Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-228) and index.

Preliminary Material -- CHAPTER ONE: THE SACK OF ROME AND THE THEME OF CULTURAL DISCONTINUITY -- CHAPTER TWO: PIETRO ALCIONIO'S ORATIONS ON THE SACK OF ROME -- CHAPTER THREE: PIETRO GORSI AND THE PERPETUATION OF CURIALIST IDEOLOGY -- CHAPTER FOUR: RENEGOTIATION AND REMEMBRANCE: JACOPO SADOLETO'S LETTERS TO CURIAL FRIENDS, 1527-1529 -- CHAPTER FIVE: THE ITALIAN HUMANISM OF PIERIO VALERIANO -- CHAPTER SIX: TRAUMATIC MEMORY INTO HISTORY: THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMANISTS' NARRATIVES OF THE SACK OF ROME -- PLATES -- APPENDIX ONE: PIETRO ALCIONIO'S ORATIONS ON THE SACK OF ROME, TRANSCRIBED FROM AUTOGRAPH DRAFTS IN BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA MS VAT. LAT. 3436 -- APPENDIX TWO: LETTERS FROM JACOPO SADOLETO TO CLEMENT VII (1527-28) TRANSCRIBED FROM THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS IN THE ARCHIVIO SEGRETO VATICANO -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

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An assessment of how four humanists in the court of Pope Clement VII - Pietro Alcionio, Pietro Corsi, Jacopo Sadoleto, and Pierio Valeriano - interpreted the cataclysmic Sack of Rome (1527), which called into question their earlier images of the Renaissance papacy. Building upon recent discussions in literary criticism and cognitive psychology, the author elucidates how these humanists' narratives gave meaningful shape to their memories and, in so doing, helped to redefine the image of Renaissance Rome as it would be \'remembered\' by subsequent generations.