The reader who wishes to inform himself of the circumstances of this famous event may peruse an admirable narrative in Dr. Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 283; or consult the Annali d'Italia of the learned Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 230-244, octavo edition. If he is desirous of examining the originals, he may have recourse to the eighteenth book of the great, but unfinished, history of Guicciardini. But the account which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original is a little book, entitled Il Sacco di Roma, composed, within less than a month after the assault of the city, by the brother of the historian Guicciardinis who appears to have been an able magistrate and a dispassionate writer.