STURZO, Luigi. Italy and Fascismo. Trans. from the Italian by Barbara Barclay Carter. With a preface by Gilbert Murray. London: Faber and Gwyer. 1926. 8vo. First British edition, and first English language edition. Publisher’s olive cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, frontispiece of the author behind tissue guard. A very good copy. The corners very slightly pushed, one or two bumps to board edges, the binding tight and square, the boards clean. Some mild spots to textblock edges, some leaves uncut. Heavy spotting to endpapers and prelims, occasionally elsewhere and throughout but presentable overall and scarce.

Sturzo’s important anti-fascist work published while he was in exile. Sturzo was an Italian priest who, from a young age, found himself drawn to politics. He believed religion should not dictate politics, and founded the Italian People’s Party in 1919 as an alternative to fascism and socialism which, though Catholic at its core, was not necessarily indicative of its supporters. Apparently under pressure from the Vatican, he was forced into exile, first in a Roman monastery and later in London in 1924. In this period, he wrote hundreds of essays on anti-fascism and anti-nationalism, condemning Benito Mussolini and his ‘trampling on the rotten corpse of Liberty’. Scarce.