Christine Shaw

Il papa guerriero. Giulio II nello spazio pubblico europeo by Massimo Rospocher (review)

None of this makes for particularly easy reading. Sobecki has a fondness for modish literary-critical jargon, and the structure of the book is at times unhelpfully labyrinthine. Nevertheless, he is to be lauded for encouraging both cultural and literary historians to think harder about the law as a barometer of change and for challenging the still entrenched periodization either side of the arbitrary date of 1500.

Alejandro VI y los Reyes Católicos. Relaciones político-eclesiásticas (1492-1503) (review)

One of the main virtues of this lengthy book is the broad range of issues it covers. It provides a systematic examination of diplomatic and political relations between the pope and the Spanish monarchs, of Spanish intervention in Italy, of Alexander’s interest in and involvement in expansion into the New World, and the defense of the Mediterranean against Ottoman expansion, as well as of ecclesiastical relations, provisions to benefices, conflicts of jurisdiction, fiscal matters, and reform of the Church and of the clergy of the Spanish kingdoms.