Overview

How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city's significance for the history of art. The Invention of Papal History corrects this distorting emphasis and shows how historical writing became part of a comprehensive formation of the image and self-perception of the papacy. By presenting and fully contextualising the path-breaking works of the Augustinian historian Onofrio Panvinio (1530-1568), Stefan Bauer shows what type of historical research was possible in the late Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. Crucial questions were, for example: How were the pontiffs elected? How many popes had been puppets of emperors? Could any of the past machinations, schisms, and disorder in the history of the Church be admitted to the reading public? Historiography in this period by no means consisted entirely of commissioned works written for patrons; rather, a creative interplay existed between, on the one hand, the endeavours of authors to explore the past and, on the other hand, the constraints of ideology and censorship placed on them. The Invention of Papal History sheds new light on the changing priorities, mentalities, and cultural standards that flourished in the transition from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation.

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9780198880653

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Reviews

This important and fascinating book ... is essential reading for those interested in the sixteenth-century Catholic Church as well as those interested in the evolution of historical scholarship. * Elizabeth McCahill, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Journal of Modern History * Bauer provides a comprehensive and enlightening examination of Panvinio's labors. * Thomas M. Izbicki, Rutgers University, American Historical Review * this excellent study ... is likely to remain the definitive work on Panvinio for years to come. * Katherine Van Liere, Calvin University, Sixteenth Century Journal * a very well researched, important, and constantly interesting book which adds greatly to our knowledge of sixteenth-century Rome. It is, in many respects, a model of what the history of scholarship should be. * Jean-Louis Quantin, Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, Erudition and the Republic of Letters * This is an exemplary monograph on an individual scholar * Peter Burke, University of Cambridge, English Historical Review * the book offers in compact form valuable insight into an important part of the evolution of European historiography. The book will be especially valuable to early modern European and Church historians, but is accessible to non-specialists as well. * David Kertzer, Brown University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History * It is mandatory reading for anyone interested in historical scholarship in sixteenth-century Italy. * Jetze Touber, History of Humanities * a much needed contribution on the roots of a tradition of studies, in order to understand also the standing and the status of church history and papal history today. * Massimo Faggioli, Theologische Revue * ...meticulously researched book... * Stefania Tutino, Church History * Stefan Bauer's The Invention of Papal History is an admirably readable and fascinating portrait, not only of its principal subject, Panvinio, but also of the culture of late Renaissance humanism at a time of profound instability in Europe. It is a significant achievement by this author, who, one hopes, has a great deal more such scholarship ahead of him... * Daniel Woolf, Queen's University, Marginalia Los Angeles Review of Books * Stefan Bauer's study of Onofrio Panvinio's complex contribution and intellectual legacy should be praised for its clarity, in-depth research and useful reflection on the complicated past. * Jennifer Mara DeSilva, Ball State University, LSE Review of Books * The erudition diffused across Bauer's book is impressive and the arguments are delivered with convincing elegance... a joy to read. * Fabien Montcher, Saint Louis University, Journal of Jesuit Studies * ...insightful and enlightening... should inform all future investigations into the historiography, and especially the religious historiography, of this period * William Stenhouse, Yeshiva University, Revista de historiografia * The Invention of Papal History fulfills its objectives. It presents a biography that supersedes earlier lives of Panvinio, elucidates his historical method, and demonstrates how this method differed from those of earlier and later Catholic histories ... it is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of a period of historiography * Sam Kennerley, Reformation * The Invention of Papal History is an impressive work. Stefan Bauer has scoured the European libraries and archives with extraordinary competenceand thoroughness. His work ranges far beyond the figure of Panvinio, dealing with the confessional pressures to which historians were subjected, the various aspects of patronage, the ins and outs of censorship, as well as the far broader matter of Catholic historiography in the early modern period. It will remain a major contribution. * Alastair Hamilton, The Warburg Institute, Church History and Religious Culture * this important book helps us to better see papal history-writing not simply as polemical or as a chronicle of events, but as a dynamic intellectual field with its own critical methods. * Robert John Clines, Western Carolina University, Renaissance Studies * This thoughtful and judicious monograph is to be welcomed for the considerable light it sheds on confessionalisation of historiography and the cultural politics of papal Rome. * Peter Marshall, University of Warwick, History Today * Stefan Bauer has written an outstanding study of one of the most important Catholic historians in early modern Europe...This exceptional new book promises to do much to shape future work on history writing in early modern Europe. * Crawford Gribben, Queen's University Belfast, New Books Network *

Author Information

Dr Stefan Bauer is an intellectual and cultural historian of early modern Europe; his research interests cover humanism, religious polemic, church history and censorship. Dr Bauer is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Co-Editor of Lias: Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and its Sources. In 2021, he was elected to the Council of the Royal Historical Society.

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