January, for Sanudo, as selected by our editors was quite busy detailing the broad range of happenings within Venice in his times as well as those pertinent goings-on elsewhere. It would be difficult for me to give enough space to the range of topics in this one month as covered by him, simply based on the merits. A couple long posts a week wouldn't cover the best bits. Even so, I'll try to shake it up a bit and offer today a bit of a digest after this amazing, introductory admission of Sanudo's at the eve of the war of the League of Cambrai:
Sanudo Diaries: December 31, 1508 (7:701): "After dinner there was a meeting of the Great Council. And a law was announced that had been passed by the Council of Ten on the 29th of this month that, among other things, stipulated that there be no more recitation of comedie, tragedies, and eclogues in this city, neither at weddings nor in any place, with a penalty for the householder hosts of one hundred ducats and the exclusion for two years from offices and councils, and for the performers as is stated in the bill, etc. And it should be noted the cause [l'autor] of this law was one Cherea from Lucca, who was intriguing to have ... the use of the loggia at Rialto for the recitation of these comedies; whereupon this law was passed by the Council of Ten upon the recommendation of the doge and the councilors."
Editor's note: "... all such entertainments in the approaching Carnival season might have appeared frivolous and possibly subversive. Cherea's foreign background, his connection with hostile powers such as Mantua and Ferrara, may also have aroused the government's distrust." pp. 506-7.
Editor's Footnote: "It is interesting that the 1508 prohibition of comedie was republished on 1 February 1521 ... and on 16 February 1530... was referred to as still valid... to explain why a new prohibition was not passed. But the law went unobserved...." [p. 507]. Again and again.
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It was on January 1, 1496 that Sanudo began his Book One of the Events of Italy. This came after the conclusion of his book on the Expedition into Italy of Charles VIII, bringing that story to December of 1495. He says himself that he has a further purpose even after Charles had returned across the mountains to France. One that the events not fade away. The other, was to show Venice's crucial role in protecting Italy, particularly Naples from French invaders [1:5]. I will let the story be told about Naples, just later in the year and with numerous authors.
Sanudo Diaries: January 1, 1496 (1:6) "Therefore I have abandoned every other form of composition and here will describe most truthfully all the events that have occurred. God willing, I will continue to describe them briefly, beginning on the first day of January ... as the year is reckoned in our Venetian fashion, until peace has come to Italy.... I will set down each day the news that is circulating, beginning with the pontificate of Alexander VI." [pp 4-5]
And so he does.
Sanudo Diaries: January 1, 1496 (1:6-7) "In Rome, the pope continued to fortify and rebuild the Castel Sant'Angelo. His intention was, through changing the surrounding walls, towers, and moats, to have the Tiber River flow through [the fortress]. But this plan had no chance of success.... He often rode around to view this work. His ill humor was increased by the fact that the French were no longer coming to Rome to seek bulls for benefices, [whereas] he had previously derived a large income from that region and the Gallic nation, and so the church was suffering a great loss. Nevertheless, Pope Alexander remained loyal to the League."
He gives a list of papal ambassadors as reported by the city's ambassador. I will come back to this when the occasion arrives to talk more about the Court of The Borgia and use Sanudo as some comparison.
The Editor's remind: "Again and again he returns to what was happening in Rome, reported back to Venice through ambassadorial or private correspondence to which Sanudo had access." And again: "Much of the existing history of the Italian and European powers is based on what Sanudo reports from these letters and on his copies and summaries of official documents for which no other copies are extant." [p. 164]
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Sanudo Diaries: January 2, 1499 (2:292) "A letter of November 9 written by Andrea Gritti and consigned to the bailo in Pera was received ... saying in a parabolic fashion [scrita in parabula] that a pirate had captured a ship of 200 botte, which means that the Turkish lord is putting together an armada of 200 sail."
Editor's footnote: "Gritti's "parabolic fashion" was not a unique device. In 1482-3 a Florentine businessman wrote partly ciphered and unsigned letters from Milan to a business associate in Pisa, who sent them directly to Lorenzo de'Medici's Chancellery in Florence. Decoded from cipher and perhaps even from their business reference, they proved to be analyses of Milanese policy. See Mallett, 1994, 242" [p. 233]; bib note p. 570: Michael Edward Mallett, "Ambassadors and their audiences in Renaissance Italy". In Renaissance Studies 8:229-43, 1994.
nedits: These ciphers were common for Venice and pop up all over. Andrea Gritti who would later become a famous doge is now seen as a much younger man acting as a spy in Constantinople.
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The story of how Erichi the Corsair met his end arrives in Venice:
Sanudo Diaries: January 3, 1502 (4:205-6) "A letter from the captain general written on Corfu and sent from Melos on December 12.... Erichi, the Turkish corsair, happened to land on Melos on his way back from Barbary. His ship went aground in a storm on the island. Aboard were 132 Turks, and he was taken alive with 34 Turks. The rest were drowned or killed by the islanders, but we kept this one in our grasp. On December 9 we roasted Erichi alive on a [spit made from] the handle of a large oar. He lived in this torment for three hours. Thus he finished his days. We also impaled the pilot and mate and a galleyman from Corfu who betrayed his faith. And we shot full of arrows and drowned another.... This pirate Erichi in times of peace with the Turks did great damage to our [ships] and even to the carracks of the Turks. A complaint was lodged with the sultan, who, by offering a reward, tried to have him captured and brought to the Porte.... It happened that ser Ambruoso Contarini in 1491 was seeking to load grain on his small cargo ship at Salonika, and he agreed to go in convoy with this Erichi [for protection]. After he had loaded his ship, the sailors told Erichi that this Ambruoso wanted to capture and kill him. Wherefore, on this suspicion, after a long battle, Erichi captured this Ambruoso, who was wounded in four places, and he roasted him and killed all the sailors. And for that reason our captain general also put Erichi to death and roasted him alive."
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes or bibliographical 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
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