Dante: Purgatory, xvi b: In View of the Wrathful

Our pilgrim has only asked a couple questions. Who are you and what's the right way up. 

And the penitent who burst out of the clouds on the rarest of occasion to be one of two here to ask Who are You,

and who only makes a brief allusion to that good at which men no longer aim their bows,

yet here, Dante cannot help himself - 'There's a problem haunting me" 

- and has to ask the penitent on the Terrace of the Wrathful on The Mountain of Purgatory,

"What is the Cause ... that I may teach the truth to other men".

_________________________________________________________________

"A deep sigh, wrung by grief into "Alas!"                      line 64

came first, and then: "The world, brother, is blind,

and obviously the world is where you're from!"

You men on Earth attribute everything

to the spheres' influence alone, as if

with some predestined plan they moved all things.

If this were true, then our Free Will would be 

annihilated: it would not be just

to render bliss for good or pain for evil.

The spheres initiate your tendencies:

not all of them - but even if they did,

you have the light that shows you right from wrong,

and your Free Will, which, though it may grow faint

in its first struggles with the heavens, can still

surmount all obstacles if nurtured well.

You are free subjects of a greater power,

a nobler nature that creates your mind,

and over this the spheres have no control.

So, if the world today has gone astray,

the cause lies in yourselves and only there! "               line 83

___________________________________________________________

The Wrathful Shade replies at first, 'The world and you are blind: men act as though the spheres moved all.

They do start inclinations but not all. If they ruled all you in response would have no Free Will. 

So that must be and so do the spheres. But they will be there without you,

So find your selves and look to the light to show right and wrong.

It's not the spheres' fault it is man's own.

___________________________________________________________

"Now I shall carefully explain that cause.               line 84

From the fond hands of God, who loves her even

before He gives her being, there issues forth

just like a child, all smiles and tears at play,

the simple soul, pure in its ignorance,

which, having sprung from her Creator's joy,

will turn to anything it likes. At first

she is attracted to a trivial toy,

and though beguiled, she will run after it,

if guide or curb do not divert her love.

Men, therefore, needed the restraint of laws,

needed a ruler able to at least

discern the towers of the True city. True,

the laws there are, but who enforces them?

No one. The shepherd who is leading you

can chew the cud but lacks the cloven hoof.

And so, the flock, that see their shepherd's greed

for the same worldly good that they have craved,

are quite content to feed on what he feeds.

As you can see, bad leadership has caused

the present state of evil in the world,

not Nature that has grown corrupt in you."                line 105

_____________________________________________________________

A child will delight in any toy by its own nature
without a curb or guide to show the way.
Since the shepherd's not a sheep
stores up his plenty so the sheep still eat.
So bad leadership - a shepherd that won't discern good and evil- and not Nature corrupts.
So summarized, the Wrathful but Penitent shade climbing the mountain of Purgatory
shares with Dante as source of human's plight: bad leadership...

Mark Musa translator, Penguin Classics Edition,  1981, 1985

with my notes in between

Sanudo Diaries: Sept 26, 1513, 1520;

I'll note here that Sept 24 is St Gellere's or Gerardo's day whether you are from Hungary or Italy. An Italian who went in the 11th century to convert the northern Huns. He was thrown off the Blocksburg Cliff on the Buda side into the Danube River, but not before he was stoned and ran thru with a lance by the local pagans. His relics were gathered and he became a patron saint of Hungary along with the much more famous St Stephen and was interred with Stephen's set there in Budapest in 1083. This good Gerardo's relics were later sent to Venice in 1333 only a dozen years after Dante Alighieri's death. See Dante: Purgatory canto 16, lines 121-140

1513

During the War of the League of Cambrai, "by the fall of 1513 ... their devastating fires could be seen from Venice...": p. 11*

Sanudo Diaries: September 26, 1513 (17:102) "Hearing this rumor of fires at the twenty-second hour, I went to the top of the Bell Tower of San Marco - under reconstruction - to see the truth of it. I saw the terrible destruction wrought by the enemies, who, if they had been Turks, could not have done worse. First I saw the huge fires in the direction of Gambarare, [Editor's footnote: "A village on the Brenta River, southwest of Venice."] then in the inn and other dwellings of Liza Fusina, and at Moranzan, and everywhere one saw enormous fires that were billowing smoke, so that at the twenty-third hour the sun was as red as blood from the smoke of so many fires."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

1520

Editor's note: "Particularly awkward for the functioning of justice were those cases involving priests and tonsured clerics, who were normally tried in church courts. This special procedure was viewed with alarm by the doge and the Collegio, for it encouraged young patricians to take minor orders in order to circumvent secular legal procedures. ..." p. 149*

Sanudo Diaries: September 26, 1520 (29:206); "I note that the gallows are still standing. They were supposed to be used to hang a thief who killed seven people, but the [execution] has been stayed. HE is a priest, and he never said this in any of his testimony, so the execution has been suspended.

But when they heard this, the doge and the Collegio summoned the papal legate and the vicar of the patriarch, complaining of these things and saying that everyone is becoming a priest [to avoid punishment for their crimes]. They said that they wanted to see if it was the truth and [if so,] whether the matter should proceed. In addition, those two thieves were supposed to be hanged, but then the Forty decided that they should have an eye gouged out and a hand cut off; the execution was stayed because they are men of the cloth. Thus justice is not done.

For this reason, more than fifty young patricians on various occasions have gone to the papal legate asking to be given minor orders, and he has complied. It is a bad thing, and harmful to tolerate it."

nedits: The gallows were set up between the pillars of St Mark and St Teodoro at the head of San Marco Piazzetta. Another view looking toward the more modern Zecca and Libreria has the great brick Bell tower or Campanile in the background, the older version that was being refurbished in Sanudo's time collapsed in 1902.

1530

Sanudo Diaries: September 26, 1530 (53:568); "A bill was passed that the honorable ser Pietro Bembo, who lives in Padua, be the one to write the history of Venice in Latin, succeeding Navagero, who died after drawing 3000 ducats' salary and not writing a word. The aforementioned Pietro Bembo will bepaid for his housing, that is, the rent where he lives, up to 60 ducats a year, nor will other provisions be made for him."

*

All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

news from mid August 2012

I spent much of the last week watching most of the Ken Burn's film 'The War'. His 14+ hour take on WW2. I saw around ten of the 14+ hour series. Learned a lot. Now I want to see the last 4.5 hrs.

Also a while ago I got to watch the fifth season of MadMen which ends in the spring of 1967. I liked the series. Creative how they turned everyone into each other in the last season, like they took on each other's roles in how they learned or not to deal with the circumstances over time ...

Someone pointed by accident to the availability of one of those '60's cult classics, seemed somehow to act as a decent capper or coda or bookend to the series of madmen... Up on hulu for now, totally fits in the psychotronic world, the reflected-image view

Have you ever seen the movie "Mondo Hollywood"? 1967. written, produced, directed by Robert Carl Cohen, 2 hours

equal parts cut-up, 'classic', corny and creepy, this delightful documentary is surprisingly prescient in its typical examples of influential trends: they did a good job picking examples of people who were doing things that became dominant trends over the last fifty years. For better or worse.

in the news:

• Julian Assange still sits in the Ecuador Embassy in London ... UPDATE; also, Pussy Riot still goes to a work camp, for two years; Kevin G did a lot of work on the whole Assange story over the last couple weeks
• Sheldon Adelson was gonna spend that money anyway... too bad since the Mississippi is especially muddy this yearbecause of the drought, for one thing and it would be real great to transport all that backed up cargo to where it's supposed to go, to market, somehow...
• Iceland steered away from austerity in economics and everyone stands up and cheers - at least somebody got it right
• Krugman finds a way Romney will repeal current cuts giving dividends that amount to prior insurance and doctor co-payment giveaways
• "The Self-Destruction of the 1%" by Chrystia Freeland for the NYTimes, Oct 14, 2013 [edit: found and put here 21feb2013]

Genoa: The Casa model, influences

Venice always had a rival in Genoa. All through the high middle ages and early renaissance the two cities were like twins always at each other's throats.  Perched on the edge of the sea like the other, but on the other side of Italy, with the towering mountains behind, it had always been a spare strip of infertile ground along this very different sea. One other great difference, Genoa did not have the vast inaccessible reaches of lagoon to protect her like Venice. 

Partly because of this, by 1500 Genoa, had already given up her security and sovereignty (because she couldn't do it herself) to numerous mercenary captains. In recent memory, there were the dukes of Milan in the fifteen-hundreds, twice to two French kings, and once even to representatives chosen from people in the street. No stability could be found in any of these either. Neither for security or protection of any state, from without or within. But despite these trends, the failing armada, the continual decrease in expenditures in state-guaranteed or subsidized trade, even the inability to pay the interest to her own debt, Genoa seems to have out foxed everyone in the long run. In economics. But is that just a part of a certain cycle?

It was in Genoa that the practice of funding collective debt became used to fund a government. It worked so well, and Genoa managed to keep it going for so long, that by the mid 1560's, Spain under Philip II incorporated such schemes and by extension brought them to the Americas and even Holland as well as Spain. All of them looked into it for their own and 'in the name of' the other's' finances. New England Puritans would use them, to a degree in their sense of a 'commonweal' too, not just in common stock for unpaid or possible debt. Overseas ventures were very risky and very expensive as the Spanish could heartily testify. But what was it? How did it work?

Statements of debt were collected as a list of IOU's, together into one place. Then cash money was accepted from newly made shareholders who would then be purchasers with the new ability to fund that debt. At least sixty were kept more or less all the time who, having paid into the kitty funding the debt, were guaranteed returns of certain rates over time.

"The establishment of the Casa responded to the perennial problem of the debt and interest payments, as well as the current spate of tax revolts.... The protectors of the rules of the compere [the old banking network] floated the idea of consolidating the debt, and four new officials, the procurators of San Giorgio, began to work on their plans, in 1405. By April 1407 the officials were able to begin the immensely complex process of taking over the shares of the old debt and exchanging them for shares at a nominal value of L100 (100 lire), share for share, in the new compera of San Giorgio. [Next] A document from 7 May 1407 shows how the government in this case ordered the end of the New San Paolo compera [established to fund one of the Venetian wars, c 1378] and its shares to be bought up at L100 in 7% shares." p. 260; -- from Stephen A Epstein in  Genoa and the Genoese: 957-1528 University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1996

In other words, they had consolidated or collectivized debt and then sold that to shareholders who were paid a return percentage on what they had funded. Got it? The next year, 1408, The Casa started a banking business to serve the shareholders and the tax collectors. By 1418, the government had renounced all control over the bank or the Casa. Soon after it started asking the bank for loans and credit. In 1444 that bank collapsed no longer able to service its debt but the government and the Casa of course survived. It was their model that Charles V in the 1500's would try to copy and arguably his son Phillip II would succeed in duplicating in bringing Spain's finances within grips with the external power of American silver of course, but with this different managing system and hierarchy in place for doing so than had been used outside Genoa or Venice and nowhere else on such a massive scale.

________________________________________________________________

Really? It does seem that way. Venice did something similar but they had a much more closed system. Investors could only be drawn from certain sectors or from certain families in town. If Venice learned anything in her war as our Editor's of Sanudo point out, defending herself against the League of Cambrai 1508-17.... maybe those lessons had been put up on placards during procession while enduring the later Cognac war in 1526, against Charles V...

Editor's note: "'All things obey money"; "If riches abound, fear not"; "Whoever has the wealth may sail with fair wind and govern fortune as he wills" (July 8, 1526...". p. 265.

in Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

nedits: But to do this, to earn, to gain, to learn the fruits of wealth, you had to spend it. And to spend it, you had to have it. 

Why and how Venice made everything for sale; Sanudo Diaries, August 16, 1515

Editor's note: "'All things obey money"; "If riches abound, fear not"; "Whoever has the wealth may sail with fair wind and govern fortune as he wills" (July 8, 1526...". p. 265.

nedits: But to do this, to earn, to gain, to learn the fruits of wealth, you had to spend it. And to spend it, you had to have it. When the senate in Venice learned that the pope and France and half of Italy were declaring war in 1508, in Sanudo's 'great conflagration', - it was kinda their 9-11 - they had to raise money. 

In our day, in one of those curious 180 degree opposites, Bush said Congress could pay for the war on terror later (and they still haven't eleven years later): which amounts to most of our ballooning debt.

But first Venice took tribute from the other towns in the lagoon (for protection purposes), from their towns on the Terraferma (also for protection) and these, if they could be collected in time (December 1508) might afford  the Great Council an army and a navy for the next year. [Acc to one source, ~240,000 ducats] But as our Editors of Sanudo's Diaries point out (pp. 267-8), after Agnadello in May 1509, all these figures, calculations and preparations were dashed and no one was sure where security or money might lie.

Editor's note: "Nearly all the subject cities on the Terraferma were captured, and it would be years before the tribute they were intended to provide would be made once more available. The Venetian government had to look for other sources through direct and indirect taxes. But these, whether property taxes, which increased from three levies in 1508 to twenty-four in 1509, or duties on imports and exports such as wine and oil, or revenue from the salt monopoly, or exactions from the Jews, were still insufficient. So the government turned to loans.  Loans to the government were not new. Two mechanisms to handle such loans already existed.... the Monte Vecchio, established in the late fourteenth century to consolidate the state's funded debt, which dated back to 1262;" p. 268

Editor's footnote: "This funded debt made Venice the first European state to fund its debt so that interest was regularly paid to all bondholders equally. Lane 1973b, 150" in Venice: a maritime republic , Frederic Chapin Lane, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni Press.

nedits: Monte Vecchio literally  means 'the Old Hill' and Monte Nuovo of course, 'the New Hill'.

Editor's note: "and the Monte Nuove, established in the 1480's. Then, after the war [of the League of Cambrai] commenced, a third, the Monte Novissimo, [the most new hill] was established. Shares (which the Venetians called "capital") paid out interest averaging 5% and were considered a good investment. But those voluntary deposits were still not enough to meet the government's military needs, which by 1510 were twofold: to field an army against France and the Empire on the Terraferma and to strengthen the fleet to secure the Venetian sea routes if the Terraferma was occupied by enemy armies. So... there was a new system of loans made in exchange for political privileges and positions...." p 268

nedits:  In the spring of 1510, men were bidding to become commanders in the fleet. Not always the highest bidder, but the highest bidder with the connections would get the office like Leonardo Emo on p.269.  A week later they were adding men to the Senate at auction, with senatorial permission to increase the roles on p.270. 

Editor's note: "During the succeeding years there were permutations of these arrangements whereby entry to office was achieved by loans. They had become so common that in early August 1515 a "general loan to deal with the great need" was declared. Neither patriotic actions nor native ability seemed to sway the subsequent elections, which went to the highest bidders ... Sanudo regretted that previous service counted so little." p. 272

Sanudo Diaries: August 16, 1515 (20:520-21); "All those who made loans were elected to the Senate, as will be seen from the list below, [sic, except for] Lorenzo Falier, who had also made a loan [but] failed to acquire [the requisite number of votes]. Many senior patricians who are entitled to serve were nominated but received few votes because the Great Council wants money. They are concerned with nothing else except getting those who loan money elected; neither age nor great service matters. The others who loaned money stood around to see about entering the Senate because by order of the Signoria they were informed that they would do. Therefore they were coming to the Signoria to offer their loans, which was both a fine and a ridiculous sight. In this way 4600 ducats were found.... The only ones deemed qualified are those who have money; the others are not."  

nedits: Despite Sanudo's grumblings, this practice would continue even after the city was at war. All manners of offices were sold at auction: foreign posts in Cyprus and Candia, Crete, in Alexandria, the health commissioner, the provveditore of the Salt Office, all in exchange for loans. So successful, the Editors quip that new positions were being opened for this very purpose of raising money.

Editor's footnote: "Strictly speaking, only lower offices were really sold, and these purchases were usually for life " p. 273 

All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

news from jul-aug12

I was cheered by the news of this moving multi-purpose lab on Mars

here's an article out of the nyt's dealbook, following the banks shift to start dealing with credit cards

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/problems-riddle-moves-to-collect-credit-card-debt/

and what is going on in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, Somalia, besides a massive drought? 30 min audio,

http://scotthorton.org/2012/08/13/81012-thomas-c-mountain/

of course, unleashed on the world 14aug12 - this demands international attention as it remains the World's Finest Optional Entertainment, -

especially designed for your i-Thing, zft-umg-iTunes presents all sixty official releases, from all analog, original master or 'last touched' master sources, etc., simultaneously at reduced prices, 

Movies For Your Ears!

KOS has a couple funny comix, incl the great Tom Tomorrow

http://comics.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/09/1117594/-Why-Romney-doesn-t-want-us-to-see-his-tax-returns

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/06/1116358/-Nothing-can-be-done

is this what docility looks like? electric toy car herds cattle, 4 min

http://www.break.com/index/rc-car-cattle-round-up-2158023

euro econ issues, from the ground up, 2012; French Feminine prerogatives in the 1500's

Last night I listened to planet money and this morning This American Life and they were especially insightful.

An aside here, at first, - they're just real interesting - to mention some French Royal Women of the Renaissance:

Anne de Foix died already in 1506 after complications during birth of her only son, but would give her husband - the King of Hungary - a boy, Louis and heir to his throne and before that a girl, Anne of Bohemia who would be married to Ferdinand I in 1521 who much later in 1558 would be crowned Holy Roman Emporer.

It was a strong household that ruled France and arguably much of the rest of Europe by proxy and many indissoluble links, through much of the 1500's. Started and made firm under Louis XI, it would continued through the regencies of his daughters. A regency technically is when a male son ascends the throne but is still too young to handle things themselves. So, someone is placed as central advisor to make decisions and groom the heir for the throne. The English would often use military commanders trusted by the royal family for a regent whereas the French typically used someone within the family and often daughters or wives or mothers.

Charlotte of Savoy, wife and consort of King Louis XI of France, 1441 - 1483

Anne of France, Anne de Beaujeu, daughter of same, sister of Jean and regent to Charles VIII, 1461 - 1522

Joan of France, daughter of Louis XI, brother to Charles VIII, married to Louis XII, 1464- 1505

Anne de Foix, cousin to Joan of France, married Ladislav VI King of Hungary and would be grandmother to Maximillian II. Anne grew up at Blois where she got her great education with the rest of the French royalty, essentially raised by Anne de Beaujeu

Louise of Savoy,  (1476 - 1531)  mother to Francis I, regent 1515, 1525-6, 1529,

_________________________________________________________________

planet money had four looks at how hard it is to reconcile Euro-issues this week and This American Life reports on how FBI goes about catching terrorists. This story sounds like entrapment to me.

The European Union is a fiscal one but not a sovereign union. There's no central government that is in place with rules set up to decide conflicts between nation-states, for example. Just a series of judicial bodies who can determine cases one by one. So, the mending has begun. It will take a long time.

"The Building That's In Two Countries at Once", both Holland And Germany, 16 min

"How A Pasta Maker Got People To Show Up For Work" , in North Italy, 7 min

Wouldn't it be simpler to just move to find work? Not really, 5 min

Why can't you buy pot in Maastricht anymore, but can across the river, Belgium/Holland, 7 min

this american life takes us to the county of my birth, Orange County, CA to tell a story that I don't want to sound like home:

"The Convert" , 56 minutes

Sanudo Diaries: August stories, receiving Anne de Foix, 1502

nedits: In Venice, 510 years ago, still looking back on the years of doge Loredan's leadership, long before, 

imagine a greasy table in a smoky room with metal cups

dirt floors, unpleasant smells, flies everywhere, poorly lit, fish and pork hanging from the rafters.

Small groups here and there nurse at their drink, heads bowed.

A madrigal in tattered but fading once-bright leggings

sings a low but not unhappy song of a time, not that long before,

just a bit of doggerel to show how far they might have come,

'Anne of Foix grew up in Blois

under one of the French Regencies.

She studied her Greek, Latin, French and Crecy,

Manners, Decorum and Courtesy,

horrored by the barks off in Araby,

plagued by the wake thrown off by Turkey

whose advances approached at every turn.

Still she would serve her country as

Queen Consort of King Hungary

and leave her childish things behind.

Not for herself or just her family

she traveled on a rich itine'ry

with retinues, and guards and compagnie

bedecked with trains and finery 

to spread a Regal Couturie.

Along the Rhone and down the Rhine

she traveled off to Aix en Provence,

Milan and thence, especially to Venezia

who threw her a splendid Party Royale."

Venice, even with this new doge in 1502, still maintaining good relations with France (and her new king) at a time when alliances were shifting against the Turk and becoming more united at home,

...  Anne de Foix, , the cousin to the wife of french King Louis XII comes for a visit. That last link is a contemporary portrait commissioned by her new husband Ladislav, Roy de Hongarie...

1502: Putting on a show for a future Queen

Editor's note: "she was now en route as bride to Ladislas VI, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland. Since she could intervene with the kings of France and Hungary in favor of an alliance against the Turks, her reception in Venice by the government of Doge Loredan was sumptuous, and the entertainments provided were extensive. The queen - for so she was already entitled - arrived on July 31 and was met in style and lodged at the Casa del Marchese. A joust in her honor was to be held a few days later..." p. 70

Sanudo Diaries: August 4, 1502 (4:296-96) "At sixteen hours after sunset the platforms were put up in the Piazza; the barriers and the sand had been set out the day before. All this took place because the Hungarians wanted to hold a joust to show off their large horses and fine trappings. Fifty-four women had arrived, bedecked with jewels, etc.; they mounted the platforms, where the heads of the Ten had already seated themselves to prevent anyone else from going up there. While they awaited there for the queen to arrive with the doge and the Signoria, word reached them that the horses that were to be used for the joust were in Treviso and would arrive the next day. So a message was sent to the women to come down from the platforms and go to the Ducal Palace for the festivities because the joust was not yet ready, and they did so. The festivities were presented by the compagnia of the Elect and began at about eighteen hours. The doge came forward to greet the queen and lead her onto the platform. In the midst of this came a great wind and rain storm that lasted an hour and a half. The festivities were held in the palace; the queen danced with Lord Galeazzo Visconti, of Milan. Then the refreshments were served; they were very nice and cost 300 ducats or more...."

Editor's note: "This was a costly visit, complicated by Anne's retinue of seven hundred Hungarian horsemen and her inability to leave the city for Hungary until her dowry arrived from France. In addition to reporting the expenses, Sanudo weighs the cost against the political advantage such entertainment might bring:" p. 70

Sanudo's Diaries: "The expenses involved in honoring this most serene queen, which amounted to more than 400 ducats per day, began to be regretted. Nor is there any discussion of when she might leave, because the Hungarians have been charged not to take her from here until they have received the 40,000 ducats in dowry promised to her by the king of France. Many of the French who accompanied the queen, seeing that the matter would take a long time, are leaving and returning to Milan."

nedits: Three years before, in 1499, Louis XII of France had seized Milan from the forces of the Sforza family that had held it for 49 years and held it as well a a number of other Italian cities as a protectorate, responsible for its security and general welfare. Hence the very cordial relations between the Duke of Milan and the new Queen.

Sanudo's Diaries: "Some of the Hungarians are leaving by way of Treviso. Thus the queen remains here with a retinue of sixty to seventy mouths. A light galley and another long-oared ship were prepared for her, to take her to Segna [a seaport on the Croatian-Dalmatian coast] in comfort. An election was held in the Senate to choose one of the lords of the Arsenal, who currently are ser Alvise Marzelo, ser Toma Duodo, and ser Piero Lando, to serve as the captain of the galley that accompanies the queen. The winner was ser Piero Lando, the younger, handsomest, and wisest. It seems that now, however, people are saying that the queen does not want to go by sea, but by way of Treviso and then through the lands belonging to the king of the Romans."

Editor's Footnote: "Maximillain I was called 'emporer' by his contemporaries and still is called/known by this title. However, because he was never crowned by the pope, technically he held only the title 'king of the Romans' until his death in 1519." p. 71

Sanudo: "One thing is that in the past days she has been here with almost 600 mouths to feed, counting the French, the Hungarians, and the Milanese. A great deal of money has been spent and a lot of resources consumed. Word is out that two Frenchmen and two Hungarians are making a record of all the honors paid to the Queen in our mainland cities and here in Venice so that it may be shown to the king of France and the king of Hungary. And the queen, who is very perceptive, told the doge that she had not known what it meant to be a queen until her arrival in Venice and that she will therefore commend this state to His Majesty the king and that she wishes always to be a daughter of this most illustrious Signoria. To which the doge replied with kind and fitting words that this was nothing in comparison with the feeling in Venice's heart for her."

Editor's note: "For the next two days, the queen toured Venice. She went to Murano to watch glass being made. She visited the relics of the body of St Barbara at the Crosechieri (Crociferi).` [Many relics were kept there for safe-keeping and located near the lagoon, it burned down in 1513 and all the relics were lost.] She went to Santa Maria Mazor [Santa Maria Maggiore] to see where the monastery was going to be built. She attended a concert in Canareggio, where music of all kinds was played (4:298). And on Sunday she was invited, along with other members of the foreign community, to the regular meeting of the Great Council. However, behind the facade of pleasurable activities, Anne de Foix's situation was quite entangled in diplomatic negotiations over her dowry, and the costs continued to escalate. But the legendery Venetian hospitality prevailed, and Sanudo summarizes the situation with the popular wisdom of a proverb:"

Sanudo's Diaries: August 7, 1502: (4:298): "The queen did not come to the Great Council meeting, but the French and the Hungarian ambassadors did. Arrangements for the election of the new members of the Ten were begun. Then in the evening the queen went to vespers at the Celestia and then to the Vergini to hear the nuns sing. Thus she is not yet ready to leave, because the French do not want to give the 40,000 francs to the Hungarian ambassadors, who are here until the king has received the bride into his home and consummated the marriage. And the Hungarians have been told that she may not come to Hungary until she has the money. So Her Most Serene Highness is in a bad mood. Letters have been sent to Milan, to the king of France, and to Hungary; in the meantime she will remain here. Every day she goes to visit churches and monasteries, and she continues to stay at our expense. In eight days 4500 ducats have been spent. Our officials have had to close their eyes so as not to lose the benefits of her visit; it ha been said in this regard that "Chi beve el mar, puol bever el fiume' ['if you can drink a sea, you can drink a river'.]'

Editor's footnote: "The suggestion is that the Venetian government, which had already invested so much in the queen's visit, hoping by that investment to find favor with the kings of France and Hungary and to enlist their aid against the Turks, could well invest a little more. It was another two weeks before the queen finally left Venice, on 22 August."


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Sanudo Diaries: "Keeping Down Those Uppity Nuns": 1509, 1514, 1519

nedits: This is the last in a series. Last time I talked about Antonio Contarini, during the dogeship of Leonardo Loredan,

Editor's note: "Among the many ecclesiastical concerns he inherited from his predecessors, all of whom had belonged to monastic orders and several of whom had already begun to impose higher standards, none was more urgent than the reform of the patrician convents. This reform was put off for a few years while the Venetian government and the church dealt with the problems caused by the War...". p. 384

nedits:  Julius II - a member of the della Rovere clan from France and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) - after friendly relations with Venice earlier that decade,  in 1509 excommunicated the see of Venice, among other things, as mentioned back in early May. This was a major blow to Venice and her Patriarch, But, remember the muneghini?

Editor's note: "... by the spring of 1513, however, a Lateran Council in Rome was proposing its own general reforms. And in the next year the Council of Ten in Venice addressed the problem of the muneghini with new strictures on the part of the nuns." p. 384

1514

Sanudo Diaries: July 1, 1514 (18:323): "Today a noteworthy event occurred by order of the heads of the Ten, who have again taken up a bill against the muneghini proposed by the former heads of the Ten that also brings this matter under the council's jurisdiction, as they had earlier done with blasphemy."

Editor's footnote: "In 1513 the Council of Ten assumed jurisdiction over cases of sacrilege committed in the monasteries; in April 1514 it extended its jurisdiction to cases of blasphemy. Eventually, this led to the creation of new permanent committees. The Magistrato sopra i monasteri, originally established in 1521 as a temporary magistracy, later became permanent; and the Esecutori contra la bestemmia (Execustors against blaspheny)) was established in 1537." p. 384

Sanudo Diaries: July 1, 1514 con't: "Now, wishing to close the parlor of [the Convent of] San Zacharia in the interests of chastity, the vicar of the patriarch, don Zuan Anzolo di Santo Severino, of Vicenza, university laureate, went there for this purpose, accompanied by some captains and officials. Seeing this the nuns drew together [and defended themselves] with stones and forced the officials and the vicar to leave against their will. So they have decided that on Monday the patriarch himself will go to take care of this matter. Moreover, the Council of Ten ordered that grilles be installed."

Editor's footnote: "The privilege withdrawn here was a more open parlatorio (conversation room) where, instead of their being a grille to separate the nuns from their visitors, a more salonlike arrangement prevailed." p. 384

Editor's note: "It was not a simple matter. The patrician families of the nuns actively defended the privileges of their daughters and sisters to come and go, to put aside their veils, keep servants, and in general lead lives in keeping with their social status. But the patriarch continued to remind the government of his concern "over the vices of the city, especially those of the nuns" (January 14, 1516).... In 1519 the patriarch began a series of reforms in the convent of Santa Maria delle Vergini, scene of the symbolic wedding of the doge to the abbess in 1506. Similar reforms would be pursued in other convents, such as San Zaccaria, Santa Anna, and Santa Maria la Celestia. The method was relatively simple, to introduce Observant nuns, that is, nuns following a stricter rule, alongside the Conventuals." p. 385

1519:

nedits: It didn't always work out simply however. As relations with Rome and the papacy had improved greatly for various reasons under Leo X, (he was a de Medici first of all), even so, in May 1519 the nuns resisted and their relations complained to the Collegio. The nuns said they would rather be made Observants themselves than to be placed with Observants they didn't know or that had different practices and have to live with them side-by-side. In June, a wall went up. The doge had ceded control of his convent to the patriarch for the sake of reforming it. Men were sent...

Sanudo Diaries: June 21, 1519 (27:402): "... They entered the convent by force, having broken down the doors, and partitioned part of this convent, ... [This section] they wish to turn over to Observant nuns of Santa Justina, who will enter there. The nuns of the Verzene cried out that they were being coerced and impeded from using their usual paths, etc.; nevertheless, they had patience...."

Editor's note: "Meanwhile, the patriarch had taken the precaution of obtaining papal support, and his vicar came to the Collegio with a papal brief fully authorizing the reforms (June 24, 1519; 27:405). But while the secular and ecclesiastical officials were pursuing these measures, the nuns of the Vergini were taking matters into their own hands. The next day, June 25, which was the Feast Day of the Apparition of San Marco, the news of their actions reached the Signoria" p. 386

Sanudo Diaries: June 25, 1519 (27:407): This morning, after the procession [for the Feast of the Apparition of San Marco], the doge and the Signoria having heard that yesterday the nuns of the Verzene had torn down the wall put up to separate them from the nuns of Santa Justina... [the doge] sent the Signoria with the heads of the Ten and the three state attorneys [and] ... When they saw what been done, they strongly berated them and sent for the patriarch.... He arrived and entered the chapter room with the state attorneys; they called the nuns, saying that what they had done would harm them. And the nuns asked pardon, saying  that it was very difficult to be expelled from their home, and this patriarch, although he threatened to punish them, in the end is not their superior, and so they left without doing anything more. Nevertheless, the masons are working to divide the convent."

Editor's note: "Three days later it became apparent that the nuns and their families had also had recourse to Rome to protect their rights. The patriarch was temporarily outmaneuvered by another brief from the pope." p. 387

Sanuo Diaries: June 28, 1519 (27:409) "In the morning our patriarch came to the Collegio, where he had an audience with the heads of the Ten and the state attorneys after the others were sent out of the room. And he complained that the nuns of the Verzene yesterday and all night long had rung their bells to signal their joy because they had received a brief sent from the pope to his legate [saying that the pope] wishes the nuns to be reformed but not that other nuns be placed in their convent, etc. There was considerable discussion about what to do about this matter. Because they had a previous brief from the pope authorizing the patriarch to reform these Conventual convents and turn them into Observants, taking whatever measures he thought necessary, the doge, the patriarch, and the whole Collegio with the heads of the Ten were of the opinion that they need not obey this second brief...."

nedits: Similar circumstances were going on at San Zaccaria, but in July the Signoria gave its own order to introduce Observants there as well. The ambassador sent to Rome to petition against this second brief that they decided not to obey, was not happy with his task. He thought they were wasting their money.  But he would do it. (July 13, 1519 27:473)

All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Also, Rachel Maddow told a funny story yesterday, August 2 via Bluegal and Heather

San Salvador's prior Antonio Contarini becomes Patriarch, 1508

nedits: Another important thing during doge Loredan's tenure was the advancement of the new Patriarch: one of credibility and stature, from a famous house and plenty of work experience. For five years,  from 1503 to 1508, Antonio Contarini had been prior of the regular canons of a very big and very important church and parish at San Salvador in Venice. This church and its very location, between the Rialto bridge and the markets, alongside the busy market street, Merceria San Salvador, while containing the many cloistered there and their industries, and still just a few blocks from San Marco, all ensured this church at the time as a central fixture of Venetian life. Doge Loredan himself in 1515 called its reconstruction, 'cuius umbilico situm est' - 'where the Church's navel is set.' p. 392 ; in Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Just doing a google search on San Salvador, Venice gave me lots of good stuff. It was modeled on three greek crosses - like plus signs with equal length legs - with each nave - the center of each cross - having a dome to let sunlight into this fully Renaissance church. John Ruskin called it Base Renaissance (he didn't like it) in his 1850 book The Stones of Venice vol 3, Venetian Index, but this present shape (interior map, Chiesa San Salvador ) most say was probably started in 1508: the year Antonio Contarini, a prior having served there, then became the patriarch of the see of the entire district that included Venice. (The link will bring up works in this church when you roll over the red parts.)

Editor's footnote: "It should be noted that like all patriarchs and other senior ecclesiastics in the Venetian dominion, Contarini was elected by the Senate, then his election was approved by the pope. In a parallel example of independence from Rome, parish priets in Venice were chosen by their property-owning parishioners." p. 383. 

nedits: It had been 126 years since a member of the Contarini family had held the reigns as doge and it would be 115 years more before another would. But this Contarini as patriarch would long be remembered in Venice and not just for forcing reform on convents and razing the old and rebuilding this new San Salvador, that still stands today. It still is an active parish, along with its storied scuola, but today without the many monks cloistered and their industries. The church as a fixture, today is mostly for tourists and ... when the money comes, tech presentations: "Telecom Italia Future Center".

Here's a blog about the cloisters of San Salvador, with pictures. Including the old news about the present-day tower still waiting to get refurbished. At the google earth view you can get a sense of how dominating that church and that tower must seem when viewed from the 'cloistered walks', the yards that were kept as courtyards there to the south of the church etc. They've been there for centuries, at least since 1187. By Contarini's time it had changed little in over 300 years and as their Church of the Savior - that's what Salvator means - it was especially important it stayed the way it was, But the tower could look to the markets past the Rialto bridge, to the cloistered walks below as well simultaneously to the lookouts near the Ducal Palace. It's a fact that prison yards across the world would use the model that San Salvador's architectural organization provides. Of course this is a Roman model, too. Medieval Italy was known for its urban towers built by families, typically for expansion but also for security. In a city so close-packed you could tell a lot of what was happening by taking in the air from above. A tower for a cloister and a church like this would have bells of different sizes, too. Always, to always tell the time of day and night.

Editor's note: "According to Sanudo's De Origine, San Salvador was founded in the seventh century by San Magno, bishop of Oderzo. Christ had appeared to San Magno, ordering him to establish a church in the middle of the city .... It was at this holy center of the city, halfway between the oldest church, the church of San Giacomo di Rialto, and what later, in the ninth century, came to be the Basilica of San Marco, that San Salvador was established and endowed with precious relics.... The reconstruction of the church, which took more than two decades, was a project dear not only to the patriarch but to the government as well, and funds were drawn from both governmental and ecclesiastical sources.... Not only was the building to be reconstructed but Saint Theodore, who gave the church its most precious relic, was to be restored to his rightful role as copatron of Venice." pp. 394-5

nedits: On August 6, 1520, for the feast day of the Savior, the church held its first Mass to an open crowd and by 1530 was consecrated as part of an emblem of the city's greater civitas sancta. But in the time that Antonio Contarini acted as patriarch of the greater see of Venice 1508-1524, his church became the sanctuary and grounds on the eastern tip of the city proper atSan Pietro di Castello. Almost as if it would rather not be in the city. For centuries it had not been and was often at odds with the ambitions and positions of the city though they had long ago abandoned any notion of rebellion. Also, like San Salvator, this one was attributed to San Magno, and was to be the city's home church from 1451 until 1807 when Napoleon took the city.  By the later 1500's it would get a thoroughly modern front modified from a design by Andrea Palladio. Contarini himself would be accredited with rehabbing much of the interior of the grand sanctuary. Not actually, physically. But he made it a priority during his tenure to see that it got done as it was the central church that the populace went to on Sundays. The view from the famous tilting Campanile of white Istrian marble was new in Contarini's time.


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Energy gains and losses, summer 2012

Hot enuf? Electricity bill gettin you down? 

Gas prices still high? 

These are the good old days.

But first. this news:

• A former Bank of America president has been indicted for fraud. Twelve more are being investigated BofA, JP Morgan, UBS, Wells Fargo and GE have all paid $700 million in restitution and penalties.These fines are happening with greater frequency. Makes me think why the calls to 'fix the debt' or fix medicare and social security are getting louder...
• The ex-Citi CEO who wanted to repeal Glass-Steagall Act allowing deposit and investor banks to merge, wants to fix that
• Syrian army readies for assault on Aleppo
• Al Qaeda reportedly part of radicals in north of Mali
• Aren't Nigerian troubles both religious and political?

• Japan's Fukushima heroes honored by ex-chief

I wanted to talk about big energy and not just a few of their legacies line up this week and last month too:

• Is this for real?

• Why pick on SONGS? 

• David Letterman on fracking: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we're screwed."

• Johnny Cash, Loading Coal, two minutes

• Kerr-McGee sued for health damages, in national suit totaling $25 billion, June 19, 2012, 2 minutes

• more on that, but in northeast PA, coal country, over creosote,  five minutes

• They don't like it here and they can't stop it there: China calls on foreign embassies to stop reporting air pollution by twitter, June 5, 2012, two minutes

• Australia can, why can't we?

• Protests continue in Japan over restarting nuke plant near Ohi

Sanudo Diaries: official posts, prelude to July 10, 1513

nedits: What did Marin Sanudo do? What was his resume? In 1499, Sanudo was at last able to report on activities as an elected (but new and temporary) member of the savi ai ordeni. But this savi was the most junior of official posts, "...this body of five patricians dealt with matters pertaining to any part of the dominion that had to be reached by water; it was also in charge of naval supplies and overseas trade." Appendix B p. 548

Editor's note: "The savi ai ordeni or Savi da Mar, sometimes translated as 'Sages of the Maritime Ordinances,' constituted one of the three branches of the Collegio, the leading policymaking organ in Venice, which prepared all business for discussion in the Senate.... This position was the acknowledged first rung of the Venetian political ladder, Sanudo called it "a most ancient and authoritative office" (2:240).... " p.6

nedits: What work led Sanudo here? Twelve years before that, at age 21, on July 8, 1487, Sanudo had become a lawyer in the judicial magistracies of the Ducal Palace, by right of his education and patrician class status. In March 1498, after eleven years of this he was selected a signore di notte, a night-watchman (1:906).

Editor's note: "He was one of six, each from a different sestiere of the city, who literally watched by night (accompanied by a small guard) over morals and malefactors, prohibiting dangerous nocturnal dances, affairs between Christians and people of other religions, restraining violence and ribaldry, and judging offences of these types. Sanudo held this office for six months (nearly all Venetian offices rotated fairly rapidly, lasting from six months to a year), until on September 27, 1498, he was chosen as one of the savi ai ordeni." p.6

nedits: That first term would last for six months, but he would continue to sit in and report on the proceedings whether as a member or not in the ensuing years unless away from the city at some foreign post. . For example,

Editor's note: "Later that year... in August 1499 there was a naval encounter between the Venetian armada, led by [later doge] Antonio Grimani, and the Turkish fleet at Zonchio, between the Peloponnesus and the Greek mainland. The Venetian armada was badly defeated, to the dismay and anger of the government.... As a savi ai ordeni, Sanudo supported the proposal that additional defensive forces be sent to Corfu and that four of the disgraced naval leaders be dismissed.... Sanudo was selected savi ai ordeni three more times and after a sixteen month term as treasurer of Verona (1501-2), he served as a savi ai ordeni yet three more times. His political fortunes, however, seemed to have leveled out with these relatively minor positions." p. 9-10

nedits: He got married in 1505 to a wealthy widow and did less in politics or service but continued with the diaries. 

This included dividing up the house he shared with relatives as recorded on July 15, 1506.

She died in 1508, but that was the year of the beginning of the war of the League of Cambrai, 

what he would describe as a great conflagration for Venice and all of Italy. 

Although after the great defeat to the French near Agnadello in May 1509, 

Venice did beat back her adversaries and recovered much of her seized land on terrafirma. 

But by the summer of 1513, forces of the Emperor were back again, Threatening Treviso and Padova.

Editor's note: "But as the foreign armies swayed the fortunes of war back and forth, Sanudo felt all the more compelled to continue his writing .... At the same time, he felt equally compelled to intervene on behalf of his country, and so in the summer of 1513, when Venetian Terrafirma territories close to home were once again at risk, he made his first speech in the Great Council. He was forty-seven years old." p. 10


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Sanudo Diaries: Defending the Homeland: July 10, 1513; restricting convents in 1509

1513: Sanudo speaks before the Great Council and the doge. The bold is my emphasis.

Editor's Note: "This was not easy for him. His intervention was in response to a speech by the doge, who wanted patricians to help defend Padua and Treviso, newly under attack by the imperial armies. But, said the doge, all debtors must at the same time pay half of their debts. Those who did not would be forever excluded from the Senate and from all other positions and offices, and they would not be able to occupy offices to which they had been elected during their absence." p. 10

Sanudo Diaries: July 10, 1513; (16:489-91): "And seeing that no one spoke about the matter of great importance, it seemed to me that I should put off every consideration save the good of the homeland, and so I rose from the second bench, where I was sitting, and I made the voting stop and went to contradict..." praying "that God would give me courage because I had never yet spoken in the Great Council,"

"Most serene Prince, most illustrious Signoria, most excellent Council, my most excellent fathers and gentlemen...: These are the bulwarks and suburbs of the city of Venice. For their defense, we must send patricians who will not spare their persons or their purses or anything else in the world.... But this proposal, in my opinion will not have the effect desired by Your Excellencies, because it proposes that those who are debtors, by going, become eligible to be nominated and elected to offices but may not enter into them without paying them half of their debt. This is a terrible proposal, because a poor gentleman, for the love of his homeland, will tighten his belt to find some funds and will go to help his homeland by defending these two cities, and Your Excellencies, if this gentleman is nominated to some position, it will honor him, but he cannot enter the office because he does not have the means to pay. Although he has spent his own money for arms and has put his own life on the line, he will have achieved nothing, nor will he be able to enjoy the grace of Your Magnificence. Therefore I fervently beseech you, gentlemen, councillors, heads of the Quarantia, amend this proposal so that those who go may, for a while, compete for office and, if chosen, may enter freely into these offices as has been done in the past years...."

"We were 1300 in number, no one spat, and I was praised universally by all. And when I came down from the podium, everyone praised and blessed me, and the doge called me and lauded my opinion, saying, "You have always been dear to us." And the councillors amended the proposal ..., and it was passed."

nedits: Just in time. Within a couple months in 1513, Sanudo could go to the top of the bell tower of San Marco and see the fires set by the imperial forces on dry land. There's some decent photos of the view from the top of the tower if you scroll down the page at the link a ways.

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• Nuns on the radio, TODAY. The president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious representing 80% of nuns in the US was on Teri Gross. They are being mandated to more closely adhere to Vatican language on topics like birth control. She said, but "God has no gender". "If the rights of the fetus trumps the right of all those that are already born ... then that is a distortion."  "Can we be Catholic and have a questioning mind?" Forty minutes.

1509, during the dogeship of Leonardo Loredan (con't), Sanudo talks about convents. A lot.

nedits: With the news of such a great many number of springtime failures all over Italy for Venetian forces coming in, - not just the recent calamity at Agnadello - and still in the early days of this all-out assault by so many shifting external powers against the livelihood of Venice and all that she stood for, the Senate found in it's good nature to take the time to dole out punishments and threats against those who would contravene the traditions of the city's convents and Conventuals. Also, so that they could make some of their own rules.

Editor's note: "... in the Senate a month later, severe measures were proposed. The details of these measures reveal how difficult it was to implement these strictures against aristocratic resistance." p. 382.

Sanudo Diaries: June 29, 1509: (8:454-56); "Preserving all our laws and ordinances in this matter that deal with the wicked and sacrilegious transgressors against the convents of consecrated nuns dedicated to divine service and worship, and especially that of May 30, 1486, it is proposed that [a new law] be added that all those who have traffic with nuns, within the convent or outside it, and likewise those who take nuns away from the convents, even if they claim they have not had commerce with them, shall, in addition to the penalties of imprisonment and fines that the preceding laws imposed, be perpetually banished from Venice and its environs and be prohibited from holding office or enjoying any benefit or emolument of our government in any of our territories. And if they shall be found within our boundaries and captured, they will be confined to our Strong Prison for two years and then returned to exile, and this as many times as they violate their exile. And those who apprehend and present to our authorities any of these sacrilegious men will receive 500 gold ducats, at 124 soldi to the ducat, of the criminal's goods, which will forever remain obligated to this reward.... Truly, nuns who leave their convents for any reason shall be immediately detained and consigned to the most reverend patriarch, whom the Signoria prays and entreats to punish them so as to make them a most significant example to others. Indeed, those who dare to accept any of these nuns into their homes or arrange for others to accept them, whoever they may be, shall be banished for five years from Venice and its environs.... In truth, the servants, the boatmen, and others who, in whatever fashion, transport these nuns away from the convents either through this city or elsewhere must be imprisoned for six months and shall be whipped from San Marco to Rialto. And the same penalty will be applied to those who row anyone around the convents. And because in these convents of Conventual nuns are employed female servants in secular dress, who come and go out of the convents as they please, causing much trouble with their go-between activities, it is decreed that these servants must depart from the convents within fifteen days.... But if the aforesaid nuns wish to have persons in their service, they must be servant nuns, according to the constitution of their rule, who will wear religious habits outside the convent.... And no pardon, favor, revision, or compensation may in any way be made of these penalties or of the above statute. ..."

Editor's note: "Such severe measures elicited at least one skeptical response, that of Sanudo's fellow diarist Girolamo Priuli, who remarked that "for about one month this law will be observed, but then everything will be as before, because, 'a Venetian law lasts but a week'." Over the next decade and a half the old Venetian proverb proved both right and wrong. For there was now in Venice a patriarch determined to pursue the reformatio of the Venetian church." p. 383

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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008