Charles V’s Campaigns in Africa in the Sixteenth Century

CYCLE: Geopolitics
SPEAKER: Lina Scalisi (University of Catania)
DATE: November 10, 2025 - 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Parco archeologico del Colosseo, Curia Iulia

In the scorching July of 1535, Charles V conquered Tunis and with it the fame of an invincible warrior on the battlefield, long sought to silence French enemies who had too often contrasted the military courage of their sovereign with the emperor’s absence from theaters of war; as well as to establish new balances in the Mediterranean where the Turk and his allies raged at the borders of his kingdoms. But the success of that July was not just a military victory. At the time, it was history and fable, chronicle and legend, echoes of which remain in correspondence and in the magnificent tapestries that narrated those deeds. Much less known, however, is what it meant to prepare that war for the men who directed it and for the kingdoms that financed it. A distant story, still highly relevant today.

Lina Scalisi is Full Professor of Early Modern History in the Department of Humanities of the University of Catania and Vice Rector of the University. She is Académica correspondiente of the Real Academia de la Historia, member of the doctoral faculty in History at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, and President of the Academy of Fine Arts of Catania. Her research interests include the political and cultural history of the European aristocracy in the early modern age, urban history, and socio-religious history.

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