consequence of bad government. On Heroes, Hero-Worship & the Heroic in History (1841) argues that idolization of charismatic heroes is the foundation of all loyalties.

Capponi, Gino, 1792-1876

A wealthy Italian statesman, historian, Catholic liberal, and influential figure in the Italian Unification movement, Gino Capponi's salon in Florence was said to be a hub for leading European liberals. Capponi founded two periodicals, L'Antologia ("Anthology") and Archivio storico italiano ("Italian Historical Review"), as well as his 1875 masterpiece, Storia della repubblica di Firenze ("History of the Republic of Florence").