L’”Italia dell’imperatore” e la crisi cinquecentesca

During the reign of Paul III Farnese (1534-1549), the struggle between the emperor Charles V and the pope exacerbated and radicalised. An unpublished scattered correspondence (sofar neglected by scholars) discloses the existence of a powerful imperial network of Italian princes, aristocrats and high-ranked prelates who, ready for action, for many years put into words their expectations, projects and initiatives. The cardinals Ercole Gonzaga in Mantua, and Benedetto Accolti at the Florentine court, were two of the major players in this game. In order not to be intercepted by the pope's men, they communicated through visual symbols and numeric codes, but they also drew on a colourful and quirky language, rich in references, metaphors and pseudonymous taken from the classical mythology, the Divine Comedy and chivalric romances. These epistolary exchanges cast new light on the 16th century Italian religious crisis and on the history of Italian Reformation