Sunday, March 1, 2015

Sanudo Diaries: Venetian New Year: March 1, 1498

In Marin Sanudo's day, this was the day Venice started its calendars. In 1498, he started afresh his diaries with a new volume after the first filled two years of his 'day-to-day accounts'.

Sanudo Diaries: March 1, 1498: (1:893); "Ever since I composed, with no small effort, the history of King Charles of France's expedition into Italy to acquire the Kingdom of Naples, the heavens have ordained that I be the one to write down each day's memorable events until such time as peace comes to Italy. I have often entertained the desire to put an end to these quite fatiguing lamplit studies. But after seeing, in this present age, the various schemes hatched among the powers that govern the world, and after writing another rather lengthy work about the retaking of Naples..., and deeming that the affairs of Italy remain in great turmoil, I wish now to begin the third volume, that is, ephemeris or day-to-day account. In it I will record, if the Supreme Creator is willing, the news as I hear it rather than using some polished style."

Editor's footnote: "Ephemeris is the term for a table that tracks the movements of the planets day by day through the 360 degrees of the heavens. See Carroll 1992, esp. 126n3. Sanudo compares the events of Venetian life and his discovering and recording of them with the stately progression of the heavens and its study by humans." [p.5]

They point out that as he sees this as a  'heaven-ordained' work, this 'sense of destiny puts him at the center of  his diaries and of this chapter.' It is, he claims, news 'as he hears it' and not 'some polished style'. It is his voice he is conscious of setting down. He had written a book about the history of King Charles coming to Italy to take Naples, and another about the retaking of Naples.

Venice was often at the center of things. In trade, politics, war, culture. But not always the center. News from afar travelled to it, every day. Sanudo was often in the Collegio or the Senate hearing the news as it was read out by the head of state or by the dignitary fresh off the boat. But not always. But he also clearly says above (even after a couple years of this process of news documenting) that it was because of 'the various schemes ... by great powers' and the 'great turmoil' in the affairs of Italy, that he wanted to continue, even in an 'unpolished style'.

Fantastically, I relate. The author here is far from the center of things. But in this era, we have access to so much of what is happening all over the actual world. Not just the Mediterranean and European worlds. And today it is from so many voices, not just those echoes which, for Sanudo, could be heard in Venice.  I'll not likely hold public office, but I can watch CSPAN and read their speeches from their other public appearances.  Sometimes it even happens to be news. But there is far more out there of import than public statements. The speculating classes - from finance, the markets and in academics, to the media - have their jobs and grow and change within their fields, these days, too. 

For Sanudo, setting as much of it down as possible was plenty. And then there was the town gossip. We have those outlets too. We must be able to distinguish these - as attempts are made to discern history from historiography, opinion from propaganda, reality from belief - in increasingly novel ways, as technology changes and as humans gain and must interpret new information. 

New ways of hearing, critiquing and disseminating info are changing under our chins as well as in closed committee and board rooms. Does it matter what the boardrooms decide if you already want to buy what Monsanto, CNN, McDonald's, apple,or  google are selling, anyway? In this way, the world today is much different than Sanudo's. For him, he could go down to the quay and see for himself if this seller or that had the best fish, spices or freshest flowers. Products that come from a closed shop, in today's parlance, or 'opaque sources' , while not necessarily deceptive or dishonest, still show a lack of transparency. For their own reasons, of course.

When Sanudo gives us the name of an ambassador, a dignitary reading a letter from afar, or a senator in the halls of state, he uses it like a citation. When he says 'people were saying' things we can usually tell if he finds it credible or not, because he tells us. He also knew that some stories spread were not so credible, and that people would also act on those bits as well. Still he would correct stories as new, more credible information came in, and would correct his own errors, like a 20th century trained journalist might. 

Today we can still sometimes recognize sincerity and truthfulness, but we also, in the west, enjoy saying the opposite of what we mean. Politicians, advertisers and everyday people do it all the time. But it can cause confusion, misunderstanding and distrust. Who benefits?
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or editor's notes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selections 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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