Remembering the Renaissance: Humanist Narratives of the Sack of Rome

Abstract

An assessment of how four humanists at the court of Pope Clement VII - Pietro Alcionio, Pietro Corsi, Jacopo Sadoleto, and Pierio Valeriano - interpreted the cataclysmic Sack of Rome (1527), which called into question their earlier images of the Renaissance papacy. Building upon recent discussions in literary criticism and cognitive psychology, the author elucidates how these humanists' narratives gave meaningful shape to their memories and, in so doing, helped to redefine the image of Renaissance Rome as it would be "remembered" by subsequent generations. The sack of Rome and the theme of cultural discontinuity -- Pietro Alcionio's orations on the sack of Rome -- Pietro Corsi's perpetuation of curialist ideology -- Renegotiation and remembrance: Jacopo Sadoleto's letters to curial friends, 1527-1529 -- The Italian humanism of Pierio Valeriano -- Traumatic memory into history: the cultural significance of humanists' narratives of the sack of Rome.