On Friday, 9th October, Monash Medieval and Renaissance Studies will be hosting a convivium with Associate Professor Una McIlvenna.
On 6 May 1527, the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V mutinied due to lack of pay and sacked the papal city of Rome. Mostly German and Spanish, the troops were led by the French turncoat Charles III, duc de Bourbon, who was immediately fatally injured as he scaled the city walls. Without a leader, the largely mercenary troops began looting, killing, and holding citizens for ransom. The pope, Clement VII, was forced to flee to the Castel Sant’Angelo until he had paid a ransom. 2027 will mark the 500th anniversary of the Sack, widely thought to have been the end of the Italian High Renaissance. This paper will look at contemporary songs about the Sack of Rome in multiple European languages, asking how this cataclysmic event was reported on and perceived in different places. Given the international origins of the troops, how did perspectives on the event differ from one language tradition to another? How did songs about the Sack of Rome differ from other songs about military conquests? How do we need to approach these multimedia artifacts to appreciate their true significance for the people who sang and heard them?
Una McIlvenna is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow 2023-2027 and Associate Professor in English at the Australian National University. Her research interests lie in the fields of early modern cultural and literary history. Her most recent book, Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900, won the 2023 Katharine Briggs Award from the Folklore Society. She has published on execution ballads and the tradition of singing the news in Past & Present, Media History, Renaissance Studies, and the Huntington Library Quarterly.
The convivium will include reception with nibbles and drinks from 4pm – 4.30pm, with the presentation starting going from 4.30pm – 6pm with a response by Yasmin Haskell, reflections and Q&A. It will be held in S701, Menzies, Monash Clayton Campus.
There is also the option to attend the presentation remotely. For more information, please email cmrs-postgraduatecommittee@monash.edu