Thursday, February 11, 2016

news earlier February 2016

I love that picture. If you make it big you can see that's a balloon with light in it casting the image on its surface.

Dramatic news today as scientists document final proof of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Simply, they detected the effect that two black holes colliding 1.3 billion light years away had on gravitational waves. This massive occurrence seemed to bend or stretch the space-time continuum creating a 'ripple' effect that we just detected. Again, scientists just documented it happening today, but it actually occurred 1.3 billion years ago. This opens a window shut until now looking out into the farther reaches of space and time and gets at its basic building blocks. Very exciting.
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A massive riot in a prison in Mexico has killed at least sixty. Meanwhile, the rest of the country awaits the arrival of Pope Francis.


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Most daily news in the US has been swirling around the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary and the numerous candidates and debates and figures around this year's electoral buildup.

If a new President in the United States wanted to fix corporate crime, there are ways to do that. It's been done before.


The standoff in a bird refuge outside Bend, OR seems over, with all but one of the seditionists arrested and the father of the ringleader, Cliven Bundy, also arrested by the FBI.
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The Dutch have put a driverless bus for mass transit on the road.

Possiblity of changes allowing citizenship to certain families in Spain. The timing is noteworthy.
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Carnevale Festivities in Venice got off to a bang earlier and ended with cleanup crews the world over, yesterday.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Savonarola Used Published Works To Spread Message: From 1496

Another crucial development in the spread and popularity of Friar Girolamo Savonarola lay in the transmission of the written word. While it is true, much of that came from sermons over time, Lauro Martines tells us that the Friar himself oversaw proof sheets for documents and was keenly interested in the whole editing and translating process. As an another example of Savonarola's sharpness and effectiveness in spreading his message, Martines spends some time giving several examples of this activity. Here Savonarola is both a man of his time and also furthering his views in novel ways.

During the winter following the departure of the French from Italy, the Friar spent time writing and editing and collating previous treatises after he had received word from the pope asking him to desist from preaching. But Martines tells us, the Friar had previously seen the effectiveness of a well documented Medici propaganda campaign that was in response to a prior papacy's likely involvement in the Pazzi conspiracy in Florence eighteen years before. The pope had excommunicated Lorenzo de Medici, placed the whole city under indictment and denied all sacraments to the people of Florence. The de Medici waged a capable and effective PR campaign.
"Lorenzo and his friends fought the Pope's circulating accusations by issuing printed tracts, letters, a scathing account of the conspiracy, a soldier's confession, and even poems. It was an onslaught of the printed word, intended to win the sympathies of Italian ruling elites.... Savonarola saw -- must have seen -- the importance of reaching minds with a version of events that was not otherwise available; that is, of taking control away from the controllers. This meant recourse to the printing press." [p.86]
If the Friar could put the accusation of nepotism in the church or corruption of the ungodly in front of the very faces of the literate, it would force them to deal with their consciences. If he could get this message into more and more hands, he could persuade more and more people. More than this, as his popularity rose and as he was heard more in political circles, he gained more detractors who generated their own treatises and circulars. With printed works the Friar as well could refute many of his critics. He had Latin works translated back into Italian so more could read them, and sent letters around to elicit responses. These in turn were published in his lifetime and gained wide dispersion. There were multiple editions as well of his popular treatises and sermons.

As example, Martines highlights On the Simplicity of the Christian Life which was brought out in Latin in August 1496 and published again in an Italian translation by Girolamo Benivieni two months later. But there were so many that came out. In the years 1491-1500, six different presses in Florence were publishing his works. By the end of the 1400's Martines says, there were 108 items of his that were published in Florence with only ten printed for those of that most popular of Florentine poets, Dante Alighieri. More and more people wanted to -- had to know what the fuss was with this preacher. [p. 88]
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notes and pagination from Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006
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Sunday, February 7, 2016

Letters 20,21: Alessandra Strozzi: 7 February 1465

A pair of close examples involving the importance of information and its transit may be found in the letters of Alessandra Strozzi. After the death of Cosimo de Medici, mid-century, there were further losses for the Strozzi family, as well as others. In this turn, the Strozzi banks at Naples had collapsed, petitions for entrance to the city of Florence had to be made for Lorenzo in secret, and with coded numbers to conceal names, and a moratorium on debts had been declared. Alessandra wrote in January, "Ed e vero che gran rovina ci e stata." 'It's true there's been a great ruin."

There was news in these letters, as she heard it and assimilated it, some analysis, some advice. There was praise for some and shame for others. There was the failure of the bank that Ludovico Strozzi worked in Naples as well as the company in Florence that Giovanfrancesco, another family member, apparently managed. Alessandra reassured that Ludovico's family could stay rich, only losing their reputation. Giovanfresco remained in much debt and needed to do right by certain creditors or he might be declared a rebel and condemned to death in absentia.

Meanwhile Lorenzo, her middle son, needed to return to Florence, but as an exile he had to wait for permission for safe-passage. Kept waiting far south of town at San Quirico on the road from Siena, she could show her impatience waiting in Florence. Petitions for friends of the Strozzi, on the Council of One Hundred, had been drawn up and delivered to the appropriate people. She felt she could list these only by pre-arranged number.

The matter of continued exile for her son, this prominent member of the Strozzi family was deemed so important at this time, and obstructing him from re-entering Florence soil so sensitive, that the family needed and had gained letters of favor from King Ferrante of Naples himself. These in addition to friends in Florence, Filippo could be grateful for, since, the night before, permission had been granted for Lorenzo to enter and come as close as the city walls and stay through the month of March.

Mention is made in January of different batches of letters from different people and different times. One can imagine Alessandra at a desk reading these through her spectacles. At one point she complains that at 4pm the servant from Rome has not yet arrived. Sometimes the mail carrier was late.

But from the letter dated February 7 she can confirm that a temporary reprieve for Lorenzo had been permitted and she looked forward to see him as early as the 9th. She says ambassadors from Florence are going to Naples and Milan and that Filippo should give presents to those that make the journey to Naples.
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from pp. 123-31, translated with notes by Heather Gregory: Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi : Bilingual Edition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997
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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

news winter 2016

The war in Syria has destroyed many lives and many places and many hopes. The end is nowhere closer even as negotiations work at the highest levels.

Jeremy Corbyn visited refugees camps in France.
A UK ruling may help some refugees seeking asylum from Syria's civil war.

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The unrest in Tunisia has reached a peak of intensity not yet seen before since the Arab Spring.
More destruction is felt in the Yemen capital Sanaa.
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In the US, as primary season for the US Presidential candidates gets underway, the biggest donors are under a greater degree of scrutiny with a new book by Jane Mayer. She was on npr's Fresh Air talking about it last month.
The BBC had a great series on race in the US a couple weeks ago.
These people are keeping track how much money the state of Kansas will not accept in order to help with the expansion of Medicaid like other states. In the name of claiming independence from the Federal Government which the Governor, the State Legislature and Big Energy concerns like KOCH industries say they don't like. But those people are not likely to benefit (much) from such funds, either.

Because of a fake budget crisis in Michigan, the governor allowed local officials in charge to change the water supply for the city of Flint. The resultant shock to the system getting water from the Flint River dumped toxins into sinks and showers all over the city. It's been brown ever since with many people including children being exposed to many months of poisonous water.

The standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge was mostly dispersed after a month of ridiculous tension.

Some great music.

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Saturday, January 30, 2016

Savonarola After The French Left Italy: late January 1496

After the letter from Rome sent in October asking him to stop preaching and desist from his prophesizing, Friar Savonarola did that. But he woud spend his time the winter after the French had left Italy, instead writing and organizing. Shortly, he would weigh in on Florentine politics again in their still remaining but very unstable state.

One of the first noticeable acts of 1496 was his work with the youth in Florence. This would become in time a recruitment platform that would embrace the youth and working-age men of the surrounding countryside, as well. He would also publish books, circulate letters, the greater extent of which would come later. But with his reputation mostly secure, the popular Friar would brilliantly use the youth of the city for a more immediate concern. This was to spread a message to an even greater audience within the city, of those themes which he had thundered on at the pulpit. But from the mouths of children. And at one of that culture's most celebrated annual Catholic Festivals, Carnevale. As shown here the early workings this year in Venice.

Carnevale then as now was a pre-Easter festival, set seven weeks before Easter-week festivities. It comes in the dead of winter, culminates in a big party and bonfire before the seven weeks of Lent begins. It had become customary in those days to give up tokens of sinful deeds, or vanities to be ritually consumed by fire. In the year of 1496 Savonarola and his followers were sending out invitations and instructing youth organizations in spreading the good news. As many as possible would be gathered for the march, and many did. Martines estimates that they comprised 8-20 percent of the city's population who showed up.

They would gather in groups and sing songs and go knocking door to door asking for vanities to be given up. They would set a crucifix and a candle up at street corners and ask for alms for the poor. Or set up barriers to limit traffic and do the same. Martines explains how 'remember the poor' was more pointedly aimed at the prideful.
"The theology behind burning 'the instruments of vanity' was uncomplicated. Pride, self-regarding pride, was the cardinal Christian sin, a turning toward the self and away from God. In a time of universal corruption, in high places most especially, the instruments that catered to pride, or that caused Christians to lose their way, called for demolition. This meant everything from mirrors, whigs and lecherous books and pictures to games of chance. Gambling fostered blasphemy, violence, and the ruin of families, while lechery led to self-abandonment in base pleasures, and hence to a falling away from God." [p. 116]
From people's homes 'playing cards, dice, gaming tables, dolls, veil holders, cosmetics, musical instruments, pictures of nudes, masks, lengths of expensive cloth, jewellery' would be extracted. All these were brought to the Piazza della Signoria and, with an effigy of the devil placed atop it, the entire pile was set aflame. This collection took some days to carry out.

The songs they would sing were more explicit.'Tell them in Rome... that 'Christ has become King of Florence/ we respect no other power." Estimates of the size of the crowds on the last day of the festival  that year, February 16, vary of course. Four or six or seven, or even ten thousand youths, after Mass, dressed in white smocks, headed by a large crucifix and a statue of Mary made their way up the Via Larga singing hymns. In front of the cathedral they changed direction and went south to the Ponte Santa Trinita, and then to the Ponte Vecchio and back to the square. [p.117]

After this display the Signoria passed a resolution that Friar Savonarola should give the important Lenten sermons. Over the next few years Savonarola would take these and others and publish them as tracts, essays, taking pieces of previous sermons and putting them together and thus spread them to a wider and wider audience.
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notes and pagination from Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006


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Monday, January 11, 2016

David Bowie Dead At 69: 10Jan16

Mention should be made of the passing of David Jones, most known as the creator of the musical artist, David Bowie.
Here's a twitter link to the artist that made the pictures, Helen Green.

A link to the new video "Lazarus", released the night before the album release of Blackstar, Bowie's last, which occurred on David Jones' birthday, two days ago.

A piece on his humor by a longtime guitar playing collaborator, Reeves Gabrels. on npr

Of course he was an actor who played many roles. Here he is as Nikola Tesla in the 2006 movie "The Prestige". Here as Andy Warhol in the 1996 movie "Basquiat". And here he is as 'the elephant man' in the Broadway play of the same name filmed in 1980.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Mackie On The Young Henry Tudor: What A King Might Need

Having marked out his borders, J.D. Mackie begins to plow anew with a single row. The Battle of Bosworth saw the death of Richard III and for Henry on the field of battle, "... by virtue of the crown which was found under a hawthorn and placed upon his head, and by the acclamations of the soldiery" Henry in fact became King. This could be so because it was violent, and on the battlefield and by proclamation of the assembled men who wanted it thus. This was at all made possible, Mackie agrees with Bacon here, because Henry proved or could prove three traditional titles of the monarchy. He had a dynastic claim. Muted, but it was there. He also had support from the rival house. In light of the long-term civil war, this could remain tenuous but was necessary. He also needed enough force - of sword or conquest -  to make it happen, as at Bosworth, and to maintain such rule. [p.46]

Henry could do all three and with a personality. There were problems with his heritage. Through it all again and again his mother played a decisive role. He had a very uncertain childhood, born two months after the death of his father, Edmund duke of Richmond. The boy was raised by his uncle Jasper Tudor in Wales and then in Brittany. His very young mother, Margaret of Beaufort, after a difficult childbirth was married off again three months after baby Henry and just before she was whisked off with her new husband.

Henry was captured as a baby with the fall of Harlech castle in 1468, but was smuggled to Brittany, by his uncle Jasper in 1470. The year after that Edward IV beat the last remaining of the Lancastrian line. Margaret's husband died fighting for the Yorkist cause. When Edward entered London again, Henry VI died and Edward was crowned king for the second time. In the following years, Margaret grew closer and closer to the King's wife, the very powerful and influential Elizabeth Woodville. When Edward suddenly died, Elizabeth began, among other things, casting about for suitors for her many daughters.

On Christmas Day, 1483, the year that Edward died and Richard then presumed to lead, Henry and a group of English men went into Rennes Cathedral and pledged loyalty to each other. On that occasion Henry himself agreed to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the late King Edward. This was the product, Mackie tells us, of a collapsed conspiracy amongst some Lancastrian friends and even Yorkist allies and Elizabeth Woodville, enjoined to wrest control from Richard.

Richard demanded Henry's surrender. Henry escaped to Anjou in the next year. One of Henry's allies was Lord Stanley the husband of his mother, Margaret of Beaufort. She had helped carry the train of Queen Anne Neville's dress, during the coronation, as a lady in waiting to Richard's Queen. Lord Stanley his mother assured him would be loyal, but he knew he needed more men.

By 1485, the forces were lining up, more and more old Yorkist names went to the young Tudor. On the day of Bosworth it was the younger brother of  Lord Stanley, William Stanley's men who were crucial in the fight, repulsing the attack by Richard's forces, and the same William Stanley who placed the crown on Henry's head. From this moment we are told, Henry began acting like a king. He began returning slowly to London calling on his friends and his perceived enemies, inviting them all to his coronation when he should arrive. There were certain men that gathered around him quickly in these late summer months. In time, many would become central figures in his new administration.

Henry was the representative of Lancaster, he wore the red rose. But he knew he would have to marry Elizabeth of York of the white rose, the nineteen year old daughter of Edward and Elizabeth. Still, it took not six months to secure the bond with the rival house of York of the white rose. After a petition from the commons on December 10, 1485, delivered to parliament, Henry agreed to marry Elizabeth, the daughter of former King Edward IV, and niece to the Yorkist King that Henry had just met on the battlefield and dethroned. Not a mere formality, this marriage would require a dispensation from the pope in Rome. This assent from the far away see of Rome would further cement Henry's claims as rightful sovereign.

The marriage with Elizabeth in January of 1486 united the York and Lancaster lines. Along with his dynastic claim, he now only had to maintain enough force to keep the three titles of the monarchy together. There was a conspiracy led by John de la Pole, the earl of Lincoln against Henry that began that year. But Henry and his men met them on the field the next summer at the Battle of Stokes and beat them. There would be ten more years of minor uprisings and attempted usurpers. Henry would manage to put them all down and thus maintained his rule.

Jasper Tudor died 26 December, 1495.

Elizabeth of York died after childbirth in 1503. She was the mother of Henry VIII.

Lord Stanley died in 1504 and was buried with his family at Burscough Priory in Lancashire. All that is left of that are a few ruins.

Margaret of Beaufort, taking a vow of chastity would retire in 1499 to the Palace rebuilt for her in Collyweston, Northamptonshire, on the road from Stamford to Ketterring, west of Peterborough. She died in 1509, just two months after Henry VII.

Architectural Survey of Parish Church of St Andrews and  what little remains of the  'Palace' in Collyweston, Northamptonshire which was torn down in 1640.
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notes from pp. 46-76 in J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
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Saturday, December 26, 2015

noted news December, 2015

There were a pair of mass shootings that seems to have sucked most of the air out of the media room in this month of December. One was the lone white guy in Colorado who shot up a health clinic because he'd been misled into thinking they sold dissected baby parts for money there. Three were killed, including a police officer while five more police and four civilians were wounded. The 57 year old suspect wanted to represent himself in the trial but prosecution has been delayed until mental tests can be performed to ascertain his competency. Instead of many worthwhile discussions, this cartoon seems to sum up the popular mood.
It's outrageous that a country as prosperous as the US has to suffer such indignities because of greed and how easily fear sells in the media. From mindless tragedy to worse, a few days later, on December 2nd, a man and a woman began firing at an holiday office party in San Bernardino, California. These two novice terrorists wanted to be in touch with extremist radical terrorists of the Daesh variety but probably failed to. They did amass a huge quantity of guns, ammo and explosives and killed fourteen people, wounding twenty-two more.

Then there were at least nineteen negative reactions within a week by likely xenophobes.
By the time the second week of December was finished there were many such destructive hate crimes as reported by the New York Times.
But it turns out that the terrorist org in Nigeria called Boko Haram is also getting called more deadly than Daesh. The Int'l Business Times even gives up statistics.
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has announced a one quarter of a one percent rise in their benchmark interest rate. The economic world has been readying for this for ten years.

Minority Leader Rep Nancy Pelosi has made it clear to new US House Speaker Paul Ryan that he needs the Democrats if the House wants to do anything after passing the omnibus spending bill this month.

The State of California has decided to consider treating drug abuse as a medical condition for low-income residents.

Snapshot of shopping in Venzuela from npr.

Cool audio piece (5 min) on electric car sharing in Paris from npr.
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The month was full of protests in Minneapolis following the marked lack of communication on the part of law enforcement - why do people keep getting shot? - after the killing of Jamar Clark back in November. Many encampments have been upturned, protests quashed , lives and commerce disrupted. But the #BlackLivesMatter movement have taken up this case as their own and Minneapolis has responded in actions last month and again all this month. This included blocking off a terminal at the airport and also the trains to the huge Mall of America. This is where things were Xmas Eve.
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It's been an unusually warm December in the US with rare tornadoes and a cool summer in Argentina. Christmas Day saw the worst pollution in Beijing.

Though there was the climate deal in Paris this month.
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Mt Momotombo in Nicaragua blew for the first time in a century on December 4th.
Also early in December, Mt Aetna, Sicily blew up.
Meanwhile closest images from Ceres have made it back to Earth.

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Friday, December 25, 2015

Florence Creates Great Council To Re-establish Stability: December 1494

In Florence, the day after the French army left the city, the Thirty-Seven who sat as a temporary council, decided that in two days, a Parlemento should be called. So, on December 2, 1494, as many as two-thirds of all voting-age citizens were called to converge on the Palazzo in order to vote up or down, by audible assent, a number of measures drafted. Then, two days before Christmas, another body elected to establish a much larger Great Council which would rule Florence until the fall of 1512.

The Parlemento itself was a traditional means used in times of crisis to correct for uncertainties and instabilities in Republican Florence. The crisis was deep and the way through it had seemed impossible. But with a few probing questions the very temporary central councils thought they could plumb the will of the people, and thus, set a course for a future government. The city had just suffered a coup in the loss of the Medicean powers, the consequent invasion of the French army had set everyone aback, and back out onto the streets, and all this in just a month. What better way to find out what people thought than to ask as many of the age-appropriate male citizens what they thought, en masse?

There must have been thousands thronged there if at all possible.

The questions posed to the gathered crowd got right to the point. As Lauro Martines tells it. First, any laws in opposition to what was about to be established, were null and void. Next, any leagl or executive councils of the Medici regime were abolished. Further, all exiles and their descendents since 1434 would be allowed to return to Florence. Lastly a special commission of Twenty would be established. The purpose of this group would be to pick the next Signoria, other top officials and to reshape public authority. All this was agreed to by the Florentine crowd. [p.62]

This group of Twenty were prominent oligarchs, people with connections, families, wealth, means and goals. Five of them it was said were Medici supporters who had found a way that could most please the greatest majorities.  Some protested afterward about these before the Signoria and were shouted out. For three weeks this group of Twenty and the Signoria proposed, discussed, argued and cajoled their way to another set of resolutions.

As these intense discussions continued it became clear that the people would only abide some form of mass representation. The idea of  a Great Council like that found in Venice, would be formed in Florence. But in Florence, it instead would also include artisans, shopkeepers, merchants, small-time attorneys and the once-famous named but recently humbly-made adults. The old landed aristoctrats may not be happy about the new arrangements, but, it was reasoned, the tide was too high. The oligarchs at that time could not turn back the intensity of the people's wishes with anything less than direct representation. It did not help that there were so many armed people roaming the streets. Martines says the ambassador from Ferrara, Manfredo de' Manfredi in a letter dated 20 December seemed alarmed at all the armed men and mercenaries in the government palace, in private parties and the continuing recruitments of more of the same. [p. 63]

By December 23, a new Great Council was decided on which would draw from the entire citizenry of adult males eligible for office, some 3500 people. These would elect new office holders and pass new legislation. This body would be divided into three parts and each member would hold office for only six months. Two-thirds of this huge body would constitute a quorum but, it was the Priors of the Signoria who would convene the Council and introduce new legislature. This body would rule in Florence for the next eighteen years and until the de'Medici returned to power. [p.64]

All through November until past Christmas, Friar Savonarola preached his Advent sermons at San Marco. It must have seemed that the city hung on his every word.

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notes from pp. 62-64 in Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006
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Friday, December 18, 2015

old notes: printing old books, memory & new ideas; June 2007

June 27, 2007
mention of printing in The House of the Medici in the late 15th cent. in comparison to the costliness and quality of handwritten books. In the flood of new handwritten luxury items that were bought, sold, traded, dedicated and disseminated, these items were coveted by the descriminating well-to-do. [p. 169]

copyists at monasteries, convents, abbeys and colleges continued everywhere at their labors. Presses began running in Naples in 1465. This was followed by Rome in 1467, Venice and Milan in 1469, Verona, Paris and Nuremburg in 1470, William Caxton at Westminster Abbey in 1476 and Florence in 1477. ~ from The Rise and Fall of The Medieval Monastery.

Frances A Yates unwinds a bit more of the tale with respect to memory and its uses in The Art of Memory. This twentieth century classic gathers up and recounts the progress of the various threads of the transmission of memory techniques from ancient times to the enlightenment period. As late as 1482, one Oratoriae Artis Epitome by Jacopus Publicius could be published at Venice. It did so well it's 2nd edition came in 1485. But this book was known years before it was printed. An English monk, Thomas Swatwell, probably in Durham, Yates tells us, made a beautiful version of that text with illustrations, and which now sits in the British Museum. [see page 111 in above link to Yates' book on pdf]. 

Still earlier, Poggio Bracciolini had found classical counterparts in Quintillian, and as early as 1416. By the 1480's the idea had caught on that, if you possessed a skill that could be learned and which might improve your station in life, then you could be better off by learning that skill. This too had to be learned, whether by peasant, guildsman, burgher or, all too commonly, the poorer nobleman from a good line. If memory itself could be mastered then there might be no limit to the skills one could excel in. So the theory went and this seemed a new idea, again. But as with many things called new there were also different opinions, different sources, and different receptions.

Yates reminds us this 'first published treatise' on memory printed in 1482 reflected past images and techniques, forms that we would see as 'medieval'. The Oratoriae Artis Epitome of Jacopus Publicius of 1482 used a picturesque symbol, of one's own imagination, to trigger or conjure memories as distinct as abstract nouns like virtues and vices.  
"Far from introducing us to a modern world of revived classical rhetoric, Publicius' memory section seems rather to transport us back into a Dantesque world in which Hell, Purgatory and Paradise are remembered on the spheres of the universe, a Giottoesque world with its sharpened expressiveness of virtue and vice memory figures .... In short, this first printed memory treatise is not a symptom of the revival of the classical art of memory as part of the Renaissance revival of rhetoric; it comes straight out of the mediaeval tradition." [pp. 110-1]
This story of the publishing of Publicius and his memory methods, is set before the continuing story told in Yates of the textual transmission of Quintillian. This was found by Braccioloini and given its first edition in 1470, with multiple editions thereafter. But the Quintillian method would be soon contrasted with and found more popular than the more traditional methods found in Ad Herenniam and De Inventione. These had long been the source for clerical luminaries like Aquinas, & Albertus Magnus and while, ascribed to 'Tullius' were studied as basic necessity for any student of rhetoric in the medieval and rennaissance periods.

There followed another subsequent famous teacher of rhetoric, Peter Tommai of Ravenna who published in 1491 (also in Venice) his version of the Quintillian method. This also found multiple editions and lived for several audiences well into the seventeenth century. But it was the wide dissemination of his text, coupled with his advocacy of its methods, and his application of making rhetoric and these mnemonic methods practical for lay users, that made his edition so poular.  Rather than anything really new about the methods, based on Quintillian, Yates says, it was the author selling them tirelessly that allowed them to spread so widely and thus sustain their popularity. 

Jacob Burckhardt saw the trend as coming earlier. Even with regard to books of the ancient world, it was their dissemination that became the real impetus.
"Great as was the influence of the old writers on the Italian mind in the fourteenth century and before, yet that influence was due rather to the wide diffusion of what had long been known, than to the discovery of much that was new." [Civilisation of the Renaissance In Italy, iii, 3; p. 145]
Books as luxury items had become a trend for the upper classes. That in turn gave birth to the search for them and of their acquisition by more and more people over time, and only then, the basic assimilation of the ideas found in them could take flight.

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Saturday, November 28, 2015

French In Florence, Florentine Reprisals: thru November 28, 1494

Ever since Piero de Medici had been chased out of Florence, the French King Charles VIII had been expressing the wish that he might return. When the French entered the city on November 17, there was a great parade in honor of the 'Most Christian King's' arrival. The inundation of some 10-12,000 soldiers and attendants throughout the city however, caused many disturbances on top of the tumult surrounding the ousting of the Medicean power. The French had installed themselves in the newly vacated Medici Palace.

Time and again those in the tottering government in Florence tried to assert their own power. There was the Signoria, and the Gonfalonier, nine men, and the two remaining advisory councils, the Sixteen and the Twelve (all told thirty-seven men). These convened as they could to discuss and vote on what to do next. As well as the Seventy, and the Otto, the War-Office Ten had also been disbanded so that decisions could be made solely by this central group of the Signoria with the Twelve and the Sixteen. It was this group then, with the French arrival - and, despite the King's wishes that Piero de Medici might return - this group still came to a swift and decisive conclusion. On November 20th, they declared Piero a rebel and put a 2000 florin bounty on his capture. [p.61]

The next day, discussions continued with the three Florentine cardinals Cosimo de' Pazzi, Francesco Soderini, and Guglielmo Capponi.. There was a commotion at the door. A pair of frenchmen demanded entrance, and many thought this would be the end. Some many several went and armed themselves. Some later claimed that it was a Tornabuoni instigator in league with de'Medici loyalists that sent the French to cause the ruckus. Many citizens across the river gathered for a fight to defend the city against the French. The French soldierery by then had begun making preparations within the city to defend themselves against the citizens. Somehow the locals had realized they outnumbered the French by at least four to one. That day, within the Signoria, the assembly that had gathered knelt before the members, pledging to die before allowing the Medici back into the city. The Signoria then decided to send out word to gather an army of 30,000 volunteers to defend the city. The King and his men relented and agreed to work on some other agreement. [p.51]

For the next couple days discussions tried to go in a new direction. Since the King had said he had crossed the Alps and come into Italy in order to take Naples (and, also said he had wanted an audience with the Pope), then he should go do that and let the Florentines take care of their city. Piero's wife, Alfonsina Orsini and her mother had been staying just a few blocks away at the convent called Santa Lucia on the Via San Gallo. [p.39] She and the Medici loyal (like some of the Tornabuoni) were to continue to send missives and ministers to persuade the King to allow for a return to normalcy. But this new Signoria would not agree to the various French ministers who came asking for it.

On the 24th of November a new conflict arose spectacularly. Some Florentines had been captured and were being moved by French soldiers. [p.52] A major promenade down by the river Arno soon swelled with numbers of people demanding their release. These few were held awaiting their fines to be paid. But brought out into public they began crying as though they were begging for alms. Children in the neighborhood picked up the cry and some Florentine nobles of the city, seeing this, stepped in and freed them, incensed at the proceedings. The soldiers went to the Medici Palace and the people began heading to that of the Signoria. A squadron of 500 Swiss lances tried to enter the street where the initial disturbance was but were repelled by women hurling rocks, roof tiles, then furniture, then boiling water and then the buckets at them.

The Signoria sent another draft for agreement to the King. After further disputes an agreement was reached but 're-reading it the King showed signs he was still not happy'. At this point, the ambassador Piero di Gino Capponi tore up the document and turned to leave followed by the other representatives. The King had his men call them back and at last agreed to the settlement. The next day arrangements were made for the King to finalize the articles. On the 26th, the day after that, in a formal ceremony, the King payed his respects at the Cathedral Santa Maria and personally swore to the agreement 'on the stone of the high altar'. [pp.52-3]

The agreement was mostly simple and straightforward. Florence would pay 50,000 florins now and 70,000 more, later. The French would also return Pisa, Livorno, and control of Sarzana and Pietrasanta to Florence when he captured Naples. The 27th of November was spent marshallng troops that had taken quarters throughout and all around the city. On the 28th the massive army left and headed south.
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notes from pp. 39-61 in Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006
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newsbits late November 2015


The downing of Russian jets last week by Turkey has heightened tensions in the already exploding mid-east region. World leaders have been trying to express caution rather than alarm in order to de-escalate the situation. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has expressed sadness for it happening but has denied apologizing for it. Geopolitical discussions at the highest level on climate change follow, in these weeks. These also come after weeks of the many expressions of support for France and the war on terror after the bombings in Paris, Beirut and the hostage situation at the Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali.

The embedded video from AlJazeera speaking on the odd inconsistencies in how Americans call different forms of terrorism, or not.
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Glenn Greenwald points out where Adam Smith tells of the love that elites have for wars and armament production.
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Pope Francis has gone to Africa this week where he has spoken in Nairobi, Kenya and is currently in Uganda.
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The Consumer Price Index in the U.S. rose in October signalling that inflation in the U.S. may have taken a slight turn up. This is considered a form of health in this moment by Federal Reserve Officers. And Russia decides to add the Chinese Yuan as one of its reserve currencies.
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The radical fiscal experiment of Kansas' Governor Sam Brownback makes him least popular of Governors in the U.S.

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Friday, November 27, 2015

After The Siege, In The Valley of Mexico: November 1521

In her many-voiced look, Camilla Townsend also pauses to reflect on the long but eventual Spanish success with the siege of Tenochtitlan. Like Matthew Restall's conclusions about the importance of steel crossbows and steel swords in this conflict, Townsend insists that these weapons were one of just a couple central elements to the westerner's brutal victory. Along with the distant supports from their network of information and the supply-chain reaching back to Cuba and Spain, the immediate spearpoint of force was the steel sword with its long-lasting effects from their wounds, and those by steel crossbow bolts.

The memory of these weapons filled the stories that were retold by the elders long after the siege. Townsend says tepoztli - their word for steel or iron - was the most commonly used term used by these elder storytellers concerning the sixty to seventy day siege. Over and over again they recalled metals in armor and blades, in shields and crossbow bolts and arrows. The sound they made clattering, the shape of the blades cutting, these are telling details issuing from a culture unused to such forms of violence.

One hero that Townsend mentions that the elders spoke of, and found in the Florentinus Codex, a local, Axoquentzin, who fought in the siege was struck down by such a metal bolt.
"Axoquentzin pursued his enemies, he made them let people go, he spun them about. But this warrior Axoquentzin died there ... they hit him with an iron bolt in the chest, they shot an iron bolt into his heart. He died as if he were stretching out when going to sleep."

It must be noticed that this quick quote is woven into a longer discussion of her summary of the 'Water-Pouring Song'. This was a handed down version of a much older song sung by locals. Water, symbolic of so many things for Mexica then, in its simplest state, was a source of life and of power. Those who held water, as a substance, as a surplus (and could thus pour it out for others) thereby held a form of power. If others would bring water for you, you held the power. Mexico City, built on a lake, source of water, trade, and life symbolised all that. Townsend reminds us that when the women left the city and revoked 'the right to have water carried to them', they did it for survival. Many thousands must have left that year. Those that had lost males in their families, and had to take care of the children out of harm's way, and the older one's too who had survived the smallpox. All these ravaged people came flowing out of the city. [p. 124]

After the initial attacks in the summer and the siege took hold during those months, Cortes would often return to the base he had established across the water from Teotihuacan at the place locally called Coyoacan. New plans and sorties were hatched here, information from the coast and their Tlaxcalan allies could come here. Cortes had made an old palace his headquarters in this place and stayed there for the next few years.  In his telling, he would go out on horseback with a trusted band of men, go to some local village and sack it or take prisoners, give out orders, or sometimes, work out negotiations. Much of these negotiations would happen at Coyoacan as well and with Malintzin as translator. A system was set up where the local leaders, from more and more locales in the surrounding region, were told to make tribute to Cortes, or suffer the consequences. Networks of locals, antagonistic to the goals of Cortes, were sniffed out, captured, held prisoner, tortured, and sometimes killed. Refusals, conflicts, rebellions were put down.

Leaders were put in place to control and use locals for employment to produce goods for more tributes for Cortes. This was the basis of the encomienda system of wealth production and extraction that Cortes had learned in Spain, seen in use in Cuba, and was now exporting to the Mexica. It wasn't long before many local nobles began seeing this as a possible means for advancement among those quick-witted enough to follow orders. Malintzin, very often of necessity, was the one tasked with delivering this news of these new methods and means. Years later she would be accused (by Jeronimo de Aguilar) of having her own door where tributes would arrive at the Coyoacan center. Cortes claimed in 1529 she was running a business then dealing with herbs and tobacco 'that she liked to smoke'. He could see her position as vulnerable and even deserving of special consideration. [p. 134] In the months since the end of the siege, Malintzin had become pregnant with the child of Cortes. This brief snapshot shows how their months were filled following the siege, and into 1522.

Meanwhile, in Santiago de Cuba, a letter was written by one Alonso Suazo, dated 21 November 1521. A former judge in Segovia, Suazo had been sent to Cuba by the court of King Carlos V. His job was to make an official inquiry into the treatment of the indigenous inhabitants in the new world. Diego da Ordas, on his way returning from the new world to Spain, had much to tell the King's man in Cuba about the advanced civilization and culture of these locals, about the siege, and had showed him a great many treasures. But despite all this, already, Suazo was dismayed at the idolatry and human sacrifice that the locals committed on each other. One wonders what he would think if he knew what was happening in the center of the Valley of Mexico at that same time. [pp. 126-7]
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notes and pagination form  Malintzin's Choices: an Indian Woman In The Conquest of Mexico, Camilla Townshend, University of New Mexico Press, as part of the series Dialogos, 2006

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Place of an English Lord Under Henry VII


As devastating as the Wars of the Roses had been for England (and would continue to be) for their family lines, there were still promising avenues and opportunities as well. There was relief that the 'hard-headed Richard III' was gone, and a general desire for more stable conditions that could prevail again, despite the intermittent problems. Mackie says, "... any rule which promised peaceful order would be generally accepted." The failures of the local baronies depleted in the wars, and the weakness of the church to resolve anything (but what a king could want), also made the monarchy the logical place for people to turn to, and place their hopes.

One statistic that Mackie tells, is that there were only eighteen of the old nobles that were sworn in by Henry VII's first parliament, and several of these ended before the end of his reign.* From this point, Mackie's narrative turns from what the King did to How did these barons interact and need to interact with this new monarch. The overall story shifts here, from monarch to noble spheres and then spirals from the inner to the outer rims of the noble's periphery. Power spread out from the center, from the monarch, to the noble, to the church and clergy, to the burghers and merchants, and to the peasant. Just like their world-view.

While the Wars raged, the locals could go on about their local affairs and, families could be tended, if they would, despite the military extractions from time to time. Locally,
"... the lord could sway the law in his own interest. Maintenance, the supporting of a magnate's dependents in courts of law, was common; courts were venal, royal officers were terrorized or bribed. But it is necessary to distinguish between the influence improperly enjoyed by the over-mighty subject, which would vanish with the might which gave it birth, and the legitimate authority of a baronial court." [p. 14]
Monarchy gave nobility birth and could take it away. But so could a court of peers. Justice was found locally based on feudal custom, and in local criminal courts with and without a noble's oversight. These had grown weaker through the Wars. But the King's courts sat in Westminster year-round processing cases and publishing them in the Year Book. Law across England was mostly the King's law. But most of the 'law' that a local lord might exert on a populace was "... illegal and rested solely upon his possession of actual power." [p.15] A new monarch found that amidst the widespread interpretations that had been handed down locally from age-old feudal law, after all the changes, a King could establish a Royal law that could be far more effective, and popular.

The very important ability to raise an army lay on baronial heads. But here too, only a few could pay the wages necessary, or arm them. Armor was not as common as popular stories tell, even for great lords. The baronial castle built in the previous two or three centuries was now subject to new artillery. A new security from this threat was not yet available. And already the wars had depleted their coffers in more ways than one.  Wars were not profitable then, and wars did not make estates more profitable or able to produce more goods.

The incomes that nobles might expect from land rents were fixed, while prices for goods rose. Nobles hired people to spread merchandise. That was a task below their traditional station. But these English liked their wares and their merchandising, according to reports sent back to Venice in Henry's day. [p.16] Great families, for instance, liked to hold big feasts. They also liked to collect books. Mackie details some of a wealthy earl's Household Expenditures. A house with 166 servants and a yearly cost of £933. This Mackie calculates was one-fifteenth of the Royal household. This earl died at the young age of 49 in 1527, with £13 to his name and £17,000 in debt. This earl liked books, poetry, & hired a storyteller to produce a "... metrical 'Chronicle of the Family of Percy'." [p.17]

But mostly, if a noble needed money, and there was always a need for money, if the king had it and gave it to you, you were now in his service and in his effective employment. No longer a potential rival. This was an important bond. Thomas More (Mackie quotes him), knew it was a time when you didn't know who your friends were and who the enemy. [p.18] Italian chroniclers and Titian, Mackie says, saw a young man with 'no illusions'. [p.19]

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* from Mackie's footnote "A.F. Pollard, The Reign of Henry VIII iii, app. ii for the diminution of the old families."
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notes and pagination from JD Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Savonarola During the French Invasion: November 1494

In the early weeks of November when the Medici family and their interests were driven out and the French came into the city, friar Girolamo Savonarola gave a few sermons. Lauro Martines, our current guide here, gives a quick survey of the matters at stake. But before this, Martines prefaces this with a sharp and closely written paragraph on the webs of Medicean power that had existed for much of the previous sixty years. They had been a primary focus of Savonarola's ire.
"Political patronage under the Medici reached into the civil law courts, the arrest and release of accused criminals, the assignment of personal taxes, the fixing of ambitious marriages, the obtaining of Church benefices, and, above all, election or appointment to public office. It may be taken as axiomatic that high office in  Florence made the man, because the honour meant that he enjoyed the approval of the top oligarchs in the city, that he had the ears of judges and tax commissioners, that his sons and daughters would be warmly looked to as possible marriage partners, that he could more easily obtain credit or borrow money, that he himself would carry weight behind the scenes, and that he therefore ranked as an influential patron. Tear up the political system, as happened in late 1494, and you disrupt all the ties that linked patrons and dependents, with consequent moral and psychological confusion, anxiety, and the readiness to turn coats, to accomodate, to be silent, or to watch and wait." [p. 42]

Outside the Medici, were the Tornabuoni, Soderini, Ridolfi, and the other cadet Medici houses not in the preferred line from Cosimo. After these in importance were the Caponi, Corsini, Guicciardini, Martelli, the Nerli, Pandolfini, and Salviati. All of these and more had to take stock all over again and look carefully at who would be enemies and who might be allies in self-protection and advancement. With the great masses of people stirred up in Florence, who could be trusted, what could be offered to calm them? For what outcomes and with what varying means might old friends, that were now potentially new opponents, could again agree to work together? Savonarola saw other ends and was privileged to see them while in the middle of these tumultuous times.

Savonarola liked to say in his sermons, 'O little friar' speaking of himself and his minor role. Such an insignificant bit part he spoke that he was playing. The ultimate outsider in the center of things. He however, had himself been called out by the French King and spoken personally with him in the days of the overthrow of the Medici. On the 9th of November the friar was in Pisa speaking with the King. (Martines gives us a number of phrases attributed to him, as Martines relates, by Franco Cordero in his four volume collection Savonarola from 1986-8).

Savonarola said to the King of France that the reason for the French coming to Florence had been revealed to him. That the French invasion was essentially God's will, as revealed to him. As a servant of God, his majesty had responsibilities to women and children, the women in convents and many other servants of God, and all this, despite the sins of Florence. If Florence was offensive to his majesty, he should forgive them, since they could only be ignorant and did not know that he, the King, was sent by God. [p.50]

A circular kind of logic then, flattering the King as a servant of God, but charging that he then protect the innocents despite the sins and ignorance of the rest. Savonarola saw his unique position and tried to maximize his influence. The King may have been flattered, but Savonarola certainly seems to have been as well, if seen in the light of his subsequent actions. But Martines tells us, this also was a bit of conclusion developed from the sermons the friar gave in the time before the French invasion. This was where Savonarola had warned that the French would come and cleanse the land, be a scourge, a pestilence, especially on Rome. In Florence during the occupation there was a surge reported of robberies, fires, stabbings and killings as conflicts between locals and French soldiers proliferated. [p.51]

The Haggai sermons that continued into November repeat the themes of boarding an ark in times of a great flood. The time for building or preparation was over and it was time to depart. Savonarola portrayed himself as a prophet but both seeing the future and acting on it in the present. The warnings were over, the flood was now, salvation was at stake. As social and political and economic laws and customs were being broken all over, all the time, each day bringing word of new disasters and needed responses, in the thick of it, Savonarola could speak of God's mercy. [pp.55]

In the fourth of these Haggai sermons, on November 11, he could console his congregation by saying that no blood had been spilled, that the Lord had restrained himself. And largely that was true, it wasn't a wholesale slaughter. So, they should thank God, and that it would yet be revealed whether the other cities could fair the same. The fifth sermon on Novemnber 16, came the day before the King himself arrived into the city of Florence with a parade. He told every person to 'hold their place', since most men would like to work in this new administration 'but don't have the aptitude.' In contrast with the former Medicean government, where there were those in the administration that did not fill their proper place, the people now should 'be content with their current station.' And go out and celebrate the new arriving servants of God.
"Political arrangements in Florence had suddenly opened up, and there was a gush of talk about office-holding, about men being eligible for service in public life, and about political inequities and qualified ancestors. Citizens were pressing forward in the councils, as well as in private, angling to make themselves eligible for high office...".
Savonarola may have had many more of those sorts coming forward, asking for a few words to be 'dropped in the right quarters'. Savonarola had to warn against that especially now. A kind of temptation he had railed against previously in others, but now, was learning the many ways he had to use to avoid it. Always returning in practice and in his sermons to return to abstract principles to explain and move in the world. [p.56]
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notes, pagination in Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006
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news mid November 2015


Following the attacks in Paris on Friday November 13, and a few days of mourning, the Eiffel Tower was lit in the national colors.
The day after the attacks French people came out to be heard en masse.
One man Adel Termos became a hero in Beirut when he stopped a terrorist bomber from killings hundreds in a separate attack there where 43 were killed last Thursday.

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In April 2015, a 'radical Islamist' had killed 147 at a Kenyan university. These are not a new kind of carnage.
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The Russian plane downed in Egypt earlier this month was deemed an attack by Russian officials.
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Meanwhile, Republican state governors, and one democrat, in the US line up to reject  Syrian war refugees. Not long ago they were wanting to ally with them to fight Assad. But even then they were doing that to thumb their nose at this guy.

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Sunday, November 15, 2015

Pisa: Sought After Pawn, Loyalist, Independent, Subordinate

During the few weeks before the French rode into Florence in November 1494, they had absorbed Pisa. This proud, rich jewel, Pisa had been taken by Florence in 1404, after a long siege. It was therefore not a plum to be given away by the Medici, though the city had strong advocates and the Medicean interests were well guarded, maintained, and were even allowed to flourish there,

Early in November 1494, Pisa was let go by Piero de Medici. As wags at the time and Francesco Guicciardini later on would put it, this was to save himself, in a deal that Piero brokered with King Charles VIII of France. It was then that the French assumed control there and then proceeded to Florence. Many Pisans reacted with outrage, as betrayed as many of their Florentine benefactors and bosses felt, and many also then supported the overthrow in Florence, and then still paid heed to the new edicts as they came out of the new Signoria in Florence throughout 1494-5.

By spring 1495 however, the French were on their way out of the peninsula. As they left, some Pisans hatched new plans. Letters to the Venetians, to the Duke of Milan, to certain members of the Signoria in Florence, and yes, to members of the cadet branch of the Medicean line, were sent out. Guicciardini tells us [vol. iii, 7-8] that Venice had sent diplomats to Genoa trying to persuade them not to give up on Pisa. Ludovico Sforza, still the Duke in Milan may have been instrumental in delaying all of this with promises made and unkept.

The siege at Novara broke up. Word spread fast that an agreement (~October 1495) had been made - Guicciardini called it the Turin Treaty - and the French finally would leave Italy. Pisa, and Livorno, its port, would be left behind as well, and those cities affairs left in the hands of, what turned out to be, a number of protectors. One was a French captain Entragues that tried to take Pisa with some Florentine troops [vol. iii, 10-15]. They were rebuffed in the end, but the story was very complicated, for a number of reasons.

The French knew Pisa and its harbor were coveted by all the players in Italy. Florence said it was theirs, but the current partisans bemoaned Piero giving it up, and Milan and Venice desired it for its revenue and their dreams of empire. Maximillian would come the following year to try to resolve the still caterwauling situation. It would be some time before the wrangling would be over and Pisa would not long have its former forms of 'independence' without outside domination.


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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Coup Fallout in Florence Overthrowing Medici, Continued: mid November, 1494

Over the course of just a few days, the fallout spread. From the ousting of the Medicean faction, as family members, friends and affiliated clergy fled from Florence, and as the French arrived securing their ineterests. The second week of November saw many changes. Old families and also new, but trusted diplomats, and still other new men, advanced to fill roles. A curious roster of names and positions tumble before view. There was a coup and many fell and many more driven out. A few others made the old positions into their new ones, for awhile, and in different forms. Martines gives an interesting list of some of these characters and their stories in crisp fashion. The Signoria rang the bell for all patriots to defend the state and many came to the city center.

Piero de Medici himself escaped to Bologna with close family the night of the overthrow, with Giovanni the Cardinal (and future pope Leo X) sitting prominently up in the window, praying well into the night and then later escaping the city in Franciscan garb.

The Bargello or Podesta - the head constable, or one of his guards - had been cut down in the daytime crush in the Signoria Piazza. Francesco Valori one of the six men on the ambassadorial team in consultation with the French King had just returned. With a band of men they stormed the Palazzo of the Bargello and stocked themselves up on arms. Many other beneficiaries of the decades of Medicean leadership risked their lives in trying to save things. A bounty was put on the persons of Piero and Giovanni. The Eight, a body of powerful appointed men who had overseen political and criminal policing, were suspended by the Signoria.

The Signoria also at some point sent guards with arms to defend the Medici Palace as the crowds grew and lingered. But officials began confiscating treasures for themselves. Rings were taken from the fingers of weeping women. The Cardinal's house was sacked however. As well as that of Ser Giovanni da Pratovecchio and Antonio di Bernardo Miniati. A prominent jurist Francesco Gualterotti saved the house of Messer Agnolo Niccolini when the mob set his door afire.

Martines cooly points out that the new men that took the emerging roles also had to recognize that some of the houses of past leading men should also be protected, lest the mob overtake the entire city's amassed wealth. Three of Piero's closest adherents were chosen, and brought into protection in the Signoria. Another, the former ambassador (and just back from visiting King Charles of France), fled north to Lombardy.

Edicts from the Signoria were released allowing family members from certain exiled houses to return at long last to Florence. Some gone as long as sixty years and more were allowed the right to return. Within days, people with old names like Acciaiuoli, Barbadori, Guasconi, Lamberteschi, Pazzi, Petruzzi and Strozzi began returning.

The Signoria also disbanded the Seventy, an advising voting chamber full of Medicean sympathisers. They also dropped admission for members of the dreaded Otto di Pratica which conducted foreign affairs. They were re-assigning values to the entire structure of the former Medicean system, dropping chambers and counseling bodies and appointing loyalists, whatever they called themselves.

As the days ticked on, as edicts came out, and as Martines mentions, as the murals from the Palazzo de Podesta of exiled families and previous Medicean victories were taken down and carted through the streets, word from the swelling French ranks came too, louder and louder. King Charles of France thought it best that Piero be able to return to Florence. This set off conversations in a different direction and some people had to reassign values among allies and friends, again. Word that the French had taken Pisa, a long held subordinate with plenty of essential resources and means for wealth acquisition, also began to spread. This idea that the French took Pisa rather than Piero giving it away seems lost in the larger story for many, that Piero was simply incompetent. The conversation of whether France had come as liberators, or conquerors welled up again, as all began to seem lost.

The moment was right for friar Girolamo Savonarola to step into the middle of all this. He already had.
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pp. 38-41 in Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006

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