It was the week before Christmas: news from 21dec12

We got some snow Thursday morning and today remains cool and bright.
But as everyone knows, of course all this week is talk - and talking is good - about the mass- shooting at the Sandy Hook, CT school and many others elsewhere and guns and the failure of Congress to do their part in avoiding the fiscal cliff.

So it's not the end of the world, but I know we can do better.

Carl Bernstein, (the journalist played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie All The President's Men) yeah - that Bernstein - writes of a shocking cover-up and he has the tape to prove it.... Apparently General Petraeus was approached by a spokesperson for News Corp who said Petraeus would be bankrolled by FOX/Aisles/Murdoch if he chose to run for president. What could that possibly mean? A high roller's bluff? A joke as Aisles tried to pass it off as or an actual attempt to hijack our government? One thing is certain, like Bernstein points out, if any other 'network' - CNN, NBC, ABC etc. had done this with Obama or anyone with a 'D' after their name, FOX would never let us forget it. But Mr Bernstein had to write it on an opinion page for the UK's guardian as the US press seems loathe to touch it... do they fear blowback from FOX? So my question is Who will slay the dragon? Carl Bernstein at least is trying.

Indefinite detention is still the rule here in the USA despite efforts in the last year to amend that

I don't see this one in the US press either: US soldier gets reduction in rank for urinating on Afghani corpse. Karzai calls it inhuman.

MoJo dispels the chief NRA myth: armed civilians don't stop mass shootings

A Korean American gets captured in North Korea. Looks at first glance like he'll be used as bargaining chip with the US over something.

Sixteen charts that tell the problem of wealth inequality, from The Atlantic

MI lawmakers didn't read that bill denying collective bargaining rights as it first must be ok'd by the MI state Civil Service Commission before it can be implemented on state workers

Of special note:

Today is David Dayen's last day blogging. So his post today on the housing market and bad banks is a ringer as his tempting look at a former Romney advisor's refusal to answer for his deeds. About Dayen, and his inhuman body of work over the last several years, and his abrupt departure, I know, I'm apoplectic over it. I really don't know what to say about it. Except he'll be missed a lot. Glad I got to read and promote him and talk to him. What a high standard he leaves behind.

Another essential collection of the pileup behind the fiscal slope as he first called it, by the amazing David Dayen.

New Clock Tower, Plague Returns, Winter Famine: Sanudo Diaries: 1498, 1497, 1527

In 1493 a new clock tower was ordered to replace the old and decrepit Torre dell'Orologio at the north end of the Piazza San Marco. By June 1496, our editor's note, work to demolish the old structure had begun ".. where the retail street of the Merceria entered the Piazza...". [p 470]. By the end of 1498 the new structure was up and the great bronze bells were hoisted up into the tower.

Sanudo Diaries: "December 15, 1498 (1:833) On the 11th day [of December]  the bronze giants were placed above the clock tower that was recently built in Piazza San Marco, where they will ring the hours.  This I have recorded so that it will be remembered for all time."

It should be remembered that in those days before phones or regular wristwatches, the clock tower that boomed it's melodies at the hour and half-hour, drew the continual focus of every one in earshot. All day, all night, every day, all their lives.

__________________________________________________________________

Nearly a year before, Sanudo reported the return of the plague to Venice, that the city responded normally to it and that for Christmas an Observant Brother of the Franciscan Order was heard delivering mass and preaching against corruption. The plague he claimed was evidence of God's disfavor of man's sins.

Sanudo Diaries December 16, 1497 (1:836-37) "In this month and in this city ... several people died of the plague. The proveditori sora la sanita ... took many precautions to make sure that the plague would not spread to the rest of the city; [that it did not] is a miracle, since almost all of Italy has suffered from it, most recently Ravenna, Padua, Treviso, Istria and the Friuli. Those who are infected but still alive are quarantined in the Lazzaretto, and their things are burned. Now Christma is approaching, the season in which the city celebrates the papal pardon and holds festivals at the churches.... Therefore, ... members of the senate proposed a bill... [to] write to the pope and ask him to grant this pardon at another time of the year and to close churches that draw crowds during the holidays,,,, They did this so that people would not gather, because a woman that had died in the Lazzaretto in the last few days confessed that on the feast day of Santa Lucia she had gone, infected with the plague, to the church of Santa Lucia and said that two women from [the nearby parish of] San Marcuola had caught it from her there. The Senate also decided that there would be no preaching for now in any of the churches of this city. They sent word to all the parish priests that they were not to hear confessions of any sick person without the Senate being informed of it and that the barber-surgeons were not to bleed people."

Editor's footnote: "Sanudo does not indicate in the text that he is writing this entry after Christmas Day." p. 379.

Sanudo Diaries: "But on Christmas Day the doge wanted a sermon to be delivered in the Basilica of San Marco, as is the custom. This was done by a certain Fra Thimoteo, from Lucca, of the Observant Franciscans, who had been preaching at San Francesco a la Vigna. He gave a fine sermon. Among other things, he said: "My lords, in keeping the churches closed for fear of the plague, you are acting prudently. But if God wishes [the plague to strike this city], closing the churches will be to no avail. You must remedy the causes of the plague, which are the horrendous sins committed in this city: the blasphemy against God and His saints, the sodomitical associations, the infinite number of usurious contracts made at Rialto, and everywhere the selling of justice with decisions in favor of the rich and against the poor.""..."

Editor's footnote: "These were the standard "sins" preachers cited as responsible for God's disfavor." p. 380.

Sanudo Diaries: "..."And what is worse, when some nobleman comes to town, you show him the convents, which are not convents but bordellos and public whorehouses. Your Serenity, I know that you are not ignorant and that you are even more aware of these things than I am. Take care! Take care, and you will take care of the plague." Then at the end he asked for forgiveness, saying, "I know, Your Serenity, that you know how to make some excellent stiff caps, so I will come to get one!" And he said it in so pleasant a way that everyone laughed. When he came down from the pulpit, the doge greeted him with good humor."

Editor's footnote: "The preacher used the words belli capelli et bruschi, probably a reference to the distinctive ducal cap, which doges had made in sumptuous fabrics." p. 380.

_______________________________________________________________________________

nedits: After drought and failure in crops, the sacking of Rome and famine in the Veneto, the winter of 1527 was particularly cold.

Sanudo Diaries: December 16, 1527 (46:380) "I note that ... wheat, barley, etc., have been brought by these ships coming from Cyprus and other ships in the past few days. Nonetheless the cost of wheat is rising ... so that it is an extremely severe famine. And [the cost] not only of grains but of wine.... Thus everything is expensive, and every evening in Piazza San Marco and in the streets and in Rialto there are children crying "I want bread -- I am dying of hunger and of cold,"  and it rends your heart. And in the morning bodies are found under the portico of the Ducal Palace. Yet no steps are being taken...."

_______________________________________________________________________

All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from 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

Shepherd on Poggio; Nobility as a social Position

Dr William Shepherd wrote a nineteenth century biography, The Life of Poggio Bracciolini, and in it quotes extensively from Poggio's letters.

Here's a nice article about the easy relations between William Shepherd of the nineteenth century and a book of letters of Poggio Bracciolini de Duccio of the fifteenth century, by a twentieth century scholar who got to to see the manuscript.

After a treatise On Avarice c. 1430, and subsequent letters upset with him from Observant Brothers of the Franciscan sect who wished to set up their own houses, Poggio also received criticism from the famous book collector, Niccolo Niccoli of Florence. Shepherd reports Poggio replied to him cordially,

"... first stating the facts of the case, and then protesting that he was no enemy either to religion or its professors-- 

"on the contrary," says he, "I make a point of behaving with the utmost reverence to those eclesiastics who adorn their religion with virtuous conduct. But," proceeded he, "I have been so often deceived, so frequently disappointed in the good opinion which I had conceived of men, that I know not whom or what to believe. There are so many wicked people, who conceal their vices by the sanctity of their looks, and the humility of their apparel, that confidence is in a manner destroyed. In the pontifical court [where Poggio long worked] we have too many opportunities of becoming acquainted with iniquitous transaction, in which people in general are ignorant. I am not however surprised," says he in the conclusion of his letter, "that these friars should complain of their being prevented from establishing themselves in such a pleasant district [near Florence]. The excellence of our wine is a powerful allurement, both to strangers and to our countrymen. Plato, who was no Christian, chose for the site of his academy an unhealthy spot, in order that the mind might gain strength by the infirmity of the body. But these pretended followers of Christ act upon a different system. They select pleasant and voluptuous places -- they seek not solitude, but society -- they do not wish to promote the cultivation of the mind, but the pampering of the corporeal appetites.""  p. 164

Again, Poggio was the pope's secretary during almost the entire first half of the 1400's. You get a real sense here that he calls them like he sees them. I am just beginning to look at this role in the papal entourage and it might offer a lot to my view into the church and its influence and powers throughout Europe in this period of great change. It would be good to have something to set alongside Johann Burchard's look at the Borgia Court as well as the office of the captain-general of the pope.

Poggio and Niccolo Niccoli would search out and trade ancient manuscripts in this period and were both familiar as friends of the de'Medici, both pater patriae Cosimo and Lorenzo his brother. Many a conversation we are assured was shared by these gentlemen of public and private stature at a time that would be looked back with a great deal of ... fondness by self-styled elite cultures and royal courts all over Europe for the duration of the next century. This extended to the very act of trading and the gifting of books.

Still, even these figures that later generations would exalt were not considered nobles in the ordinary understanding of that time. For one thing, they worked for a living. Cosimo and Lorenzo were bankers, one of the most generally detested occupations one could have. Poggio and Niccolo were secretaries, book hunters. Their legacy was what they could make for themselves not what they inherited or choose to add to or spend. But it seems they were well acquainted with those as options for others. 

In a noble, royal or merely patrician family, there were several defining kinds of comparisons, first of all between children. First born and later born. female and male, legitimate and illegitimate, fit for hunting or jousting or marrying but not studies. Part of or cut out. All too often a family could have too many heirs and not enough inheritances to hand around. It was a continual, centuries long, age-old traditional set of cultures that in fact had grown up with so many monasteries and convents: that some of these noble-born children might go into service for the church in some capacity. And there were many several such houses that spread in successive waves over centuries.

But these then in whatever capacity were members of the church and also a member of a noble family, possibly. The vast majority were not.

So this was not where nobility came from. Nobility could be conferred or granted as could knighthood, by royalty, but who knew who else might grant that? The pope?

Words we might associate today with nobility, like dignity, character, even grand notions of leadership might run a close parallel to their use of the word 'nobility'. But what they meant first was just the fact of it. Noble meant bloodlines to them like royalty is understood by us today. Like the House of Windsor in Britain. There are many noble families and members in Britain today. The first season in the hit pbs show Downton Abbey gives a clear view of some of that still remaining in the early 20th century. Yes the Brits still have nobility. The French do not on purpose. The US does not expressly, yet politicians and very wealthy often claim a kind of nobility, if only in the extra degree of respect they retain in their person as office holders. They often get extra security, handlers, secretaries and so on. We call it executive privileges, sometimes, when we have to call it something. 

Privilege in today's world means earned benefit, yet even that in entrepreneurial circles is turned into an aspiration, a goal to be achieved. An executive is still understood as being chief decider. Why wouldn't an executive want privileges especially if they feel or are told that they are earned benefits? But like a mercenary in those days, CEO's are more often these days to work under contract, at the behest of shareholders. In those days a mercenary captain did not need to be noble - as they understood it, from the bloodline - though it certainly helped getting your name out there. It was to become rarer in the 1500's and yet was very common, even expected in the 1400's. The chief example of an upstart leader, in the 1400's, Francesco Sforza was partly famous because he did not come from a noble line. He built his reputation on deeds, through acts of merit and good decisions.

news from mid dec2012

Republican who served under Reagan and Bush Sr says that current Republican Congressional language is nonsense and gives some recent GAO charts to prove it

Krugman says yesterday's statement by Bernenke, Federal Reserve Chair is an admission that we are already in the latter half of an american lost decade and current discussions vis-a-vis the upcoming fiscal cliff won't address the basic problems as the previous article conveniently points out

foreclosure stories  from the lawyer who took robo-signing to court by David Dayen

why are Feds allowing banks that are guilty of fraud to continue defrauding the public, their customers? 

more local St Louis news on that from November

npr asks that and other questions about the record $1.9 bn Federal fine levied against HSBC this week

Big news in Europe this week as Eurozone accepts Euro Central Bank oversight of 200 banks. They've been debating this for years...

I was impressed with the Robin Hood Relief Fund raising $15 mn, so far for Sandy victims but they need so much more

_______________________________________________________________

On December 12, 1508, our Editors tell us (pp 266-8) Marin Sanudo discussed budget matters of the College and the Senate of Venice, importantly, before the war of the League of Cambrai. The mercenaries wanted to know how much money they could spend for men and equipment, before going out into the field. Normally in peacetime, Venice regularly levied protection fees from cities in the region. A few days later, the Senate voted to levy such taxes on the cities and see what they could gather. After the massive defeat at Agnadello in May of the following year, most of these subject cities were eventually captured by the French or forces of the Emperor and Venice would not be able to levy from them for many years. In subsequent years, this war and it's need for funds and Venice's inability to raise them, caused the senate to grant all manner of laws allowing this or that means to making money. From accepting loans in exchange for public office to raising taxes on prostitutes, there needed to be more sources of money.

________________________________________________________________

Also I've been watching this week as this guy has been tweeting every drone strike since 2002

doge Gritti, pope Adrian VI, and the death of Leo X: Sanudo Diaries December 6, 1523, December 5,1521

On the one hand it doesn't seem fair to deal with Leo X always with a backward glance. But seldom were so many 'last chances' at Italian sovereignty and hope of possible internal unity and external security dashed in favor of so many short-sighted gains. To many, of course, it must have seemed things had never seemed so bad, and of course, it did get worse. Much that we would call partisan worked against each other - exhausting the participants - with sides continually changing, everyone always owing more and needing more credit to finance the ever-ongoing antagonisms, among families, cities, countries. Yet it still comes as quite a shock to hear of Venice's reception of the news that Pope Leo X had died. I don't assume Sanudo's reasons for Venetian hatred of Leo were totally justified. I just point out Sanudo as a credible witness stating that those reasons or opinions hating Leo are believable even today and were very likely widely believed then, whether totally true or not...

Sanudo Diaries: December 5, 1521 (32:207): "Early this morning the crowd went to San Marco to hear the miraculous and excellent news for our Republic, and gentlemen rejoiced with one another as if some great victory had been won, because in effect [Leo] was our great enemy, being a Florentine. He sought to diminish this state in order to exalt Florence and his own Medici family, and he did not believe that the Turks were set on on the destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary or that Christianity could suffer other kinds of damage, and he fostered continuous war among Christians, as [he did] in Lombardy against the French, and between the imperial majesty and the French king in Flanders, Burgundy an France. So the whole city was very happy, even the shopkeepers and artisans, saying that [with Leo's death] "a Turkish captain general had died, and one who was ruining Christianity." And everyone rejoiced; nor could any better news have come. And people were saying that this is done by God and is a miracle in our eyes, because we heard about the sickness [malaria] and the death at the same time, therefore may the Lord God be blessed for it all."

The editors note here, p 181, that there were more satires of Leo called pasquinades posted at the statue of Pasquino in Rome, in Sanudo's volume 32:289, 302. 

It had been six months since doge Loredan had died. Venice had chosen the new doge Grimani because he was related to their cardinal in Rome, Domenico Grimani who was seen as a possible papal candidate. The college however selected Adrian Boeyens, a dutch cardinal who had gained prominence by teaching for many years at the University of Leuven in Holland. For ten years - 1507-1517 - he also served as tutor to Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I's son, Charles who in turn would become the next emperor casting the longest shadow of any of them. Boeyens was called Adrian VI and was the last non-Italian pope for over 450 years. Massive debt had accumulated under Leo, the crusade against the Turk failed to gain any steam, Italian hatred and distrust seemed at an all-time high and Lutheranism seemed to be spreading. The college of Cardinals in Rome was split between French and Spanish partisans and so Boeyens, 'the outsider' was selected unanimously  But he died less than two years after election accomplishing very little of the tasks Leo had left undone at his death. In his place, in early summer 1523, another de'Medici was selected. The son of Giuliano de' Medici (the one brother to Lorenzo) who was assasinated in the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 a mere month before young Giulio was born.  A cousin to Leo X, Giulio had spent the last seven years as cardinal protector to England who was then ruled by a young Henry VIII who had been trying to renew treaties with Francis I of France and ended with a non-aggression pact with Emperor Charles V. But that will come later. 

Adrian VI had many pasquinades written about him too.

Just as quickly, back in Venice, the brightness of the Grimani star faded as did that of the dutch pope in Rome. Doge Antonio Grimani died in early 1523 with little done as well. It was his replacement, Andrea Gritti who seemed to speak of the future once again with his energy and experience. But it is his likeness, his image that he is remembered for today.

Sanudo Diaries: December 6, 1523 (35:254-55); "Today, Sunday, was the feast of St Nicholas. The doge, together with the Signoria, the savi, the state attorneys, and the heads of the Ten, went to Mass in the new church of San Nicolo. The doge was dressed in a crimson damask robe with modified ducal sleeves and lined with fox fur.... The doge is responsible for the work, almost completed, at San Nicolo, and there is a very fine portrait of him there painted by Titian that even includes his little amber-colored dog behind him. Also figured in the painting are St Nicholas and the four Evangelists writing the Gospels. [Editors note (p. 457) that all we have left of this is Titian's Madonna with Child and angels. The Titian portrait of doge Gritti is later.] Now that the gilding of the altar has been completed, religious offices were said there yesterday and today. So the old church of San Nicolo will be demolished; it is very beautiful, decorated with paintings, frescoes, and mosaics. At the door there is a marble plaque inscribed with the text of a papal bull issued when ser Lorenzo Celsi was doge [1361-65].... When Mass was over, everyone went home."


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from 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

news from early dec12

Is this really our policy RE: Rwanda and The Congo Democratic Republic?, Ms Rice?

here's the real news network's Paul Jay talking about Central Africa, 13 minutes

more from the bbc on it, longer article with maps

an update on Mali from nervous news out of Morocco, npr 4 minute audio

NATO approved Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to defend it's border against missiles from Syria that have been flying off and on for quite awhile now.

meanwhile, the battle over Damascus is intensifying...

all you need to see to recognize why the coziness between military chiefs, the media and think tanks is a bad idea. It's anti-democratic. Thank goodness Petraeus wasn't serious...

Oh yeah, some say Syria is prepping chemical weapons, Iran says it has captured a US drone and Egypt is in flames from rioting against Morsi's moves this last week. The Egyptian judges have all gone on indefinite strike...

rescue efforts underway in Phillipines in wake of typhoon 

Will Aztec language survive? npr audio 4 min

I am listening to the complete frank zappa catalog as I do every year for the holidays: 4dec-21dec, the days between (and including) the death and birth dates of one of the US' most prolific songwriters with 94 official releases by the end of this year... here's a sinfonia doing some francesco in Torino last year.

Burckhardt, Poggio, On Nobility: an introduction; William Shepherd on The Life of Poggio

I admit. I have taken the time to read the fifth part of Burckhardt's famous Civilization of the Renaissance In Italy at least twice in the last few years. But I need to do it again. It's extraordinarily rich. The section is headed Customs and Festivals and our author lays down the basic claim that society gained a great leveling in the period of the renaissance. It affected everything and everybody, some sooner, some later and to greater and lesser degrees. But nobility in increasing numbers of ways, was no longer the prerequisite for positions of power and influence. The fourteen hundreds in particular are full of examples all over Europe. But then, Burckhardt then asks the basic question, what was nobility. Or rather, what did it mean to those in the period of the Italian Renaissance. 

Jacob Burckhardt lived, died and taught and wrote in the nineteenth century, in Basel, Switzerland. He attributed this social leveling as the product of the advance of humanism on the Italian mind and this as an advance in human civilization.

Quickly in this chapter, after mentioning that Aristotle could both justify and condemn nobility and that Dante wanted to separate both the noble idea (nobile) and noble aspects (nobilita) from birth alone. But Burckhardt also says Dante wanted to show a clear relation between this nobility and philosophy as it was expressed in a high culture bound to moral and intellectual 'eminence'. So much for clarity. 

Just as quickly, Burckhardt tells us that people in the fifteenth century widely believed that birth was no guarantor or decider of goodness or badness in a man. He mentions Poggio's dialogue On Nobility who Burckhardt says agrees with his characters in the dialogue that there is no nobility but that of personal merit.

Following what Poggio's characters spoke of - based on real people - Burckardt goes on to give large textual examples of what the proponents - of nobility, and it's opposite - have to say, telegraphing what they thought in the fifteenth century in a book published in the mid nineteenth century.

But who was Poggio? What did he know? Why single him out of so many others that might have an idea? I had no idea. So for starters, I looked it up. 

The first page of a google search brought up the beginning of a recent review of a new translation of this fifteenth century dialogue. So with that at least I can deduce that scholars were taking him seriously as some kind of source still today.

It's this third time I am reading this fifth part of Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance In Italy (CotRiI - for short) but this is the first time I actually looked up 'Poggio On Nobility' and I'm impressed by the four million references found in .28 seconds by leGoogle.

But really, what does it mean? Ah yes! Who cares what all those old dead white men said a hundred or especially hundreds of years ago?

It turns out they seem to be accurate about each other and about their conditions, their societies, their ideas. As far as we can tell. And it's hard to tell that sometimes even about our own times in our own times. But we can at least recognize that we no longer have nobility anymore as arbiters, deciders, despots, rulers, in most places. And that is a very different picture compared with that of the fifteenth century of Italy. Simply put, if enough people 'believe' or share a common understanding and that simple understanding is communicated and shared and it spreads, then those ideas will prevail and take root and in time, hold sway. There will be battles and advances and retreats and surrenders and victories and losses, but if people believe it and continue to talk and spread the word - whatever it is - eventually it will take hold. And these ideas stretch across centuries. Some good, some necessarily bad for some, all of them in some stage of advancement or retreat in the political realms, somewhere. This is one of the reasons Burckhardt is so revered in history even today. He can talk credibly about these really big ideas that stretch across centuries and his findings still are shown as accurate 115 years after his death.

But why nobility again? For Burckhardt it was because one of his big theories was that the ideas of the renaissance came up with and propelled, gave shape to this very special 'social leveler' among peoples. That this age that has followed has enabled the advancement of peoples by the path, the journey offered through their own merit and not beholden to birth-class or present position in society at large. By implication, the idea of the modern 'pursuit of happiness' has certain preconditions. One of them is that one's birth does not determine the merit or nobility of a person.

But what about Poggio? What about his credentials? Why should he be trusted with having accurate information about his time? Or be able to make sound judgments and think himself so mighty as to be able to write a dialogue about Nobility?

I couldn't find a copy of Poggio's text in english. It has to be purchased. But here is his Facetiae,  I believe. 

He was a secretary, a notary first, then what was called an amanuensis to a cardinal, then the same for a pope. For five popes. He did that - secretary for the pope -  for nearly fifty years, from 1404 - 1452.
At an advanced age he was selected as official historographer for Florence in 1453. He was friends with Cosimo de'Medici and Donatello. So he knew those people and described talks he would have with them or other famous people who were not themselves of noble birth. Just successful. Also, although he worked for the church he was not part of it. The technical term was that he continued to stay as a layperson and not become part of the clergy. He helped his friend Niccolo Nicoli produce what would become the Roman typeset. He sold a manuscript of Livy that afforded him a villa in Val d'Arno SE of Florence. Something like this perhaps.

Anyway, as a secretary Poggio di Duccio was called on to do a number of things besides just being a secretary and researcher of ancient libraries.

In 1837, one William Shepherd had his Life of Poggio published in London. Mr Shepherd gave his own reasons for studying Poggio and even improving on them in multiple editions and explains them and his methodology in clear terms that a modern scholar would recognize and applaud. I'll talk about that some other time as Edwardian scholarship can be delightful. But leaving Shepherd's methodology aside for a moment, let's just look at one story of Poggio from Shepherd's 19th century history.

"The friars whom Poggio satirizes with such severity in his dialogue on Avarice, were a branch of the order of Franciscans, who on account of the extraordinary strictness with which they professed to exercise their conventual discipline, were distinguished by the title of Fratres Observantiae. The founder of this new subdivision of the ecclesiastical order was ... Bernardino, of Siena, who appears by the testimony of Poggia to have been a man of great virtue and of considerable talents. Several of his disciples, however, who were not endued either with his good principles or his abilities, emulous of the reputation which he had acquired by preaching, began also to harangue the people from the pulpit.

Of these self-constituted instructors Poggio has drawn the following striking picture. "Inflated by the pretended inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they expound the sacred scriptures to the populace with such gross ignorance, that nothing can exceed their folly. I have often gone to hear them for the sake of amusement; for they were in the habit of saying things, which would move to laughter the gravest and most phlegmatic man on the face of the earth. You might see them throwing themselves about as if they were ready to leap out of the pulpit; now raising their voices to the highest pitch of fury -- now sinking into a conciliatory whisper -- sometimes they beat the desk with their hands -- sometimes they laughed, and in the course of their babbling they assumed as many forms as Proteus. Indeed they are more like monkeys than preachers, and have no qualification for their profession, except an unwearied pair of lungs."

Though the impudence of these men, which was equal to their folly, disgusted people of good sense, they had numerous partizans and admirers among the populace. Elated by their success, they arrogated to themselves considerable consequence. Some of them, in the pride of their hearts, scorned to hold inferior stations in the convents in which they were established, and solicited the erection of new monasteries, of which their ambition prompted them to expect to become superiors. Scandalized by these irregularities, the assertors of discipline summoned an assembly of the brothers of the Franciscan order from every province of Italy, for the purpose of remedying these evils, which were likely to bring disgrace upon their fraternity. This assembly, which consisted of eighty members, decreed, that a general chapter of their order should be held on the ensuing feast of Pentecost -- that in the interim, six only of the friars should be allowed to preach -- and that no new convent should be erected for the accommodation of the Franciscans, till the pleasure of the above-mentioned general chapter should be known. The task of drawing up these decrees was assigned to Poggio -- a task which it may be presumed he undertook with pleasure, and executed with fidelity. The mortified preachers and their partizans, imagining that Poggio was not only the register, but the author of these unwelcome restrictions, inveighed against his conduct with great bitterness...."

nedits: Soon after a citizen of Florence presented to the brothers a small estate near Arezzo. The monks started building, Poggio told the pope who ordered his bishop to put a stop to this construction. The monks and their partisans...

"... farther excited... indignant, industriously vilified his [Poggio's} character, repre-senting him as an enemy of the Christian faith, and a malignant persecutor of the true believers. Niccolo Niccoli, with his usual impetuosity, gave credit to these accusations, and wrote to Poggio a letter of remonstrance. To this letter Poggio replied, first stating the facts of the case, and then protesting that he was no enemy either to religion or its professors--...."

Direct quotes from The Life of Poggio Bracciolini, by William Shepherd, Printed for Harris Brothers for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, London, 1837, pp. 162-164.  and found in e-book form here.

This happened c. 1430. The story continues of course and I will get back to Burckhardt and what he extracted from Poggio about nobility and more about why this all matters later. And I will return soon to Shepherd's Life of Poggio as well.

Turkish Corsair caught and killed, Barberi map paid for: Sanudo Diaries: December 3, 1501; November 30, 1500

Sanudo Diaries: December 3, 1501: "On the morning of December 3, the scribe from the ship of ser Bortolo da Mosto arrived [in Venice]....

Among other things, this scribe told how Erichi, the Turkish corsair, with three long ships, was raiding the island of Melos at night, and two of the long ships were wrecked, but thanks to the skill of his pilot, his own landed on a beach. And Erichi asked, "Where are we?" The pilot answered: "We are on terra ferma." Erichi said, "Very well, what shall we do?" The pilot said: "We will draw the ship up on the land so we are safe, and then we will go to the castle." And while they were drawing this ship onto the beach, the pilot went to the castle and said: "Open up, because I have brought you a great prisoner! Erichi is here on this island with his ship beached." And first thing that morning, Erichi was captured by the inhabitants with all his men. And he said right away: "Don't kill me, I will deliver Camali into your hands." Nevertheless, he was put to death...."

nedits: The editor's tell us Erichi and Camali were famous corsairs -- that is, pirates who worked for political powers. pp 252-3.

Also, a year and three days earlier, Sanudo makes note of how the famous Barberi map of Venice was paid for.
Sanudo Diaries: November 30, 1500: "To be noted: On the thirtieth of this month a decision was made by the Signoria that since the German merchant Antonio Kolb had incurred great expense in printing [a map of] Venice, which is being sold for three ducats [per copy], he may transport it from the city and carry it away without paying duty."

Editor's note: "The government's grant for a four-year copyright and free export license for the print exists in the archives along with Kolb's statement that he was issuing this view...." p 478.


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from 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

Lent for Peasants, Bonfires for the Vanities: "Peasant Fires"

The peasants of Professor Wunderli followed the calendar and its rhythms in an unbroken string of festivals and holidays in between weeks of work. An uneven schedule that managed he asserts to bind the sacred and profane in ritual on every occasion. This was the normal flow of things, Carnival before Lent was just the natural first expression in the year. The end of winter blowout followed by at least 42 days of fasting. Binge and purge, play the fool maybe and get a little sloppy and then through penance, build dignity and frame it all in sacred structure. And within it remains the disparate and different roles of the elite clergy, the friars and so on, on the one hand and the peasant folks with their roles and humors on the other.

But what is most gracefully placed into this mix of sacred calendric structure, expectations, intentions, and some of class differences is what he calls enchanted time. Fantasy justice - what peasants might wish to happen and which during festival might get to be portrayed temporarily in uproarious, hysterical, hyperbolic buffoonery and then laughed at. Not real justice, fantasy justice and for a limited time. For show and not for real, but to be laughed at and then forgotten. Carnival was fun like that and then it was over. Enchanted time was over, until the next festival. Even Easter or Christmas it was not uncommon to show ridiculous portrayals before mass or during a feast afterwards.Next day, everyone went back to work. Carnival was over and work and penance and Lent lay stretched out for the next six weeks. 

Lent of course in the middle ages was scrupulously kept and all over Europe, ministers and monks, friars and pastors knew their qudragesimale. Forty sermons meant to encourage the fervent with their individual penances. Forty or more different ways to nudge and coax and scold and convince the faithful to abide, to stay strong.

To stay strong, obedient and faithful and not slip back into enchanted time, into temptation.

"The message of Lent was to seek poverty of temporal material goods in order to gain eternal spiritual salvation. For many people in medieval Europe, particularly peasants, poverty was the normal condition of their everyday existence. Lent only justified and sanctified their misery. The great pilgrimage to Niklashausen was preached by a peasant shepherd, Hans Behem, for a peasant audience with the same Lenten message of 'sacred poverty' that friars had preached for centuries." p.29

Since Wunderli thinks the general uprising here was a general one from the surrounding area, he says, and the poverty of a peasant then being what it was, then it must have been their material condition that gave them a 'peculiar worldview' that led them to believe in and follow this shepherd. So because of what he said and their own material condition, they were led to rise up in the way they did. 

During Lent the author describes what peasants didn't have: land, a sword, his own choice in clothing, often the privilege to make one's own decisions for his or her own life. Rent was due before subsistence food, tolls and tithes and taxes, too. The lords could claim it all with brute force if need be. To hunt or fish required privileges barred from peasants. Education too. You want to get to marry or have a child, go ask the lord. So there were many lessons about what peasants couldn't have.

Wunderli chooses the stereotype of the penny-pinching beggar, 'quibbling over farthings' as an apt one for this time and place. A struggle might offer some time with head above water for the many, but only with struggle. More likely they were stricken in disease or accident, bad medicine or the wars of the lords or the markets that came and went disrupting the natural flow of things.  No wonder the peasant was hard at bargaining he says, -- it could mean the difference between survival and the fate of the many fallen.

"A change in routine, say, a gamble on a new crop, might bring a better life, but if it failed, a peasant household could face ruin and starvation. Just as they quibbled at the marketplace, peasants were forced daily to make tough-minded, rational choices over their existence; and their peasant-reason told them to live and farm in the old traditional, way. Peasants had to construct mental hedges around their materially constructed lives to protect themselves from change and disaster." p. 32

The lords saw it as a zero-sum game and so the peasants necessarily had to as well. There was no free land or streams or wood or food or shelter or medicine or education. "The rich prospered only at expense of the poor... if anybody gained in land or food, everybody else was deprived by the same amount.... One eye of the peasant was on available resources and the other on his neighbor's holdings. Land could not expand and grow; it could only be bought and sold or divided among heirs.... if populations increased, as it did after about 1450, then we would expect tensions to have sharpened between neighbors, between peasants and lords, between peasants and non-laboring clergy, as people struggled for land and food." p. 33.

How did they get through it, Wunderli asks on the next page. Together, at least, they had each other. And sermons every day if you could make it there. They lived their lives publicly. Everybody knew when there were pregnancies and marriages and births and deaths. Adultery was dealt with by the community and so were sicknesses. More tensions. histories of tensions. And resolutions. Norms were maintained by laughter as well as scorn and shame. If you had something new you must have stolen it from someone else, so why act so important? In making attitudes real for his audience, he gets right in there. 

The author forces us to ask these questions for the peasant as their words weren't written down. Still, any model he warns us, may include 'stray fragments' of what they said, may come from models based on modern studies about peasants, but also must be based "... on our intuitions of what sort of mental structures might arise from material existence." p. 33.

He sees them as "...trapped, socially, economically, politically, and mentally in their own peasant world of poverty.... a 'culture of poverty'...". p. 34

Of course there was solace in poverty. Homo agricola sum. "I am a farmer" was the beginning of one of Jacques Vitry's Sermones Vulgares, extolling the virtues of poverty as the same as that of the apostles. Yes, famous popular sermons from 200 years before were part of the movement that began with Franciscans and Dominicans and a revolt against material corruption within the church. Hard work, Vitry would say was good but only because it enabled the penance of sin. Poverty was an even older Christian tradition going back to the desert hermits.

"Only the poor could free themselves from dependence on the world in order to be dependent only on God." p. 36.

Poverty was absolutely seen as a Christian value, not a stigma to be rejected. If the poor lived holy lives, like those who took vows of poverty and entered cloisters or nunneries and monasteries, they could still feel dignified in their faith while fretting less about their clothing. Not exactly holy but, like it, aspiring to it, but without the costume. But there were bonfires too in this season to throw out one's worldly goods. Purge senseless dependence, shed the cares of accumulated weight. Give it up for God.

It was still all the rage in Europe in those days for people to give it all up and travel around begging for subsistence as if they themself were God. Male mendicants, female Beguines would ask a favor or an offering or a piece of bread and say a prayer, a rosary or promise to. Everywhere from place to place. They practiced poverty as did the hermits and those gathered together in convents and monasteries if that was their order.They gave example as to what poverty was supposed to look like. Wunderli suggests, many travelling friars liked to lampoon and make mockery of authority figures. p. 37.

Our author calls this a 'cult of poverty' that ran through the length of Christianity tracing its way back to Christ and continuing in the present with sects like the Franciscans and Dominicans. Franciscans had developed their preaching and in time diverged internally with Conventuals and Observants who either did or did not own property. The Observants were those who did not own property and by their own admission were thus closer to the sacred ideal of poverty. Thus closer to God. The Franciscans and Dominicans were also devotees of and expounders of the cult of Mary. This is the time when, Wunderli tells us the cult of poverty crossed paths with the actual culture of poverty. [p.39]

It had long been the practice of travelling friars to come and preach against worldliness.  John of Capistrano was one in the generation before who preached in Nurnburg. Tens of thousands came to hear him. The visits ended with giant bonfires with the crowds encouraged to cast off their worldly extras. Savonarola would do much the same in the generation after.

All quotes from  Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen by Richard Wunderli, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1992.

Cold Winter, Hot monied-partisans; Sanudo Diaries: November 27, 1517

There was a famine in 1527. The following winter came early and got cold that year too.

Sanudo Diaries: "November 26, 1527 (46:326) It was very cold in the morning and began to snow rather heavily, but then the snow stopped and the wind died down.... 

Item: the extreme cold of the last few days caused the deaths of several tramps and galleymen staying under the porticoes in Piazza San Marco and at Rialto, who were also starving." p. 326.

______________________________________________________________________________

A year after the time Sanudo was complaining about how the city of Venice was accepting loans in exchange for public office, a practice that had been going on in truth for some time, one former state treasurer, ...

Editor's note: 'Zuan Emo was accused of stealing as much as 28,000 ducats of state funds.  Charged with sedition, being a tyrant' "... and the 'worst administrator committing public and private theft' (23:88-89), he was banished to Crete. Thereupon his father, Zorzi Emo, began an intensive campaign over the next six years, offering monetary compensation, volunteering to resign his procuratorship, and making tearful speeches and urgent pleas (he wore a beard in mourning for his absent son) in the attempt to get his son's sentence lifted or commuted (24:585, 633). Each entry in the diaries outlines the offers made, such as this one, one year after the original crime surfaced and the ban was declared:" pp. 146-7.

Sanudo Diaries: "November 27-28, 1517 (25:112, 113-4)  After dinner there was a meeting of the Council of Ten with the zonta. The relatives of ser Zuan Emo tried to negotiate a deal, believing that the heads of the Ten wished to consider his pardon, as ... one of the heads promised to do in the last Council of Ten meeting. However, there was no time and nothing was done ---.

[The next day] the bill, or rather pardon, of ser Zuan Emo, son of ser Zorzi, knight and procurator, was read .... He is in exile, and his father is petitioning in his name to loan our Signoria 6,000 ducats in cash for two years... or else to give the Signoria 2,000 ducats outright so that he may have his banishment lifted and he allowed to return home. There are other clauses involving the payment of whatever money he took from the Signoria, and his father will give surety of this in the amount of 8,000 ducats."

nedits: The editors say the entreaties continued until a bill was passed that such entreaties should also be fined. Zuan Emo came back and was receiving visitors at San Zuan Polo, called San Zanipolo today. A new decree went out saying church priors who were hiding outlaws could themselves be fined and banished. But the year after that amnesty was proposed. And by the end of the next year, 1523, he had moved back into his home (35:202) and in December, Zuan Emo had resumed his seat in the Great Council (35:302). pp. 147-8

______________________________________________________________________________

November 27, in 1508 was also the day Sanudo's wife 'Cecilia died after an illness of forty-nine days. May God grant her rest and peace'. That's all he says (7:672-73). They had been married under four years. p. 39,

all quotes, editor's notes, from  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

news from mid-late nov12

Lots of npr and this american life this week. Of course the Ken Burns piece in two parts on the dust bowl was great. Speaking of bowl games...

what is success in education? East and west may view this differently, npr audio 8 min

BooRadley has a great article comparing Bradley Manning to the whistleblower over the MyLai massacre in 1968...

If you don't know, Firedoglake has been tracking Bradley Manning's story from the earliest. Kevin Gozstola has been at every court hearing and opportunity the press has been given to try to see what's up with Bradley. This is what journalism is for, to shine a light on the whistleblowers and malcontents who get arrested so that people can know what's being done to us in their name while their collective civil rights are violated because we don't always get to hear until afterward when one of these have lost theirs. Jane and Dan Choi almost got arrested for going along with the MP to offer gifts. Crazy! So pitch K G a couple bucks or buy a t-shirt. They're even stylish and American made. I want one of the fleeces. They've also got it set up so you can donate stuff for Occupy Supply helping Sandy refugees... it sux too because many people are tapped out across the country: after the election season, before xmas...

"Loopholes' is an hour long documentary style discussion of ethics issues involving death, very interesting, from this american life, aired in August, 58 min audio

If subsidizing 401k's aren't successful, and they aren't, then why do it with taxpayers money?

Rep. FL - Alan Grayson explains how Congress letting Wal-Mart pay low wages and no benefits makes them the biggest subsidized employer in america. "And that's just the start!" Hhahahahahahahahahaahahhahaha!

listening to the SCOTUS questions and arguments over 'Who's a boss' is embarassing and agonizing. 5 min audio

Powderkeg of a story over natural gas drilling in Cyprus. The proponents keep saying over and over, 'The eastern mediterranean is a hydrocarbon treasure.' 4 min audio

quick rundown of conflict in Congo from the AP's Pete Jones

Again this week's This American Life is great. People reconcile personal history and place with the present and past injustices. In Minnesota over the Dakota Wars of 1862. 54 min audio

And a link to their 'Red State Blue State' show which was great, 56 min

"Peasant Fires" by Richard Wunderli, What Is History?

When I finally did start this book of the drummer in Germany, from the start I took a shine to it. Right up front the author Richard Wunderli lets us know how he sees his subject and reveals his process transparently and in that a useful one for others who might be historians. As good as any at hand, for right now. Nice to see a good example pop up out of another random book acquisition. A friend who has no interest in the subject gave it to me when he heard I was studying the medieval/renaissance period. Lucky for me, another gem falls into my reading windscreen. It just happens that way. Here he is,

"What I am about to tell is Hans' story, but it is also about how we think about Hans and history, how we make sense of the historical forces that shaped and molded his existence.... The young shepherd boy appears to me as a roughly cut jewel on which a beam of light is concentrated: its irregular facets break up the light to illuminate the surrounding darkness in beautiful and unexpected ways.

Today we have little evidence with which to reconstruct the story of Hans Behem and his pilgrimage to Niklashausen: a few documents and scattered bits of indirect information which were prepared by people with their own peculiar notions of reality. And we have modern historians with their own assumptions about reality who try to make sense of the evidence by using reason, knowledge and imagination. Historians interpret the documents; historians interpret each other; historians interpret themselves as a factor in other interpretations.

Throughout this book I have quoted extensively from the surviving documents in order to force readers to join with me in making sense of them, that is, to become inquisitive of the documents and of my interpretations.

The process of making sense out of the past is like describing an image as seen through a series of distorted mirrors: each mirror reflects the image into another distorted mirror as each mirror reshapes ''reality.'' Out of the puzzling set of reflections and refractions, we construct an idealized, coherent picture of what happened. To change the metaphor, we construct a narrative or melody line of events, joined with analytical accents or accompaniment to give the narrative depth and texture. The narrative, then, becomes our past reality. We impose coherence on chaos." pp. 5-6.

from Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen by Richard Wunderli, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1992.

Just prior to this the author explains that to study history is to want to learn what it means to be human. I agree this is a primary motivation for me and my interest in history as well. "No barriers, no preconceived notions should stop us. We must comprehend the material world of climate, disease, production, and reproduction, as well as the mental world of myth, religion, fantasy, stories, and dreams."

It all goes in the big story. They are idealized notions and have to be because our picture is incomplete and necessarily shallow. We sift and verify data and evidence, continually comparing with known and unknown contexts. Then we go back and compare again with more context and background, asking questions all the while. Then we try to tell it as a story that people might listen or look at. The names were people, their cares were human, their losses and gains were personal.

The story was that a young peasant shepherd saw a vision of the virgin Mary early in 1476 who told him to renounce his goods - a drum and flute - and go to town and tell others there what she would then inspire him to say. He does and tells the villagers to throw out their worldly goods, renounce wealth of whatever kind and then accept that all the world is God's gift for all of us. Not just the property of landlords or the state or the church. After many visitations and preaching before the people and even a call to arms, Hans Behem was captured, tortured and burnt at the stake by the authorities in July.

These seem to be the facts of the story. But as far as we can tell these facts were assembled nearly forty years after they took place. Mostly by Johann Trithemius bishop of Sponheim. This is a problem right from the start and as Professor Wunderli points out we also don't know necessarily how Trithemius assembled his info. It's great that the author is so clear about all this as he then turns to the wealth of other contextual information about those times giving example after example showing how a peasant or clergy member or bishop might see things and how their world-view was constructed. This seems difficult but here is where the author succeeds best by being plain.

The book is structured as following the holy calendar from spring to summer, like most people did in that place and time, following the festival and holy days. From Shrove Tuesday, then through Lent, Easter, the local Walpurgisknacht - a summer feast, Corpus Christi, the feast of Assumption and the feast of St Margaret. Each holiday, interrupting the constant work of spring and summer, for peasants was a welcome one. Each holiday was another step in Hans Behem's success and popularity. Each step you learn a little more about this or that aspect or inhabitant of their world. Each step is shown how different people must have had different take-away's, different understandings and different choices and responses to what they saw or heard. These in turn were interpreted differently and so on. By the end of this little book we are shown how the story of Hans Behem as a whole was explained differently at different times for different audiences. But all the while you feel pulled into that world, each local example of how they did things or saw things becomes a glimpse of another avenue to look down and explore further.

But then the book is done and I was left with a bad taste for the church officials and a greater sense of identification or even, a virtual pain precisely because the peasant is all of us who has little left to defend themselves by or with or on. Except sometimes in history.

Troubled times: 1483; Innocent VIII; Intro to a drummer in Niklashausen

The year 1483 was another tumultuous one for many kingdoms and city-states across Europe. The king of France Louis XI died but his chosen heir Charles VIII was only thirteen years old, so he was 'kept' as regent by his elder sister Anne, later called Madame la Grande who was only twenty-two at the time herself.

In England, Edward IV died and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester took and then wrestled for the throne. The clouds of doom were already gathering around him though. He was the one people would remember as Richard III.

In Germany, Maximillian was permitted joint rule of the Holy Roman Empire with his father Ferdinand III. More active than his father, Maximillian would try to increase their Roman Empire first in Burgundy, then Holland and then, at length, in Italy. They tried to extend their dominion through marriages and armed conflict.
It was in 1483 that Charles of France would be betrothed to Margaret, daughter of Maximillian. So as a child, Margaret was queen of France until the age of eleven when Charles married someone else for other acquisitions, namely Brittany.

The Inquisition got going strongly this same year with the appointment of Tomas Torquemada in Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella.

In Rome, the Sistine chapel was consecrated and high mass was celebrated for the first
time there on the feast of Assumption by pope Sixtus IV as the chapel was dedicated to the virgin Mary.

Of course the war on Ferrara continued in north Italy. In September of that year there was a great fire - started by a stray candle - that destroyed the eastern wing of the Ducal Palace in Venice.

At least from this point in time things would seem to more rapidly spin out of control and more and more areas would be affected by war, changing leadership, changing priorities until all would be rearranged (c. 1530) by an emperor who as a child, spent a good deal of time under the same Margaret's guardianship. But his reign is still nearly forty years in the future.

The lives of the emperors and their court and activities, personalities, failings and successes did have a tremendous effect on people at large through all of these times. But it is hard to talk about those links because that runs the risk of getting tangled up in long discussions of wars and marriage alliances and brokerings and break-ups. Like with Margaret and Charles. The ramifications could be teased out endlessly without learning much. Better to have a guide or learn to be armed with good questions before plunging into the swamps of speculation surrounding motivations of marriage alliances.

Instead, the popes had other ambitions toward establishing stability and certainty across Christendom. The pope after that della Rovere Sixtus IV, was Giovanni Batista Cibo, called Innocent VIII who also tried to enforce some stability in Italy and elsewhere during his time as Father of the Church. He granted some impossible marriages, he went after the failings of King Ferdinand of Naples. He also went after witches in Germany, Waldensians elsewhere and gave support to the Inquisition in Spain. He also seemed not to mind slavery, the easy dispersal of indulgences and the near selling of certain offices of the church. Sixtus IV had made him cardinal and so from 1473 - 1484 he lived in Rome. But before that he had been bishop of Savona near Genoa. This background may have had much to do with his attitude on activities such as slavery, witches, demons, simony, corruption. He was also deemed by Sixtus IV's nephew, Giuliano della Rovere to be pliant enough for his uses. This della Rovere would become Julius II, 'the warrior pope'.

Cibo, Innocent VIII, became famous for his bull against witches and warlocks in Germany. Within three months of accession he sent a pair of crusaders to counter such terrible threats. Just one example of those threats was a drummer dedicated to the virgin Mary, east of Mainz, deep in the forest, 1476, just a few years before. In a very quick spring this rustic - this drummer - had established himself as a great preacher who could attract and direct huge crowds and pilgrimages gaining much notoriety, prestige and offerings. Offerings that otherwise, presumably would have gone to the church. This could not be allowed.

This one example of a start-up independent preacher should not be seen as causing the pope's reaction or even the 'last straw'. In fact they may not be at all directly related. We are not likely to know. But funding or the lack of it still remains, broadly, one of the over-arching reasons for quashing or encouraging such start-ups. The other is simply a strategy, logistics in control of populations, and the two still go well together.

This point is plainly driven home in Richard Wunderli's short but revealing 1992 book The Drummer of Niklashausen.

news from 19nov12

In the wake of all the silliness around the General Petraeus story (and the realization that, if for instance, the FBI can read the CIA director's email then what else can they do) and the furor over the endless seemingly quixotic search for culprits in the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack or its messengers, then, it might be good to look around at what else fits this pattern of ... what is it? Information overload, sifting the wheat from the chaff, calling balls and strikes, finding context or what all else this may mean? This is all part of what I've seen is a big part of the internet's overall credibility problem.
It both is and it isn't, but how to tell?
We hear both.
"Where'd you hear that, the internet?"
This is commonly understood as calling someone out on bogus sourcing. But people forward things they find on facebook all the time despite dubious sourcing and people don't have to apologize for failing to double-check. We get it. And yet, we are constantly bombarded by so much infos out there that is immediate, well-sourced and highly relevant. You have to learn to know and trust the sources and how to both see and weed through them all.

A great example here of how we are living in an information-driven age. The anon letter whether 'real' or not, to Karl Rove is a hoot. The letter on that site labeled Benghazi purportedly is from Sen. Harry Reid to Sen. John McCain last week. Remarkable!

This purports to be evidence that Honeywell don't like them no unions

This guy in the Atlantic asks why investment income isn't taxed like regular income. The answer is because it is unregulated. Why isn't it regulated? If you ask Sen. Chuck Schumer, who knows, he'll say instead it's because no one can agree on rates. Which is basically only half true. PBS has a show relating this week on Park Avenue...

Meanwhile DDay and bloomberg says finance industries off-balance sheet shadow banking practices grow unabated since 2008 collapse

The Guardian reports some are heading for special dividend payouts before the end of the year, in case we go over the fiscal cliff and Bush-era tax-cuts and exemptions disappear

Fannie and Freddie got a $140 bn bailout and can't pay it back

and in Adventure's of Intellectual Curiosity ... the word on The Street says the disconnect between Hostess and the unions is how to 'privatize pensions'. Sun Capital has also expressed interest in the Hostess Brand but has a record of wiping pension plans from the rolls and the national law review even says this law office has a record of how to do that. So maybe not a rumor.

Debunking one myth of the glories of privatized services. They're not always more efficient in dealing with disasters like Sandy...

Karoli at C&L thinks Republican Gov's who refuse Health Care Act or the expansion of medicare actually help enable single-payer...

Can Catalonia,  may Catalonia secede from Spain?

Tonight I watch the Ken Burns piece on the Dust Bowl

Ercole d'Este reconciles with Venice: Sanudo Diaries: November 19, 1497

nedits: Several years after the events of and following the war on Ferrara, now the Marquis Ercole d'Este I was warmly received in Venice along with a great number of other visiting notables.

Editor's note: "The doge's role as ceremonial head of the government consisted largely in the reception of important visitors. Along with the rituals of governmental processes and judicial procedures, state receptions served the mystique of Venetian power, expressing the Venetian ethos and reaffirming Venetian self-esteem.... Among the earliest receptions described in Sanudo's accounts was the visit in 1497 of Ercole I, the Duke of Ferrara, to Doge Agostino Barbarigo. This was a visit of reconciliation, for Ercole had fought a bitter war against Venice in 1482-84, and in 1494-95 he had given the invading French king, Charles VIII, free passage through his territories. Now the duke sought an alliance with Venice, putting aside his french connections (and fashions) and demonstrating his loyalty to the doge...." pp. 67-8

Sanudo Diaries: November 19, 1497: (1:820-21); "On November 19, Duke Ercole de la ca' di Este, the Marquis of Ferrara, arrived in this city with his second son, don Ferrante, who had been at court and on the payroll of the king of France. The duke was accompanied by about two hundred people, most of whom were no longer wearing French styles, as they used to, but Spanish and Ferrarese styles. Don Ferrante, who is a very handsome young man, was also dressed in the Spanish style."

Editor's footnote: "Don Ferrante had been in France since 1493, receiving an annual pay of 13,000 ducats and the title of royal chamberlain from Charles VIII. He had accompanied Charles into Italy in 1494, but now, since August 1497, as part of the duke's reconciliation with Venice, he had been ordered by his father to leave the french court and accompany him to Venice, where he was to be invested with the title condottiere della Republic di San Marco (military captain in the service of the Venetian Republic)." p. 68

Sanudo, con't: "Several patricians were sent to Chioza to receive the duke honorably. He did not bring a large barge with him, but came on smaller flat-bottomed boats. He was honorably welcomed by Beneto Trevixan, knight and governor of Chioza. He was also accompanied by Bernardo Bembo, knight and doctor, who is our visdomino in Ferrara."

Editor's footnote: "Bernardo Bembo (1453-1519) was a distinguished patrician, senator, and ambassador and father of Pietro Bembo.... After the war of Ferrara ended in 1484, Venice exercise a kind of protectorate over Ferrara, with Venetian authority represented there by a resident Venetian consul known as a visdomino." p. 68.

nedits: Pietro Bembo would get the contract for writing the official history of Venice for the years 1487-1513. As official historian, Sanudo commented, Bembo was given 200 ducats a year for housing and nothing else. Of course this was a position Sanudo wanted. Bembo produced three volumes on that as well as love poetry, a treatise on Italian grammar and much else. He also became the secretary of Leo X the de'Medici pope.... and Bembo would also feature as a character in Baldessar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier which I'll talk about later, in the right context.

Sanudo con't: "When they reached Malamocho, they found the patricians who had been sent there to greet them, as is customary. The Senate had decreed that that [the city officials] would go to meet him in the Bucintoro, so today, which is Sunday, the doge and the ambassador of Spain (although he was in mourning for the king's only son), as well as the ambassadors of Naples, Milan, Monferrato, Rimini, and Pisa, went forth. Also attending were the members of the Signoria, many richly dressed patricians, and knights wearing cloth of gold. Because of the lateness of the hour and the tide, the Bucintoro went as far as Sant' Antonio, where it met the boats from Chioza bearing the aforementioned duke. "

Editor's footnote: "Sant' Antonio is on the Pellestrina litoral between Chiogga and Venice." p. 68.

Sanudo con't: "When they had disembarked on the Piazzetta, the doge greeted the duke warmly. The duke was wearing a floor-length, tight-sleeved robe of black damask lined with marten. Over it he wore a cape of black cloth because he is in mourning for his daughter, the Duchess of Milan [Ed. footnote: Beatrice d'Este , 22, wife of Ludovico Sforza, died Jan'97]; on his head was a cap of black velvet. After boarding the Bucintoro, they proceeded along the Grand Canal until they reached his house, which had been prepared for him...."

Editor's footnote: "This house, the Casa del Marchese, was a palazzo given to Nicolo d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara, in 1381, confiscated from the Estensi in 1482, as it would again in 1509. In 1497 it could still be referred to as belonging to the duke. Later it was given to Julius II and used by several papal legates thereafter until it was again restored to the Estensi in 1527.... It was often used by the government for high-ranking guests. In 1621 it became the Fondaco del Turchi." p. 69

nedits: This is a really glorious building. If you google map search Fundaco del Turchi, it will bring up Ca San Giorgio, the house next door. So zoom in and then flip it with the directional dial so N - for north - is on the bottom of the dial. This will give you a view of this amazing gothic relic. It has had rehab in the last century to redo the front like it must have been in Sanudo's day. I'm amazed I can't find it anywhere else under that name on the web... I have even heard recently that United Colors of Benetton are considering purchasing this building to be their world headquarters..

Sanudo con't: "When they had disembarked, the doge accompanied him as far as his chamber, where he left him to his repose.

On the morning of the following day, the 20th, the duke was joined by the knights and patricians who had been sent to bring him to the public audience on flatboats. When he reached the Piazza San Marco, our doge, along with the members of the Signoria, in order to give the duke every sign of affection, came out to meet him on the landing of the stairs to the tribunal. The doge grasped the duke's hand and led him to sit near him, with the duke's son on his left. The duke then spoke some very sweet words, saying that he wished to be a more devoted son to this state, offering himself, etc. And the doge skillfully responded to him publicly in a voice that could be heard by all. After the duke took his leave, he returned to his dwelling.

On the 21st, after dinner, the doge, together with the members of the Signoria and many patricians, went on flatboats to the marquis's house to visit the Duke of Ferrara. Then just the duke and the visdomino went to the Ducal Palace to speak in private with the doge. Thus did the duke begin to repent, protesting his desire to be a good and loyal son of this Signoria."

_____________________________________________________________________________

All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from 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