More digest means more redaction. But efficiency does not require loss of substance or sense.
Sanudo Diaries: January 7, 1527 (43:599): "I note that this morning I saw a beautiful object in the Senate chamber. It was a round high chess board, large and very beautiful. It was wrought of gold and silver and set with chalcedony [Ed. footnote: "A type of quartz that includes agate, carnelian, and other colored gems."], jasper, and other jewels. The chess pieces are made of the purest crystal. It belonged to ser Jacomo Loredan, of the Santa Maria Formosa branch of the family, who gave it in dower to two of his daughters, who married ser Christofal and ser Marco Donaado of the San Polo branch of the family. It was brought to the Ducal Palace because ser Piero Lando, their uncle, wanted to show it to His Serenity and the Collegio to see if they wished to buy it to send as a gift to the signor Turco with ser Marco Minio, who is going to Constantinople as our ambassador.... They are asking 5000 ducats for it." p 623.
________________________________________________________________________________
Venice also had a back catalog of clerics they felt should be made saints. One such was Lorenzo Giustiniani (1381-1456) who had the distinction of being Bishop when the sees of Grado and Castello were united and the seat of the Patriarch was moved under Pope Nicholas V's direction, to Venice proper in 1451. This direction may have even been written by Poggio Bracciolini, since he was still the pope's amanuensis. Giustiniani was a noted reformer in the generation just before that of Bishop Rudolph of Wurzburg and was himself admired for his poverty, fear of God and fervency of prayer. Venice had been told he was being considered for canonization in 1519 so they threw a party. But it took more than six years for the papacy to get around to granting him the status of Beatus establishing Lorenzo as a holy confessor.
Sanudo Diaries: January 8, 1526 (40:620-21): "Today was the feast of the blessed Lorenzo ... who died... on the 8th....we may venerate him on this day and say an office and celebrate a mass [in his name] as if he were a saint. ...the marble tomb wherein his body lies was opened.... His body had decayed, except for his head, which still had its beard and tonsured fringe. Placed over the bones was a panel of cloth of gold with a wooden grating above that, and his remains were shown to everyone with great devotion yesterday and all day today. ... And because I, Marin Sanudo, had recommended it to the doge, the shops of the city were ordered closed; the government offices and banks were not open for business.... to honor one of its own most holy gentlemen, who was the first patriarch, a most learned theologian and true servant of God, who wrote eighteen works in Latin, on behalf of whose canonization the Senate has written so many letters to Pope Leo in Rome." p 398.
nedits. A year later, nothing had changed.
Sanudo Diaries: January 8, 1527 (43:599): "It was the feast day of blessed Lorenzo Justinian, but it was not observed as it was last year, and the governmental offices and banks were open, and shops were open throughout the city. And it was not well done."
Editor's note: "The authorities may have felt that Venetian sanctity lay more in the integral city than in any single human representative. For whatever reasons, the government did not appear interested in institutionalizing an annual observance for a member of its patriciate." p.399
__________________________________________________________________________________
Also on the same day in 1527, a party was held in honor of special guests from Florence, including members of the de'Medici family, their relations and friends as Roman Emperor Charles V was invading Italy, looking to gain Papal States, and within the year capture Clement VII, himself of the de'Medici clan. So they had good reason to be very afraid. It may seem surprising that they went to Venice, remembering how contemptuous Venice could be when Leo died. He was the last de'Medici to be pope just six years before the current one. But at least the Venetians were Italian and there were fewer who believed anymore there was a place for the emperor in Italy. And he would soon agree with them as other concerns, like the Turk in East Europe would consume him. But make no mistake, Venice is advertising it is entertaining wealthy refugees due to the emperor's invasion.
Sanudo Diaries: January 8, 1527 (43:616): "This evening ser Marco Foscari, the father of don Hironimo, the bishop of Torcello and former ambassador to Rome, held a lovely banquet in the courtly style with silver settings.... [S]everal ... Florentines... left Florence a number of days ago for reasons of personal safety and have come to live in this city.... There were comedie and instrumental and vocal music; in short, it was a lovely supper." p 293.
__________________________________________________________________________________
But if a commoner were convicted of sodomy, they were usually banished from the city for five years. From the Venetian point of view they were sent to where sodomites were 'confined' outside the city and beyond certain limits. In the link, if you can see Mantova that would be the general line for the Mincio. The Quarnero Gulf is beyond the Istrian peninsula to the east and south of the city. Counterfeiters were dealt with more harshly.
Editor's footnote: "The Venetian laws defined these confines as beyond the Piave and Mincio Rivers on the side of the land and the Quarnero Gulf ... on the side of the sea." p 137.
Sanudo Diaries: January 9, 1518 (25:190-1): "Item: one Francesco, a wine porter, convicted of practicing sodomy with a woman, who is absent, was banished to the sodomites' boundaries.... If he returns, his head will be cut off, and his body will be burned. Item: a certain woman convicted of being a procuress for sodomitic acts was condemned to being placed on a platform between the two columns and crowned on Thursday, and then banished, etc."
nedits: To be crowned at the columns meant public shaming in the center of town with a mock 'devil's mitre' placed on her head. Here is a bunch of pictures of official Catholic modern-day mitres. Google didn't know what a 'devil's mitre' was. As for the counterfeiter mentioned,
Sanudo Diaries: January 9, 1518 (25:190): "Several prisoners' cases were expedited. One, named Cocha, was condemned to having his eye gouged out for having brought counterfeit coins to this city. He was also banished from the city and its territories with a price on his head; if he returns, his hand will be cut off, and he will be banished again."
________________________________________________________________________________
From Christmas through Carnival, parties proliferated. This time a compagnia gave a party that was paid for by one of the city's mercenary captains.
Sanudo Diaries: January 9, 1521 (29: 536-7): "After dinner, there was a festa at Ca' Pesaro, at San Benedeto, given by the compagnia of the Ortolani [Farmers] and paid for by Count Antonio da Martinengo, a nobleman who is our condotierre and who has been accepted into that compagnia. There were about sixty women, the most prominent and beautiful in the city, and everyone supped on sweets, partridges, oysters, etc. After supper a beautiful new comedia was put on by ...the Paduans, attended by a large number of people. Then at three hours after sunset some of the members of the compagnia and count Antonio went to invite the Prince [of Bisignano, Pietro di Sanseverino] and some of his friends to the festa and to supper, and four of our patrician university laureates went to accompany him...."
__________________________________________________________________________________
All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll, editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment