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by Antonio Pinelli «On May 6, we stormed Rome, killed six thousand people, looted the houses, took what we found in the churches and finally burned a good part of the city». This is how a lanzichenecco describes the sacking that the imperial troops inflicted on Rome. The troops defending the city were weak, the walls and artillery were not enough to stop the besiegers. Clement VII managed to take refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo only thanks to the sacrifice of the entire Swiss Guard. From there he witnessed an unheard-of spectacle for about eight very long months: Rome laid waste to fire and sword like Troy, Jerusalem, Carthage. A horde of hungry, unpaid and uncontrolled soldiers attacked the houses, palaces, and churches of an entire city and Campo de' Fiori was transformed into an open-air market for works stolen from the palaces of the Roman nobility. According to some historians, that date marked the end of the most intense period of the Italian Renaissance, the diaspora of the artists who had made Rome an example of splendor. What remains is a sense of dismay, of fear, almost the tangible sign of an apocalyptic punishment.