Gerard Noel
The Renaissance Poes
Statesmen, Warriors and the Borgia Myth
New York 2006
Stron IX+403, format: 16x24 cm
The Italian Renaissance pushed back the Dark Ages as it made way for the modern age. Between the years of 1447 (Nicholas V) and 1572 (Pius V) Rome was transformed from a ruined medieval city. The Vatican became the official home of the church and the world's largest bureaucracy, the spectacular new Basilica of Saint Peter took 100 years to build and Michelangelo changed the course of art history with his Sistine Chapel. So vast and expensive was this cultural explosion that a new fundraising initiative was launched: the sale of indulgences.
The Renaissance Popes were statesmen, warriors and patrons of the arts, as well as churchmen. These were earthly times and the reputations of popes like Alexander VI, the infamous Borgia patriarch, and Julius 'II Terribile' II for murder, poison, sodomy and simony vary only in degree. Meanwhile, the sin of heresy, which threatens the very core of the Catholic soul, was tirelessly targeted by two other lasting innovations of the period: the Inquisition and witch-hunts.
Alexander VI, father of the ruthless Cesare and jezebel Lucrezia, is seen to this day as the embodiment of this iniquity. But Gerard Noel shows this is injust, based on false confessions and unanswered historical myth. What's more, Alexander created the blueprint for reform — the first of its kind—that would eventually lead to the Counter-Reformation.
In his survey of the colourful reigns of these seventeen popes, set against the spectacular back drop of the Renaissance, Noel brings to light the true legacy —artistic, political, religious—of an extraordinary time.
CONTENTS PART I: POPES OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 13 Chapter 1. Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) 15 Chapter 2. Pope Calixtus III (1455-58) 23 Chapter 3. Pope Pius II (1458-64) 29 Chapter 4. Pope Paul II (1464-71) 47 Chapter 5. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) 55 Chapter 6. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-92) 65 PART II: POPE ALEXANDER VI (1[zasłonięte] 492-15) 75 Chapter 1. The Election of Rodrigo Borgia 77 Chapter 2. The First Year as Pope 93 Chapter 3. Schemes, Scandals, Fanaticism and Invasion Ill Chapter 4. A Foul Murder and a Live Burning 131 Chapter 5. Murder in the Vatican 147 Chapter 6. A Man 'Terrible in Revenge' 163 Chapter 7. The End of Alexander's Reign 177 Chapter 8. The Myth and the Man 191 PART III: POPES OF THE HIGH RENAISSANCE AND COUNTER-REFORMATION 203 Prologue 205 Chapter 1. Pope Pius III (22 September-18 October 1503) . . .209 Chapter 2. Pope Julius II (1503-13) 213 Chapter 3. Pope Leo X (1513-21) 235 Chapter 4. Pope Hadrian VI (1522-23) 255 Chapter 5. Pope Clement VII (1523-34) 261 Chapter 6. Pope Paul III (1534-49) 285 Chapter 7. Pope Julius III (1550-55) 299 Chapter 8. Pope Marcellus II (9 April-1 May 1555) 307 Chapter 9. Pope Paul IV (1555-59) 309 Chapter 10. Pope Pius IV (1559-65) 319 Chapter 11. Pope Pius V (1566-72) 329 Appendix I: Henry Charles Lea 343 Appendix II: Timeline 344 Appendix III: The Road to the Pontificate 349 Notes 351 Bibliographic Handlist 357 General Bibliography 370 Miscellaneous Bibliography 383 Art and Architecture Bibliography 386 Index 389