Renaissance Mass Murder explores the devastating impact of war on the men and women of the Renaissance. In contrast to the picture of balance and harmony usually associated with the Renaissance, it uncovers in forensic detail a world in which sacks of Italian cities and massacres of civilians at the hands of French, German, Spanish, Swiss, and Italian troops were regular occurrences.
The arguments presented are based on a wealth of evidence - histories and chronicles, poetry and paintings, sculpture and other objects - which together provide a new and startling history of sixteenth-century Italy and a social history of the Italian Wars. It outlines how massacres happened, how princes, soldiers, lawyers, and writers justified and explained such events, and how they were represented in contemporary culture.
On this basis, Renaissance Mass Murder reconstructs the terrifying individual experiences of civilians in the face of war and in doing so offers a story of human tragedy which redresses the balance of the history of the Italian Wars, and of Renaissance warfare, in favour of the civilian and away from the din of battle. This volume also places mass murder in a broader historical context and challenges claims that such violence was unusual or in decline in early modern Europe. Finally, it shows that women often suffered disproportionately from this violence and that immunity for them, as for their children, was often partially developed or poorly respected.
Author(s): Stephen D. Bowd
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 302
City: New York
Cover
Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures, Map, and Table
List of Abbreviations
PART I: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Introduction
MASS MURDER DURING THE ITALIAN WARS
1494 AND ALL THAT
THE NATURE OF WAR AND VIOLENCE
PROSPECT AND REFUGE
1: A Brief History of the Italian Wars
A FRENCH FANTASY (1494–1495)
THE DANCE OF THE CHIRINTANA (1496–1503)
PROUD AND BEASTLY BARBARIANS (1508–1519)
OH, ITALY! (1521–1529)
PART II: WAR AND MASS MURDER: PRACTICES
2: Why Mass Murder Happened
FURY AND CALCULATION
THE STRATEGY OF TERROR
THE TACTICS OF NEGOTIATION
REVENGE AND PUNISHMENT
PLUNDER
NATIONAL OR ETHNIC IDENTITIES
3: The Experiences of Civilians
PREPARATION, OCCUPATION, AND RESISTANCE
DYING AND SURVIVING
RECONSTRUCTION
THE ROLE OF WOMEN
PART III: WAR AND MASS MURDER: THEORIES
4: Civilians and Theories of War
WHO WERE THE CIVILIANS?
CIVILIANS IN JUST WAR THEORY
CHIVALRY AND THE LAWS OF WAR
MILITARY HUMANISM
CHALLENGES TO JUST WAR THEORY
5: The Machiavellian Massacre
THE SACK OF PRATO (1512)
THE PROBLEM OF PEACE
THE ROLE OF RELIGION
THE NECESSITY OF WAR
CRUELTY USED WELL OR BADLY
GOOD LAWS AND GOOD ARMS
PART IV: WAR AND MASS MURDER: REPRESENTATIONS
6: Remembering and Representing the Massacre
RHETORIC AND VIOLENCE
TRAUMA, SILENCE, AND THE PASSIONS
DEHUMANIZATION AND OBJECTIFICATION
MARTYRDOM
7: ‘With Pain/Pen’: The Poetic Massacre
BARBARIAN ATROCITIES
PROVIDENCE AND NATURE
THE FRENCH HOLY MISSION
ITALIAN WEAKNESS AND PAST GLORY
CIVILIANS
Conclusion
THE IMPACT OF THE ITALIAN WARS
TOTAL WAR, GENOCIDE, AND WAR CRIMES
THE DECLINE OF THE MASSACRE?
Bibliography
MANUSCRIPTS
PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES
PRINTED SECONDARY SOURCES
Index
