In the third week of November 1499, Cesare Borgia arrived secretly in Rome and stayed with his father, the Pope for a few days. Cesare's sister Lucrezia Borgia had just had her first born son and the baby's baptism was carried off as quite the success with a parade thru the city afterward. But what would happen next would spell the eventual end of independent rule by the Sforza clan in Forli and the Romagna.
The reasons for this from the point of view of Forli and Caterina Sforza are seen clearly in Elizabeth Lev's beautiful biography The Tigress of Forli. The ramifications are also many and varied and brings the force, methods and consequent memory of Cesare Borgia into focus.
The facts of the matter are simple. Immediate sources for this episode are in Burchard's At The Court of the Borgia pp 166-8, and Lev's The Tigress of Forli pp. 211-33.
If I had time I would make detailed notes and write out calendars and contexts, commentaries. But in the present there is an impeachment hearing of the US President and that takes everyone's attention while the world burns, floods and states collapse, people all over riot and do business, get attacked, go to work, pay bills, find food, raise kids.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
late winter reads 2019
A number of titles new to me have risen to the top of my stacks.
The trilogy collectively called U.S.A. , from the American author John Dos Passos has me hooked. At the pace I set in reading this, as a reader it should take me through til late summer to finish. Already a journey, the innovations for its time, in its telling, appear a century later as not merely influential but even prescient of a later age's idealization.
Young Mac grows up on the rails before WWI in America, and along the side roads, in farmhouses in Michigan and flophouses in 'Frisco, and as Teddy Roosevelt presides. Mac, or by his given name Fanian, finds himself a Maisie that would stick by him and their children that he so suddenly finds himself having to work at and pay for. If only he would for long. But the Socialists in Nevada call and with him drunk all the time there's no tellin how long he'll stay. Fanian McCreary learned how to typeset and get a press to print in Chicago and so, was valuable to The Movement. But in the face of that he leaves his family behind, and ends up in Mexico before their war.
Jenny Williams is just alright in Georgetown with space enough to dream of faroff places and enough independence to work a youth away at the office. A brother is a confidante, his friend becomes for her a glowing memory wrecked on motorbike. Joe goes off to war and bails. Jenny finds a beau that makes her laugh, but won't claim him. And there are the smells and sights and motions of everything going by: by train or car, by carriage, on foot, the trees and air, the flowers, the faces. And the newsprint and verses in song, the newsreel captions, and the stream-of-conscious 'Camera Eye' too, which comes to our eyes and ears as liquid frames for the tongue.
It all reads like it was meant to be performed aloud. It all reads like motion picture characters that a young Jimmy Stewart and James Cagny would admire, look up to, learn from and learn to know having memorized, from a thousand chance encounters. It reads like Huck Finn and Walt Whitman, repeating secular catechisms in a hymn to possibility. And yet the story steams on. Overseas the war begins again, and at home the loss of justice comes as plop! just another obituary in the daily papers.
__________________________________
If Dos Passos is on the move, Balzac remains inside, out of the rain, near the hearth, with an approving nod made to the maid lighting the candles one by one. These she takes on the finely-wrought, polished, embossed silver tray over to the long oaken table scarred by too much use. This one left near the center of the great room she sets each taper at intervals in between chairs set for many guests.
Piketty's Capital is winding up its central arguments after several months (with my fitful pace). I read that in earnest for a month and set it down and chew on it looking again at other things.
Braudel's monumental Meditteranean, also many journeys, is at least moving along at a doable rate. This week he's talking about bandits and Stendhal.
___________________________________
The trilogy collectively called U.S.A. , from the American author John Dos Passos has me hooked. At the pace I set in reading this, as a reader it should take me through til late summer to finish. Already a journey, the innovations for its time, in its telling, appear a century later as not merely influential but even prescient of a later age's idealization.
Young Mac grows up on the rails before WWI in America, and along the side roads, in farmhouses in Michigan and flophouses in 'Frisco, and as Teddy Roosevelt presides. Mac, or by his given name Fanian, finds himself a Maisie that would stick by him and their children that he so suddenly finds himself having to work at and pay for. If only he would for long. But the Socialists in Nevada call and with him drunk all the time there's no tellin how long he'll stay. Fanian McCreary learned how to typeset and get a press to print in Chicago and so, was valuable to The Movement. But in the face of that he leaves his family behind, and ends up in Mexico before their war.
Jenny Williams is just alright in Georgetown with space enough to dream of faroff places and enough independence to work a youth away at the office. A brother is a confidante, his friend becomes for her a glowing memory wrecked on motorbike. Joe goes off to war and bails. Jenny finds a beau that makes her laugh, but won't claim him. And there are the smells and sights and motions of everything going by: by train or car, by carriage, on foot, the trees and air, the flowers, the faces. And the newsprint and verses in song, the newsreel captions, and the stream-of-conscious 'Camera Eye' too, which comes to our eyes and ears as liquid frames for the tongue.
It all reads like it was meant to be performed aloud. It all reads like motion picture characters that a young Jimmy Stewart and James Cagny would admire, look up to, learn from and learn to know having memorized, from a thousand chance encounters. It reads like Huck Finn and Walt Whitman, repeating secular catechisms in a hymn to possibility. And yet the story steams on. Overseas the war begins again, and at home the loss of justice comes as plop! just another obituary in the daily papers.
__________________________________
If Dos Passos is on the move, Balzac remains inside, out of the rain, near the hearth, with an approving nod made to the maid lighting the candles one by one. These she takes on the finely-wrought, polished, embossed silver tray over to the long oaken table scarred by too much use. This one left near the center of the great room she sets each taper at intervals in between chairs set for many guests.
Piketty's Capital is winding up its central arguments after several months (with my fitful pace). I read that in earnest for a month and set it down and chew on it looking again at other things.
Braudel's monumental Meditteranean, also many journeys, is at least moving along at a doable rate. This week he's talking about bandits and Stendhal.
___________________________________
notes of date, topic and pagination from Marin Sanudo's excerpted diaries in English:
Venice: Cita Excelentissima
published by Johns Hopkins (2008)
March 1, 1498: Sanudo begins third volume, pp 5-6
Venice: Cita Excelentissima
published by Johns Hopkins (2008)
March 1, 1498: Sanudo begins third volume, pp 5-6
March 1, 1511: uprising, violence in Udine, pp 98-9
March 1, 1519: Sanudo as senator still maintains diary, at first of Venetian year, pp 20-1
March 1, 1523: Sanudo maintains his diary, integrity, vim, pp 23-5
March 1, 1531: doge Gritti goes out to see what needs to be done with lagoons, p 88
March 3, 1511: uprising in Udine spread, pp 99-100; festa and mummary for weddings,m p 271
March 3, 1517: shipwreck tale, pp 256-7
March 4, 1531: Jews allowed a festa that Christians cannot attend prolly during Purim, p 342
March 5, 1522: lottery as a form of gambling outlawed, p 350
March 6, 1508: festa for a wedding, p 490
March 6, 1510: loans to be exchanged for positions, p 269
March 6, 1511: difficulty in filling galley commander, pp 271-2
March 6, 1515: gifts from sultan squabbled over, pp 275-6
March 6, 1528: famine helped by Germans, p 333
March 7, 1511: another letter on uprising in Udine, pp 100-1
March 7, 1517: law drawn up to dredge the canals, pp 85-6
March 7, 1520: suspending pig run, p 519
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Venice Seeks Help In Ending War on Pisa: winter 1499
Venice saw itself at the center of the wheels of change. Again it was a New Year. Again for her, age old matters quickly came to a head and seemingly all at once.
Over the winter, Venice had decided to let certain select outside forces weigh in to help at finding some way out of the numerous escalating problems. One of these, the ongoing war over Pisa, had found at last old foes (like France, like Ercole d'Este) who were grudgingly accepted as potential allies in certain circles in the city, as several other options seeking an agreeable resolution to that mess had failed.
But there was news again that the new French King might come to take Milan. Meanwhile, messages from farther abroad allowed Andrea Gritti and another set of new ambassadors to begin to shine. The sultan at Constantinople Gritti said in code was preparing a new fleet. If that wasn't bad enough, the crowd had gathered several times in January and February, demanding to pull money out of the Garzoni bank in the heart of Venice. These tumults would set the tone of the city thru spring and into summer and beyond. 1499 would be a disaster for the City of the Sea in many ways.
Since the French had duly left Italy some years earlier under the previous king, the remaining forces had continued to ply their trade of conflict against each other for the mastery (or mere protection) of Pisa, this most sought after pawn. Florence missed her revenues as protector of Pisa's fantastic established port of Livorno. Venice sought to protect the city from any other force besides themselves or (they would say), the Pisans from holding it. And not least, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan thought that if he might not gain it for himself today, or on the morrow, he at least had to keep Venice from gaining control of it. In addition to the various mercenaries that Venice and Milan had been using, La Serenissima at last agreed to see if the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole d'Este could help.
Though a chief antagonist of Venice at times, the honorable Duke, had the reputation also for fair dealing throughout this war. Certainly his was far better now as compared with the reputation of Ludovico of Milan, and though related to him by marriage (his wife was the Duke's daughter), yet it was agreed in Venice to see what Ferrara could accomplish.
___________________________________
Notes:
Bembo on d'Este: Bembo, iv 59, Discussions, responses: 60-1
Guicciardini on proposals by d'Este and agreements: ii, pp. 296-312 [in the edition described here] .
Ambassadors sent to the new French King Louis XII reported back. They were working on a new alliance. Bembo iv, 54-6, 57
Ludovico in Milan said to be sceptical of Venetian double-dealing: Bembo iv, 58
Letters from Andrea Gritti in Constantinople warning the sultan was building a fleet. Some snippets will have to do.[Sanudo, 2:292; 2:372; 2:559; Bembo iv, 50-3]
Meanwhile, threats from the East changed everything in the negotiations between France and Venice and, according to Bembo, convinced Louis XII to forego payment by Venice of the 1800 pounds of gold the king of France wanted in exchange for an alliance with them over the dispute with Milan and Pisa.
When the French began to arrive, and Venice's mercenary forces began to wheel about in the neighborhood of Milan, Ludovico's family fled first and then the Duke, Ludovico il Moro, did as well, along with his court (including famed inventor Leonardo da Vinci and math protege Luca Pacioli) by early 1499.
Over the winter, Venice had decided to let certain select outside forces weigh in to help at finding some way out of the numerous escalating problems. One of these, the ongoing war over Pisa, had found at last old foes (like France, like Ercole d'Este) who were grudgingly accepted as potential allies in certain circles in the city, as several other options seeking an agreeable resolution to that mess had failed.
But there was news again that the new French King might come to take Milan. Meanwhile, messages from farther abroad allowed Andrea Gritti and another set of new ambassadors to begin to shine. The sultan at Constantinople Gritti said in code was preparing a new fleet. If that wasn't bad enough, the crowd had gathered several times in January and February, demanding to pull money out of the Garzoni bank in the heart of Venice. These tumults would set the tone of the city thru spring and into summer and beyond. 1499 would be a disaster for the City of the Sea in many ways.
Since the French had duly left Italy some years earlier under the previous king, the remaining forces had continued to ply their trade of conflict against each other for the mastery (or mere protection) of Pisa, this most sought after pawn. Florence missed her revenues as protector of Pisa's fantastic established port of Livorno. Venice sought to protect the city from any other force besides themselves or (they would say), the Pisans from holding it. And not least, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan thought that if he might not gain it for himself today, or on the morrow, he at least had to keep Venice from gaining control of it. In addition to the various mercenaries that Venice and Milan had been using, La Serenissima at last agreed to see if the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole d'Este could help.
Though a chief antagonist of Venice at times, the honorable Duke, had the reputation also for fair dealing throughout this war. Certainly his was far better now as compared with the reputation of Ludovico of Milan, and though related to him by marriage (his wife was the Duke's daughter), yet it was agreed in Venice to see what Ferrara could accomplish.
___________________________________
Notes:
Bembo on d'Este: Bembo, iv 59, Discussions, responses: 60-1
Guicciardini on proposals by d'Este and agreements: ii, pp. 296-312 [in the edition described here] .
Ambassadors sent to the new French King Louis XII reported back. They were working on a new alliance. Bembo iv, 54-6, 57
Ludovico in Milan said to be sceptical of Venetian double-dealing: Bembo iv, 58
Letters from Andrea Gritti in Constantinople warning the sultan was building a fleet. Some snippets will have to do.[Sanudo, 2:292; 2:372; 2:559; Bembo iv, 50-3]
Meanwhile, threats from the East changed everything in the negotiations between France and Venice and, according to Bembo, convinced Louis XII to forego payment by Venice of the 1800 pounds of gold the king of France wanted in exchange for an alliance with them over the dispute with Milan and Pisa.
When the French began to arrive, and Venice's mercenary forces began to wheel about in the neighborhood of Milan, Ludovico's family fled first and then the Duke, Ludovico il Moro, did as well, along with his court (including famed inventor Leonardo da Vinci and math protege Luca Pacioli) by early 1499.
Friday, January 25, 2019
big bad newsday 25 January 2019
Amidst the longest government shutdown in US history three or four shuddering stories were blasted across the newscapes.
A contested election in Venezuela has led to widespread protests and turmoil for nearly a year. Now there is news of something like a coup. But did Trump start it? Sen Rubio of Florida seemed to know something was up last week.
Because of the US government shutdown, air traffic controllers and stewards have been sounding alarm bells for weeks over safety concerns with so many employees calling in sick. Today airports in New York, Newark and Philadelphia have been held off and delayed.
Then Trump announced he would hold a press conference in the Rose Garden where he announced the shutdown would be over amid a bipartisan bill. He says the bill will call for a continuing resolution on spending to prop open government services for three weeks until February 15 or he will declare a national emergency over what he says is our great threat on our southern border. The government could not agree last month on how to spend the money to keep itself open led by the Republican majority while they sought a resolution to the several month's long impasse over border security. His great announcement today, was voiced as a threat:
Both the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed announced major layoffs of journalists yesterday and today. Even after a huge story last week at Buzzfeed.
Also today, longtime advisor of US President Trump was arrested on seven charges and held briefly on $250,000 bail. He said the charges were bogus. He was captured in a pre-dawn raid by FBI officials who, it must be said, were not getting paid at the time. Here Stone is shown after being released on bail striking the famous pose that Richard Nixon did after he resigned. It's hard to see him taking any of this seriously.
A contested election in Venezuela has led to widespread protests and turmoil for nearly a year. Now there is news of something like a coup. But did Trump start it? Sen Rubio of Florida seemed to know something was up last week.
After massive protests there recently for several days, with things reaching again a fever pitch, certain other critical leaders using some rather extreme language since Tuesday, have all shown support for the opposition in Venezuela. These include President Trump in the US, PM Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Emmanuel Macron President of France (suffering himself all winter from protests in his own country). Last night the state military leaders there have shown their support for President Nicholas Maduro and he in turn has called for the closing of the US Embassy in Caracas and for all US officials there to leave within 72 hours in response to Trump sending well-wishes to Juan Guaidó, an opposition leader in Venezuela.Background: The battle for Venezuela and its oil https://t.co/nw6ro37Fnt— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 24, 2019
Some worry if there is time as conditions can change rapidly on the ground.Alto mando militar de #Venezuela ratifica apoyo al mandatario @NicolasMaduro y dice que es presidente legítimo: Ministro de Defensa— Reuters Venezuela (@ReutersVzla) January 24, 2019
Russia has also said they support the Maduro government in their own elliptical way.Even though your media isn't telling you, the are massive, powerful marches in support of the Maduro government. It's not just the right wing protests backed by Trump. pic.twitter.com/Pcgsr3NBx4— Roberto Lovato (@robvato) January 23, 2019
Meanwhile, warnings about other matters of global significance are popping up from the best of newssources.#Russia's state TV host Evgeny Popov spells out one of the Kremlin's key motivations in #Venezuela:— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) January 25, 2019
"That country has the largest oil reserves in the world and of course — of course! — we'll gladly participate in reallocating those resources." ©️ pic.twitter.com/78JRUDna2k
______________________________________NATO, Russia fail to agree over missile breach, U.S. to quit treaty https://t.co/gH53oqcPQS— Bharat Manghnani (@bmangh) January 25, 2019
Because of the US government shutdown, air traffic controllers and stewards have been sounding alarm bells for weeks over safety concerns with so many employees calling in sick. Today airports in New York, Newark and Philadelphia have been held off and delayed.
LaGuardia is a Delta hub. Newark is a United hub. Philly is an American hub.— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) January 25, 2019
Basically, this has the potential to impact the entire air traffic grid very quickly.https://t.co/V31W0YTpZQ
Then Trump announced he would hold a press conference in the Rose Garden where he announced the shutdown would be over amid a bipartisan bill. He says the bill will call for a continuing resolution on spending to prop open government services for three weeks until February 15 or he will declare a national emergency over what he says is our great threat on our southern border. The government could not agree last month on how to spend the money to keep itself open led by the Republican majority while they sought a resolution to the several month's long impasse over border security. His great announcement today, was voiced as a threat:
Yet this merely temporary relief to hundreds of thousands of federal workers and millions more who are recipients of federal aid for medicine and other incomes remains tenuous. Naturally this statement by Trump was met with scepticism and embarassment.“ . . . or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency.”— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 25, 2019
That last word is significant. It's a threat to use emergency powers. pic.twitter.com/wlwbcTbOFT
So Trump is agreeing to the EXACT SAME DEAL he rejected 35 days ago. What a debacle. I'm so so sorry, America.— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 25, 2019
Later in the day, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives spoke to the public about the agreement to reopen the government.Janitors, security guards, food service employees and millions of other contract workers who keep our government functioning will not be reimbursed for paychecks missed during this shutdown. Every single one of them should receive back pay. Period.— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) January 25, 2019
____________________________________________________.@SenSchumer & I are speaking to reporters at the Capitol now that @realDonaldTrump has agreed to end the #TrumpShutdown. https://t.co/trqjCW5oT8— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 25, 2019
Both the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed announced major layoffs of journalists yesterday and today. Even after a huge story last week at Buzzfeed.
OK! I’m leaving BuzzFeed News after ~7 years. The incredible national desk has been, uh, demolished.— jessica testa (@jtes) January 25, 2019
______________________________________________________Hi all. So some sad news. As of this morning, HuffPost's opinion section is no more. I and the rest of the team have been let go.— Bryan Maygers (@bmaygers) January 24, 2019
Also today, longtime advisor of US President Trump was arrested on seven charges and held briefly on $250,000 bail. He said the charges were bogus. He was captured in a pre-dawn raid by FBI officials who, it must be said, were not getting paid at the time. Here Stone is shown after being released on bail striking the famous pose that Richard Nixon did after he resigned. It's hard to see him taking any of this seriously.
The ramifications of all these rather sudden changes (and are any related?) will fill the newsslots for some time.He relished his late-night calls with Trump in 2016. He was in regular touch with the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks’ plans to destroy Trump’s foe, Hillary Clinton. And now Roger Stone has met his reckoning via Trump's other biggest foe: Robert Mueller. https://t.co/5H8Jq9Kq8t— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 25, 2019
Wheels In Motion: Naples, Genoa, France and Spain
Here is a late January reflection from a few years ago. Mentioned there are notes from some of Sanudo's daily January items. One from 29January, 1499 is the reception of a letter from Andrea Gritti in Constantinople warning that the sultan there was building ships. Another marks the beginning of the failure of the Garzoni bank in Venice.
The Italian Wars of 1494-1559 have primarily been seen as a contest between France and Spain deciding who would hold the most influence along the Italian peninsula. Famously, long before, French Norman Kings held control in Naples and Sicily during the Crusader times. But since the episode in 1282 called the Sicilian Vespers, the Kings of Aragon (now within modern day Spain) had maintained their sovereign rights over a number of mid-Mediterranean spots. The island of Sicily was a great granary and Naples was a great natural harbour on Italy's western coast. The Kings of Aragon also gained control over the eastern Iberian ports of Catalan like Valencia and Barcelona. Sardinia and Corsica came into their holdings now and then as well. Genoa often were allowed to act as the primary shippers.
For two hundred years the Kings of Aragon, and of Naples and Sicily, could often claim the western Mediterranean (and several chief spots around its shores) as theirs, if they could keep it. While Genoa would act in concert with them most of the time and help repel pirates and usurpers, and gain much profit as well, the attention span of kings could be quite variable. The home territories were just one of several spots along the Mediterranean and beyond that craved their attention.
On the other hand, despite their efforts and profits, by the late 1400's, Genoa herself had taken on an enormous amount of debt. In fact, so much debt threatened to overwhelm progress of any kind. One consequence was a massive internal restructuring involving selling public debt. Another dramatic turn was in how so many of her merchants were moving to Spain. Later, after France would retake Naples not once, but twice, French influence in Genoa began in earnest leading, in part, to the advance of one Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. That story would show a large aspect of the push of French interests in Italy into the sixteenth century.
But still a couple generation before in one of the many episodes in Genoa's slide, in 1464, that city had allowed herself to be overtaken by Francesco Sforza the duke of Milan. In those days, John II of Aragon was busy both losing internal wars in Spain and bogged down in talks with French King Louis XI over Navarre and Rousillon. Meanwhile Naples attracted humanists and scholars and artists in what many at a later time called a court of corruption including the venal sale of office for money. But it was certainly a creative one, if increasingly insecure.
Ferdinand II, later remembered with great fondness and respect, was the son of John II and Juana Enriquez. His reign would last longer than most. He spent most of his time trying to unify the several Iberian states within the peninsula alongside his Queen of Castile, Isabella. As a result, as King of Aragon, Sicily and Naples, he still had little time to simply ever visit the latter. But, even with very little oversight Naples had prospered. In many ways it became and remained a preferred destination for artists and counsellors of all kinds despite the conflicts that plagued all of Italy in this period.
Despite her entreaties, this changed dramatically in the 1490's when France under the young King CharlesVIII took his armies and crossed the Alps with an aim to take back Naples as a staging ground for a new Crusade against the Ottoman Turk. The crusade never happened but all Italy was thrown into turmoil that lasted for decades. For one thing, Naples was thereafter targeted by both France and the Spanish monarchs as their own.
Taking a step back some pertinent things are worth noting. Previously, in past generations, the major cities and powers had strong sensible leaders. With the deaths of certain of these notables things fell apart. By the 1490's and into the 1500's, a certain vacuum grew in both Naples and Genoa. Pisa is another example beset by wars for control at the same time. Unable to maintain a stable center they became prey that were then abused and then used by outsiders.
The same thing then happened in Milan. By the beginning of 1499, it became clear to the leaders in Venice, France, Rome and elsewhere that Ludovico Sforza, the Duke in Milan (and fourth son of the famous Francesco) could not be trusted. This would be a theme in both Guicciardini and Bembo when they would write their histories in the next generation. Ludovico was always insisting to whoever came for him that he was their friend first of all. All would be well, he would promise, if he had just a little more time and money. This time it was the new French King Louis XII who took matters into his own hands and had the Duke captured by summer.
This new French adventure would again set Italy back and Greater Spain too, temporarily. But it would set all the powers to again reassess, recalibrate and realign.
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