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The Lost Poem by the Forgotten Poet of Charles V's 'Conquest of Tunis' Tapestries

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posted on 2023-05-22, 20:25 authored by Tristan TaylorTristan Taylor
The famous sixteenth-century tapestry series the “Conquest of Tunis’, detailing the 1535 campaign of Charles V to recapture Tunis from the Ottomans under Barbarossa , has been much studied for the artistry of its images by Vermeyen.Less attention has been devoted to the Latin text at the base of each panel, often described as mere ‘captions’ to the events depicted and of uncertain authorship. This chapter identifies both the author of the poem, and examines the engagementof the poem with wider contemporary patterns of representing CharlesV.It is argued that, much more than just ‘captions’, these texts are a Latin hexameter poem, the Periocha expeditionis Africanae Thunetensis by the hitherto largely forgotten sixteenth-century poet Francois de BourgognedeFallais. This poem engages intertextually with classical Roman epic poets, in particular Vergil and Lucan, to cast Charles as a successor to Aeneas, Caesar, Augustus and his campaign to reconquer Tunisas a continuation of Rome’s warsagainst Carthage.In so doing, the poem engagesin a wider pattern ofutilising the powerful symbolic resonance of the Roman empire to portray Charles V positively as a successorto that imperial tradition.

History

Publication title

Carolus Quintus

Edition

1st

Editors

M Laurey, V Leroux, S Tilg and F Schaffenrath

Pagination

179-209

ISBN

9783823384816

Department/School

School of Humanities

Publisher

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag

Place of publication

Germany

Extent

14

Rights statement

Copyright 2022 Narr Francke Attempto Verlag

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Understanding Europe’s past

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