La vita privata del nobile romano Lorenzo de Cinque (1552–1618)

This profile of Lorenzo de Cinque’s private life in Rome at the end of the sixteenth century is derived from reminiscences in his Libro di Memorie, recently transcribed and published. It depicts the uneasy transformation from the moral freedom of pagan Rome to the formally virtuous life advocated by the Church of Rome after the Council of Trent (1545–1563), and also the practical consequences of the debt crisis which afflicted Rome at the end of the century.