The Sack of Rome

by Luigi Guicciardini, James H. McGregor (Translator)

On May 5, 1527 Spanish, German, and Italian troops under the banner of the Holy Roman Emperor swarmed into Rome. Until December, when they were finally dispersed by plague, these troops plundered, tortured, raped, and murdered in the defenseless capital of Christendom. "The sack of Rome in 1527 was an event of tragic and decisive importance. It brought the Renaissance, the greatest period in Italian history, to its sudden and catastrophic end. We are fortunate to possess many eyewitness accounts of this extraordinary event. Only one contemporary account, however, offers an overview of the political and military situation in Italy that culminated in the sack of Rome. That account is here translated for the first time." (Introduction) Illustrated, maps, introduction, glossary, afterword, bibliography. 2nd printing.

Genres: History, Italy

198 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 1993

Reviews

[Mehmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5-An excellent monograph! What we have here is a contemporary history of the war of the league of cognac written by a higher-up in the Florentine political establishment, Luigi Guicciardini (older brother of the much better known Francesco). I prefer Luigi’s account to Francesco’s magisterial History of Italy, not due to any difference in authorial skill, but due to the difference in their format. What we have here is more Sallust than Livy.

The “character work” as such is beautifully and carefully handled. In the Duke of Bourbon we have a tragic villain and exile unleashing horrific forces on a foreign land barely in control of his army and himself barely under the control of the Emperor he serves. His ecclectic army, wildly careening across the peninsula bringing unspeakable horror is at odds with command, enemy, civilian and itself. They are opposed by the League of Cognac, which Luigi was a part of, which is depicted as a complete failure of vision, drive and focus. They are every group project you ever were a part of. Pope Clement, the great pathetic figure of the work is barely in control of anything and is utterly useless, surrounded by detested and overfed cardinals and retainers. We have Giovanni delle Bande Nere, the father of the dedicatee and a military hero which commands strict loyalty from his mercenaries, who forms the one energic force on the Cognac side that is sniped to death as the plot starts to crumble. There are the French, who are completely useless, and the Duke of Milan, who is starving to death in his castle because of his useless allies. The Florentines want independence from the Medici regime in the worst time and are themselves selfish allies, with Gucciardini and his brother skillfully hiding the fact that they probably had a massive role in causing the central sack with their own conduct as well. And finally, we have the true punching bag of the work, the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria, a useless, tyranical, self-aggrandizing and cunning bastard who is the worst teammate one can ask for with his endless grudges and shifty Venetians, doing more to doom his own League than perhaps even the Emperor as far as Guicciardini is concerned.

This history, going moment by moment as the crowning horror of the Sack approaches, is worth reading even if one is completely uninterested in the era or what it recounts (major bonus if they are though!) as a well written monograph on a failed alliance and the horrors of what incompetent goverment leads to. The introduction and the afterword were excellent and I greatly enjoyed them, the introduction especially is essential to fully understand why the central conflict comes to be and does that job quite well.

[Noah Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perceptive and short analysis of the 1527 Sack of Rome by a contemporary. Guicciardini’s writing demonstrations the clear influence of Italian republicanism, broadly, and the strain of Italian republicanism proffered by Machiavelli and accepted by Guicciardini’s brother, Francesco. Moreover, like Machiavelli, Luigi demonstrates a clear desire for Church reform that returns to the church to what may be called its earlier “ecclesiastical constitution” of the Apostolic age. Notwithstanding Machiavellian influence, Luigi’s Catholicism is more genuine and there are some instances where he offers arguments that would be more readily received by Catholic anti-Machiavellians such as Giovanni Botero. All around good read and important for students of history, political thought, and ecclesiology.

[David Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting contemporary account of the build up of the war between Charles V and the Papal States, Venice, Florence, and France. Discusses Florence and its fears and defense of their city that led the Duke of Bourbon to head to Rome. Tells of the sack of Rome. Interestingly he shows differences between the German soldiers and the Spanish troops ( they being both part of the forces of Charles' empire). He tells us of a lot of the degradations of the rape of Rome, without being grotesque.