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
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