When I was typing this 17april12, there was news of the last flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery to a museum in DC. Pictures from the guardian.co.uk
Today two entries, two years and three days apart on ship launches.
One for defense and one for politics and defense that turned into a disastrous preemptive offense.
Every year new ships put out, and not just on the official rounds.
These couple of stories about ships as defense and (a Grimani put in charge of an) offense are straightforward accounts of what was the status quo then and so, will act as preparation to the longer story about annual trade and specifically pepper, which itself was essential in its own way.
Venice was wed to the sea: lying along the northern rim of the Adriatic, the city owed its trade, its livelihood and her chief protection from invaders to that Sea. This cannot be overstated in any mention of Venice or what happened there. At the head of the Adriatic, behind the dunes of the Lido, yet separate enough from the mainland to fend off any land-based army, the floating city had worked her way into a position of long-lasting power and economic control of the Mediterranean as a whole, because of that Sea. Boats then were as round-bottomed as possible in order to move as much material as possible, but were hard to manage at sea in bad weather, as a result. So there had to be big convoys that all went at the same time conveying things of all sorts of value. This meant they had to have an escort and that, chiefly when the weather was good. Spring and fall mostly to capitalize on the trade winds that rotated first one way, then the other, to send ships out and bring them home. Hugging close to shore, upon leaving Venice, they would first reach Istria and after a few days, Split, then Durazzo and then Corfu before launching farther east and south along the Greek shoreline. Returning home they would follow the Italian shore or put in at Brundisi if the northerly headwinds were too strong.
And on the following day, the other state ship, whose shipmaster is Daniel Pasqualigo, armed with 300 men, also set sail. This great round ship of the captain had a capacity of 2000 botte; its sails could be seen at a great distance, and it looked like a castle upon the waters.
...the Senate commissioned this ship to sail to the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf together with the other round ship, the Pasqualiga, to protect the ships of Syria, which had already been anchored for several days near the harbor awaiting those two round ships as escorts. Once this captain has arrived at the mouth of the gulf, he is to sail in the direction of Sicily to protect the grain ships, and he is to remain near Cao Bon [NE tip of Tunisia] for all the coming July, pursuing and preying upon corsairs and enemies of our Signoria. Then he is to leave and go to the east. And the Pasqualiga ship alone is to go to escort the ships from Syria, because at present there are no reports of pirates roaming about the Levant. And in this way the trade routes of east and west have been provided for."
Sanudo Diaries, taken from Venice , cita excelentissima : selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll, p. 251.
______________________________
Sanudo Diaries, Editor's Note: p. 243:
"During the spring of 1499, as the Turkish fleet prepared for war and Venetian banks faltered and failed, the Venetian government tried to ready its forces and find funds to pay for them. On April 12 the savi and four of the councillors ... proposed to the Senate that the Great Council elect a captain general of the sea to lead the Venetian naval forces against the Turks. "And ser Antonio Grimani went to the podium and excused himself, saying he did not wish to be made captain at this time. He offered [instead] to meet the need and to arm ten galleys with his own funds".[2:613] Two days later, in spite of his disclaimer, Antonio Grimani was easily elected captain general [2:619-20]. And a week after that election he appeared prominently in public, resplendent in his naval garb, and standing next to a counter stacked high with coins, he made good his offer to hire the crews and arm the ships."
April 21, 1499: Sanudo Diaries 2:637-8: "Sunday in the Collegio. The doge, with the ambassadors and the usual ceremonies, that is, [accompanied by] patricians, went to San Ziminian at the head of the Piazza.. This solemnity should take place on the morning of Pentecost Sunday, but it occurred today."
Editor's footnote: "Pentecost was on 19 May, the Seventh Sunday after Easter, which was on 31 March that year. In this case, the ceremony may have been advanced into April to assert the stability of government and the reliability of its political and military representatives, that is, the doge and the captain General, so to assuage anxiety about the bank, a not unusual use of religious ceremony to serve a political purpose. San Germignano was the church at the western end of the Piazza.It was later destroyed by Napoleon to permit a grander entrance to the Piazza."
Sanudo: "And also today, as soon as the doge had been accompanied to the Ducal Palace and after the ambassadors departed, ser Antonio Grimani, procurator, captain general, dressed in crimson velvet, with a velvet cap, came down the stairs in the midst of procurators, councillors, knights, and others, so that whoever had accompanied the doge went on to accompany the captain general to the opening of the recruitment bench. On the counter, for the manning of the ships, were five piles of gold ducats of different sorts, including Venetian, ... so that the total was said to be 40,000. Grimani's sons were seated there; the captain general stayed awhile, then left, and everyone went home."
Editor's Note: "Griman's fate would take a sharp downturn a few months later when he led the naval forces to a shocking defeat, but at this moment his popularity stood high, and it would return later to carry him toward the highest office." p. 244
Venice , cita excelentissima : selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo edited by Patricia H LaBalme, Laura Sanguineti White, translated by Linda L Carroll
No comments:
Post a Comment