- 265 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In the 1540s, Italian princes, lords and cardinals wrote to each other using a secret, highly imaginative language. They were waiting for Emperor Charles V to descend on Italy to cut the papacy and Papal States down to size once and for all. Their letters, which have never before been used by historians, were not literary fantasies; behind the fictitious names, metaphors and the ferocious satire against Pope Paul III, there were weapons, money and power. For years, against the background of the battle between the two giants – the pope and the emperor – the courts of Mantua, Florence, Milan and Ferrara pursued a grand plan of containing the pope's power by allying with men of Charles V.This history of Italy differs greatly from the one we are usually taught. The epoch-making conflict between the 'Italy of the Emperor' and the 'Italy of the Pope' was not merely political: it was mixed with religious problems, it developed in the sphere of communication, and it left traces in Italian cultural life, on the frescoed walls of palaces and in the pages of books. But the daring project drawn up by the Italian princes in the shade of the imperial eagle failed, and failed forever, as the Counter-Reformation advanced and the sun began to set on the Europe of Charles V.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Series page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface to the English Edition
- Introduction
- 1. The Cardinal of Ravenna, Benedetto Accolti (1497-1549)
- 2. The Downfall of the Cardinal of Ravenna (1535)
- 3. The 1530s and Exile in the Court of Ferrara
- 4. From Diego Hurtado de Mendoza’s Venice (1541)to Cosimo de’ Medici’s court (1543)
- 5. From Italian Intrigues to the Imperial Court
- 6. Italian Wars and Plans to Invade the Papal States
- 7. Italian Elites between the Pope and the Emperor
- 8. Ercole Gonzaga
- 9. “Todos los tumultos de Italia”
- 10. The Italy of the Emperor
- 11. Writing as a Weapon
- 12. The Conclave of 1549
- Index of Names