Yesterday was the day that Bernal Diaz remembered as the day of the battle of Cintla near rio Tobasco, now known as Rio de Grijalva, Mexico. He explained that the day before Cortes had certain knowledge that the locals were readying attack and so he made sure they would be ready to defend themselves.
They both went out to do battle, the fighting was intense and many losses on both sides were duly noted.
Stories of cannon fire frightening the locals, as well as stories about the shock the locals registered upon seeing men on horses were set down. Diaz acknowledges that Cortes himself was away from his present location fending off other hordes of locals while this battle raged. At the end, victory was announced, the wounded dealt with and a tally of the dead was drawn up. Two Spaniards and over eight hundred locals were killed, he says. All this is detailed in chapter xxxiv of
The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012
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A popular 1896 telling of that day's battle is free online and follows the Francisco de Gomara version of the story more closely.
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Since the last time I looked at Bernal Diaz, excepting the story of this battle which he tells out of his own chronology (as I point out), his tale follows in chs. xxxv-vi, the strict narrative of negotiating with the locals, offering them presents, accepting gifts and establishing churches in the name of God and king. His chapter xxxvii introduces and talks about doña Marína aka La Malinche, being integral to the Spaniards, being reunited with her mother and countering another version of the story by Francisco de Gomara.
The next chapter jumps in chronology to Holy Thursday when the fleet was said to have reached the port of San Juan de Ulua.
As far as I can tell, Easter was on April 24 in 1519 which makes Holy Thursday, in that year, 21 April, traditionally commemorating the day of the first communion (and the occasion when Jesus would say Peter would betray him three times et al.). This dating assumes the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. So again we have a leap - from the end of March til April 21 - by Diaz of some three weeks where little is explained or told to fit into this chronology. So I will get back to his story toward the end of next month.
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The messengers of Moctezuma meet the off-world strangers, return to Tenochtitlan and make their report.
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On March 26, 1512, one Maria Gonzalez came before the Inquisition court in Toledo to ratify her confessions, after having heard her previous confessions read back to her, "... stating they contained the truth, and everything had happened as she had stated...." [p. 51]
From The Spanish Inquisition 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources, edited and translated by Lu Ann Homza, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2006
Passover in a town in Spain returns after a more than 500 year absence. Some complain it's merely 'Passover' for drawing tourists. An NPR piece.
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The Life of Poggio still draws my interest. Don't know when I'll be able to get back to that.
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Burckhardt was talking about nobility and social advancement in Italy in the fifteenth century.
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In Sanudo's Diaries, on this date, a number of things were chosen by our Editors for inclusion looking at different bits of news that came in.
March 26, 1498: treason intrigue in the city induces crackdown on information flows, pp. 121-23
March 26, 27, 28, 1511: earthquake felt in Venice, pp. 373-8
March 26, 1516: discussing whether to shut the city's Jews into the Ghetto Nuovo, pp. 338-9
March 26, 1520: report from Yucatan, p 198
Topics, and pagination found in Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection 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
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In Wunderli's Peasant Fires, a speech/sermon given from July, by Hans Behem is inferred, deduced and analyzed. His exhortations got reportedly darker and more sinister.
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A really nice, expansive description of pope Alexander VI's first Annunciation celebration on March 25, 1493 is given in Johann Burchard's chronicle At The Court of the Borgia.
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