In The Vacant See in Early Modern Rome John M. Hunt offers a social history of the papal interregnum from 1559 to 1655. The study concentrates on the Roman people’s relationship with their sacred ruler. Using criminal sources from the Archivio di Stato di Roma and Vatican sources, Hunt emphasizes the violent and tumultuous nature of the lapse in papal authority that followed the pope’s death. The vacant see was a time in which Romans of modest social backgrounds claimed unprecedented power. From personal acts of revenge to collective protests staged at the Capitol Hill and citywide discussions of the papal election the vacant see provided Romans with a unique opportunity for political involvement in an age of omnipresent hierarchy.
John M. Hunt, Ph.D. (2009), Ohio State University, is an Assistant Professor of History at Utah Valley University. He has published numerous articles on early modern Rome, including “Carriages, Violence, and Masculinity in Early Modern Rome,” winner of the I Tatti Prize for best essay by a junior scholar.
“This book will quickly and deservedly become required reading for students of early modern crime, protest, elections, and ritual, as well as, of course, the papacy, Rome, and Italy.”
Emily Michelson, University of St Andrews. In: H-Italy, H-Net Reviews (February, 2017).
“In The Vacant See in Early Modern Rome John Hunt has produced a remarkable work of social history which excavates all the papal interregnum’s murky and nefarious currents. […] This book is a far more comprehensive and nuanced account of the Vacant See as a social phenomenon than anything yet published elsewhere. […] Hunt has done us a great service in publishing this material and in recalibrating debate about such an important subject.”
Miles Pattenden, Wolfson College, Oxford. In: Renaissance Studies, May 2017.
“This is social history of the best kind as Hunt literally fleshes out the daily life of Romans of all walks of life and the many forenses either permanently living in the city or having gone there as part of the complex machinations involved in the death of one pontiff and the choice of another. The book makes for a gripping, delightful read and asks many questions regarding popular political expression and consciousness in early modern Europe, ritualized violence and Rome itself. Drawing upon a staggering amount of published and unpublished sources of the period the book successfully depicts this unique context in all of its complexity and contradiction. […] Meticulously researched but highly readable at the same time, it is thought provoking and delves into the wider questions at the heart of the social life of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”
James Nelson Novoa, University of Ottawa. In: Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 48 (2017), pp. 214-216.
“This volume is a fascinating perspective on the city of Rome and the groups that vied for power and honor within the chronological and social confines of a limited and liminal moment. […] It fills a need and also acts as a nexus pointing the reader towards research on other social issues connected with the vacant see, including pasquinades, rumor, gambling, and banditry. […] A valuable introduction to the social, ritual, and judicial life of papal Rome.”
Jennifer Mara DeSilva, Ball State University. In: Church History and Religious Culture, Vol. 97, No. 2 (2017), pp. 283-285.
“a fresh perspective on the sede vacante […] readers of this journal should take note of Hunt’s book, since its wealth of detail will undoubtedly help scholars better to understand the early modern vacant see.”
Charles Keenan, Boston College. In: Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 68, No. 4 (October 2017), pp. 876-878.
Acknowledgments
List of maps
List of images
List of abbreviations
Notes on currency, measurements, and time
List of popes and their vacant sees
Introduction
Rome and its people
The vacant see and historians
Criminal sources and the vacant see
Chapter One The papal hydra: The political structures of the vacant see
The Pope’s relatives
The College of Cardinals
Noble offices of the vacant see
Jurisdictional battles
Chapter Two The Pope is dead! Rumor and ritual in the vacant see
Rumors and the Pope’s death
Announcing the Pope’s death
“Sic transit gloria mundi”: Papal funeral rites
Chapter Three Fear and loathing in the vacant see
The surge in violence
A city of soldiers
The paradox of protection
Chapter Four Violence and vengeance in the vacant see
Waiting for vengeance
The motives behind revenge
The scripted violence of revenge
Chapter Five Protesting the Papal Prince
The liberty of the vacant see
Ritual assaults against papal statues
Pasquino and the pasquinade tradition
Protesting the Pope’s princely soul
Chapter Six The conclave and the people of Rome
The porous conclave
The market and the conclave
The conclave and the public sphere
The election and its public reception
Conclusion
The two ceremonies of the papal inauguration
The vacant see, popes and the people
Bibliography
Index
All those interested in the history of the early modern papacy and the city of Rome, as well as students of violence, elections, and interregna in the early modern period.