Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Carnival, Luther and anonymous Masking: Sanudo Diaries: February 12, 13: 1517, 1520, 1526



Sanudo Diaries: February 12, 1517 (23:582); "Today, at the German Warehouse, the German merchants put on a lovely party to celebrate the pact or truce that has been reached with His Imperial Majesty [Maximillian I]. ... and the Germans spared no expense from their coffers to provide dinner, etc."

Editor's footnote: "This was the truce that ended the War of the League of Cambrai...." [p. 504]

nedits: Three years later, with the tumult rising with the spread of Lutheran ideas,

Sanudo Diaries: February 12, 1520 (28:252); "This evening a lovely momaria was put on by several German merchants and others elegantly dressed. Six of them danced, and there was excellent instrumental and vocal music. They held a ball in the Warehouse, which a number of patricians came to see. They went on with ceremonial trumpets and wax torches until nine hours after sunset." [p. 505]

nedits: The very next day Sanudo offers a note sent on February 4, 1520 from the Venetian ambassador to the papal court of Leo X.

Sanudo Diaries: February 13, 1520 (28:256-7); "A convocation of the fathers general of the mendicant orders was held the other day. Those who were not present were represented by the procurators of their orders. The assembly was headed by the most reverend cardinals ... called to condemn some of the propositions of Brother Martin Luther, who for a long time has been preaching in Germany against the authority and the powers of the pope.... By this means, the convocation intends to eliminate the favor and the following he enjoys and is preparing a bull [against him]. But the convocation was not conducted very well, because unexpectedly the friar's propositions were read, and when the vote was called, it was evident that this Brother Martin demonstrates that he takes his foundations principally from the Gospels and from those doctors of the church who [hold views that] are like [those of] St Augustine, but not from other church doctors. He derides St Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and others like them. It is quite scandalous." [pp. 412-3]

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nedits: Six years later,

Sanudo Diaries:  February 13, 1526 (40:810-11); "By order of the heads of the council of Ten it was publicly proclaimed that this Lent no one may any longer dress in costume under penalty, etc., and thus no one did. And this evening brought the conclusion of Carnival, a Carnival that has been the most festive in many a year."

Editor's note: "Restrictions of masks and/or costumes and rules prohibiting the carrying of arms were occasionally imposed by the Council of Ten to prevent disorder. For example, in 1519 the council required those who wished to disguise themselves to get permission to do so, prohibited maskers and soldiers from carrying arms, and forbade all visits to convents ...". [pp 520-1]
"The term Sanudo used for costume disguises was stravestir, which generally meant disguising one's identity and sometimes one's class by adopting patrician or religious garb. Yet some forms of disguise might be permitted in spite of a prohibition, for whatever its accidents and extravagances, Carnival fulfilled a great need. It was an assertion by the entire Venetian society of the happiness, the felicitá, of the Republic." [pp 521]

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