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

War on Ferrara shakes up Italian politics: 1482-84

The Italian Guerra di Ferrara

A story of three men, three big cities and three smaller cities and the pope will help reveal more of the inter-relatedness and interconnectedness of the players in our period.

In 1480 Girolomo Riario was ruler of Imola near the eastern seaboard of Italy, south of Ferrara, east of Bologna and due west of Ravenna. Most of the landscape that spread east and north of Imola was marsh or salt mines and land reclaimed from marsh. Famously these same marshes had kept the Huns and the Goths, the Lombards away from each other so well that Justinian named them as property for the Catholic Church centuries before.
By the fifteenth century, Pope Sixtus IV wanted to increase the size of the papal states which did still include Rimini and Ravenna but very little of the lands around them. Girolamo Riario was the son of Beatrice della Rovere and also the nephew of Sixtus IV and acted in these days as his Captain General overseeing the papal armies. He was the military arm of the pope, as such things were needed then.  This same Girolamo Riario was also one of the conspirators in the recent plot against the de Medici of Florence. He's lucky he got away. But after a couple years he was looking to help his uncle in other areas. In short order Riario took nearby Forli and asked his uncle the pope to condone it. He did and next Riario turned his attention to Ferrara.

There is little confusion in the record as to his or the pope's intentions but, Ferrara and Venice by their actions help us understand what these might be. The duke of Milan was interested and so was Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. The pope wanted to increase his revenue and power in Italy. Traditionally there had been papal holdings in Ravenna and along the coast and then,  turning south over the mountains, a broad swath of lands and cities loyal to the papcy could almost stretch it's way to Rome. All of these had been contested in some way since Roman times. So for the current papacy, increasing control over these areas would indeed be a boon in establishing some kind of control, along the highways, and in the towns, with loyal captains who could facilitate all manner of deeds.

It is also just another example of how individual actors in the right places and with the right backing could upset the careful balance of decades of peace, centuries of protocol and mutually assured sovereignty. Though not the first, Sixtus IV, a proud exponent of his family the della Rovere clan, continued and helped make 'traditional' the pattern of recruiting favorites or relatives to the increasingly important position of Captain-General.

One such captain with this title of Captain-General that won greater autonomy for the papacy was Roger I, son of Louis VIII and brother of St Louis in the thirteenth century. He had wrestled control of the kingdom of Naples and held on to it as a city and a force capable of protecting the pope and his interests from all external incursions by any other force or power.

This became a traditional role, that the king at Naples would fulfill - with a few exceptions - for nearly 200 years. But by the later end of the 1400's, the pattern had been disrupted. For one thing a descendant of the House of Aragon had taken and held Naples and his illegitimate son, in turn, Ferdinand I held it until 1494. For one reason or other the Aragons and Ferdinand had reasons to disagree with the wishes of the pope and by the time of the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 they had plenty of reasons to think worse.

There are three men and three small cities in this story. Girolomo Riario, Duke of Imola as well as now, controlling Forli, is one actor and two of the cities. Ferdinand I, was king of the not-so small Naples, the pope Sixtus IV was at Rome, the Venetians in Venice. So who was left? Ercole d'Este I was proclaimed Duke of Ferrara in 1471 by Pope Paul II though the duchy had already been in his family for centuries. It was situated as it was at the head of the delta of the river Po that drained into the head of the Adriatic, and was nearly surrounded by salt marshes. Not just any salt marshes but the ones where Venice had held the salt mine monopoly for centuries. By the time Girolomo Riario took Forli, Ercole d'Este had been slowly taking parts of this area for ten years and Venice would turn around and take it back. 

I say 'took' Forli, but in fact, Riario gained it through marriage by wedding Caterina Sforza, an arrangement set up as a generous gift of the Duke of Milan for his daughter's dowry and condoned by his uncle, pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere. When they were married, Riario became not just the husband of the daugter of the Duke of Milan, but also ruler of Forli as well as Imola, perfectly placed to halt any actions by the duke of Ferrara with regard to the salt marshes. 

This was potentially important not least of which because Duke Ercole d'Este was married to the daughter of the king of Naples, Ferdinand I of the House of Aragon. It was possible that if Bologna stayed neutral and Venice could be enlisted to help, that Ferrara and the salt mines could be crushed in between Riario in the south and Venice's force in the north. And with the right outcomes, Rome could extend their papal lands as well as a firmer peace with Venice and not have to worry about Naples or his forces intervening. That was the theory.

So it was one of those consequential footfalls when everyone heard the story of a priest in Ferrara that was jailed there by the Venetian visdomino in 1481 for not paying a debt. Somebody had to look after the interests of Venetians in Ferrara as anywhere else so, as in many other places, a visdomino -- 'force-master' -- was placed in these various places to make sure Venice or, at least her representative could have a say in the day to day happenstance that might come up. Like a foreign consulate or embassy, the visdomino could be a real help to those Venetians abroad and distressed. Not this time. The vicar of the bishop of Ferrara excommunicated the visdomino from the Republic of Ferrara and threw him out of the city.

Word spread and very soon the lists of antagonists formed up.

The pope and Girolomo Riario took the side of Venice, but so did Genoa and the Marquis de Montferrat showing France's interest in the matter.

Ferrara and Ercole d'Este of course was aided by his brother-in-law Alfonso II son and heir to the king of Naples and recent victor over the Turks in Otranto, so a seasoned captain. But the allies and other friends of Ferrara quickly grew and agreeing to be led by Federico da Montefeltro included neighbors like Ludovico il Moro, duke of Milan, Federico Gonzaga of Mantua and Giovanni Bentivoglio of next-door Bologna.

From the outset, the conflict was dominated by Venice who in a few months had taken the area around the works at Commachia and laid siege to Ferrara.

Alfonso II of Naples -- at this time the duke of Calabria -- had approached from the south but was soundly defeated by Roberto Malatesta the lord of Rimini commanding the Venetian forces. On August 17, 1482 Rovigo had capitulated to Venice, but on August 21, Alfonso barely escaped with his life and the Battle of Campo Morto  near Velletri went in the history books as a major loss for the prestige of Naples. But Malatesta had caught fever in the swamps so it is said, as did so many in that season of war and he died in September.

The pope it is said, was shocked at the advancement of Venice and began insisting they stop their attacks. They refused and continued their siege of Ferrara. By early summer of 1483, the pope had reversed position, put an interdict on the Republic of Venice, and had already finalized a peace treaty with Naples in December '82.

The siege in Ferrara dragged on though and Venice wrote to the new king of France, Charles VIII asking, that if he might want to come take his undeniable inheritance of Naples, now might be a good time to do it. It took him ten years. The war up north meanwhile was good for the della Rovere family and it's hold on Rome too as many longtime adversaries were at least partly overcome, like the Orsini, and Colonna families in Rome. Out in the field, Alfonso's army began ransacking Visconti and Sforza strongholds and Venice was caught up in it as well attacking Milan's fortresses. Everyone seemed distracted.

In 1484 negotiations sprang anew and by August a peace treaty was signed. The treaty of Bagnola was a victory for Venice. She got to keep Rovigo, much of the Po delta and was welcomed back into the church. Ercole d'Este could rebuild his city into something stronger and after such a great humiliation, in time, he could carry more dignity. He would stay neutral in the Italian Wars for the rest of his life and be a patron of the arts and correspond with Savonarola. He died at the age of 74 leaving his city to his son who in turn ruled it for thirty years. So Ferrara besieged, nearly dismantled would continue.

Five days after the treaty of Bagnola, Sixtus IV died after complaining that he didn't get to agree on a final version and that the treaty was too lenient on Venice. Lord Norwich repeats the one about Sixtus IV, sick in bed received word of the treaty and called it 'full of disgrace and confusion.'  Girolomo Riario retreated in time to Imola and Forli. His wife temporarily took and held Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome after Francesco's death for safe-keeping and stayed there until she got word that her husband's assets were still intact.  It was only then that she herself returned to Forli where she then became legend as the last independent Lady of Forli. Her own story really is a great one -- if we only knew. Girolomo himself, the last of those Pazzi conspirators against the de'Medici still left alive, was assassinated in Forli in 1488. Caterina continued to defend her city. After her death, both Imola and Forli fell into Spanish possession.

In 1485 Ferdinand I king of Naples suffered a revolt at the hands of his nobles. The rebellion was crushed and the conspirators after having been promised amnesty were killed. The last ten years of his life were not peaceful and the negotiations with Milan and Pope Alexander VI may have wore him out as he died before Charles VIII of France could try and take him. Don Ferrante was 70 years old and had been king of Naples for nearly 36 years.

Three men, the king of Naples, the Duke of Ferrara and the duke of Imola, Captain General of the pope. Three cities, Ferrara, Imola, Forli, a pope and Venice.

Acqua Alta, War Reports: Sanudo Diaries: November 16, 1517, 1509

In addition to fighting in Syria, Gaza, Israel, the strikes all over Europe this week and the economic instability underlying the entire region, they have also been hit by some very big storms. Floods are reported all over but especially in Italy and Venice that here at the end of the week are said to begin to recede. The Atlantic has a big bunch of photos this week at their blog.

So today in Sanudo's Venice two reports on two occasions, both of the same day and both relating to our present circumstances: bad weather and war reports.

Editor's note: "...like all urban blights, they were harder on the poor than on anyone else. Sanudo described such an acqua alta in 1517:" p. 328.

Sanudo Diaries: November 16, 1517: (25:84); "Monday morning, the 16th. Because it rained heavily during the night and in the morning, and there was a high sirocco in the morning, about tierce the water rose very high in the city, the highest it has been in many years. The Piazza San Marco on the Grand Canal side and Rialto and all the walks were full of water. It was almost impossible to move about on land and even more so by boat because of the bridges, except that by boat one could travel over some flooded fondamente. It was terrible to see the water continually rising, which it did until the twentieth hour. If the wind had not been blowing against the tide,[the opposite of Sandy and the eastern seaboard in our day] no doubt it would have been much higher. In the memory of living man it had never been so high.  The high water ruined many wells, with damage, it is said, of ten thousand ducats. It destroyed much merchandise in warehouses, especially ashes. [Editor's footnote: "Ashes were used in the manufacture of soap.] and other goods. In many houses of poor people, everything on the ground floor was flooded, inflicting great damage. It is likely that this flood will give rise to many diseases in the city, which God forbid. In my courtyard, although it is elevated, there was more than a foot and a half of water. By the twenty-second hour the water had returned to normal, and one could walk everywhere in Venice. I wanted this to be noted and remembered."

nedits: But the city had more than a city to worry about... and it had developed a complex system of local loyalists who were constantly being trained at home and sent abroad to run their empire.

Editor's note: "For the purpose of governing these extended territories, the patrician class itself was not wanting in military and naval skill.  The Venetian system of commissaries or proveditors connected the governing class to the practical details of military matters, including such decisions on fortifications as were made above. A high degree of professionalism was achieved  by these civilian proveditors. They liaised with commanders of infantry and men-at-arms. They recruited spies, detected traitors, saw to the billeting and feeding of troops, and above all were the information network of the Venetian government. In the spring of 1509, at the time of Agnadello, Venice had thirty-seven proveditors in the field. Sixteen of them became prisoners after that battle. Such dangers were real. ... In addition to the dangers, the proveditors had to deal with the continuous shortage of funds. "Money is needed" was their incessant plea. There were also the difficulties and discomforts of daily military life, frequently described in the proveditorial disaptches. On November 16, 1509, Sanudo summarized five letters from ser Piero Marzello, proveditor general, sent to ser Bernardo Donado from Noale, in the Trevisano, and Vicenza (9:314-9). Two letters written on November 11 vividly describe the delay of a reconnoiterer because he had only a "bad and exhausted horse," the lack of money to pay the crossbowmen and stradiots, German plans to sack the territory, the population in full flight. Then came a letter written on November 13, which Sanudo records a few days later:" pp. 90-1

Sanudo Diaries: November 16, 1509; (9:316-7); "...yesterday morning, at the twelfth hour, he had left Noale with his men, in such a downpour as destroyed the world, and that by evening he had arrived at Camisano. There he was poorly lodged, and without food until the night, and he had to sleep on a bench, as he would also have to do this night. They had hoped to enter Vicenza but had remained outside the city. And since this morning, November 13, when they left Camisano, where they hjad been billeted, itself eighteen long miles from Noale, they had ridden all day, soaked, in their armor, without food or drink, without dismounting until dark, deprived of every comfort. Having arrived this morning, they went on until they were under the city walls with the light cavalry and infantry. Finally, not seeing any sign of an agreement, which they had hoped to see, they decided to draw the artillery up to the Borgo San Piero gate, which faces Padua. And after many rounds of cannon and falconeti [guns] had been fired, and the first gate of the guardhouse destroyed, and a breach made in the wall, some infantry jumped inside. They were rebuffed, and many were killed. And when night finally came, Lactantio da Bergamo stayed there with part of the infantry and light cavalry, and the captain of the infantry was sent to the Pusterla district with the rest of the infantry and light cavalry. All day their proveditors -- some on one side and some on the other -- were exhorting [the men to fight], under a rainstorm so heavy that it dispersed the infantry and men-at-arms. It was a pitiable sight."

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 15nov12

On Monday I put up a post  'Report from the New World'. It now has an update linking to the very letter that don Cortes wrote to Emperor Charles V in translation and the ambassador gave a synopsis that Sanudo recopied...

Big week of strikes in Europe against austerity measures, a fast minute of audio from marketplace; there are links to other pieces on this today

in wake of Hurricane Sandy, marketplace provides a series of pieces on recovery of Joplin, MO

Alistair Cooke has a couple remembrances of Americans, courtesy of the BBC and here is the archive currently available

New treason law in Russia puts handcuffs on much we call freedom here, from Al Jazeera

New leader in China Xi Jinping for the next decade is all over the bbc overnight. Lots of people talking about this.

BP has pled guilty and will pay the largest fine ever in response to the BP gulf spill of 2010, over $3 billion

On Friday, it seems official that Europe has slipped into it's second dip on this recession. In Washington all talk is on avoiding the fiscal slope. After years of saying they will get rid of Obama and THEN deal with the messes they've made, Republican partisans remain in denial about their role and what to do now. The Pres and Congress say we need to do some things but not what to do. So R leadership whine about Benghazi and fight amongst themselves and yell at the pres and start over the same the next day.

The whole front page of firedoglake has updated clear analysis on much of that.

Syria takes second seat to Israel and Palestinian trading rocket fire. Eighteen Palestinians killed, IDF announces attacks by twitter.

Emperors and Extant Venice 1518: Sanudo Diaries: November 13, 1518, 1521

Only a year after the Sultan's ambassador Ali Bey had come and gone from Venice, a report came in from Venice's holdings in the east.

Sanudo Diaries: November 13, 1518 (26:200); "This morning Janus di Campo Fregoso, a condottiere in our army, came before the Collegio. He returned yesterday from an inspection tour of Corfu, Candia [Crete], and Napoli di romania [Nauplion] whose purpose was to determine how best to fortify those cities against all eventualities. He sailed as far as Istra on the galley commanded by ser Bernardin Taiapiera. Reporting on what he had seen, he concluded that those cities can be fortified at little expense and that if their inhabitants want to hold them, particularly against the Turks, they will be able to do so, especially if a strong armada is available. He went on to report on all the important things he had seen. The doge, with a pleased expression, thanked him for the trouble he had taken, saying that he should talk to the savi and remind them of what was needed."

nedits: There were lots of places that Venice felt needed tending even at this late date. Our editor's make it plain.

Editor's footnote: "The shape of the Terraferma was, in the words of one Venetian military commander in 1579, 'long and narrow... nothing but frontier', that of the stata del Mara, as the sea possessions were called, was 'a series of clusters of islands and ports ending in two widely spaced and weighty pendants, Crete and Cyprus.' Mallet and Hale ,1984, 412, 428." p. 89

Editor's note: "Beyond its preservation of the peace, prosperity, and integrity of the city and its canals, the government of Sanudo's day attended to a great empire. In the early sixteenth century it stretched from Crete, Cyprus, and the Morea (Peloponnesus) [aka Nauplion, Greece] in the east to Brescia, Cremona, and Bergamo in the west. In addition, the Adriatic litoral was for the most part in Venetian hands, as were certain pockets in Lombardy, Romagna, and Apulia. This disparate collection of territories was administered by Venetian civil, military and ecclesiastical personnel and ruled by a system that was both centralizing and relatively tolerant of local custom and style. It was a dominion acquired over time, and each territory, with its own character and problems, challenged the Venetian administrative systems." pp. 88-89

"... when the proposal was made to fund these fortifications [in Crete, Cyprus, Nauplion] with monies taken from funds established to fortify Padua, Verona, and Brescia, it was much debated. It was only passed after the argument was made that the fortifications of Padua, Verona, and Brescia "did not matter so much, for there was nothing to fear from the emperor [Maximilian I who would die in a couple months], with whom there is a truce. And anyway, no other funds were available to aid [in the fortification of Corfu, Candia, and Napoli di Romagna] but these" (26:228)." p. 89.

nedits: Maximillian I did die in January 1518 and for Venice it was a relief. He had been a royal pain as far as Venice was concerned. In 1509 he took Padua. Just the previous year, 1517 had Venice taken back her traditional holdings on Terraferma from Max's armies. The war had lasted nearly ten years. Many internal changes had to turn over and then evolve and she remained heavily in debt. But north Italy was essentially split between France and Venice at this time. What she didn't know was that the next emperor Charles V would not overtly be bothered with Venice. He had bigger ambitions and succeeded and surpassed most of them and then retired from office in 1558.

By the time of Charles V accession as Holy Roman Emperor, after the death of Maximillian, he had been King of Aragon and Castile, with his mother crazy Queen Joanna for two short years. In that short time he had to convince the Spanish he could be their king. A no small task for a youth of sixteen who was raised most of his life in Germany and Burgundy. But by the time he entered the world stage he seemed quite ready. 

Another famous monarch, in 1515, the day after he turned twenty-one, Francis I of France took Milan after beating the Swiss troops hired to protect it by Ludovico Sforza, last Duke of Milan. Francis and his forces had swooped down over the alps in the spring and at the small burned out town of Marignano, Italy some 15 km south of Milan met the Swiss forces and broke their packed lances again and again. The battle lasted through the night with neither side giving ground until the following mid-morning when Venetian forces arrived under Bartolomeo d'Alviano who arrived and shattered the last resistance. The famous Swiss halberds ran away. For Francis I, Venice and France it was a huge victory. 

By comparison, in 1522 Charles V took Milan back from France and in 1525, Charles took the king of France, himself. Francis I was captured in Padua at the famous battle there. That was to end the designs of France in Italy and Charles, as son of Maximillian and King of Spain and Aragon meant he was king of Naples as well as emperor in Holland and the Lowlands and Germany and Hungary too. He had to quell revolts in Holland but then turned and spent the remaining years losing but then stopping the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. eventually, at Vienna in 1529. Busy guy.

This is a good place to mention Padua as the seat of the University that Venice was protector for and provider of necessaries. Proud of it if even they couldn't pay for it. Between the many wars Venice did encourage Padua in her academic pursuits.

Sanudo Diaries: November 13, 1521: (32:132); "In the morning there were no letters of any importance, nor any noteworthy events. Ser Marin Zorzi, university laureate, appeared before the Collegio dressed in black velvet to make his report. He has just returned from being podesta of Padua, having been replaced Sunday by ser Piero Marzello. First [he spoke] about justice and the procedures of that palace, complaining that the [state] attorneys prevented justice from being done by suspending sentences. [this remained a widespread problem at all her holdings].... He spoke of the university and the quality of the professors, describing it as a flourishing and excellent university more so than it has been for many years, with a good number of students, among whom are twenty noblemen who maintain retinues of twenty, thirty and forty persons apiece. He spoke a little about the fortifications and the city.... He was praised according to custom by the doge in the usual way."

Editor's footnote: "The Palazzo della Ragione, the seat of the Venetian government in Padua, where judicial procedures were administered by a variety of local and Venetian bodies." p. 453

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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

Report From the New World: Sanudo Diaries: Nov 10, 1522

On November 10, 1522 Marin Sanudo recopied a letter from their Spanish ambassador giving a report on a description of the New World.  How much this letter gets right I really don't know. But how fascinating to get such a ringside seat of such amazing news! Remarkable!

"Most Serene Doge, etc. The emperor having received news of the Indies in the past few days from individuals who have returned from the region, including items worthy of being brought to Your Serenity's attention, I will not fail to communicate them to you. May Your Excellency know, then, that the visitor is don Hernando Cortes, the governor of His Majesty on the island of Cuba; it is he who in past years discovered Yucatan and sent to His Majesty several presents offered by the people of Yucatan as a token of their obeisance. They included a sun made of gold and a moon made of silver and some other gifts, of which Your Excellency was informed by our most worthy procurator, the then ambassador Corner, in his letters. After landing, Cortes contained his journey and discovered that Yucatan, which he had believed to be an island, was joined to the mainland, which continued on to the west. He penetrated the interior and discovered various cities and castles inhabited by peoples of a higher level of civilization than have heretofore been encountered. He then arrived in a city named Tlascala [Editor's footnote: In Yucatan, spelled Scalteza by Sanudo", p 199], which is governed communally and which is a very large city. They are at war with a prince whom I will name below, who claims to have jurisdiction over that city, while the people wish to be free. Cortes and his men having arrived there, as I said, they soon persuaded the people, for the reasons I have given, to pledge obedience to and recognize [as their sovereign] the present Holy Roman Emperor, since the Spanish told them that His Highness was ruler of our world. The Spanish then penetrated more than sixty leagues into the interior, where they found a lake with a circumference of sixty leagues; its water is salty and rises and falls, as do most seas. In the middle of that lake they discovered a very large city called Temistitan, which they said had more than 40,000 hearths. Its ruler is that great prince I mentioned above who claimed to have jurisdiction over Scalteza; he is the lord of more than one hundred leagues of land all around this area. He is held in awe by all of his subjects and is scrupulously obeyed. The inhabitants are very civilized except in the matter of religion, because they worship pagan gods and make human sacrifice to them. Moreover, they are set in the following custom: when they go to war against their enemies, they eat all of those who die in battle.

Their homes are comfortable and nicely decorated with cloths made of cotton that they use for their garments. They have a great quantity of gold, which they do not use as coins; rather, they revere it and use it to make a variety of ornaments. All of their commerce is conducted by bartering one item for another. However, for small items that they need to buy and that are not easily obtained by bartering, they employ as currency a small fruit similar to an almond that is rare. This city and its prince is surrendered to the Spanish when they arrived. However, when the majority of the Spanish had left, they rose up in rebellion and killed those who remained, eating them as is their custom. When the Spanish captain don Hernando Cortes learned of this, he dispatched many Spanish with artillery and many citizens of Tlascala, who were enemies of Temistitan. They recaptured it, and the prince resumed his obedience to the emperor.

The inhabitants of the island described above eat bread made of Indian grain and meat and drink a potion similar to beer. They do not have an alphabet, but write the most important things with pictures of animals or other things, in the manner used by the ancient Egyptians. These characters, however, are not adequate for all matters. This is all that they related about those islands.

It was later said by the Spanish that they received letters [from their explorers] who remained there about how they traveled so far that they came to the sea, although they did not specify whether the sea they found was on the west or on the south. Then on the sixth of this month there arrived in Sybilliis [Seville, Spain] one of the five ships that the Spanish king had sent three years ago to discover the spice routes with several Portuguese who had fled from the most serene king of Portugal.... They returned by the Portuguese route, the eastern route, thus they went entirely around the world, as will be explained more clearly and completely to Your Serenity in the letters. They brought 600 hundredweights [cantere] of cloves and samples of every other kind of spice. 

September 24, 1522 in Valladolid."

Here's a link to an English translation of don Cortes' Second Letter to Emperor Charles V, conveniently at the Jesuit University of New York, Fordham .edu.

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

more news from 08-10nov12

make the banks public utilities, this would solve the problem of prices as 35-40% of what we spend goes to pay... interest charged by the banks.

mathbabe tells off Ghietner and SEC, in a formal statement

Petraeus resigns, twitterverse goes nuts, right-wing loses grip on sanity and the Benghazi CIA testimony next week gets given to a deputy who will act as director of spooks. scary, huh?

center right media increase the circle of dissent on Romney loss, npr, 4 minute audio

JK Galbraith says it's a phony debt scare, so who's telling Boehner, and McConnell different?

Here's a place where people can donate money for blankets for people on east coast. I'll happily vouch for these folks.

David Dayen says it's getting hotter in Australia as court rules S&P liable for bad ratings 

Report on Jailing of journalists in Turkey after two years of the continuing practice, npr, 4 minute audio

RIAB: radio in a box, fwd base Shank, Afghanistan, npr, 4 min audio

alert levels around the world

making a new city with Paul Romer in Honduras, on planet money , 20 minute audio

Feast of St Teddy Disrespect; A Turkish Dragoman; That View from the Bell Tower - Sanudo Diaries: November 7,1517

nedits: Antonio Contarini strikes again! St. Theodore needed to be remembered (yes, that's him stabbing an aligator on top of a column in the center left of the Piazza San Marco). Year after year this founding Saint wasn't getting enough praise so the city had to act. His relics were kept in San Salvador that by 1519 was still being rebuilt...

Sanudo Diaries: November 8, 1519: (28:57); "Noting that the feast day of Saint Theodore, who was the first protector of this city and whose body is in San Salvador, has not been observed, with shops staying open, the Signoria has on this day made a public proclamation that according to the law passed on another occasion, and with the penalties therein described, the day [of November 9] shall be a holiday, and the shops may not be opened, under penalty of twenty-five lire and other penalties, including excommunication, as our reverend patriarch has ordered."

Editor's note: "The first attempt to restore Theodore's feast day seems not to have been effective, since the order had to be given again the next year...."  p. 395.

nedits: Sanudo also treats us to a description of the longtime ambassador of the Turk Ali Bey that he calls Alibe and our editor's call a dragoman, a 'professional interpreter'. It is but forty years later than this portrait by Gentile Bellini. But should give a good idea, we think. This his second official trip to Venice was to collect the tribute promised by Venice for the Ottoman Turk for defending Venice's interests in Cyprus against the Turk enemy, the Mamluks. This tribute was also for the loss Venice incurred in 1503 when they were effectively thrown out of the eastern Mediterranean, at last. Now years later the Turks want to renew the treaty and receive tribute but Venice was under many obligations... sometimes the long view was more effective.

Sanudo Diaries: November 7, 1517 (25:72-3);  "This morning Alibei, the interpreter and ambassador of the sultan, arrived. Several elderly patricians were sent on barges to meet him, [along with] the heads of the Forty and the savi ai ordeni, to increase the size of the group, for of the many who were ordered to meet him twelve were absent. He was wearing a dolman of crimson velvet and a tunic of cloth of gold with a sable lining, part of his entourage were dressed in silk, and part in scarlet. He has with him only seven men, however.... The doge spoke gracious words to him of the good peace that our Signoria wants to maintain with his lord, saying that he respects his lordship more than all the others in the world and that he hopes that his lord has the same attitude toward our Signoria. He also hopes that, should something happen, [Ali Bey] would intercede to put things right with his lordship, and he also said other things. He said that we are writing to our baylo to say that in the matter of the debt of Niclolo Zustinian the Signoria has no obligations, because he [Nicolo] does not have an [official] contract, as has our baylo, but has his own business undertaking, etc. "

nedits: The Editors note that ser Zustinian had previously been their bailo in 1514 and I have to assume, bailo of Cyprus, because they're not explicit. But if Sanudo is to be believed, it is here that he refers to a kind of sleight-of-hand by the doge. Passing off a previous annual debt to the Turks by saying the person involved in that is no longer in their charge or under contract is almost identical to "He doesn't work for us anymore so anything he agreed to we won't stand by." How this may or may not be different from how things were or were not before this, or even if this interpretation is at all correct, I'm not certain. I'd like to know more. The transcript then takes a more detailed turn.

Sanudo Diaries: November 7, 1517 (25:72-3); "Ali responded in part through the interpreter and in part on his own, for he knows Latin, saying that he will undertake every favorable office with his lord and that he wants to maintain the good peace. He touched on the idea that it would be wise to renew [the treaty] now, then took his leave. He was accompanied by the same gentlemen, and when the weather is right he will leave. His expenses have been taken care of, great friendship is being shown to him, and great honors have been paid him. He is a shrewd man and an evil one, and wherever he goes he spies for his lord.

Apropos of this, I wish to record that last Saturday , the last day of October, he wanted to climb the Bell Tower to see the city of St Mark from it, saying that it had been so well restored. The savi ai ordeni were sent to accompany him, and a collation of the malmsey wine and confections, etc. was prepared for him, and off he went. Once he was up there, he asked how one could approach the city by sea. He was told that it could be done with large ships by way of the two castles but that the port, or the channel, did not stay in the same place, that seasoned pilots were brought along to plumb it continuously, and that at times it represented a danger to ships and galleys and other large vessels. And he said, "If my lord came with 300 galleys to this port and armed the boats with good artillery, he would come inside." The savi ai ordeni said, "And then what? The inhabitants of the city would be there to oppose you." Then he said, "But couldn't you come by way of Chioza [Chiogga]?" He was told that that would only work with small boats because of the shoals. Then he asked how far away dry land was, and he was told five miles to Liza Fusina and Mergera [Marghera]. Next he asked, "Don't your enemies come?" And he was told that they did. Then he asked, "Why don't they advance with their artillery loaded on rafts?" and he said, "When my lord goes on expedition, he has so many people with him that if each one carried just one bundle of sticks, he could make a bridge that would reach the city." The answer given to him was, "Those who would be defending the city would not let them get close, and ten would be enough against one hundred." Then he asked where Friuli was, on what side. It was shown to him. He remarked that one could ride horseback to a distance of only five miles from the city. And the savi ai ordeni said, "My lord ambassador, we are telling you that in this recent cruel war [of the League of Cambrai], in which all the kings of the world joined to defeat Venice, not a single man of this city died. Everything was accomplished with money and the deaths of foreign soldiers, and this city is still as packed as an egg with people, nor is it possible to conquer it," and other such words. Then they came down from the Bell Tower."

Editor's footnote: "There is no better example of Venetian triumphalism than this, turning the disastrous experience of Agnadello and the grueling recovery of Venice's Terraferma empire into a paean of self-praise.... Ali Bey's questions justify Sanudo's declaring him a spy.. More than a decade later, Sanudo disapproved of taking Turks up into the Bell Tower unless the tide was high enough to hide the channels (27 September 152, 39:479)" pp. 215-6.

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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