news from 02may12; Sanudo Diaries: May 2, 1513: Theater of Advocacy in Defense of the State

nedits:
great long article by Adam Davidson of planet money this weekend in the nyt mag

and a great rebuttal here by David Atkins of the opinions offered by Romney's former Bain partner in that article, 02May12

In addition, there's the stories out of China today. The one about the high-level state official whose wife supposedly killed the British diplomat in November and the scandal around that and also, the blind dissident who was holed up at the US embassy over the weekend. Today it seems something is happening. Nobody on the outside knows just what yet.

Terry Gross talked to a guy who investigated Exxon and their empire and how they advocate or block legislation that effects their industry

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Sanudo's Diaries:

nedits: So with that as a limited backdrop, it just so happens that if we go back to Venice, 1513 on this day, an example for the advocacy of policy was chronicled. It was an engagement party, there was a feast and afterward a representation of theater as advocacy was presented to ambassadors. Yes, statecraft presented as theater for the purposes of persuasion. All In the midst of the war of the League of Cambrai where Venice was ganged up on at once by a number of enemies who had decided that now was the time that Venice just had to go. The Republic's future was very much in doubt...

Editor's Note: "Foreign diplomats were regularly invited to attend the ceremonial events of the Venetian Republic and were often to be found at the elaborate dinners held in the homes of wealthy patricians.... The occasion was a festa celebrating an engagement between two patrician families. Among the people in the audience were three ambassadors."
all quotes as Sanudo Diaries from Venice , cita excelentissima : selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo edited by Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, translated by Linda L Carroll; Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2008, p. 211

May 2, 1513: [16:206-7]: "After dinner nothing much happened, just a meeting of the savi. The reason was that the wedding of ser Ferigo Foscari to the daughter of ser Zuan Venier, head of the Ten, was held at Ca' Foscari. She is the neze [either 'niece' or 'granddaughter'] of our most serene prince [the doge]. Upon her arrival, there was a superb banquet, with special honor given to the ambassadors of the pope, Spain and Hungary and other high-ranking senior patricians. Three of the doge's sons attended .... Also present were ... a Knight of Rhodes; they dined in a room apart on a silver service. Permission [to use silver] was given because of the ambassadors whom I mentioned. About 96 women were seated at table in the central hall, and between these and others in the adjoining rooms, there were 420 people seated at the main tables. Everything was carried out in splendid order, and it was a fine meal."

Editor's Footnote: "The permission to use silver refers to sumptuary laws that, among other strictures, sought to control the expense of wedding celebrations."

Editor's Note: "After the feast came the entertainment, an elaborate series of scenes, separated by dances, in which the women usually participated, and sometimes by musical interludes."

Ca' Foscari was a new building in Sanudo's day replacing the Byzantine palace, The House with Two Towers. Reception of important dignitaries happened here, central offices of the Republic were operated from here and later put here while official state business and meetings was done at the Doge's Palace. Here on the Rialto next to the markets they could watch those and draw up their plans and alliances before sending them up to the Council. I learned today the building is a school of business started in 1868.... Here's a picture of Ca' Foscari at night as it could be seen for an evening's dinner and theater with dancing. You can get more images by typing 'Ca' Foscari images' into any search engine.

A theater of advocacy to some can be merely a big engagement party or imagined as little comedic diversions between chances at flirting with the 'belles at the ball'. But this one in particular 499 years ago had a particular message to convey to specific audiences at a particularly dangerous time in the great illustrious history of this sui generis republic. Simultaneously softer in presentation and more direct by being precise, symbolic, mirrored representations of what they wanted to convey, the presentation itself was couched in a structure that bowed to tradition by following the methods that the audience was known to be able to recognize before they showed up. Techniques used in religious ritual.

Sanudo, May 2, 1513:  [16:206-7]: "Then preparations were made for presenting a comedia, that is, certain representations. A platform was set up for the women to sit on; another one was constructed in the middle of the room for the recitation. The three ambassadors and other high-ranking men were seated there, although the Spanish ambassador left early to write, he said, to the viceroy."

Editor's Footnote: "The Spanish ambassador may have been displeased with the Venetian government for diverting France from forming an alliance with Spain and the empire by making its own treaty with France at Blois on March 23, less than six weeks earlier. Thirteen days later this same Spanish ambassador would excuse himself from the ceremonial investiture of Venice's captain general, Bartolomeo d'Alviano. although he had previously - as on the earlier occasion - accepted the invitation to attend." p. 512

Sanudo: "One of the kings of the compagnia of the Eterni [the name of the theater troupe] , ser Francesco Zen, came onto the platform dressed in a silver robe with a gold, Greek-style tunic over it and a hat on his head [an actor's costume!], with his councillors... and his interpreter... all of whom were costumed. After these members of the compagnia had danced for awhile on the platform with the women, the first demonstration was put on by ser Marco  ... dressed in ruosa secha [a newly-fashioned old-rose color] vestments as a bishop and legate of Pope Calixtus."

Editor's footnote: "In 1122 Pope Calixtus II  had given the Venetians a papal banner bearing the words 'Vexillum Beati Petri' (Banner of St Peter) to carry in a crusade, and this became part of their standard regalia. It was a well-chosen reference to convey Venice's desire for an optimal relationship with the new pope, Leo X, who only two months earlier, on 19 March, had ascended to the papal throne." p. 512

Sanudo: "He presented the king [of the Eterni] with a letter from the pope declaring that he had sent this bishop de nulla tenentis [i.e. without a see or congregation] to congratulate him. He also presented him with a letter of [diplomatic] credentials and, after delivering his oration, gave him a kingly crown, placing it on his head and blessing him. The king thanked him and invited him to watch a dance, which was performed there on the platform by women and members of the compagnia."

This was the pattern, little sketches of presentations of declarations, gifts and friendly words followed by an invitation to dance. Sometimes music, sometimes jugglers or acrobats, more faux-leaders in place-specific costumery bearing symbolic gifts or behaviors and then dances or music. The Germans, the Egyptians, French, Spanish, the Hungarian king, pygmies, and lastly, even representatives of dead Venetian Houses, all are given 'a voice' and provided an audience. At the end, the representative of the extinct Venetian houses, gives a gift of a little silver ship [maybe a model, maybe an earring, maybe a spice box] and presents a 'buffoon'. After the dance the buffoon sits on a stool, tells some jokes, plays a few sleight of hand tricks and calls it a night.

Sanudo: "It was three hours after sunset and very warm because of the crush of the crowd." [16:207]

Elena Povoledo in La Scenagrafia, in Storia de Venezia: l'arte , acc to Editor's Footnote: "Povoledo 1995, 628, entitles this comedia the Demonstration del Re Pancrazio and describes it as a long, fragmentary, itinerant action during which the earthly powers send gifts through their ambassadors, not to the young marrying couple but to the Eterni, with every gift corresponding to a symbolic act concerning the sestizione, or accoutrements, of the 'king'". p. 515

Venice needed allies, this was an occasion of her engaged in entertainment pursuing diplomacy through a direct representation of how things used-to-be in order to persuade foreign ambassadors to make the right choice. And all this occurring in the context of an engagement party, so a natural opportunity for parties to get together. More about the War of the League of Cambrai through the month of May... as well as how the people and the City dealt with a bank failure,  war with Rome, how to get funds for war in a hurry, the importance of secretaries for these foreign ambassadors, a ghost story in Chioggia, the reception of a pope in more friendly times, a trip to Rome, the case of Gaspere Valier, Andrea Gritti, a depiction of a rich man, the seizure of an important man,  the dedication of a special library of Greek texts, the sending of girls to nunneries, the marriages of both Sanudo's legitimate and illegitimate daughters, feasts of St Job, Bernardino, Corpus Christi ...