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.
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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.
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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...."
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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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