Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1505, 1515

One widow that did well enough and brought a large dowry in remarriage was Cecilia Priuli who in 1505 married Marin Sanudo. Only rarely did Sanudo ever comment on personal affairs and his announcement to the families and the public was brief.

Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1505: (6:144); "... on the twenty-ninth, after dinner, I announced my betrothal in the presence of the families and pledged my hand publicly to my wife, Cecilia Prioli. And then the Senate met and elected the five savi ai ordeni."

Editor's footnote: "Cecilia Priuli was related to Antonio Grimani, a powerful figure who at that time was in exile but who would later be doge...". [p. 29]

And unfortunately she died within four years of marrying him. But apparently, through her, Sanudo gained at least one female daughter and perhaps another.

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In one of those odd asymmetries between then and now, for Holy Thursday, the new pope Francis celebrated by washing the feet of twelve juvenile detention inmates and for the first time the feet of two women. Usually this is done with a dozen priests at the St John in Lateran basilica in Rome but Francis wanted to make the point that he wanted the church to be in service to the people and especially the poor. And he told them he was doing it from the heart.

In 1522, a hospital was established to care for the syphilitic in Venice by two women who undertook to cure three other women. Within two years it had grown and gained attention and was called the hospital of the Incurable.

Editor's footnote: "Syphilis first appeared in the Venetian territories in 1495. Some historians have suggested that the disease came from South America or originated in Haiti; others, that it was already known in antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Africa was added as a candidate for its origins. What was certain was that it struck Western Europe as an epidemic, although the novelty of the disease at this date prevented Sanudo from realizing its potential mortatlity...." [p. 329]

Sanudo Diaries: March 24, 1524 (36:102-3); "Today after dinner in the hospital [of the Incurabili], the washing of the feet took place with great devotion. The patrician [hospital] guardians and others, twelve altogether, with great humility washed the feet of the impoverished and ill syphilitic men, and the gentlewomen washed the feet of the women, that is, the females sick with this disease. There was quite a crowd watching, and many were moved to piety seeing this pious work performed by the prominent people of the city....

This hospital is a wonder, having grown so greatly in two years. It was in Lent of 1522 that it was founded... Maria Malipiera Malipiero ... and ... Marina Grimana ... undertook... three poor women from San Roche.... to a house in Santo Spirito, where the hospital now stands. With the help of Don Caieta -- the apostolic protonotary from Vicenza, a learned and good servant of God, it grew to such a size that now it feeds eighty mouths ... including a doctor and apothecaries and others -- men and women -- who serve, and all this is done with alms [donations], which are very abundant."

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In 1515 someone had suggested the Jews should all be moved to Giudecca "... where it was believed the original Jewish merchants from the Levant had first established themselves." [p.338]

But by the next spring in 1516 movements and interests had mobilized to such an extent that it was deemed necessary "... to placate a deity viewed as angry with the city's sinful ways (including its toleration of a Jewish presence)." It does not seem out of place for Sanudo or cause any reflection for him about the nature of a formally  'Jealous God' and to whom or for what He or the city might otherwise do to reconcile the city's Jewish inhabitants. They just went ahead with the law they seem to have made up for the occasion -- the one aimed at complete segregation. Next it was proposed they be put in the old iron foundry which thereafter was called the Ghetto Nuovo.

Sanudo Diaries: March 26, 1516 (22:72); "News of the morning: ser Zacaria Dolfin, the savio di Consiglio, proposed in the Collegio in recent days that it is bad to have the Jews in this city, given that preachers are preaching that the afflictions of our state derive from this and from their having synagogues, which is not in conformity with the laws. He is thus of the opinion that they should all be sent to live in the Ghetto Nuovo, which is like a castle, and [that it be closed] off with a wall and drawbridges. They are to have only one gate, which is to be closed so that they remain within; and two of the boats of the Council of Ten are to go there and stay there all night. [The boatmen] are to be paid for by the Jews since they will benefit from the added security measure. As a result the doge and some councillors, warming to the idea, sent for the owners of the houses of the Ghetto."

Those who didn't live there were fine with the idea but those who did were afraid everything they had put into the place might be lost. Leaders of the Jewish people complained at great length and in many ways. The bill passed a few days later.

Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1516 (22: 85): "According to the provisions of various laws of the Senate and our council, Jews are not permitted to live in this our city beyond a total of fifteen days over the course of a year. ... However ... the extremely urgent conditions of the times, Jews were allowed to come and live in Venice. This happened principally so that the possessions of Christians, which were in the hands of the Jews, would be preserved. However it cannot have been the wish of any citizen of our state who wants to live in the fear of God that, once the Jews had arrived here, they would disperse themselves throughout the entire city, sharing houses with Christians and going about day and night wherever they wish.... Therefore it is entirely necessary that appropriate and valid measures be taken.

To avoid such disorderly and unsuitable situations, it is proposed that the following provisions and decisions be made: that all Jews who currently live in the various parishes ... are obligated and must go immediately to live together in the group of houses that are in the Ghetto, near San Hironimo, a very spacious locale for them to inhabit."

Walls would be built to close off the ends that were open to canals, boats used to patrol at night and a gate drawn up at night as well would both make sure that no one could attack and plunder them and that no one could escape.
When was the last time I saw a picture of Gaza and their checkpoints in the press? Or even gated communities, places where curfews are normal. Detroit, Mali, Tunisia, Eastern Congo? I don't know.
In a footnote [p. 340], the Editors say that Brian S. Pullan confirmed this double function in Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: the social institutions of a Catholic state, p. 487, Oxford: Blackwell, 1971.

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

"What Do Your Women Do?": Western Practices of the Fifteenth Century

Stunned that I didn't notice it was Women's History Month until just a couple days ago, it seemed well past the time I should give a few views on what it was like for half the population in the late medieval/renaissance period of Europe. One from a series of books on women through history, gathers many several experts presenting research they have found.

Jumping right into it, from an essay by Claudia Opitz fitly entitled for English as, 'Life In The Late Middle Ages',

"... many women felt that since marriage was the best option available, they must find husbands for their daughters as soon as possible. This was the legitimation for the widespread practice of child marriage at the highest levels of society. But even among the lesser nobility and gentry girls between the ages of twelve and fifteen  were considered marriageable. At such an age, however, the chance of their own will being expressed or consulted was considerably reduced.

Contemporary sources show that delaying marriage until a girl had reached a more advanced age was the first prerequisite for improving her negotiating position, but still no guarantee that her own interests would be protected. Literary texts and legal documents suggest that only widows were granted relative autonomy in the question of remarriage; they could choose among several suitors.

A girl resisting a marriage could expect little support from the clergy.... As we know from the biographies of several notable medieval women, girls wishing to escape the clan's iron grip were forced to resort to deceit and strategems, hoping that God would indeed help those who helped themselves, Clare of Assisi, founder of the order of Poor Clares and abbess of San Damiano,  and her younger sister Agnes stole away from home in the dead of night and found refuge with Francis and his unconventional band of friars. Without God's help, the hagiographer reports, they would never have been able to withstand the threats, curses, and beatings of their (male) relatives.

That such tales are not merely pious fictions is shown by records of court cases dealing with unauthorized marriages from the later Middle Ages. Marriages entered into against the wishes of the spouses'  parents continued to be regarded as invalid long after the Council of Trent (1546-1562).... Parties to such marriages could be disinherited by their parents or families. The records deal to a large extent with young men .... At the same time they reveal that women were treated differently under the law and that their actions were measured by a different standard. ... Early engagements, intimidation up to and including physical force, and legal prosecution in cases of disobedience -- these were the means by which the older generation secured the compliance of the young, and their daughters in particular." [pp 274-5]

 There is evidence that there may have been more relative numbers of unmarried women in the late 14- and early 1500's. But like much else, we don't know and the knowledge is contested in different ways or for different reasons. Education for girls or women while increasing broadly, one suspects in cities and in the written record, as those generally expanded all over, remains mostly rare.

"More and more people, particularly upper-class women, began to participate in the intellectual life of their age as listeners, readers, and patrons. Documents from this and other social classes show women participating in and shaping medieval life in roles such as legal guardian and testator.

This is not to say that women could escape male hegemony in the cultural field or any other area of social life. Their daily experience must be culled from accounts informed by male idealization and devaluation -- as continues to be the case long after the Middle Ages. Women's opinion and wishes frequently remains a matter of speculation, hidden behind the veil of male authority and regimentation by fathers, husbands, and confessors, their sphere of action limited by social norms and pressures. Nevertheless, the late medieval period -- despite its catastrophes and conflicts, economic and cultural upheavals, the prevalence of religious hysteria and expectations of the end of the world -- was a period of awakening and positive change, not least for members of the female sex. ... women shared in ... increased possibilities for social mobility ... great changes occurring in European society at the end of the period were accompanied by widespread belief in witchcraft and persecution  of women as witches.... Medieval law codes, which despite their basis in tradition and long-established practices, tended to be more prescriptive than descriptive, perhaps reflect not so much the realities of the era as the ideals and wishes of their authors. This may be most particularly true where the status of women are concerned, since in general women were neither actively involved nor consulted in the formulating of such codes. The law thus emerges as an element in women's daily lives that, more than any other, was male-dominated...." [pp. 268-69]

 But women could and did do everything. As keepers of the house, bearing, raising children, watching on the fowl and livestock, helping at harvest, vine-tending, sheep shearing or milking, cheese-making, bread baking, wool-carding; they also ran businesses from the cities. Brewing beer, and selling it. Moving valuables between cities,

"... women traders were granted a limited capacity to transact business in their own name. The volume of trade varied enormously, and it was above all the women organized in guilds (primarily for long-distance trading) who acquired considerable wealth. Wills preserved in the archives of the Hansa city of Lübeck reflect this range.... 

Importing goods from abroad was not without risk. Records of Basel from the early fifteenth century show that a number of traders suffered considerable losses when a goods  train was set upon and robbed. Of the sixty-one merchants who had financed the shipment, thirty-seven were women. One of them, Cristina Oflaterin, had invested 501 florins, and another, an apothecary's widow, 270 florins. Most of the other women had invested only small sums, between 7 1/2  and 9 florins.

The goods traded included virtually every kind of item needed in daily life as well as luxuries. While prices were determined to some extent by the market, both city and guild organizations supervised trade closely, inspecting the quality of imported goods and setting limits on the volume of trade and profits. These regulations by no means required specialization in one sort of merchandise, however. In 1420 a woman trader named Czachmannin in the German town of Görlitz is recorded as having dealt in crossbows, saddle bags, bridles, harnesses, halters, spurs, and stirrups, as well as sulphur, copperas, verdigris, arrow quivers, soap, parchment, wax, paper, and spices." [pp 295-96]

In the great mercantile cities, education for girls began in the 13th century and spread. Some became teachers some practiced health care but doctors basically forced them out as practitioners, but they continued in obstetrics and as midwives where they could. By 1500 most cities had guilds and organizations of women and men who dealt with healthcare issues, complete with legal regulations and municipal fines attached to divergence from the rules. They would get a stipend, or maybe be free from taxes, or lodging, maybe firewood in payment. There were furriers in Basel organized in a guild since 1226. Food production was also very common. In the mid-1500's in one German parish there were six jug-makers, nine coppersmiths, seven brass workers, three tin-smiths, a thimbelmaker. In Basel, there were female masons, painters, plasterers, they mixed mortar, replaced glass, acted as day-laborers. 

But,  "Toward the end of the fifteenth century women laborers at building sites in Würzburg earned an average of 7.7 pence per day, while men earned 11.6 pence." [p 301]

All quotes from the 9th chapter, "Life In The Late Middle Ages" by Claudia Opitz, translated from German by Deborah Lucas Schneider, found in 

A History of Women: Silences of the Middle Ages Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, general editors, Harvard University Press paperback edition, 

2nd USA printing, 1994

Recapitulation Jumble: a Calendric Place-Holder: March 26

Yesterday was the day that Bernal Diaz remembered as the day of the battle of Cintla near rio Tobasco, now known as Rio de Grijalva, Mexico.  He explained that the day before Cortes had certain knowledge that the locals were readying attack and so he made sure they would be ready to defend themselves.
They both went out to do battle, the fighting was intense and many losses on both sides were duly noted.
Stories of cannon fire frightening the locals, as well as stories about the shock the locals registered upon seeing men on horses were set down. Diaz acknowledges that Cortes himself was away from his present location fending off other hordes of locals while this battle raged. At the end, victory was announced, the wounded dealt with and a tally of the dead was drawn up. Two Spaniards and over eight hundred locals were killed, he says. All this is detailed in chapter xxxiv of
 The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012
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A popular 1896 telling of that day's battle is free online and follows the Francisco de Gomara version of the story more closely.
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Since the last time I looked at Bernal Diaz, excepting the story of this battle which he tells out of his own chronology (as I point out), his tale follows in chs. xxxv-vi, the strict narrative of negotiating with the locals, offering them presents, accepting gifts and establishing churches in the name of God and king. His chapter xxxvii introduces and talks about doña Marína aka La Malinche, being integral to the Spaniards, being reunited with her mother and countering another version of the story by Francisco de Gomara.
The next chapter jumps in chronology to Holy Thursday when the fleet was said to have reached the port of San Juan de Ulua.
As far as I can tell, Easter was on April 24 in 1519 which makes Holy Thursday, in that year, 21 April, traditionally commemorating the day of the first communion (and the occasion when Jesus would say Peter would betray him three times et al.). This dating assumes the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. So again we have a leap - from the end of March til April 21 - by Diaz of some three weeks where little is explained or told to fit into this chronology. So I will get back to his story toward the end of next month.
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The messengers of Moctezuma meet the off-world strangers, return to Tenochtitlan and make their report.
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On March 26, 1512, one Maria Gonzalez came before the Inquisition court in Toledo to ratify her confessions, after having heard her previous confessions read back to her, "... stating they contained the truth, and everything had happened as she had stated...." [p. 51]
From The Spanish Inquisition 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources, edited and translated by Lu Ann Homza, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2006

Passover in a town in Spain returns after a more than 500 year absence. Some complain it's merely 'Passover' for drawing tourists. An NPR piece.
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The Life of Poggio still draws my interest. Don't know when I'll be able to get back to that.

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Burckhardt was talking about nobility and social advancement in Italy in the fifteenth century.

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In Sanudo's Diaries, on this date, a number of things were chosen by our Editors for inclusion looking at different bits of news that came in.

March 26, 1498: treason intrigue in the city induces crackdown on information flows, pp. 121-23

March 26, 27, 28, 1511: earthquake felt in Venice, pp. 373-8

March 26, 1516: discussing whether to shut the city's Jews into the Ghetto Nuovo, pp. 338-9

March 26, 1520: report from Yucatan, p 198

Topics, and pagination found in 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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In Wunderli's Peasant Fires, a speech/sermon given from July, by Hans Behem is inferred, deduced and analyzed. His exhortations got reportedly darker and more sinister.

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A really nice, expansive description of pope Alexander VI's first Annunciation celebration on March 25, 1493 is given in Johann Burchard's chronicle At The Court of the Borgia.

news from late march 2013

After coup in Central African Republic, gangs of militia ride around amidst looters and mayhem in their capital, from Reuters. Ousted leader Bozize came to power himself in a coup he led in 2003. 

Women against gang rape get blamed for same crimes against them by fundamentalists, again, in Egypt: comment section is extensive, nytimes

A Brief History of Marriage In America, c. 2004 by Tom Tomorrow

The capture of deposits on Cypriot banks agreed on this morning - instead of a bailout - both sets a precedent and gets the free-market capitalists + bondholders to say fearful things about their entitlements... reuters again

The guardian offers a visual for chronicling the use of drone attacks in Pakistan for the past eight years that gives a breakdown of known casualties comparing, targets, civilians, children and others.

A few straightforward reasons why the federal budget is not like your household budget and vice versa, again and also from the guardian

After a week in the media of hammering those who took us to war in Iraq, a trip down recent-memory lane reveals there actually were many overt anti-war activists

Bernie Sanders pegs the truth-o-meter at Politifact when he says Wal-Mart heirs own more than the bottom 40% of US pop. They didn't build that. They inherited it.

Sen Sanders also goes off on the stupidity of the Chained CPI notions that Republicans and many Dems would like to implement in future budgets, 26 min youtube

There's  a recent book on La Malinche who the Spaniards taking Mexico called doña Marína, a woman received by Cortes and Co. very early on. She would be a primary translator during the conquest and also bore a son to Cortes.

March 25 is also the 102nd anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire in New York. Called the largest industrial accident in US history where 146 people died, it is amply documented here where a nice page has been put up by Cornell University.

And for goodness' sake, if you're into equal rights for gays, go give Dan Choi some love. He needs it this week. LT Dan Choi is the poster boy for gays in the military. He just really wants to be in the army. If you don't know, Dan was a Lieutenant in the Army and went on the Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 to come out on national television while the USMIL was still following the 'don't ask don't tell' policy. By July 2010 they officially threw him out. In March and April of that year he and a number of others in the service at that time handcuffed themselves to the fence at the White House to bring attention to the issue. In May 2010 Dan went on a seven day fast to bring attention to the same policy. In December 2010, President Obama signed the bill repealing the policy.

On March 28, 2013 there will be a rally for him in DC since the US DOJ still wants to throw him in jail for 'failure to obey'.

Disputing Depositions In An Inquisition Trial: March 15, 1494

On March 15, 1494, one Diego Tellez,in Toledo, Castile, presented an extended defense for  Marína González, his wife, who was accused of relapsing as a conversa. A conversa was a converted female Jew, so a relapsed conversa would be someone who said they had converted but instead,continued to practice Jewish rituals in contradiction to Christian forms of worship. The case had been going on since January and after charges were brought, a sworn testimony by the accused was set down, a gathering of evidence through February was also conducted, becoming a collection of sworn testimonies for both the prosecution and defense. After viewing the evidence, the defense decided further action was necessary in its attempt at acquitting the woman. As the Editor/ translator here points out in a footnote:

"At this point Marína's defense strategy changed to one of tachas, whereby she and her relations attempted to disqualify prosecution witnesses -- whose identity they did not know -- for capital enmity, scandalous reputation, or some other quality that would erase or lessen the impact of the depositions. ... attempting to disqualify (tachar) them amounted to a guessing game of who was most hostile to whom within a given community. Not all the prosecution witnesses impugned by Francisco de Toledo [the husband] testified against his wife." [p. 40]

Now the defense had a number of days to look at a publication of witnesses but, according to our editor,not  the names in that court- approved publication. So the defense attorney, Diego Tellez presented a written testimony from the husband, listing possible people who may have seen or heard his wife doing things she wasn't supposed to do, all the while not knowing who actually had testified against her.  Then Tellez presents a long argument to prove his client's innocence of the charge, including a list that Marína had presented of people who might wish her punished. Some of both the husband's and the accused's lists follow. 

"Very Reverend Lords, I, Francisco de Toledo, suspect that the witnesses named below could have spoken against Marína González, my wife, with hatred, ill will, and enmity. I hold them as doubtful and hateful:
The first witness whom I suspect is Juana de la Cadena, the wife of Diego Falcon, She was a sinful person before she married.... She hated my wife, because once she and her husband, who is my wife's cousin, came to stay at my house in Almagro, and my wife said to him, "Congratulations, cousin, that you agree to such a thing! People tell me that your wife gives herself to as many gentlemen as pass your house, and if it is true, it looks horrible to God and the world." He said it was not true, and told his wife what my wife said; for that reason, Juana continued to feel great hatred toward my wife. Whereby, lords, she might avenge herself by giving false testimony, all of which Diego Falcon knows.
Likewise, lords, I suspect Juana, the wife of Martín the butcher, and the daughter of Carrillo, the town crier of Almagro. She was my servant; I had her for eight years and advanced her money. She left without serving me for the stipulated time because of the many injuries my wife inflicted on her. Because of which, and because I pressed her earnestly to repay the money I had advanced her, she hated my wife and me, so much so that she said publicly that she would make sure my wife would not come back from Toledo, but would die in the process. Don Enrique's concubine knows this, as does Juana's sister who lives in Almagro, as well as the daughter of Gonzalo de Chinchilla, and other people. Juana lives in Almagro; she is a whore, a drunk, a pimp, and most days is worse than addle-headed. A short time ago, in Almagro, they whipped her through the plaza and the streets for being a public pimp. ...
I suspect Mayor, the ... wife of Juan de Villareal, wool carder, who lives in Ciudad Real and was my servant.... Your Lordships will find that when this servant Mayor was in my house, my wife became very jealous of her, and thought I committed adultery with her. For this reason, my wife made Mayor's life miserable until finally she forced her from the house, dragging her by the hair, calling her a public whore and the concubine not only of her own husband but the entire village. Mayor went away and threatened my wife, calling her a Jewish whore and saying she would make her burn; she said this to many people, who from hearsay will be able to depose against my wife....
I suspect Catalina, wife of this Bartolomé [Rodriguez], who resides in Ciudad Real. She is a very poor woman, and one of little honor and understanding who has no common sense....
I suspect Mari Ruiz, daughter of Miguel Ruiz, chaplain, who lives in Almagro....
I suspect the wife of Hernando de Segovia, a resident of Almagro, who could speak against my wife because Marína said she was partly a conversa. She resented this very much, because she did not have the reputation of a conversa, and she threatened my wife.... I suspect Catalina de Toledana, wife of Domingo, the wool carder, who could speak against my wife because Catalina was a sinful woman.... I suspect Gracia de Espina, who could say something about my wife because she is her relative...." [pp. 40-41]

The defense lawyer then says a few things:

"Very Reverend Lords, I, Diego Tellez in the name of Marína González , wife of Francisco de Toledo, spice merchant, resident of Ciudad Real, say that your reverences have seen the statements and depositions of our witnesses to her good character, and thus will find very complete proof of my party's intention, to wit:

After Marína was reconciled [with the Catholic Church], she always lived, dressed, and spoke like a good and faithful Christian woman, hearing Mass on Sundays and Church feast days, and confessing and receiving the Eucharist. She worked continuously on Saturdays just as on other days of the week. Out of devotion, she had pictures of saints and the Cross of St Anthony in her house. Likewise, she spun on Saturday and ate pork, except when she was ill with some pain and stopped eating it. She never did or said anything against our Holy Faith.

The proof ... adduced against her has not impeded our case.  First, his witnesses are changeable, and they deposed from hearsay and about frivolous incidents, while for serious events they give neither motives nor reasons. Their statements contradict each other, and then they contradict themselves, and they do not prove that for which they were produced. Secondly, they did not testify or ratify their statements during the period of proof [footnote: "...no explicit ratification of any of the ... prosecution statements,"], and gave false testimony with a great deal of hatred, frivolity and capital enmity." [pp. 41-2]

The lawyer goes on countering why many several accusations are based on mere hearsay, exaggeration, anger and outright lying. For example, he claims, one witness declares things,

"...not on the basis of human understanding but from a knowledge of the heart and interior motive that God alone has. Thus his statement is worthless." [p. 43]

He believes his witnesses should be believed rather than those of the prosecution and because of the suspicions that  Marína González herself has and lists them. 

At last, we get to hear from the woman accused.

"First, I suspect Torres, Mari Godias' husband, because he sold wine and was my neighbor. When I began to sell wine, he became so angry that he threatened me, saying that if we did not stop selling it, it would cost us dearly. ...

Next, I suspect this Torres' wife. We quarreled over some cloths that my daughter embroidered and did not wish to sell, and also over an anklebone that I did not want to give her....

Next, I suspect a brother of this Torres because of a quarrel he had with my son, Diego, over a bridle that my husband sold. He remained so angry against me and my son that he would give false testimony....

I suspect Mayor, my servant girl, whom the wool carder Juan de Villareal took as a wife. She came up to me as I was walking and said, very aggressively: "What did you say about me to my parents?" I did not answer her and left, knowing I had done nothing whatever that she could report. Moreover, before this, when she was a servant in my house, I used to see how she went around like a prostitute with certain men, and I punished her, until I finally had to throw her out. Therefore she retained a lot of hatred for me, and could be easily induced to give false testimony, because she is imprudent and has wicked ways....." [pp. 43-4]

The lawyer then asks them to accept these testimonies and to free the defendant from prison, return her possessions, given that his case is proven and the prosecutor's was not.

The prosecutor answers to the Inquisitors that his trustworthy witnesses would 'completely prove' his case as they were 'above objection and ... practice the Faith'. He  also says that the defendant's testimony against certain witnesses should not be admitted as they were close associates or relatives of hers and some were beneficiaries or descendants of condemned heretics. 

"Then Inquisitor Fernando Rodriguez said that since the parties had concluded, and did not wish to say or advance anything else, that he likewise was finished with them. He said he held this trial as concluded, and assigned a period in which to give the sentence, etc." [p. 44]

Another footnote explains that not even Diego Tellez, the defense attorney in this case knew or was allowed to know the names of the witnesses against his client.

 quotes and pagination, entirely from The Spanish Inquisition 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources, edited and translated by Lu Ann Homza, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2006

Discussions Near Tobasco: March 15-16, 1519

For Bernal Díaz, beginning his chapter xxxvi,

 "The next morning, the fifteenth of March, 1519, many caciques and chieftains from that town of Tobasco and other towns came, showing all of us much respect, and they brought a present of gold, including four diadems, several small lizards, something like two small dogs, ear pieces, five ducks, two images of Indian faces, two golden soles like the ones on their own sandals, and other things of little value, whose worth I no longer remember. They also brought cloaks of the kind they make, very coarse... of very little value..... compared with the twenty women, and ... a particularly excellent woman ... called doña Marína after becoming Christian. Cortés received that gift with pleasure. and he withdrew to talk with all the caciques and Aguilar the interpreter." [ p.48]

Cortés told them they should gather all the men and women, children all around to come to this spot and settle. To throw out their idols.and quit their sacrifices and erect a new structure. And the locals did and settled the new spot in two days. And through the interpreter Aguilar, Cortés explained how the Christian God was the one true God, and showed them an image of Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms and explained that his company worshiped that image because she was in heaven and is the Mother of God. 

"The caciques said that the great tecleciguata, which is what they call the great woman in those lands, seemed very good and that they would like to have her in their town. Cortés said that yes, he would give it to them, and he ordered them to make a proper altar, well constructed, which they immediately did." [p.48]

Already it was the next day, so supposedly the sixteenth of March, and Cortés ordered the construction of a great cross which task he gave to the finishing carpenters. Cortés continued to talk to the caciques there assembled asking why the locals attacked 'three times' when all wanted peace.

"They answered that they had already asked and received pardon for it. The cacique said that his brother, the cacique of Champoton, had advised it so that he would not be regarded as cowardly. He had already been reproached and dishonored because he did not attack us when the other captain came with four ships, and it seems he meant Juan de Grijalva. Further, he said that the Indian we brought as an interpreter and who had fled one night advised him to attack us day and night." [p 49]

Cortés asked them where the gold and jewels came from and the caciques replied Culua or Mexico, 'where the sun set'. But Díaz, knowingly, in hindsight explains that they did not then know what Mexico was so they ignored it. Another interpreter, this time one captured during the Grijalva expedition was brought forward, a Francisco who did know Mexica language but not that of the Tobasco locals. He tried to explain to Cortés about Mexico but was not understood. Here, discussions stopped til next day when religious activities commenced even more earnestly.

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All quotes, text and pagination refers to The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

more news from the Ides of March, 2013, 1529

a scathing critique of today's market in five minutes of audio on Marketplace

Matt Taibbi at the Senate hearing today on Morgan Chase fraud et al.

this is a youtube link to the speech that Rep. (R) Paul Ryan - WI gave at the Conservative PAC annual boosterfest without comment

UN chief for development recognises the war on drugs is a failure and suggested that countries affected should  'act on evidence'.

Company makes a box that they say can thwart snooping signals or cameras from drones, thinks the market will boom
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In 1529, Baldassare Castiglione died. Sanudo made note of it on March 15 [p. 454]. The Venetian ambassador in Rome had sent word. Eight days prior to his death he had been made bishop of Avila by the emperor which gave him a very large travel budget. There was discussion reportedly as who the Vatican should send as envoy to the emperor as word of Castiglione's death spread. Sanudo calls him a papal nuncio or envoy to the emperor Charles V who was then living in Spain. It is famously said that when Charles heard of Castiglione's death, he is reported to have said, "... one of the finest gentlemen of the world is dead." He was a diplomat, a courtier in the best tradition, the author of that book and a practical man who knew a bit about balance and restraint.
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notes from Sanudo and his Diaries 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 the Ides of March, 2013

So many stunning stories stumble past on the ticker today. I'm Shattered.

fatster starts the hook-up with the news today. The first half dozen stories she lists look at the wars all over the mid-east.

Federal prosecution of Blackwater collapses after three years citing collusion with CIA; 

bloomberg reports $2.1bn loan to The Blackstone Group for the landlord consortium to buy up houses for rental in the first ever REO to rent securitisation action with the second link giving a full account at zerohedge

Census reports 1 in 3 US Counties are dying, from the AP wire 

After judges found evidence of fraud, mishandling of data by WI (R) state officials charged with redistricting during the 2011 legislative year, their records were subpoened. But the evidence, the harddrives were tampered with

Cities consider taking over electric production ceding control back from private companies

David Dayen talks about the already gradual privatization of Medicare that's very nearly complete.

Defunding Planned Parenthood in Texas even when they don't perform abortions... makes these Republican policies specifically denying women's health." Who cares? They're just half the population." They don't think it's funny either.

With JP Morgan worth 1/9th of the US' total economy, another example of "I don't know, if that's what's out there": Damning report on JP Morgan's 'risk management and internal control environment'

Could commodities like gold and silver be manipulated like the LIBOR? Feds look into it, says The Guardian.

Detroit has a new emergency financial manager 

Detroit 1978.

Fire In The Arsenal! Sanudo Diaries: March 14, 1509

In the early months of 1509, when Venice was preparing for the fight against everyone it seemed, but the Turks, there were a pair of huge explosions at the Arsenal where the city built it's famous fleet.

Sanudo Diaries: March 14, 1509 (8:17-19); "There was a meeting of the Senate after dinner. And I saw letters from Cremona written on the 12th, full of news from Milan.... And while the Senate was meeting, at about twenty-one hours after sunset ... two huge blasts of cannon and powder exploded into the air, so that the houses and the Ducal Palace and the stars in the sky shook.... a fire had started - or been started - in the Arsenal, in the powder supply, and it burst into flame in this manner. At this, everyone ran to the Arsenal to see; I was among them, and I saw appalling things, terribly upsetting.... om my way there, I met the captains [of the guard], in boats and on the land, with four whom they had taken into custody and whose heads were covered. The captains said that these men had fired the powder and were from Trieste."

Editor's Footnote: "They might therefore have been loyal to the emperor elect, Maximillian." [p. 246]

Sanudo Diaries: "Others said that they were Frenchmen caught in the Arsenal, and others said they were taken in the church of San Martin, and they charged them [with this crime]. Then further along I encountered the many bodies pulled from the ruins, some burned, some mangled, some without a head, without an arm, some half-crazy, unable to speak, with faces like Saracens, blackened by the fire, who were being carried out on planks. Among these I saw ser Francesco Rosso, foreman, a very worthy man, and everyone grieved for his death because of the fine galleys he had built and his good design.... in the end it is thought that more than sixty have died, and many were badly wounded, among whom many boys and porters and other worthy men who worked in the Arsenal. And the stones of the wall fell like rain in the Arsenal and did great damage to the poor wretches who found themselves in such a storm.

The explosions caused the roofs of the artillery storehouses belonging to the Council of Ten and other offices to cave in and did dreadful damage.... As for the powder, only about twelve thousandweights burned because, by God's will, two days earlier 4,000 barrels of this powder had been loaded on barges, and had it not yet departed from the Arsenal for Cremona and elsewhere, and had those barrels remained there, and had the fire also gotten into the large powder storehouse, the entire Arsenal would have burned down. Many of the old houses in the district of Castello were ruined, and the monastery of San Daniel suffered great damage to its roofs and glass windows; but especially distressing was the death of so many valuable men. There was a high wind. Many measures were taken to see that the fire did not reach the galleys."

Next day,

Sanudo Diaries: "It was learned from one of the half-dead porters that in order to seal a casket in which there was powder, a nail was struck with a hammer, and a spark flew off, and this ignited the powder and caused the damage. And of had not been for a certain large round ship that was being worked on nearby and protected many who hid there, there would have been a great loss of the master craftsmen of this Arsenal; this large ship became warped by the fury [of the fire]. The storehouses and the hemp storage rooms at the Tana were destroyed, as were the walls of the Arsenal on that side. The master craftsmen set to work in the morning and rebuilt the wall. And it should be noted that one other time, in 1476, on December 9, a fire ignited the powder in the Arsenal because a horseshoe had struck a spark. From that time forward, the horses working there went unshod."

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

Can A Misplaced Chronology Lead To Narrative Bias? Before the Battle of Cintla, 1519

Next, in the account of Bernal Díaz, he spends two of his chapters (xxxi-xxxii) on the first two days near Tabasco, March 12-13. In them he describes arriving and disembarking at Point Palamares, as well as Cortés claiming that land for Spain, the group fending off some attacks and killing a number of the locals and losing one of their original interpreters, Melchorejo. Cortés had sent out captains in different directions with specific instructions and some of their subsequent findings and actions are told. Aguilar is said to have found out with certainty (here, 'the next day' which supposedly would be the 14th) that Melchorejo had run away and turned to warning the locals and encouraging them to attack the Spanish company at once with full force, since their numbers were so few.

But then with this thought in mind, the next chapter (xxxiii) begins with Díaz explaining what Cortés did to ready for battle, since, as chapter xxxiii begins,

"When Cortés knew for certain they were coming to attack us, he ordered us to bring horses quickly from the ships to land, and the escopeteros, crossbowmen, and all the soldiers to be fully ready with our arms, even if we were wounded." [p. 41]

There were men with some kidney ailment that couldn't fight or walk, then the horses, when they were first taken off the ships walked awkwardly but this was understood because they had been onboard for such a long time. Díaz lists the men that were chosen for the fight with Cortés as captain and then, still in chapter xxxiii, he says,

"Very early the next day, which was the Day of Our Lady of March, after hearing mass... we all fell in behind our standard-bearer..." [p.42]

and then marched toward Cintla. A great long remembered battle followed that day, even according to Cortés and the story of this can be found all over the internet and takes up chapter xxxiv of the chronicle of Bernal Díaz.

However, the next chapter (xxxv) consists of negotiations between Cortés, Aguilar, and some of the local captains taken in battle, emissaries sent from the locals and the next day, further negotiations, including a demonstration of cannon fire. But Díaz said the locals went away very happy that day, saying on next day they would bring back a present for the Spaniards. And this is how chapter xxxv ends.

To my surprise, the very next chapter, xxxvi, starts off by giving the day as the fifteenth of March 1519 (in my text page 48) when the local captains brought many presents and twenty women including the future Doña Marina who would become the lover and interpreter of Cortés.

Looking back, it appears that the story of preparing for, and marching on, and the actual battle of Cintla, was misplaced in the strict chronological order that before this time had been the rule for Díaz up to this point. Our Editors don't point this out explicitly. Yet they do give a footnote for 'the Day of Our Lady of March' quoted above, saying "By tradition March 25"  [p. 42] which could be an oblique way of saying that Díaz just got the day of the battle wrong.

But what this does to the narrative overall is place a larger more momentous battle closer to the beginning of the story, making the story of negotiation that immediately follows in chapters xxxv-vi, in turn, more momentous. There is less chance for true reconciliation after such a great battle, in the mind of the hearer, despite the gifts of beads and entreaties by Cortés. Maybe not, maybe it is just a slip of the pen. But if one were to take out the chapters (xxxiii-iv) here that deal with the battle of Cintla, the narrative would continue without interruption of the calendar as I tried to show above. And it would be a narrative of smaller skirmishes with repeated efforts at reconciliation, for several days. On the twelfth they arrived, and fought off some attackers. On the thirteenth Cortés sends out his captains and the skirmishes continue but Cortés also sends out messengers asking for peace. The day before the fifteenth, Díaz says there were negotiations between Cortés, Aguilar and some emissaries and the day before that as well.

I would like to look at the scholarly work surrounding these days and their accounts to see how modern scholarship understands what seems to be a lapse in the chronicle of Díaz here.

Our Editors and translators say that the text they used is the authoritatively accepted Guatemala manuscript in concert with the recent (2005) definitive critical edition which has the original text, complete with alternate readings and commentary. But that's in Spanish. So my return to this interesting temporal displacement may take some time.

Also I will look at how my theory works if chs xxxiii-iv are inserted in what seems to be the actual chronological flow of events in linear time, on or about the 25th of March.

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All quotes, text and pagination refers to The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

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Also, March 12, 1488 is the day that Bartolomeu Dias is said to have made his farthest landing east on the southern end of Africa at Kwaaihoek. The farthest on record that any European had been by sea, they say.
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Also, congratulations to Pope Francis and Argentina and South America and the Catholic Church and Catholics everywhere. So on the day that a new pope is named, today, according to the Oxford book of Saints, is the feast day of Gerald of Mayo. An Irish Saint.

Moctezuma sends messengers with gifts, 1519

We are told that Moctezuma sent messengers fanning out on the eastern coast. He called his chiefs together and told them what he had learned and to guard these objects that he had previously ordered made.  Then the strangers were reported as being seen again and Moctezuma sent out his messengers. [p. twenty-two]

In the Codex Florentino, one of Sahagun's informants tells us what Moctezuma 

"... felt in his heart: He has appeared! He has come back! He will come here, to the place of his throne and canopy, for that is what he promised when he departed!" [p. twenty-three]

These words and others like them later were interpreted by Cortes himself, and many since as equating Cortes' arrival with a myth of a return of the feathered serpent-god Quetzalcoatl. The question of meaning and interpretation is itself currently much disputed today and not just in the area of mesoamerican history.

Moctezuma then called priests together to go as messengers, he tells them,

"It is said that our lord has returned to this land. Go to meet him. Go to hear him. Listen well to what he tells you; listen and remember.  

Moctezuma also said to the messengers: "Here is what you are to bring to our lord. This is the treasure of Quetzalcoatl."   [p. twenty-three]

A great many precious items were shown, the finery of Texcatlipoca - the sun-god, chief god of their pantheon - was also given them, as well as the finery of Tlaloc - god of rain - and many other things. Then his final orders to them,

"Go now, without delay. Do reverence to our lord the god. Say to him: 'Your deputy Moctezuma, has sent us to you. Here are the presents with which he welcomes you home to Mexico.' " [p. twenty-five]

These messengers set off for the sea and traveled several days, then set out in canoes with the precious relics in the boat with them to keep a good eye on them. 

all quoted from  The Broken Spears: the Aztec account of the conquest of Mexico, translated, edited with an introduction by Miguel León-Portilla, expanded and with a postscript, Boston, Beacon Press, 2006.

Cortés Off Coast Approaches Carefully: March 9, 1519

Cortés and his fleet hovered off the north end of Yucatan a few more days, slowly moving its way west and and then south. One ship captained by Juan Velázquez de León was not with the others and they all went back and found him anchored, unable to find enough wind. So Bernal Díaz said they all stayed an extra day. 

"... we put two boats into the water in which the pilot and a captain, Francisco de Lugo, went ashore. Some settlements with maize fields were there, the people made salt, and they had four houses for idols called cus, in which were many figure, mostly of women with tall bodies. That land came to be called the Punta de las Mujeres. I remember Aguilar said that the town where he had been a slave was near those outlying settlements, that he came there loaded down with what he was carrying for his master and fell ill from carrying the burden, and that Guerrero's town was not very far off. He said that all the towns had gold but not very much, and if Cortés wanted Aguilar to guide him, we could go there. Cortés, laughing, told him he did not come for things of such little account, but to serve God and the king." [pp. 36-7]

Cortés ordered the captain named Escobar to go ahead and scope out the Laguna of Terminos to see if it could handle their boats, if there was good hunting nearby and to make a sign somehow if it was and so on. Escobar went and did so, He then tried to wait in his boat but the wind pushed him out to sea, The next day Cortés and the rest sailed south from Campeche and made it to the Laguna de Terminos. Though they saw where he had left a sign and a letter of his having been there, Cortés sent out a boat with ten men with crossbows, But Escobar was nowhere in sight. The fleet continued south anyway and Escobar caught up with them. While they neared Champoton,  Cortés wanted to stop there but the pilot warned it would not be easy as there is a great ebb tide and they would have to anchor away from the shore. [pp. 37-8]

"Cortés was thinking of giving the Indians of that town a good lesson for the defeat of Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba [1517] and Grijalva [1518]. Many of us who had been in those battles begged him to go in and not leave without soundly punishing them, even though it might detain us for two or three days. The pilot Alaminos and the other pilots insisted that if we entered there, in a week we would not be able to leave because of adverse weather, and that now we had a good wind and would arrive in two days at Tabasco, so we went by it." [p. 38]

This happened on or about the ninth of March, 1519. Each step of the way seems to increase the tension. It's as if a drum is beating, increasing in tempo with every brief episode.

Taken from The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

Columbus Makes Landfall In Portugal, March 4, 1493

From chapter 40 in The Life of the Admiral By His Son:

"On 3 March they encountered such a fierce storm that shortly after midnight their sails were torn away. Then in great danger of their lives, they made a vow to send a pilgrim barefoot and in his shirt to the Virgin of the Girdle, whose church is at Huelva. The lot once more fell on the Admiral.... in addition... many private vows were made also.

As they ran before the wind without an inch of sail and with bare masts, in a terrible sea and high winds, the whole sky was rent with thunder and lighting. Any one of these horrors seemed likely to send the ship to destruction. But the Lord was pleased to show them land just before midnight.... To avoid running on a reef ... they had to raise a little sail, saving themselves in this way.... When God was pleased to show them day and dawn broke, they saw that they were near the rock of Cintra, on the coast of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Here the Admiral found himself compelled to come to land, in great fear and dread of the local inhabitants and the sailors of that coast, who ran up from all directions to see this ship which had miraculously escaped from the cruel storm....

Sailing up the Tagus on 4 March, the Admiral anchored near Restalo and very quickly sent a message to the Catholic sovereigns.... He also wrote to the King of Portugal requesting permission to anchor near the city, for the place where he then lay was not safe against anyone who might decide to attack him ... in the belief that by harming the Admiral he could impair the victory of the King of Castile." [pp 109-10]

From chapter 41:

"On Tuesday, 5 March, the master of the large ship which the King of Portugal kept at Restalo to guard the harbour came in his armed boat to inform the Admiral that he must accompany him to give an account of his presence to the ministers of the King, as was the custom for any ship reaching Lisbon. " [pp 110-11]

This master of the large ship was Bartolomeo Diaz, who is credited with discovering the Cape of Good Hope five years previously. Not a small feat for those times. There is no mention here if Columbus knew this. Columbus refused to be led anywhere on principle and told Diaz that it would be the same if he sent a steward to be summoned around by anyone. The officer said he could then at least show his patents, the letters of commission from the King and Queen of Castile. This Columbus thought this was reasonable and did so. Then the captain's superior came back when the message was delivered,

"... to the Admiral's caravel to the accompaniment of trumpets, fifes and drums and with a grand escort and greeted the Admiral ceremoniously, making him many offers of service.

Next day, when the Admiral's arrival from the Indies had become known in Lisbon, so many people came to the caravel to see the Indians he had brought back and so learn the news that there was not room for them all, and the sea could not be seen for the great number of Portuguese boats and launches. Some of the Portuguese gave thanks to God for this great victory but others were unhappy and greatly disappointed that this triumph had slipped out of their hands owing to their King's doubts and under-estimation of the enterprise. The day passed amidst a crowd of visitors." [p. 111]

The next day Columbus got an invite from the King of Portugal offering congratulation and that if he might wish for anything, that it should be provided for him. Columbus thought it prudent to see this King in the event that there ever was a conflict over state rights over these discovered lands, then he should at least state his case to that King. To prove the case before the King that he had discovered lands that were not under the jurisdiction of Portugal, seemed, for Columbus, the honorable thing to do, according to his charge.

quotes and stories from:"The Life of the Admiral By His Son"  in  The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, for The Penguin Group, London, 1969