An historical sketch of the Italian Vaudois:

Scarce. COPAC lists just 3 copies.

The Vaudois, more commonly known in English as the Waldensians, are a Christian ascetic movement, founded by a wealthy Merchant Peter Waldo of Lyon, who gave away his property around 1173, and preached poverty as the way to Heaven. By 1215 they were declared heretical by the Catholic Church, becoming part of the Calvinist movement in 1532. After centuries of persecution they acquired religious freedom in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1848 and the evangelical church spread throughout Italy, gaining converts by building schools in the poorer regions.