Christmas Week: Rome Under Siege: later December 1494

As the state of siege continued in Rome, Johann Burchard, the pope's Master of Ceremonies tells us,

"... from December 19th onward, the French troops were breaking into the city suburbs by Monte Mario and penetrating as far as the Church of San Lazarro and the fields close to the Castel Sant'Angelo. In these positions they remained throughout a whole night so that, with treacherous help they could attack the city from that side." [p.98]

Defenses in the city were increased, including the destruction of buildings and the digging of a ditch around the Castel Sant'Angelo. Fear inside the city grew to such an extent that prominent houses from December 22, Burchard says, the house of Don Jacopo Magnolino a goldsmith was destroyed, as well as others. [p. 98]

Supposed plans of evil designs of the invaders were discussed including the French entering through the Porta San Paolo to begin burning and pillaging. But many of these fears simply didn't materialize.

Burchard gives a letter he says 'written in the following vein' by Cardinal Raymond Peraudi from Formello, on December 23rd, beseeching Germans in Rome to open their gates to the French. Claiming that 'not a hen or an egg would be taken' by French forces moving through the city, and that the pope himself had promised secure passage for them, Peraudi had with these lies, Burchard affirms, 'induced the people to admit Charles VIII'. [p. 99] Interestingly, Burchard has Peraudi's letter sound much like a sermon from Savonarola in places. That God was 'deeply offended by our sins and wickednesses, and unless placated by the prayers of devout persons, neither this union' between the pope and the French king, nor any 'consequent peace between princes could be achieved.' [pp.99-100]

Christmas Eve was a Wednesday that year as well and the pope heard Vespers sung that evening in the Sistine Chapel.
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

Johann Burchard, Diary Digest In Rome, early-mid December 1494

Drawn mostly from the records of Master of Ceremonies to Pope Alexander VI, Johann Burchard, these notes were set down and abbrevaited to show the rapid development of things in Rome as the forces of France were moving to engulf the city.

Tuesday, December 2: Cardinal Ascanio w/ 20 'ecclesiastics and a great number of companions' return to Rome. [p.93]
Tuesday, December 9: Cardinal Ascanio, Cardinal Sanseverino, Cardinal de Lunate, the Bishop of Cesena, Prospero Colonna and Jerome d'Estouteville were all brought to the Vatican Palace and placed under arrest. Jerome d'Estouteville  'was the son of Cardinal d'Estouteville' a strong French partisan before his death in 1483. Jerome was an ambasssador for Napolitan, French and Sforza interets and was 'in Rome at the close of 1494 in such service.' [pp. 93-4]
In the footnote here [p. 93], our editor explains that Alexander 'must have thought, in some panic, to secure his own position, and also to put pressure on Charles VIII.'
But then he 'must have sensed the futility of such actions and began releasing them in time' or simply, released them as he saw the opportunity for their individual uses.

Wednesday, December 10: Bishop of Cesena and Cardinal de Lunate was released (the latter sent to Ostia for negotiations there), but Cardinal Ascanio and Sanseverino were taken to rooms above the papal apartments and imprisoned there. Also Don Ferrantino of Aragon (or Federigo or Ferdinando depending on the source) commanding the forces of Naples (and soon to be dubbed the Duke of Calabria and son of King Alfonso of Naples) returned to Rome and after he 'dined in Cardinal Orsini's garden' rode off to visit the pope at the Vatican.
Also in Rome, after a consistory of several days, discussing all these matters the Pope finally told the ambassadors that he would not feed or allow the French armies passage through papal lands.

Friday, December 12: The forces of Don Ferrantino sacked and pillaged the residence in Rome of French Cardinal Raymond Peraudi who had left November 15th. And did it with papal sanction. [p.94] The editor in a footnote tells us this 'seems the pope took advantage of popular opinion to order this' in response to rumors of Peraudi's treachery with the French.

Christopher Hibbert in his book The Borgias [p 63],  tells us that it was around this time that a French commander near Viterbo, Italy had captured a number of travelling ladies. Two of these turned out to be Giulia Farnese and Adriana da Mila, the pope's mistress and cousin who led the household of his children. The French commander Yves d'Alegre reported this to his king who supposedly said he was 'not at war with women'. The commander went ahead and demanded 3000 ducats for their ransom.
When this was arranged and the women returned safely to Rome under an escort of 400 soldiers), Ludovico Sforza was incensed saying they could have been used 'as a fine whip against this pope since he could not live without them'.

Tuesday, December 16: He asked them to communicate with Germans in the city, as he said he was with the Spanish and even the French in the city, to arm & ready their number to defend themselves against any possible attacks from the French armies.
Wednesday, December 17: Burchard explains that he personally did so, meeting with 'two landlords and six shoemakers at our inn Ospedale dell' Anima'. This place was just off the Piazzo Navona where the della Rovere family and young Felice had recently just left. But they could not agree, already being responsible to 'regional captains' and that 'they could not be released from these duties' in order to carry out such things. Burchard sent word back to the pope their responses. [p.95]

Meanwhile, a message from Florence had arrived [pp. 95-98]. It came from Cardinal Peraudi saying that Don Giorgio Bucciardo had been captured. He was the pope's courier and envoy to Sultan Bajazet of the Turks in Constantinople. This capture, by Giovanni della Rovere the brother of the famous Cardinal della Rovere, had the effect of dumping the correspondences between the pope and the Turkish Sultan into the hands of Cardinal della Rovere and the French partisans previously just in Florence.
An example of this correspondence, dated as coming from Constantinople, three months earlier, says our editor, was retained by Burchard in his manuscript. Afraid of the dangers that his younger brother Djem might pose if released (by the pope or the French, if they captured him), the Sultan in this letter 'judged that Djem should die instead, and his body be sent back to any of our servants on our shores' for 300,000 ducats. This and the kindly words that the Sultan had for the pope was just the sort of evidence that the papal reform-minded Cardinal and French ally Giuliano della Rovere might use against the Borja pope Alexander VI. A remarkable document in any event, at this juncture, it could easily be used in deeply damaging the current pope and his reputation.

Thursday, December 18: Moving day for the pope and those cardinals closest to him. The pope had finally decided to make a stand at the most defensible place in the city: Castel San Angelo. 'All the pope's possessions, his bed, daily table, vestments, the money chests from the sacristy, palace weapons, stores of food and all the papal belongings' were sent 'by road' from teh Vatican to the Castel San Angelo in Rome. There was an underground passage.

Friday, December 19: Cardinal Sanseverino was released with instructions to go and negotiate with the French King.Prospero Colonna having changed sides, was also released and sent to restore the papal fortress at Ostia from the French. [p.98]
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

Pope Alexander VI Sends Rudolf of Anhalt to Petition Emperor Maximilian I: November 24, 1494

It was a week or ten days after the French King Charles VIII entered Florence that he departed with his train south for Rome. With Piero de Medici appealing to far off Venice for aid, friar Savonarola was elevated to a central deciding position in the center of Florence. This major turn in that city would have far reaching effects that would extend beyond the city, across the region for decades.

The forces of Ferdinand coming from Naples were wheeling around Italy but plainly failing in most places that they turned up. The various papal lands, numerous castles and other holdings found themselves as well, in many cases, increasingly closer to capitulation to the French. Pope Alexander VI remained in Rome but found himself in increasingly desperate straits. As Piero de Medici had gone to Venice to seek help and advice, the pope decided to ask for help from the Emperor in the German lands.

News arrived in Rome from Florence of the changes in the north, and that the French were again on the move. Johann Burchard, the pope's Master of Ceremonies gives us these details of the scene.

"When he learnt what had been happening, the pope, on Monday, November 24th, summoned to his presence His Magnificence Don Rudolf, the Prince of Anhalt, Count of Ascona and Lord of Berberg, to whom (through me as interpreter) he complained about the insolence shown to the Holy Roman Church by the King of France. His Holiness protested that the king was seeking not only to create a kingdom for himself from the cities and lands of Italy that rightfully belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, but also to usurp the title and authority of that Empire. This the pope would never submit to, even if a naked sword were held to his throat, and he therefore asked that His Highness Maximilian, the King of the Romans, as the only Advocate of the Holy Roman Church, should be informed of these things, and should be exhorted most earnestly to succour the Holy Roman Church, the Holy Roman Empire, and the whole of Italy with the aid essential for their honour and good. This commission the Prince of Anhalt humbly undertook to carry out." [p. 93]

Rudolf of Anhalt was a most distinguished noble in German lands, and a co-Prince with his brothers of the state of Anhalt, north of Liepzig, east of Berlin. Acting as Imperial ambassador to the pope, he had served both Maximilian and his predecessor Frederick III. But petitions for any ambassador of this magnitude - from pope to emperor - had their own complex set of histories. The Guelph or Ghibelline conflicts between those cities and powers - the supporting of either papal or imperial factions, respectively, and there were several, but mostly in Italy, but also elsewhere - had faded in large part. But these histories were part of the never ending conversation, about power and control and who could use it. These set of controversies often had been at the center of conflicts up and down the peninsula for centuries. But under direction and strict oath to the pope, Prince Don Rudolf, in his role as dutiful servant and sacred knight for his Emperor went speeding north, with his entourage and protection and servants, to find him.

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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

"Peace and the Restoration of Liberty": French King Charles VIII Enters Florence: November 17, 1494

News of the revolt in Florence arrived in Rome by November 9, 1494, acccording to Johann Burchard, Master of Ceremonies for then Pope Alexander VI.  This servant of the pope thought this situation in Florence was severe enough to give a few details mixed with a pointed comment about 'those associated with' the outgoing Medici clan.

"... Sunday... news came ... of a rising of the people... against Pietro de' Medici and his troops. Their houses had been sacked and, it was said, everyone had been exiled. Don Pietro's brother, Cardinal de'Medici, escaped from the city, though not without considerable danger to his life, whilst all those in Florence associated with the Medici only avoided almost certain death by flight." [p. 91]

Partisans against the Medici family had seized control. The phrase  'everyone had been exiled', meant those family members and partisans selected for capture and exile. Many of these had bounties or rewards offered and proclaimed officially by those newly placed to make such proclamations. The Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola had been elevated to prior of San Marco in Florence and personally had welcomed the king of French into the city as a 'Minister of God and Justice.'

Burchard, at his state of remove in Rome may have heard that Cardinal de'Medici had himself passed on to Bologna, and thus his story, and his inclusion here by name. But this also gives a window into Burchard's view of things. The news that Piero had gone on to Venice to ask for help would also necessarily arrive but Burchard doesn't mention that or the elevation of Savonarola. It was Cardinal de'Medici, as a cardinal, that the Church would be most immediately concerned about, as a servant and messenger of the Church, per se.

Those 'associated with' are mentioned by Burchard, as well, but are given such distinction by showing how distant they are. Their very fate comes into question with the uncertain phrase, 'almost certain death', which is not at all a sporting reference, and it seems, purposely horrific. He goes on.

"On Saturday, November 15th, Cardinal Peraudi obtained permission from His Holiness to go to the French king. [Having appealed]... day and night... to make the path to Rome smooth for his king, he therefore schemed for the pope to send him... on the pretext that he wanted to appease him and persuade him not to come to the city. Permission was duly granted and, on that same morning, he went out of his way to assure us, with lying and deceitful words, that his sole aim was to strengthen the power of the church and the peace and well being of the people. Then he left Rome to join the french king in Florence." [pp 91-2]

This was French Augustinian Cardinal Raymond Peraudi who went on to make a great trade in selling pamphlets for the reform of the church. The book linked by Andrew Pettegree which mentions Peraudi is new (2014) from Yale University Press, and looks interesting. Burchard clearly didn't like him.

The following Monday, November 17 was the day that Burchard said French King Charles VIII first entered Florence.

"... in great honour and triumph, accompanied by a large body of cavalry and heavily armed infantry... there he settled various matters with the Florentines. On the church doors and in other public places was written up in golden letters the slogan, "Peace and the Restoration of Liberty'; meetings and detailed discussions began...." [p. 92]

These discussions culminated in the cession of certain holdings - Pisa and the important harbor town, Leghorn - that would go to the French for the duration of the war. Still other previous holdings would go to allies of the French. Sarzana would go to Genoa, Pietrasanta would go to Lucca. In addition, Florence, according to Burchard, would give the king 130,000 ducats in the next year and 12,000 ducats each additional year for France, until the end of the war. These conditions were all read to the public after Mass was held, Thursday, November 20, in the great Duomo of Florence and the proper authorities then took the appropriate oaths.

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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

Pope Alexander VI Sends Cardinal Ascanio to Florence: November 3, 1494

Johann Burchard tells us pope Alexander VI held a consistory which all the cardinals except one attended. It lasted about two hours when it was decided Cardinal Ascanio Sforza should go to Florence and meet and settle things with the French King Charles who was soon to arrive there. Then the pope dined with this cardinal in the Vatican and afterward, Cardinal Giovanni Borgia saw him off as far as the Tiber by San Paolo in Rome. Cardinal Ascanio then boarded a ship that took him downstream to Ostia and then onwards to Florence.

This Cardinal Ascanio Sforza had been acting all summer as a diplomat between the French court and the papacy. As the son of Francesco he was brother to Ludovico, now the actual duke of Milan. Known to be acting reliably to work the advantage of his family and his brother, the pope still needed his counsel to get a sense of French intentions. There was still no word from Venice, from the Spanish king, or Emperor Maximillian. The French had landed at Ostia and taken control of it. Ascanio for his part had spent most of the year going to and fro discussing the various options with the central players. Undoubtedly after discussions with Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal Ascanio had spread talk of establishing a General Council for reform of the Church and perhaps of ousting the Borgia pope.

When at last, in October, the French forces turned south in Tuscany and headed for Florence, Ascanio returned to Rome. Burchard's translator and annotator Geoffery Parker tells us that Ascanio in November, was able to offer ways for the pope to avoid the French coming to Rome. Then he returned to Florence with word from the pope. As papal master of ceremonies this is all Burchard tells us. Further events would manifest additional responses. [pp 90-1]

As the clouds seemed to gather all year in Rome, matters had grown dark for some time in Florence. The halcyonic glory days of Lorenzo Magnifico were over. In place of their devotions to him and his family, the passions of the people fell into factions and the minds of many were taking darker turns. Girolamo Savonarola, Dominican friar at San Marco, preaching the end of times, echoed the fears of too many that a terrible tyrant would be sent across the Alps to punish Florence. At times a foreign Cyrus, and at times the angel of reform, for years a great scourge, he proclaimed, was coming soon to lay low the once proud Florence. Now, the French were on the road and the only hope in stemming the prophesied destruction was in pleading for a greater reformation in the larger, thoroughly corrupted Church.

The theme of reforming the Church was a centuries old set of problems. The Council of Basel which ended in Lausanne in 1448 had succeeded in unifying the papacy but not reforming the Church. The notion of a Council reforming the papcy or the Church might itself be acceptable, but the direction that such reform might take was far from certain or agreed on. There were weighty issues of the relations between the orders, and issues involving jurisdiction for servants of the Church in the lands of the Holy Roman Emperor. There were many sovereignties demanding exceptions, and dispensations, as there were many who saw such activitities as scandalous. But reform was certainly not just a recent or merely local concern. It was far worse than that for Savonarola and his followers in wealthy Florence.

In Florence, there were the anti de Medici factions, those more favorable to them, and those still dedicated partisans.  But after the loss of Lorenzo it seemed the spirit of  the city had either left it, or was left shuttered behind closed doors for security. Christopher Hibbert quotes an unnnamed envoy from Mantua who described the people there as fasting three days a week, the women and girls all entered into convents, and only men, boys and old women seen on the streets [p. 152]. This was, in part, response to the preachings of Savonarola who equated the coming French armies with the approaching sword of God, descending to snatch the unwary.

When word had reached Florence of the 'settlement' that Piero d'Medici had come to with the French King, the streets filled up with protesters. Piero had expected upon returning to reassure the people, that he had saved the city from invasion. Armed with stones, embittered about the accumulation of wealth and power, they would hear none of it. Piero was able to sneak into the city, gather up his closest family members, and the next day, retire well away from the city of his birth, that his family had tried to benevolently lead. Other family members and partisans tried to remove as much of the de Medici treasure as possible, but in the mobs that engulfed the family palazzo, in the following days, much was lost. The Signoria elected to assign bounties for the capture of members of the de Medici clan. After a few more days, it was friar Savonarola who was selected to go and try to plead with the French King on behalf of the city.

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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

Hibbert, Christopher: Florence: The biography of a city; Penguin Books, London, renewed 2004

French Troops On Move In Italy: October 1494

After a long and tense summer in Italy, October was full of action and surprises. A number of troop movements in several directions set counter actions in motion. One after the other, as news of the attacks and movements circulated, the reports would have felt like another hammer blow, another door slamming.

The death of the legitimate duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo, perhaps on Otober 21, 1494, was sudden, but unsurprising to those who knew or suspected Ludovico, the acting Duke of Milan. He had been planning and meeting with the King near Asti over the previous month. At some point he and his retinue returned to Milan. A number of squadrons of soldiers and artillery and lances were sent strategically both east and south.

The king of France, recovering from his ailment, had travelled to and agreed to meet with the young duke Gian Galeazzzo in Pavia. His wife, the daughter of the new king of Naples, Isabella of Aragon, though with a newborn baby and pregnant with another, threw herself before the young king Charles, pleading for him not to attack her family. The king excused himself and went ahead to Piacenza.

In Ostia, known as the port of Rome, troops sent ahead and perhaps even masquerading as Spanish affiliates, quickly took the place over by surprise. Pope Alexander VI, the 'Spanish' pope Borja immediately sent word for papal troops near Bologna to travel south to retake Rome's outlet to the sea. When this became known, it became clear that the pope was most concerned about his own holdings rather than any support for the king of Naples.

Advance troops, including Swiss lances and artillery, arrived in the neighborhood of Forli. The Napoleon troops under Ferdinando had been waiting most of the summer farther north toward Ferrara. But before the Swiss arrived they moved south again and entrenched themselves near Faenza.

Caterina Sforza, in nearby Forli, in her fortress Ravaldino, sent out toughened veterans to the strongholds at Imola, Bubano and Mordano. Through September she ordered the bakers of Forli to stay making bread for all the Napoleon troops nearby. It was true, she had received offers all summer, from her uncle in Milan, from the pope in Rome, and soldiers and envoys from Naples, all beseeching rights for passage, seeking reassurances of alliance. But it was the pope who offered her the papal stronghold of Mauro and 16,000 ducats. Caterina took this and promised to hold her own.

The French and Swiss advance troops, Guicciardini tells us, struck first at Bubano. There the moats were filled and many french died. So, according to Elizabeth Lev, on October 20, 1494, 2000 French and Milanese troops turned to the stronghold of Mordano and attacked. [p. 176] The troops there fought bravely all morning and afternoon but were overwhelmed by cannon and sheer numbers. Combatants were captured and killed. The rest of the town of Mordano was razed, except for the city hall. The women who all had hid in the church were captured and taken away by French soldiers. The Napoleon troops under Ferdinando had turned and retreated further east to Cesena. But the French advance paused, the armies gathered their dead and wounded, and took stock of the new situation.

Meanwhile the king had amassed a huge number of troops before Sarzanello, on the far side of Italy along the coastal road. This commanded the route south to Lepanto, Pisa and ultimately Florence. It was here, Guicciardini tells us, that the French king met with Piero de Medici, If the French were to proceed south and, for now, avoid the Napoleon troops on the far side of the mountains, they would have to pass through lands controlled by Florence. King Charles made a bunch of demands, threatening to sack all the towns thereabout, and Piero gave up what he felt he had to. He conceded to Charles Pisa, Lepanto, and the fortress of Sarzanello until that time that the French had taken control of Naples. There was little else by then that Piero felt he could do if he wanted to keep the French from taking Florence itself.  He had let himself be convinced by Ludovico that the French might be completely put off or paid off. By accepting these demands of the French king, Piero had given up the keys of control for the Florentine world, though Florence itself, he thought, might be spared.

As recently as July, the pope had agreed to a pact with Naples and Venice to support each other against all enemies. By this point in October, the army of Ferdinando was shut up near Ravenna, the papal forces were in Ostia fighting the French alone, and the Venetians were nowhere near any fighting. Charles, meanwhile had forces on both sides of the mountains, with the wide valley of Tuscany open to him. The news came that the young duke Gian Galeazzo whom he had just met had died of a stomach ailment. Now Ludovico il Moro was the undisputed ruler in Milan having completely cut off any irritating marriage alliance with Naples. Gian Galeazzo, now former duke of Milan, was also the younger brother of Caterina Sforza of Forli.

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Elizabeth Lev, The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's most courageous and notorious countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de'Medici : 2011, USA, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt Publishing Company

French King Charles VIII Arrives in Asti, Italy: September 1494

It was during the month of September that the French King Charles VIII first arrived with his horde of troops in Italy in 1494. News of this awoke the many self-protective towns and cities up and down the peninsula. All year the messengers had been criss-crossing city gates and palace walls relaying the latest news. Tense months and hectic weeks spent in worrying 'would they or won't they', gave way to more present worries of how to respond. Who would the French come for first?

It was the town of Asti that the French first occupied in Italy. Between Turin and Genoa, the broad plain where Asti sits is ringed by moutains opening toward present Alessandria. This makes it a natural place for the French to stop, coming from the west. Asti is in the plain of the Tanaro River which also runs into the Po River nearby. This then wends it's way east along the breadth of north Italy, snaking it's way to its many outlets into the Adriatic.

To the north-east of Asti lay Milan, the home of the close French ally il Moro, Ludovico Sforza. All year and the year before he had been working his many messengers and doing his best to cajole all sides. The French to come, for Rome and for Florence not to worry, for Venice and Naples to make separate pacts with the French. The Duke himself went with his retinue and a great number of fashionable ladies, to Asti to welcome the King.

There had been troubles along the way for the French and their allies. It is reported that the trek over the Alps had been too difficult for many. There were deserters, illnesses, even lack of available provisions. At one point Cardinal della Rovere (later Pope Julius II) had to address them and renew their convictions. Guicciardini gives us a version of his speech that ran for several pages. Whether accurate in all particulars it's accepted as what the cardinal is likely to have said, as some general outline. This cardinal would remain a passionate French ally and spokesperson until his end.

There were also problems for Naples. Don Federigo, nephew to the new king of Naples who had long served as an ambassador in France, had begun the first attack on the French Riviera, near Rapalle, just a few miles west of Genoa. After some initial successes, a thousand Swiss lance-soldiers were sent from the Duke of Orleans. They arrived and supported by the Genoese locals, drove off the invasion force of fellow Italians from the mainland. Those who did not run off into the mountains returned to Lepanto. This was the news that greeted the French King when they arrived in Asti. Good news for him and il Moro.

Ercole d'Este the Duke of Ferrra also arrived to greet the King. A man of much intelligence he came in person to show his good wishes, certainly, but we can safely assume, to more certainly strike a deal of his own. Here in Asti, they had several feasts and meetings to determine what next to do. King Charles himself had contracted some disease. The english translator of Guicciardini here calls it small-pox. They would stay, Guiciardini says, in Asti for a month or more.

Today, Asti is a commune of some 75,000 people. Then, it regularly had at most only a few thousand souls. As many had feared, with the French arrival, all the troops and their allies including Cardinal della Rovere, and the other visiting nobles, their attendants and so many other hangers on, the entire valley must have been overwhelmed with over 20,000 new sudden inhabitants. The Inns and taverns would all be full, camps in the countryside round about must have become the norm. Campfires would dot the fields at night. Horses had to be tethered or sheltered and fed. There had to be clergy to attend to the men as well, to give sermons, and hand out communion. Thank goodness it was harvest time.

news bits early August 2014

Will there be a new Senator from Kentucky next year? Answering this was the point of the Fancy Farm get together held this weekend. Here is the video where both Alison Grimes and Mitch McConnell gave their prepared remarks at the Graves County, Kentucky Fancy Farm last Saturday. The occasion is the traditional start to the Kentucky political season and this year these two are running for McConnell's Senate seat. Ms Grimes really let incumbent McConnell have it and he, in response, seemed to be running against president Barack Obama. McConnell is the current Senate Minority leader, the head of the Republican party in the US Senate.

Yes, the military assault on Gaza by Israel has overcome the news. Over 1600  Palestinians have been killed in the last thirty days with around sixty Israeli's killed. The protests over the weekends continue. Digby gives a rundown of why the US responses have been all too typical and ineffective, and why many tune out the carnage and loss of life. It is horrible, unconsionable and yet, totally predictable. The Israeli's are defending themselves, the Palestinians are being slaughtered and try to defend themselves with ineffective forces. Many ask why the US seems so unable to influence their favorite ally in the region. They could get the Israeli's attention to threaten to cut off the flow of arms there, but that announcemnet is completely untenable to neocons here at home.

If anybody is curious how the one-percent live, Daniel Schulman, the author of the new book "Sons of Wichita", about the Koch family of Wichita, KS had a teaser up at Vanity Fair last May. In it the lesser known Frederick Koch gives a tour of his six-story Manhattan property that he has filled up like a museum. A longer discussion with the author about the book is at firedoglake.com.

These cocoa bean workers in the Ivory Coast, amazingly get their first taste of the product they harvest.

Moss has been here a long time and will probably stick around for a lot longer. Found the link in this article by Robert Krulwich at NPR.

Notes From:Burckhardt: Relative Lack of Class Consciousness Among Italians

Toward the middle of the compiled notes on this period, Burckhardt gives a quick sketch on what he thought separated Italian culture from the rest of Europe before 1500. It is because he says it so simply and directly that I include it here. Words italicized are as printed in 1958 edition used here.*

"Outside of Italy, the nobility and the middle class were separated socially and remained so for a long time. the two had different cultures, almost; and each class was incapable by itself of supplying the basis for a complete culture. Especially in Germany the nobility became brutalized and ran wild...". [p.91]

He says that where there was not a king, like Francis in France acting as a center for culture to flourish around, then there was little culture to speak of. In literature, art, architecture, and in education, the old traditional scholastic and Gothic forms, "...seem to us mannered and tedious... a wooden mockery, by turns more didactic and more cynical." Outside Italy, he stresses, there was more superstition, more astrology and alchemy, rather than science. There were more quality mystics, he admits, but less harmonious a culture, overall. One with "... great incomplete and latent forces." [pp. 92-3]

On the other hand, Burckhardt says, Italy had an inner harmony. Italy was a "country of a common culture", where, "... the form of intercourse was a higher sociability independent of class differences, and its content was intellect."

"Toward the end of the fifteenth century, that which to other Europeans was still a conjecture and fantasy was already knowledge and a free object of thought to the Italians. Imagination was beautifully channeled into poetry and art.

The scope of the intellect, still a very close and narrow sphere among the other Europeans, , is here enormously widened through an interest in an ideally conceived Greco-Roman antiquity, ... and in nature and human life;  indeed, nature is expanded through a universal urge for knowledge, appreciation, and discovery that is no longer inhibited by the old scholastic system which still blanketed the rest of Europe." [p. 93]

He says, Italy thought about the soul differently too: self-aware, self-revealing. Yet seems less concerned about the man-made ravages of 'despotism' and credits the popes and Ludovico il Moro as graet patrons of the arts. The simple notion that 'everything can be done here and one must possess the best', is the 'conviction' that made Florence stand out among the best.


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* Jacob Burckhardt: Judgments on History and Historians: translated by Harry Zohn, Beacon Press, Boston, 1958

news bits mid-late July 2014

There are a number of alternate news bits and a couple series that deserve special mention this season.

Of course there are the conspiracy theories surrounding the downing of the Malaysian plane #MH17 in Ukraine.

NPR tours a Shell oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cemetary at Ostia, Italy found to be 2700 years old. From The Japan Times


A white flag appeared above the Brooklyn Bridge Tuesday. No one is sure what that was about but the NYPD showed up in force the next day for deterrence, saying they had a few leads.

Mysterious white flags appear atop Brooklyn Bridge - http://t.co/dM293urYG3 pic.twitter.com/eeJpn7fxW6
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 22, 2014

The Tour de France. Here's a quick view of the Pyrenees Wednesday along the route of the Tour de France.

Wow, paysages extraordinaires dans les Pyrénées... / Incredible scenery into the Pyrenees... http://t.co/UmHg7s0zYn #TDF
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 23, 2014

The view from Ca' Foscari on the Rialto in Venice, Italy.

Seminario internaz a Ca'Foscari sul finanziamento delle reti e energie rinnovabili:distratti dalla bellezza del luogo pic.twitter.com/4Tj7I3AVuV
— Franco Bassanini (@FrancoBassanini) May 9, 2014

The water was shut off in Detroit, Michigan for thousands of people. This article in the Atlantic explains the story. People marched and afterward, the city agreed to turn it on for some. These nurses helped make a difference July 18.

Nurses at Detroit rally calling to end the health emergency and turn on the water #DetroitWater #NN14 pic.twitter.com/MOc5KXptQX
— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) July 18, 2014

Visions of Mars July 2014.

I took a photo on Mars and emailed it to your planet, but NBD, you just keep watching cat videos. pic.twitter.com/YMcF3pQ5O7
— SarcasticRover (@SarcasticRover) July 6, 2014

Who's In Charge? German Social and Spiritual Norms in Late 1400's

A traditional way of looking at the late medieval Christian world is to point out the plentiful dualities found along every walk of life. God and Man, Man and Society, Man and Woman, come up in any day. Pairings such as Rural and Urban, Continuity and Reform, reflect the dynamism in populations and local concerns. The broad comparisons of Earth and Heaven, Sin and Salvation, and Secular and Spiritual matters and practices plunge us into the medieval world. The days would bring examples of Relic and Forgery, confronting the Past and Present. Thomas A Brady makes a case for a much broader view, in actuality (albeit more complex), pointing out the variety of multi-polar aspects and views, across German lands.

The old understanding of two swords, that is, both systems for justice, that of the temporal (or secular) and those spiritual realms that ruled the Christian world, was an idea repeated when the Church wanted to keep or extend its authority. Or when kings or princes or other powers wanted to exert their own. As can be expected, the history of this is long and the greater, more recent points of this longstanding argument - like the Council of Basel 1433-49 - which  Brady later discusses at length, highlight the forms this long-reaching, ongoing tug-of-war took on.

As example, Brady gives an exchange in 1480 between a local Margrave and the bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg. This Margrave (like Marquis) Albert Achilles, saw the call by the pope for a war against the Ottoman's as a rise in his taxes, since, he would have to send something to Rome as a good and faithful servant of the Church. Crucially he thought he should get some of that money from the bishops in charge within his Franconian domain.

"The prince-bishops of Bamberg and Würzburg objected that this would violate clerical immunity from temporal jurisdiction.... Lay rulers longed to liberate the lands and incomes from the Church's "dead hand."" [p. 59]

Brady concludes this was a sign of the times. The clerics wanted things to remain as they were, free from demands put on them by the local Margrave, even when these were for a policy they couldn't disagree with. But also, it made sense to Albert Achilles that these leaders should be able to contribute, especially since they were, in effect, the other sword.

Many an abbey or monastery, as well as lands held (even personally) by this bishop or that, essentially had their own contracts or agreements with certain parishes, the diocese or local nobility, as benefices etc. and that were fixed in the past, and whose current protectors wanted to continue to exclude or limit external control. Then there were those lords who wanted to consolidate their control over all the various parts of their promised dominion(s). Especially lands that the various churches let lay fallow and unproductive. These were just the sorts of 'points of neglect' that a forward thinking prince might want to take under his wing.

These kinds of conflicts happened, as the fifteenth century saw a broad swelling in the criticisms and castigation of many of the various clerical Orders, as well. The stories of corrupt parsons or friars, gluttonous Dominicans and hypocritical Benedictines filled more than just Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. But also, as Brady says, the religious community in German lands had been populated by old noble families, for generations, and which filled,

"... by the fifteenth century many such institutions, [these which] lay fast in the grip of the regional nobilities,[and] which defended their possession by requiring genealogical proofs for admission." [p. 57]

If the ranks of the clergy were full of nobles who jealously guarded the entrance to those institutions and could continue to control who would eventually make decisions, then there could be no redress. Except when that could be to the local prince, margrave or local lord. But, in this case, the local lord had turned it all around and Margrave Achilles made the bishops pay and was so incensed, he told them he would make them an example for all the other princes who would thereby learn how to deal with church officials. He was also, as Margrave, a servant to Emperor Frederich III, who conveniently then had his own pressing concerns elsewhere.

This all goes to show it wasn't just the relations between a bishop and the pope, that mattered, or the bishop and the local prince. Even when a prince and a bishop could agree, there were of course, the people to account for, as well as, who may be best able to pay.

The people had expectations for both secular and spiritual authorities. They expected the church and the bishop or their local Marian cult or pastor, to act as mediator between them and God, not between them and Rome. They expected the state, such as it might be to lead in efforts to protect them from other states. But more often, in German lands, the most direct power lay in local smaller institutions. Meanwhile the bishops and clerics were often absorbed in courting wealthy, worldly powers, and Rome, which in truth, gave poorer responses from the far-off, and relatively weak, though larger, institutions. This was nobody's fault. The institutions had all grown into these relations over long stretches of time. [p. 59] But this was the physical world. The masses of people were taught all year long to understand they were incomplete without the salvation promised to them from God. But the Roman sacraments, the eucharist and festivals had to be supplemented by the many local festivals, holidays, faces, relics and practices. All of which, grounded in the natural seasonal cycle, in time, still wanted something more. In a word, sublimation.

People wanted salvation, people wanted justice. Since on those occassions that church or bishop, prince or emperor could not bring it, for whatever reason, more and more sought ways to capture it themselves. This tension and a desire to find a way out of it produced many novel approaches.

Brady gives us three or four examples to point out these trajectories. Erasmus, a contemporary of Luther focused on good works of the faithful individual rather than, penance or 'trips to Rome'. [pp. 61-2] This too, could and did directly counter the common stereotype of the day's lazy clergy, the gluttonous bishop or the stuffed collars, the pretenders who begged alms for false pieties.
The Devotio Moderno,  also Dutch in origin, similarly had a very devout, disciplined rigor in all matters of the faith, and was widely read, but was not canonical. Brady says there were over fifty editions of this printed between 1472 and 1500. [p.65]
There was the case of the miracle of the Wilsnack blood earlier in the fourteenth century. Cakes of the eucharist were said to grow red with the blood of Christ. The question Where did it come from or How did that get there was never fully explained. In a way, Brady suggests, it was there because people were missing something and wanted it to be there. This miracle generated a fabulous pilgrimage, was also denounced by prominent critics as it opened radical theological discussions, but was left to remain in place until 1552.
The last example Brady gives of the novel responses to the tensions of the age was that of the prophecies of the drummer of Niklashausen. He of course, was burnt at the stake on July 19, 1476 on order of the Bishop of Würzburg.
______________________________________________
quotes and pagination from: Thomas A Brady Jr: German Histories in The Age of Reformations, 1400-1650;  University of California, Berkeley for the Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2009

Columbus Leaving Shoals of Cuba: On Second Voyage, June-August 1494

Accepting the tale of the son of Columbus, it was on June 13, 1494, that Christopher Columbus decided to return to Hispaniola. The Admiral had been exploring the southern and westernmost coast of Cuba for several weeks already. Continually running into shoals, sandbars, bad luck, illness, his dispirited, even fearful, companions saw that it was clear they had to do something else. Taking aboard provisions at Isla de Evangelista, they then set off in a wrong direction.

This misdirected trip got them stuck again, on 30th of June, damaging the ship. When they could break free they found themselves in water only twelve feet deep.

"On top of these difficulties, they met every day at sunset with violent squalls of rain, which blew down from the hills on the further side of the lagoons which border the sea. They were greatly afflicted and troubled by these until they reached the eastern coast of Cuba along which they had sailed on their outward voyage. From here, as when they had passed before, there blew a scent as of the sweetest flowers."

By the 7th of July they landed there, came ashore and heard mass. A well-travelled local cacique sat with them and listened 'attentively'. After, the son of Columbus tells us clearly, that this man said he agreed, that it was a good thing,

"... a very good thing to give thanks to God, since if the soul was good it went straight to heaven and the body remained on earth and that the souls of wicked men must surely go to hell." [p. 180]

This straightforward expression of some of the most complex of Christian ideas, the soul, heaven, hell, gratitude to God are all put in the mouth of a local chief.  How could this be? How could it be more than mere parrotting of the sermon? How could a local articulate to Christians, in a language they would understand (?) these core understandings of Christian faith, unless it were some sort of miracle? It certainly stretches credulity, if not possibility. But there it is in this tale from the pair of  father and son Columbus. They would stay here and repair and replenish for over a week.

Leaving this place by 16 July, weather battered them again, forcing a heading to Cabo de la Cruz. A giant wave almost submerged them, they began taking on water 'from the bottom planks' faster than they could pump it out. Everyone was exhausted, from the rough seas, the miserable rations, the 'pound of rotten biscuit' and 'pint of wine' a day. Even Columbus wrote he ate the same as the rest of the men.

"Pray God that it be in His service and in that of your Highness. Otherwise I would never subject myself to these hardships and dangers. Every day we seem about to be engulfed by death." [p. 181]

 It was on the 18th of July they reached Cabo de la Cruz, welcomed by the locals with 'plenty of their cassava bread... much fish and... fruit...'. But there was not a favorable wind to Hispaniola. So they set out for Jamaica, which theyquickly reached by July 22. Here the locals gave them food as well, which the sailors said they preferred to that of the other islands. So it was here that they spent the next month exploring that island's lush coast,  friendly, food-bearing locals, and fair weather. By August 19, they set a course again for Hispaniola.
_____________________________________
quotes, pagination from: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, The Penguin Group, London, 1969 

Index of Subjects: Francesco Guicciardini: History of Italy i: Prelude to French Invasion, to end 1493

This aims only to act as a list of topics with pagination for the first section of book i from the edition printed by 1763 in English and found at the John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library. So it therefore reads as a nearly discursive table of contents for this section leading up to the end of 1493. A rambling and wandering table.

(5)     Ludovico Sforza described as usurper to Dukedom of Milan.      

(6)     above described as potential problem for king Ferdinand of Naples, along with Venice, and

(7)     nobles in Naples, w/Angevin French interest. Sforza felt secure from attack by Venice and

(8)     sought at first to maintain alliances w/Florence, Naples as set prior to this in 1480 - for 25 years.

(9)     This alliance was to protect against Venice, described as threatening Milan, Ferrara.

(10)   This alliance built tensions between the allies, each wanting to outdo the others. Then Lorenzo died.

(11)   Lorenzo had helped quell tensions between Ludovico and Ferdinand. Then pope Innocent died.

(12)   Rodrigo Borgia elected as pope Alexander VI w/ promises of gifts for cardinal Ascanio Sforza

(13)   as vice-Chancellor in Rome. Description of that office under Borgia, then Ascanio's downfall,

(14)   Description of traits of Rodrigo Borgia.

(15)   Description of traits of Piero, heir to Lorenzo de'Medici but married to Ordelaffi interests.

(16)   But Ordelaffi interests included king Ferdinand & Alfonso of Naples, which Ludovico of Milan feared.

(17)   Ludovico proposes all princes enter Rome the same day to honor new pope. All agree, but 

(18)   Piero begged off to Ferdinand citing the oratory would be eclipsed by so many others that day.

(19)   Ferdinando agreed and pleased 'in Effect if not in Manner'; but Ludovico was furious at secrecy.

(20)   The castles at Cervetri near Rome, Ferdinand had wanted in hands of Orsini, an ally since 

(21)   Calixtus III, the previous Borgia pope who had tried to take them from his (F's) father. Aragon-Borgia

(22)   relations turn sour, with pope Alexander claiming the castles as Rome's, denouncing Ferdinand et al.

(23)   Ludovico of Milan jealous of Ferdinand's power, beseeches the new pope to keep his dignity, that

(24)   these provocations could seem small but later would seem bigger & bigger, to remember history.

(25)   Ludovico offered pope money & soldiers; he petitioned Ferdinand, the Orsini and Piero de'Medici,

(26)   to remember their shared history. But Ferdinand of Naples convinced Orsini to take the castles.

(27)   Ludovico then sought some other form of security. Alfonso pressed on with diatribes against Milan.

(28)   Isabella, daughter of Alfonso and her letter. Ludovico's subjects, upset with usurper, high taxes, would not be swayed by further arguments of Ludovico that 

(29)   Naples was legacy of a former Milanese duke Visconti. So Ludovico sought his fortune. The Borgia pope did love his children and wanted to advance them and

(30)   offered a son to a daughter of Alfonso. Ferdinand accepted but Alfonso disputed dowries. So pope Alexander turned his efforts toward Ludovico and Venice.

(31)   Venice was delighted by all these disputes as they had trouble with previous popes.

(32)   Agreement between Milan, Venice and Rome April 1493, for mutual support and oust Orsini from castles, alarms everyone else.

(33)   An aliance between Alfonso of Naples, Piero of Florence, the Orsini and Giuliano della Rovere, bishop of Ostia, for mutual aid.

(34)   Ferdinand saw the dangers in this and tried to mollify the pope. Then Ludovico saw the dangers if his new allies backed out, and he began then to think of French aid.

"...Resolutions taken out of Fear seldom appear sufficient to the Fearful..."

(35)   History of Naples since it was siezed by Manfred from Frederick II, then taken and given (in 1262) to Charles of Anjou by St Louis IX.

(36)   History of House of Anjou in Naples.

(37)   Charles Durazzo, and Joanna II who adopts Alfonso of Aragon to protect her dominion. 

(38)   This Alfonso was thrown out and she gave her legacy to Rene of Anjou. She died in 1435.

(39)   Rene and Alfonso would fight many battles for control of Naples. Rene gave it to the kings of France.

(40)   The state of the kingdom of France in 1400's. Advances of Charles in Guienne and Normandy, by Louis XI in Picardy, Burgundy and Provence and Charles VIII in Brittany by marriage.

(41)   Charles VIII of France wanted Naples, if not by inheritance then as platform to beat back the Turks.

(42)   Ludovico plays on ploys of persuasion to France and for pope to help send a delegation to France.

(43-51)   Charles Barbiano, count of Belgioioso appeals to the nobles and prelates of France with the designs of Ludovico of Milan.

(52-4) French officers of Prudence counsel against such an attack.

(55)   Charles VIII 'founded on Levity and Impulse rather than Maturity of Counsel', listened instead to his own attendants 'of mean Condition', some of whom were 'venal' and accepted payment from Ludovico.

(56)   List of some of these French advisors to Charles VIII. These were assisted by desperate Neapolitan agitators.

(57)   Charles VIII prevaricates then agrees with Ludovico. Terms of agreement follow including Ludovico granting passage through Milan, and 200,000 ducats sent to King Charles.

(58)   Ludovico could expect support from the king, help with forces at Asti, & control of Taranto by the end of the war. History of Francesco Sforza on behalf of Naples in fending off Rene of Anjou.

(59)   Francesco Sforza's reasons for such deliverance. The avoidance of Louis XI in affairs of Italy:

"... a Scheme which would be attended with great Expense, many Difficulties, and prove, in the End, pernicious to the Kingdom of France."

(60)   Opinions in Italy, of the Duke of Ferrara, Ludovico's father-in-law

(61)   possibly gave bad advice to him since Milan had sided with Venice over salt mines. Or,

(62)   Opinions of King Ferdinand of Naples about such an invasion, that by sea it would fail, and by land would cause chaos for everyone in Italy.

(63)   Ferdinand thought it as likely that France would come and take Milan instead, reasoning that Naples was well supported in goods, arms, leaders and friends.

(64)   Ferdinand trusted also in the friendship with Spain and his relations there, despite size and reputation of the French army.

(65)   But, narrator tells us that Ferdinand's army was not so great and he had few friends in all of Italy. Even Spain and then there were the bad portents, letters and prophecies.

(66)   Ferdinand turned to trying to dissuade Charles from the trip. By marriages, bribery, negotiation for an annual tribute.

(67)   Ferdinand tried to blame the entire issue of the castles near Rome on Orsinio obstinacy,

(68)   fixed an agreement with the pope for them and married a grand-daughter to the pope's youngest son.

(69)   This agreement included a mutual defense pact between Naples and Rome. But this did not materialize. Ludovico of Milan was telling Rome, Florence and Naples that

(70)   he was trying to dissuade France from coming, at times saying they were talking about their rights re:Genoa. This would change. Charles VIII went securing relations with

(71)   Spain who agreed not to help the House of Aragon, but to receive Perpignan at the foot of the Pyrenean mtns. Narrator convinced French people disliked this.

(72)   Charles also secured peace with Maximilian II with

(73-4) History of Imperial actions with Louis XI and Mary of Burgundy and Margaret sister to Philip of Austria, who was promised Artois by Charles for peace.

(75)   Ludovico sought to marry his niece [ this happened Nov1486] Bianca Maria (sister to Gian Galeazzo) to emperor Maximilian after death of M's father Frederick. Visconti family had a 

(76)   History and how this was related to such relations, including Francesco Sforza and

(77)   how Ludovico used these relations to his advantage. Along with another rumored 400,000 ducats.

(78)   Ludovico got more people to believe he should be invested with title of Duke since he was the last Duke's brother.

(79)   Aged Ferdinand gets a last list of hopes, that Milanese alliances would fail.

(80)   King Charles VIII France sends letters of his demands to Rome, Florence, and Venice of his intentions to cross alps next year to take Naples.

(81)   These letters were instigated by Ludovico, but this was discovered only later, FG says.

(82)   Piero of Florence brought these letters to Ferdinand but was rebuffed with bitter complaints from the old king.

(83)   Cardinal della Rovere stays in Naples while pope tries to 'secure' him. Description of della Rovere, future pope Julius II.

(84)   This redounds badly for king Ferdinand as well. 1494, a terrible year for Italy begins.

Information (and who wields it) has become a hot topic: news mid July 2014

Last Thursday, a Malaysian commercial passenger jet #MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. The powers there engaged in a sort of civil war have blamed each other, while the international community including the US, have demanded a complete investigation. In addition to the awful loss of life in such a terrible way, in a warzone where the very region itself is contested, the cleanup efforts afterward have drawn international criticism. Working on the assumption that those Russian-backed seperatist forces in the area (which were newly trained on anti-aircraft missiles), had made a mistake, Europe is trying to determine collectively how to respond. It was a flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia, carrying many Dutch and other Europeans. The initial news and subsequent stories have dominated the international and national news circles. 14 min audio via msnbc's All In w/ Chris Hayes.

Meanwhile, the fifth day of a ground assault into Gaza comes to a close after two weeks of shelling have killed over 500, with as many as 27 Israeli's possibly dead. The day that started there coincided international protests in many major cities on every continent.

Palestinian death toll rises as Israel threatens broader Hamas offensive http://t.co/8ysbdTkoQR pic.twitter.com/weYrFDGCTZ
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 16, 2014

The time for the US Federal Reserve Bank to close the window, and "taper", and then end the qualitative easing policy of the last sevral years is running out, say some.

Huh. RT @boes_: Damn pic.twitter.com/JzNsUvLsB9
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) July 18, 2014

One of the proponents of the theory that inflation is a big looming problem, was exposed on national television for constantly being wrong. About six years too late, but still welcome to see.

WATCH: Tea Party hero Santelli told how wrong he's been about everything forever. http://t.co/nbRN36KkJl pic.twitter.com/bY6dB7bBBO
— The National Memo (@NationalMemo) July 14, 2014

________________________________________________

Another story is the crisis in Central America causing a wave of some 60,000 refugees, mostly children, to come to the southern US border. Since immigration has become such a loud issue in the last five years, all the politicians want to talk about it. But little is done to ease the suffering of the kids,  and little news is available from the source of the problem - they kill journalists there. So without either I can expect this catastrophe to only get worse. Reuters reported that President Obama will visit with leaders of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala on July 25.
_________________________________________________

The DC Circuit court has upheld a lower court ruling, exempting state from subsidies to implement the ACA exchanges. A summary is here. A longer version of the story is here.  But the fourth circuit court in Virginia ruled the other way. These rulings, some say, will probably be overruled later by a majority of that Circuit court's judges, sometime this fall.
_________________________________________________

NPR interviewed Walter Binney and aired the story today. He and Thomas Drake applaud Edward Snowden for avoiding capture by telling their story of what happened when they went through 'proper channels'. 8 min audio
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Amazing history on discovery of the disease Typhus, its carriers and vaccine, thru WWII. 35 min audio on Fresh Air.
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Forty-five years ago this week, Apollo 11 went to the moon.

Apollo 11 was launched 45 years ago today at 9:32 EDT: #NASA pic.twitter.com/KpobhKX6BK
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 16, 2014

Francesco Guicciardini: The History of Italy: i; A Beginning of the French Invasion

At the very beginning of Guicciardini's massive History of Italy he says what he is going to do.

"I propose to relate what past in our memory in Italy,
since the French, invited by our own princes,
came with powerful armies, and interrupted her Repose...."

At first, he says, Italy had been placid and her prosperity by 1490 was greater than it had seen in over a thousand years. Industry and production and sale of goods in cities, and agricultural abundance in the valleys had made the whole region great, and for some while. Part of this, as he gently assures us was due to 'the Virtue and active Spirit' of Lorenzo de'Medici. He knew 'how destructive' it would be 'to himself and Florence' if any of the surrounding powers 'should increase their Dominion'. So he made pacts with the ones he could. There was one with Pope Innocent, and one with King Fernando/Ferrante in Naples. This king, he tells us, as a youth was 'formerly ambitious and turbulent', but by old age, found instead his son Alfonso 'instigating ... resentment' at the plight of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, of Milan.

All this is presented, for Guicciardini, as substrate, the background to the invasion of the French king, Charles VIII in 1494. The gist of this primary story that comes down to us, this resentment, is already here in the first five pages. But the reality and breadth of the story did become much broader and longer. Still, before the account, he says, before talking about the causes and actions of the invasion, first he reminds us how good things were when Lorenzo was the chief man in Florence. When Guicciardini was still a child, in Florence.

Quickly, our narrator then takes us down a long series of paths that fork this way and that across Italy, to France and Spain, giving (in eighty more pages) a wide-ranging catalog of the first persons and powers in Europe. Those with a perceived stake in Italy. The ones with motives.  It is remarkable Guicciardini went this far to develop a context, and for so many players, at least in those times. It was a new way to do history.

Quotes from The History of Italy, translated and printed by 1763 into English and found at the John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library, or online at archive.org.

Dante: Purgatory: xvi; 'Two Swords Fused Into One'

One of the perennial problems that the Christian world of Europe continually had to deal with through the middle ages was the conflict between physical and spiritual powers. The farther from Rome, the more the local authority in reality held the reigns of control. The history of this conflict played itself out again and again famously with popes and emperors, kings and princes. In Dante's time this conflict in Italy had fevered the efforts of Guelphs and Ghibellines, supporting the claims of popes and the 'German' emperor, respectively.
At the exact mid point of his Divine Comedy, exactly in the middle of his second book, called Purgatory (more of his context here and here), Dante finds himself on the Terrace of the Wrathful, and this conflict is put on the lips of the shade he finds there. It is a good shepherd of people who holds the restraining crook for the faithful, after all.

"On Rome, that brought the world to know the good,           line 106

once shone two suns that lighted up two ways:

the road of this world and the world of God.

The one sun has put out the other's light;

the sword is now one with the crook -- and fused

together thus, must bring about misrule,

since joined, now neither fears the other one.

If you still doubt, think of the grain when ripe -- 

each plant is judged according to its seed.

The region of the Po and Adige

flowed with true worth, with honest courtesy,

until the time of Frederick's campaign;

but now, the kind of man who is ashamed

to talk with, even meet with, honest folk,

may travel there completely reassured! "                           line 120

____________________________________________________________

nedits: Through the mouth of Marco, shade on the Terrace of the Wrathful on mount purgatory, Dante says,

There are two suns - the pope and the emperor, not a moon and sun,

with one eclipsed by the other. Two powers, sword and crook, joined

must lead to misrule as neither can be kept in check. The seed and the grain

show their value in the consequences.

Is it too far a stretch to see the sword and the crook joined as the military/state and the church joined for some other day?

And from this a misrule born of such a marriage, neither afraid of the other, neither checked by the other.

This Wrathful shade tells Dante that his home region used to be full of honest folk until Frederick II's campaign

that shook the notions of papal and imperial power all around. 

The rift, and the weld, the knowledge of their once separate rulers, divided, from here on,

became too much to bear and caused new problems all across Christendom. 

Dante saw the results of decades - others would say they saw centuries - divided, the people against each other.

The Guelf and Ghibelline conflicts in Italy would tear cities and regions apart, it is true, 

and those factions continued to mold opinion as issues, kept hardset in fevered remembrances, retold, reframed in endless examples.

This was not a universal opinion, of course, but one Dante was often quick to provide for his hellsent souls 

and penitent pilgrims bent to traverse his Divine Comedy.

So what does it mean that even one 'who is ashamed' to meet with honest folk, can travel to Tuscany without having to be ashamed?

A roundabout way of saying it's full of liars, for one. This, we must infer, means the wrathful is still undergoing his penitence.

Mark Musa, our translator and guide here is quick to say there is nothing in this speech that deals '...with original sin, the need for grace or a soul's salvation.'

The wrathful shade speaks only a kind of 'chaos'.

The shade continues.

_________________________________________________________________

"There three old men still live in whom the past                       line 121

rebukes the present. How those three men must yearn

for God to call them to a better life! --

Currado de Palazzo, good Gherardo,

and Guido da Castel -- who's better named

'the simple Lombard,' as the French would say.

Tell the world this: The church of Rome, which fused

two powers into one, has sunk in muck,

defiling both herself and her true role."

_________________________________________________

nedits: This wrathful shade here explains that the past knew better how to act.

His examples, Currado a standard bearer who carries the flag despite lack of hands,

Gherardo, the captain-general, a military leader for Treviso, 1283 - 1306, described elsewhere by Dante as an example of true nobility (Convivio IV, xiv, 12); and

Guido da Castel, still living in 1315, hosted Dante, in life, during his period of exile.

This one, 'the simple Lombard', could have gained the name from French guests,

as open-minded, yet somehow discerning, 

rather than the regular 'shrewd and unscrupulous' Lombard, Musa seems to complain.

But the tradition of the two swords can be traced back to Luke, 22:38 and to Pope Gelasius I (d 496) who reminded Theodoric, the Ostrogothic Emperor, that there were two powers.
_____________________________________________-
Mark Musa translator of Dante: Purgatory Penguin Classics Edition, for the Penguin Group Ltd, London, 1981, 1985

The German Bishop: Changing Models In Changing Times

Tradition maintained that the seat of the Church remained with the local bishop, wherever he was, all across Christendom. In German lands the reality of this worked itself out in as many ways as there were places. Every city-state, the local nobles, or kings, the urban towns or lands held by the protectorate of the Emperor, all had different relations with the local bishop, depending on local time-honored practice. Such is the view provided by Thomas A Brady Jr.[p. 54] Since the period of the Bubonic Plague, greater local selection of bishops can be seen, reversing the trend (before that cataclysm) of greater selection by popes or other 'clerical assemblies'.

The result of this shifting more and more, of power over time into such greater local selections, effectively weakened the power of a bishop, generally. There were exceptions to this of course, where for a number of reasons, some bishops could effectively hold both spiritual and temporal (secular) powers of the state. These, Brady tells us, had almost as much power as 'the greatest of lay princes'. Here, he mentions bishop Rudolf of Würzburg, as being one of these prince-bishops with Hochstift or, territory, but also mentions those of Banburg, Salzburg, Münster and Paderborn as having bishops with such holdings.[p.56] 

For those without such physical assurances, some had to remove themselves from the city or seat of the diocese they were assigned to, for security precautions. The

"... resistance to their temporal authority by burgers and cathedral canons convinced quite a number of prince-bishops to depart their cathedral cities for other, safer residences. By the late fifteenth century the bishop of Constance lived at Meersburg, Strasbourg at Saverne, Mainz at Aschaffenburg, Worms at Ladenburg, Speyer at Udenheim, Basel at Porrentruy... and Augsburg at Dillenburg. If the Church existed where the bishop was, it was very often found in a small country town or even a castle." [p.56]

This investiture of spiritual and temporal power into the hands of an imperial bishop could be traced directly back to privileges granted by Ottonian kings in German history. The selected individual would need to be approved by the pope but would act as a feudal vassal of the local emperor. But the number of these invested bishops waned over the centuries, Brady tell us, with merely 15% of imperial lands controlled by clerical servants by the fifteenth-century. These too, were spread out unevenly with more in the west and fewer in the east. The concordat of Vienna in 1448 ensured that 'cathedral chapters' would elect bishops, who then had to be approved by the pope and consecrated by other bishops. [p. 54]

Even what a bishop did was under metamorphosis. Again, traditionally, a bishop had certain functions and responsibilities. But, Brady stresses, the late middle ages produced far too many variable circumstances for these old rules to entirely dominate contemporary practice. While it was still true that they ordained parish priests, taught spiritual truths, made certain official confirmations and visited local parishes, the reality for them could fall far short of this mark.

"Nearly all of the fifteenth-century reform writings recommended an intensification of visitations as the best means for restoring clerical and lay discipline." [p. 55]

These visitations could be a procession during a festival sponsored by a church, it could involve any kind of inspection of church or abbey or their works. But very often these were handled instead by lower ranking church officials sent on these errands. Brady also notes that records in Imperial lands of such visitations remained 'scantier' than in other European countries until well into the sixteenth-century.

The bishop was also a judge over the clergy and laity. Here too, the perceived norm of the medieval bishop holding 'the two swords' of power, judging both the sinful and the devout, fell apart in practice more and more, as time went on. More often, local exceptions were made, or different authorities were sought to resolve issues. More sins were relegated to penance. More penances were worked out in fines rather than in public penalties. Marriage cases were more often litigated in courts. [p. 55]
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quotes and pagination from: Thomas A Brady Jr: German Histories in The Age of Reformations, 1400-1650;  University of California, Berkeley for the Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2009

some news early july 2014

In a summer of what already seemed too many catastrophes, happening all at once, all but one are threatening to spiral worse. Meanwhile, and surreally, the world cup competition is being called the 'pope match' as the tournament this year reaches its last weekend in Brasil. Germany who will play Argentina tomorrow have each been the home countries of the last two popes, consecutively and coincidentally.

The big news today is that Germany outed a CIA station chief and threw him out of the country. These things usually happen between agencies, quietly. This never happens in such a public, defamatory way.  The US and Germany are close allies and have big work to accomplish with major trade deals coming soon. Quite a remarkable story.
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Of course, the Iraq war and the Syrian war rage on. Last weekend saw reprisals of brutality on kids in Israel and Gaza, then riots, then further violent escalations followed by a number of days of shelling. Here's an independent twitter timeline of the latest violence. Chris Hayes has a sobering take. 4 min video

A woman at the entrance of what used to be her home. Turned to rubles last night by an Israeli airstrike in #Gaza pic.twitter.com/QCKaUv0xX4
— Dr. Ramy Abdu (@RamAbdu) July 8, 2014

Another pic of Ghannam family house bombed by #Israel with no warning killing & injuring many! #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/JW1gqjjOH1
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) July 11, 2014

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The pro-Russian separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine are slowly being driven from the cities like Slovyansk and Donetsk this week. Reports of numerous brutalities have surfaced. Here a bridge was blown up as forces retreated.

The Novobakhmutivka bridge, 30 kilometers North of Donetsk, blown up yesterday pic.twitter.com/mqMKqs6qhE
— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) July 8, 2014

In another, but related area, how media in the west carefully manage their selective amnesia.

After all their Benghazi coverage, the Sunday Shows completely ignore the capture of the alleged ringleader: http://t.co/foV5uwRZoW
— Media Matters (@mmfa) June 24, 2014

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There have been a number of penetrating articles about the NSA et al targeting Muslim Americans since Wednesday, and what this may mean for the rest of us. Another on the lack of real independence (not to mention opacity) afforded to the FISA court, the much ballyhooed but amenable 'oversight' court for such queries.
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Earlier in the week a massive typhoon hit southern Japan. Thank goodness it turned out this time not near as bad as they feared.

เริ่มแล้ว“@BBCWorld: Nearly 500,000 urged to seek shelter as Neoguri hits Okinawa http://t.co/fYmq5M07F3 & pic.twitter.com/Bupzu8muGU”
— korbsak sabhavasu (@korbsak) July 8, 2014

An interesting series of longer clips on daily life in Japan from the early 1960's show a well-managed commercial and manufacturing economy, framed by model patriarchal families. The portraits themselves seem designed for American business and 'community educational' purposes. One focuses on the wife of a business manager. Another on the life of an electrician is a German made film from 1966. All seem to indulgently reflect as positively as possible on American influence and benevolence.
Here's a modern overview in pictures from The Japan Times.