Andrea Costa (Imola 1851-1910) is the apostol of the italian socialism. As a follower of the theories of Bakunin, the russian, he caused the famous tear with the anarchists, and then, as a consequence of that tear, he was the first socialist elected at the Parliament, just ten years before the Socialist Party was founded. The book reports his connection with Anna Kuliscioff, Filippo Turati, Giosue Carducci and tells the struggles of Costa in the name of freedom and social justice. Great is the impression, still today, caused both by his words before the Court of Bologna, that charged him with the rising in 1874, and the speech he made in his Imola the night of the 31st December 1899, at the dawn of the new century, wishing prosperity with regards to "work, freedom, justice and peace".