Julius II The Warrior Pope [Paperback]

Christine Shaw's new biography uses a wealth of archival sources to paint a vivid portrait of one of the most remarkable and colourful men ever to sit on the papal throne. Admired and hated, his actions were always controversial and made him one of the most influential figures in Renaissance Italy.Abbreviations.

Introduction: The Renaissance Papacy.

1. The Papal Nephew.

2. The Power Beside the Throne.

3. Exile.

4. The Election.

5. The Patrimony of the Church.

6. The Papal Court.

7.'Julius Caesar Pontifex II'?.

8. The League of Cambrai.

9.'Fuori i Barbara'.

10. Il Papa Terribile.

Sources and Select Bibliography.

Index.

The 'Papa terribile' - notorious, Giucciardini wrote, for 'his very difficult nature', and 'for the magnificence with which he always outshone all others' - is at last the subject of a serious study in English, thanks to Christine Shaw's Julius II: The Warrior Pope (Oxford: Blackwell; pp. 360. #35). Guiliano della Rovere (cardinal, 1471-1503; pope, 1503-13) was for over forty years a dominant figure, and it must have taken a touch of his own intrepidity, much admired by Machiavelli, to have undertaken this biography. Shaw has done it mainly by means of chronological political narrative; she offers much new information derived from diplomatic correspondence and many revisions and reassessments. On the whole, she presents her hero as a rather greyer figure than the dissolute, hyper-aggressive egomaniac portrayed satirically by Erasmus and other contemporaries. In her view, Giuliano's overriding concern was for his and his uncle Pope Sixtus IV's upstart Ligurian family, in particular the career as a secular prince of his brother Giovanni della Rovere, Prefect of Rome, whose son Francesco Maria lc(