LAUSR

women, in the eyes of a sacking horde. In these chapters the focus is on the considered use of mass violence by commanders to achieve certain aims, and the consequences of that violence for those committing it and those suffering it. Part 3 moves to Renaissance martial theory and the role of civilians in Augustinian, chivalric, and humanist philosophies of war. Chapter 4 shows that in all these modes of thought, the laws of war left room for significant violence against civilians even when laying out conditions under which they should be protected. Nowhere was there formulated a general immunity of civilians to wartime violence. Chapter 5 is devoted to the works of Machiavelli, upon which many Renaissance theorists drew: Machiavelli, characteristically, had a clear-eyed view of the place of civilians in war and how violence against them could function to the benefit or detriment of invading armies. The last part turns to the memory of mass murder, and its representation in art and literature. Working within traditional artistic and literary cultures, Italian and other European artists and writers attempted to create some sense from the experience of mass violence at the hands of soldiers. Writers struggled with the why of this violence: was it divine punishment for the lassitude of a people in decline? Was it a sign of the weakness of the Italian political class at a moment of crisis? Were the victims to be made martyrs? All told, Bowd sensitively argues that the experience of mass violence in the Italian Wars challenges the notion that such violence was exceptional: rather, it was the rule of war, seen in the long view of European history. Structural elements of martial organization made it both a necessary and desirable form of warfare. Bowd brings us this important argument with fine prose and a deep compassion for the women, children, and men who suffered from Renaissance mass murder.