In Our Time: History
BBC Radio 4
Radio: BBC Radio Cymru 2
Categories: Education
Listen to the last episode:
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous assault of an army of the Holy Roman Emperor on the city of Rome in 1527. The troops soon broke through the walls of this holy city and, with their leader shot dead early on, they brought death and destruction to the city on an epic scale. Later writers compared it to the fall of Carthage or Jerusalem and soon the mass murder, torture, rape and looting were followed by disease which was worsened by starvation and opened graves. It has been called the end of the High Renaissance, a conflict between north and south, between Lutherans and Catholics, and a fulfilment of prophecy of divine vengeance and, perhaps more persuasively, a consequence of military leaders not feeding or paying their soldiers other than by looting.
With
Stephen Bowd Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh
Jessica Goethals Associate Professor of Italian at the University of Alabama
And
Catherine Fletcher Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Stephen Bowd, Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars (Oxford University Press, 2018)
Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography (Penguin Classics, 1999)
Benvenuto Cellini (trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella), My Life (Oxford University Press, 2009)
André Chastel (trans. Beth Archer), The Sack of Rome 1527 (Princeton University Press, 1983
Catherine Fletcher, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance (Bodley Head, 2020)
Kenneth Gouwens and Sheryl E. Reiss (eds), The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture (Routledge, 2005)
Francesco Guicciardini (trans. Sidney Alexander), The History of Italy (first published 1561; Princeton University Press, 2020)
Luigi Guicciardini (trans. James H. McGregor), The Sack of Rome (first published 1537; Italica Press, 2008)
Judith Hook, The Sack of Rome (2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019)
Previous episodes
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400 - The Sack of Rome 1527 Thu, 21 Mar 2024
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399 - The Hanseatic League Thu, 29 Feb 2024
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398 - Nefertiti Thu, 15 Feb 2024
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397 - Tiberius Thu, 11 Jan 2024
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396 - Marguerite de Navarre Thu, 21 Dec 2023
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395 - Solon the Lawgiver Thu, 20 Apr 2023
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347 - The Theory of the Leisure Class Thu, 14 Dec 2023
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346 - The Barbary Corsairs Thu, 07 Dec 2023
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345 - The Federalist Papers Thu, 09 Nov 2023
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344 - The Economic Consequences of the Peace Thu, 26 Oct 2023
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343 - Louis XIV: The Sun King Thu, 22 Jun 2023
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342 - The Shimabara Rebellion Thu, 08 Jun 2023
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341 - The Battle of Crécy Thu, 11 May 2023
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340 - Cnut Thu, 04 May 2023
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339 - Mercantilism Thu, 13 Apr 2023
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338 - Megaliths Thu, 30 Mar 2023
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337 - Chartism Thu, 09 Mar 2023
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336 - Tycho Brahe Thu, 02 Mar 2023
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335 - The Great Stink Thu, 26 Jan 2023
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334 - The Irish Rebellion of 1798 Thu, 05 Jan 2023
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333 - Demosthenes' Philippics Thu, 15 Dec 2022
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332 - The Morant Bay Rebellion Thu, 01 Dec 2022
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331 - The Knights Templar Thu, 03 Nov 2022
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330 - Angkor Wat Thu, 21 Jul 2022
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329 - Comenius Thu, 16 Jun 2022
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328 - The Davidian Revolution Thu, 02 Jun 2022
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327 - Olympe de Gouges Thu, 19 May 2022
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326 - Homo erectus Thu, 12 May 2022
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325 - The Arthashastra Thu, 31 Mar 2022
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324 - In Our Time is now first on BBC Sounds Fri, 04 Mar 2022
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323 - Peter Kropotkin Thu, 24 Feb 2022
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322 - The Temperance Movement Thu, 03 Feb 2022
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321 - The Gold Standard Thu, 20 Jan 2022
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320 - The Hittites Thu, 23 Dec 2021
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319 - The May Fourth Movement Thu, 09 Dec 2021
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318 - The Battle of Trafalgar Thu, 02 Dec 2021
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317 - The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Thu, 14 Oct 2021
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316 - The Manhattan Project Thu, 07 Oct 2021
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315 - Herodotus Thu, 23 Sep 2021
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314 - Edward Gibbon Thu, 17 Jun 2021
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313 - Booth's Life and Labour Survey Thu, 10 Jun 2021
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312 - The Interregnum Thu, 27 May 2021
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311 - The Second Barons' War Thu, 06 May 2021
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310 - Ovid Thu, 29 Apr 2021
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309 - The Franco-American Alliance 1778 Thu, 22 Apr 2021
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308 - Pierre-Simon Laplace Thu, 08 Apr 2021
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307 - The Russo-Japanese War Thu, 01 Apr 2021
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306 - David Ricardo Thu, 25 Mar 2021
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305 - Marcus Aurelius Thu, 25 Feb 2021
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304 - The Plague of Justinian Thu, 21 Jan 2021