“You should not be afraid of someone who has a library and reads many books; you should fear someone who has only one book; and he considers it sacred; but he has never read it.”

• Friedrich Nietzche

On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it, then collapsed to the ground.