ABSTRACT
William Roscoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo X, the sequel to that enlightened businessman's hugely successful Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, was first published at Liverpool in four volumes in 1805. This chapter discusses the work's gestation and reception and correspondence relating to it, making particular use of the Roscoe papers in the Liverpool Record Office. As a Unitarian, Roscoe might have felt relatively detached about the clash between Leo X and Luther. The earliest letter from Angelo Fabroni to Roscoe is dated 31 March 1800. Roscoe included it in a volume published in 1822 which was in effect a supplement to his Life of Lorenzo. In the anonymous critique of the book published in The Edinburgh Review in January 18067 it was pointed out that 'after the first chapter', 'the early life of Leo X is lost and almost forgotten in the general history of the times', including the French invasion of Italy and the subsequent wars.
