Italy rattled with war in the early sixteenth century. An array of European disputants laid conflicting claims upon the peninsula; decades of violence followed (a period known as the Italian Wars, 1494-1559). This interdisciplinary workshop assembles specialists in High Renaissance Italy so as to spotlight individuals whose agency provides new perspectives on the conflicts, whether as managers, war- or peace-makers, diplomats, cultural agents, or artists. Each participant will introduce an “agent” as a way of articulating a critique of our current state of knowledge and drawing new histories from the shadows. We are particularly interested to reflect on unfamiliar agents’ contributions to the socio-cultural infrastructures of war-making. The workshop will feature short presentations and longer discussions of new or underused sources related to the early Italian Wars.

Workshop Participants & Timings

12-1 pm
Stephen Bowd, University of Edinburgh
“Gender, War, Household, and the State: Women as Military Managers in the Italian Renaissance”

1-2 pm
John Gagné, University of Sydney
“Galeazzo Sanseverino & Milanese Style as War Booty in Renaissance France”

2-3 pm
Carolyn James, Monash University
“Divided loyalties: Clara Gonzaga as double agent and secret go-between in Franco-Italian diplomacy in the first decade of the Italian Wars”

3-4 pm
Lisa Mansfield, University of Adelaide
“Rethinking Urs Graf’s Representations of Warriors, Wives, and Whores in the Italian Wars”

………

Where
CCANESA Boardroom
Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia
Level 4, Madsen Building (F09)
University of Sydney

Register
Click here to register

The Department of History is part of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI)

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Supported by the Department of History, the Medieval and Early Modern Centre, and the International Program Development Fund.
Image: Urs Graf, Schlachtfeld (Battlefield), 1521. Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett, Amerbach-Kabinett, Inv. U.X.91.