Italy and the Myth of Rome (Part I: Term 1, Weeks 1-7)
Tutor: Maude Vanhaelen (M.Vanhaelen@warwick.ac.uk)
Please note: all compulsory reading material available in Library or PDF files (no need to
purchase anything!)
Week 1: No lecture (Induction Week)
Week 2: Rome: Saint or Whore?
This session explores the double image of Rome. Rome is seen as a corrupt, pagan city, the
place where the first Christians were persecuted. As such it is often portrayed as a ‘prostitute’,
and compared with Babylon, the city of all vices. But Rome is also celebrated as the ‘new
Jerusalem’, the craddle of Christianity and the privileged seat of the Church.
Set Texts: Dante, Inferno I, 70-72; II, 16-24; XIX, 69-78 and 82-87 and 106-117. Purgatorio
XVI, 106-114. Paradisio IX, 127-142; XXVII, 40-66
In these texts, Dante portays Rome as both the seat of the Roman Empire (founded by Aeneas)
and the seat of the Church (as founded by St Peter). But he also criticises the corruption of
Papal Rome, described as a ‘prostitute’ or a wife that has been betrayed by her husband (the
Pope).
Context:
The Goddess Rome; Roman Empire; the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to
Christianity and the end of paganism; first sack of Rome (410); translatio imperii; Dante; use
of ancient Rome in fascist Italy
Week 3: Celebrating Rome
The session concerns Francesco Petrarca, who is considered the first ‘humanist’. In his work he
writes about his wandering in Rome among the ancients ruins and celebrates Rome as the place
where the restoration of the ancient Republic can take place thanks to the reform of Cola di
Rienzo.
Set Texts:
Petrarch, Familiares 6.2
Anonymous, Chronicle: ‘The Life of Cola di Rienzo’ I, 1-6
Context:
Schism and the temporary move of Papacy to Avignon; translatio studii; humanism; Petrarch,
Cola di Rienzo, Risorgimento
Week 4: Preserving Rome
This session examines how Renaissance people envisaged their relation towards the ancient
ruins of Rome, which were crumbling apart or being reused to build other monuments. In On
the Inconstancy of Fortune, Poggio Bracciolini mourns the ancient splendor of Rome and its
present state of decay, which he sees as evidence of the cruelty of Fate. In a letter to Pope Leo
X, written around 1519 by the artist Raphael and the humanist Castiglione, one can see the
emergence of Renaissance interest for ancient monuments and the first attempts to preserve
these symbols of Antiquity.
Set Texts:
Poggio Bracciolini, The Ruins of Rome (De varietate fortunae, 1448) and Castiglione, Letter
to Pope Leo X
Context:
Papal Court and Patronage, Renaissance Art and Architecture, antiquarianism, archaeology
Week 5: Destroying Rome: The Sack of Rome (1527) and Reformation
This session focuses on the reactions to the Sack of Rome when Rome was brutally destroyed
and pillaged by the armies of Charles V, a traumatic episode that triggered historians and poets
to reflect on Rome’s glorious past and mourn its present state of destruction. Rome was no
longer the centre of world. The session will also cover the image of Rome in Protestantism,
where the personification of Rome as a prositute is used again to represent the corruption of the
Papal Court and call for a Reformed Church.
Set Texts:
Luigi Guicciardini, The Sack of Rome (excerpts: Dedication Letter. Book I: Prologue. Book II:
pp. 84-100)
Jacopo Sadoleto, Letter to Angelo Colocci
Context: Wars of Italy, Sack of Rome, Papal Court, Ciceronianism, Rise of Protestantism and
Counter-Reformation
Week 6: No lecture (Reading Week)
Week 7: Reconstructing/Reinventing Rome: The Pantheon and the Laocoon
The session examines what happened when people discovered by chance new pieces of art
from Antiquity or sought to emulate existing architectural wonders. The discovery of the
famous baroque statue of the prophet Laocoon being eaten alive by two snakes triggered a
competition between prominent artists, who sought to reconstruct its missing piece. The
emulation of the ancient Pantheon and its cupola led many architects to imitate and parody the
cupola in Baroque churches.
Set Text: Jacopo Sadoleto, Laocoon
Context: Renaissance Imitation and Parody of Antiquity, Neo-Latin Poetry, Discovery of
Laocoon, Pantheon, Baroque Art
Select Bibliography:
Entries ‘Rome’, ‘Laocoon’, ‘Pantheon’ in Anthony Grafton et al. (eds), The Classical
Tradition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010)
John F. D’Amico, Renaissance Humanism in Papal Rome: Humanists and Churchmen on the
Eve of Reformation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1983)
Chiara Cassini, Roma tra fabula e historia. Parole e immagini alla vigilia della Riforma
(Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 2008)
Alessandro Ghisalberti, ‘Roma antica nel pensiero politico da Tommaso d’Aquino a Dante’, in
Roma antica nel Medioevo. Mito, rappresentazioni, soppravvivenze nella ‘Respublica
Christiana’ dei secoli IX-XIII (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2001), pp. 347-364.
Kenneth Gouwens, Remembering the Renaissance. Humanist Narratives of the Sack of Rome
(Leiden: Brill, 1998)
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: the Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900
(New Haven-London, 1981)
David E. Karmon, The Ruin of the Eternal City. Antiquity and Preservation in Renaissance
Rome (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011): ‘The Pantheon’
Francesco Lucioli, Jacopo Sadoleto Umanista e Poeta (Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 2014)
Ronald G. Musto, Apocalypse in Rome: Cola di Rienzo and the Politics and the New Age
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
Alina Payne et al. (eds.), Antiquity and Its Interpreters (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press), 2000: ‘Petrarch and the Broken City’; ‘Symmetry and Eurythmy at the Pantheon’;
‘Pliny’s Laocoon?’
Charles Stinger, The Renaissance in Rome (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985)