Looking carefully at the notes for both these recent secondary sources that I've been using on Dominican friar Savonarola, I wanted a more direct comparison. To be fair, Martines' narrative carries with it an interior aspect, telling the story in a way that nearly mimics what must have been their rather feverish times. On the other hand, Weinstein delivers a different viewpoint that seems more externally driven, bringing forth details of the scene to show additional contexts. One is not better than the other, though I have included fewer notes and sources here from Martines' book than I have from Weinstein's. Martines leaves the last half of the book to detail the political and the lead up to Savonarola's last eighteen months. Weinstein spends more time with the friar's early life and discussing Humanism and education in Savonarola's world. But both authors have done all the work here. These following bits are just a mere index meant to help me later track down parts of primary source materials.
Martines notes:
November 7, 1496 papal brief on Dominican reorganization p 138
January-February 1497 Francesco Valori elected Gonfalonier of Justice p 152-3, [Cerretani- Parenti]; 158, pp 167-8 [Schnitzer I, Parenti, Cordero III]
February famine and riots, p 178, [Parenti, Cordero IV]
March-April 1497: Bernardo del Nero elected Gonfalonier of Justice, pp 175-81
March 17: Piero at gates? p 177 (Fachard 2002); [Cappelli]
April attacks: (Fachard 2002); [Cerretani]
Hostages taken, on counsel from Valori {Guicciardini}, [Parenti]
June 1497 Savonarola sends out letter to supporters p 138-9 [Sav]
summer 1497 Francesco Altoviti diatribe v Sav. p 162-5 [Altoviti]
July 23, 1497 priest at Santa Maria Maggiore arrested for calling Savonarolans 'sodomites' p. 119 [Luca Landucci]
August arguments: pp 188-200; Giovanni Cambi
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
____________________________________________
Weinstein notes: [Sav = Savonarola, HoF= Guicciardini's History of Florence]
All Saint's Days sermons: pp. 204-8; [Sav. Ruth & Micah]
November 7, 1496 papal breve, 208-10; [Villari, on text; Gherardi, de Maio, reception]
November 30 sermon: p. 211 [Sav. Ezechiel I]
December 13 sermon, pp 212-14: [Sav. Ezechiel I], [Nardi, reaction]
Francesco Valori: pp 214-6: [Polizzotto y Kovesi, House of Valori, 2007], [Parenti, Guicciardini, Ridolfi, Cadoni]
Jan-Feb 1497: Carneval: [Parenti, Macey "Bonfire Songs" pp 216-19
news of truce between France and League 25Feb97: pp 219-21 [Parenti, Landucci, Gherardi]
March-April: pro-Medicean Bernardo del Nero elected Gonfalonier of Justice: p220-2
Suor Maddalena squelched by Sav intervening: pp 221-2: [Parenti, Storia II, 89-92; Landucci, Diario, 146; I processi, 26]
Piero de Medici tries to attack, slinks away: pp 222-3: Valori insists hostages be taken [Cerretani, Storia fiorentina 234-5;]
Piero at the wall: [Landucci, Diario, 147]; leaves for Siena, [Parenti, Storia II, 89-100; Guicciardini, History of Florence, chap 15]
May-June: anti-Medicean Alberti elected Gonfalonier of Justice: pp 223-
Ascension Day tumult and sermon: pp 224-5 [Villari, Sav. Ezeckiel II, Landucci, Parenti, Pseudo-Burlamacchi]
Savonarola writes a letter: [Lettere e scritti apologetici 256-64; Parenti, Storia II, 101-6]
May 12, 1497 election reform bill, broadened the great council again, [Parenti, Cadoni, Lotte politiche 54-5]
bills reception: [Guicciardini HoF, 129; letter to Filippo Strozzi in Villari, La storia II, 25 n. 1; Landucci Diario, 149]
excommunication postponed: pp 227-9; [Landucci, 150-2]
June 18, 1497: excommunication breve read: pp 229-330; [Gherardi, 165-6, 168-9; Parenti 109]
Sav responds: pp 226-7; Lettere e scritti apologetici 271-6; Lettere 277-82;
city broods: pp 230-2; Parenti 109-13; urges Dominicans stay indoors for St John fest: [Nardi, Istorie I, 112; on Altoviti crit, Schnitzer Savonarola I ch 22; also Munich, 1903] [Angelo de Vallambroso, Lettere 84-92; Gherardi, 166-174];
Becchi and Bracchi letters to Ten: Gherardi, Nuovo documenti 169-74]
Condolences sent to Pope on death of Juan de Gandia; [Sav. Lettere e scritti apologetici 101-2; more letters to others 152-71]
Savonarola turned to write books: pp 234-40
plague strikes: pp 236-8 [Parenti, Storia II, 113; Landucci 152-5; Sav. Lettere e scritti apologetici 165-71, 175-99]
August: Lamberta dell-Antella captured: pp 241-3[Villari, La Storia II, iii-xxv; Parenti, Storia II, 119, 121-2, 127, 133-4; Guicciardini, HoF 132]
____________________________________
from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
Friday, January 27, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Orsini Overwhelm Papal Forces : January 24, 1497
There was a battle between forces of Pope Alexander VI and those representing the Orsini family. The pope had even recalled his own son Juan Borgia to Rome from Spain to be blessed and sent out, along with Guidalbo Montefeltro the Duke of Urbino, in order to push back the Orsini from their own properties held, north of Rome, near Lake Bracciano. Johann Burchard makes easy work of the battle itself leaving no doubt of the score.
The family, despite having many lines reaching back and forth in time had made themselves useful across Italy, again and again, over centuries. For the previous while, Virginio the head of the leading branch had been in service to the King of Naples and was appointed to be constable of Naples. But when the French invaded in 1494, Virginio had deserted his post in Naples and gave up his own castle in Bracciano north of Rome to the French sovereign. The year after, he got himself captured along with other French hostages and was held in captivity back in Naples, until he died, January 8.
The family had long sought to expand its influence in Rome, all the while battling the local Colonna family, marrying into other prominent families, and sending its youth to far-off places to soldier, negotiate, or serve the church. Following all the leads of all the lines of this effective, far-reaching and prolific family could be a lifelong research project for someone. Their name certainly did ring out. Its offshoots and sidelines come up so often in the histories of the period, an interesting cross-section of professions in the age might be produced from such a catalogue of names. Much more could be found here.
__________________________________________
p. 135: Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963
"On Tuesday, January 24th, a battle was fought near Bassano and the fortress of Soriano between the papal troops and those of the Orsini, and in the engagement, the former were heavily defeated in great dishonour. The Duke of Urbino was captured, some five hundred of our troops were killed and many more wounded, whilst the Orsini captured all our artillery and completely scattered our forces."A mere sixteen days after Gentile Virginio Orsinio the patriarch and leader of the Orsini clan had died, armed forces were arrayed and the surprising accounts from the battlefield once again sent out. Burchard says new negotiations 'were begun' and a new agreement between the pope and these antagonists drawn up and agreed to by February 5th. These antagonists were forces marshalled by the famed and 'ancient' Orsini clan of Italy. The conflict was one of self-interest and politics, as well as lands, inherited estates and the neighboring papal territories. They had done many favors and received many rich gifts and favors from many popes and princes and republics.
The family, despite having many lines reaching back and forth in time had made themselves useful across Italy, again and again, over centuries. For the previous while, Virginio the head of the leading branch had been in service to the King of Naples and was appointed to be constable of Naples. But when the French invaded in 1494, Virginio had deserted his post in Naples and gave up his own castle in Bracciano north of Rome to the French sovereign. The year after, he got himself captured along with other French hostages and was held in captivity back in Naples, until he died, January 8.
The family had long sought to expand its influence in Rome, all the while battling the local Colonna family, marrying into other prominent families, and sending its youth to far-off places to soldier, negotiate, or serve the church. Following all the leads of all the lines of this effective, far-reaching and prolific family could be a lifelong research project for someone. Their name certainly did ring out. Its offshoots and sidelines come up so often in the histories of the period, an interesting cross-section of professions in the age might be produced from such a catalogue of names. Much more could be found here.
__________________________________________
p. 135: Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Al-Hasan Captured by Pirates, Kept in Rome: 1518-9
It was only recently I had the chance to get a copy and begin to read Natalie Zemon Davis' biography of the man who the west remembers as Leo Africanus. Pope Leo X had brought Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan into papal protection in the Vatican, eventually, after he was delivered to Rome having been captured by Christian pirates during the summer of 1518. But this man was no mere castaway Moor coughed up by pirates for absolution of sins. As Davis explains, al-Wazzan had been returning from his second diplomatic mission to Cairo, sent over a year before for the pleasure of the Sultan Muhammad al-Burtughali in Fez.
The pirate who found him (we're not sure how or where) was named Don Pedro de Cabrera y Bobadilla. He also happened to be the brother of the bishop of Salamanca, who lived at Rome at the time, and thus, could deliver this man to the current pope. It was common for pirates of whatever nobility in those days to bring captured and kidnapped notables to the ports which would provide the best exchange. It is an interesting question, (though the specifics less known and little discussed) why this diplomat could fetch the best price in Rome of all places. But so it occurred.
By the fall of that same year, the reputation of this diplomat, as it was initially (and mostly mistakenly) reported all over Italy, was said to be representing a number of different far off places. He was also still being held in the Castell San'Angelo in Rome. This much at least (and much else, to be fair) Marin Sanudo in Venice could learn about this diplomat, if not exactly where he was from. While it seems that the officials in Rome tasked with dealing with these matters really had little by way of context to understand who this guy was, still, it was reasonably surmised he was some kind of ambassador: an orator, as Italians called them then.
Al-Wazzan may have been busy that fall rebuilding his repute in such a foreign world as the tunnels under the Castell San' Angelo certainly were for him, lying under the ancient city of Rome. Even so, this was a place that held errant clerics, as well as sometimes noted artists like Benvenuto Cellini. A wealthy banker who had fallen into bad repute that November was also brought to the tunnels. It must have seemed a very strange world to al-Wazzan, but some things remained the same. Rapidly, even among this sort of company, al-Wazzan would ascend.
Within a month of his arrival, with his own bags confiscated, he was given Arabic texts to read, and in time, even allowed to autograph them as having been read by his own eyes. The librarian at the Vatican then, the Dominican Zenobi Acciaiuoli was naturally "interested in the prophetic renewal of Christianity" - meaning, in those days, the subjugation of Islam - and thus could find much to learn from this very literate and well-spoken Moor. It turns out, he had a lot of experience. Yes, he had met with, and even bathed with the Ottoman Sultan Selim in Cairo after his conquests there. But there were so many stories, and the whole place at the Castella was mostly run by Christian clergymen. There was the jailer Giuliano Tornabuoni, bishop of Saluzzo, who Davis tells, could even confide to him how many cardinals, for instance, had been imprisoned there, literally, beneath Rome, just in the previous year.
There were the three clergymen later, in 1519, who Ms Davis asserts al-Wazzan had to impress before getting to the favors that the pope could confer on him. One was the master of ceremonies Paride Grassi, who Davis also draws much information from on al-Wazzan's time in Rome, as she documents much else in concurrent news with Sanudo's Diarii. Even the footnotes Davis provides are rich and far-flung, yet also, pointedly specific.
As example, she points out an additional 'et' in the manuscript of Grassi's Diarium detailing these doings, found in MS E53, vol 2 in the Special Collections of the Spencer Research Libraray at the University of Kansas [in n.21, p 296], which the Vatican manuscript does not have. This is what leads her to the assertion that Grassi himself had a leading hand in determining al-Wazzan's connection, and then consequent protection by Pope Leo X.
There was also Gabriel Fosco, archbishop of Durazzo, who had just returned from a trip to Spain in order to raise funds for a crusade against the Turks. However many there were, so important seemed this orator, these men were tasked with chatechizing and observing al-Wazzan during his imprisonment in Rome, until such time he could be baptized in the Christian faith. This did take time and was sure to conjure images and memories for al-Wazzan from his childhood. He and his family had left Granada in the years when war circled around that city leading up to its eventual conquest by the Spanish crown. His family was one of many that did not want to live under the rule of the Christian monarchs there, and so had left for Fez. And that is a different story.
There are several stories regarding al-Hasan. He had several patrons and godfathers while in Rome. They had friends and acquaintances who certainly may have found him intriguing. He would spend some time in Rome with several of them, and even in some of their households doing transcription and translation work. He would go on to become acquainted with ambassadors who knew the kings and rulers of Europe. In addition to being baptized during the celebration of Epiphany in Rome, January 1520, al-Hasan would begin a new kind of life there, surrounded by clergy, humanists, philosophers and diplomats in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.
_______________________________________________
from pp. 54-65 in Davis, Natalie Zemon: Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth Century Muslim Between Worlds, Hill and Wang, A Division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, NY, 2006
The pirate who found him (we're not sure how or where) was named Don Pedro de Cabrera y Bobadilla. He also happened to be the brother of the bishop of Salamanca, who lived at Rome at the time, and thus, could deliver this man to the current pope. It was common for pirates of whatever nobility in those days to bring captured and kidnapped notables to the ports which would provide the best exchange. It is an interesting question, (though the specifics less known and little discussed) why this diplomat could fetch the best price in Rome of all places. But so it occurred.
By the fall of that same year, the reputation of this diplomat, as it was initially (and mostly mistakenly) reported all over Italy, was said to be representing a number of different far off places. He was also still being held in the Castell San'Angelo in Rome. This much at least (and much else, to be fair) Marin Sanudo in Venice could learn about this diplomat, if not exactly where he was from. While it seems that the officials in Rome tasked with dealing with these matters really had little by way of context to understand who this guy was, still, it was reasonably surmised he was some kind of ambassador: an orator, as Italians called them then.
Al-Wazzan may have been busy that fall rebuilding his repute in such a foreign world as the tunnels under the Castell San' Angelo certainly were for him, lying under the ancient city of Rome. Even so, this was a place that held errant clerics, as well as sometimes noted artists like Benvenuto Cellini. A wealthy banker who had fallen into bad repute that November was also brought to the tunnels. It must have seemed a very strange world to al-Wazzan, but some things remained the same. Rapidly, even among this sort of company, al-Wazzan would ascend.
Within a month of his arrival, with his own bags confiscated, he was given Arabic texts to read, and in time, even allowed to autograph them as having been read by his own eyes. The librarian at the Vatican then, the Dominican Zenobi Acciaiuoli was naturally "interested in the prophetic renewal of Christianity" - meaning, in those days, the subjugation of Islam - and thus could find much to learn from this very literate and well-spoken Moor. It turns out, he had a lot of experience. Yes, he had met with, and even bathed with the Ottoman Sultan Selim in Cairo after his conquests there. But there were so many stories, and the whole place at the Castella was mostly run by Christian clergymen. There was the jailer Giuliano Tornabuoni, bishop of Saluzzo, who Davis tells, could even confide to him how many cardinals, for instance, had been imprisoned there, literally, beneath Rome, just in the previous year.
There were the three clergymen later, in 1519, who Ms Davis asserts al-Wazzan had to impress before getting to the favors that the pope could confer on him. One was the master of ceremonies Paride Grassi, who Davis also draws much information from on al-Wazzan's time in Rome, as she documents much else in concurrent news with Sanudo's Diarii. Even the footnotes Davis provides are rich and far-flung, yet also, pointedly specific.
As example, she points out an additional 'et' in the manuscript of Grassi's Diarium detailing these doings, found in MS E53, vol 2 in the Special Collections of the Spencer Research Libraray at the University of Kansas [in n.21, p 296], which the Vatican manuscript does not have. This is what leads her to the assertion that Grassi himself had a leading hand in determining al-Wazzan's connection, and then consequent protection by Pope Leo X.
There was also Gabriel Fosco, archbishop of Durazzo, who had just returned from a trip to Spain in order to raise funds for a crusade against the Turks. However many there were, so important seemed this orator, these men were tasked with chatechizing and observing al-Wazzan during his imprisonment in Rome, until such time he could be baptized in the Christian faith. This did take time and was sure to conjure images and memories for al-Wazzan from his childhood. He and his family had left Granada in the years when war circled around that city leading up to its eventual conquest by the Spanish crown. His family was one of many that did not want to live under the rule of the Christian monarchs there, and so had left for Fez. And that is a different story.
There are several stories regarding al-Hasan. He had several patrons and godfathers while in Rome. They had friends and acquaintances who certainly may have found him intriguing. He would spend some time in Rome with several of them, and even in some of their households doing transcription and translation work. He would go on to become acquainted with ambassadors who knew the kings and rulers of Europe. In addition to being baptized during the celebration of Epiphany in Rome, January 1520, al-Hasan would begin a new kind of life there, surrounded by clergy, humanists, philosophers and diplomats in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.
_______________________________________________
from pp. 54-65 in Davis, Natalie Zemon: Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth Century Muslim Between Worlds, Hill and Wang, A Division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, NY, 2006
the news mid January 2017
By tomorrow, Donald J Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Nobody seems ready for it. The 44th President Barack H Obama, had his last meeting with the press yesterday in an old tradition that seemed sweet and endearing in contrast to most of the news the last few months.You can watch it here, courtesy of youtube and the PBS News Hour.
This is how it has been. The press still remains that chief non-governmental actor in western society that can hold governmental actors accountable to what they promise to do. Or the press can at least try. There have been many instances in the last few months where even these basic traditional actions or attributes of the press seem in question. Or perhaps they are merely disregarded by the whims of Mr Trump, or even supplanted by the misinformation that he is occasionally informed with. A recent example of this was where Trump got into an argument with all of the US Intelligence Offices. And denied any wrong-doing on his part. And this shows the mood in the country about it.
So, Donald Trump is having problems with the media, and the CIA and the other US Intelligence Agencies. I won't mention the problem with the FBI since the election is over. But maybe also he's having problems with the Russians. It's hard to tell at this time. And he's provoked China unnecessarily. Irony and irons in the fire seem to be all over the place.
Also, just as central to Mr Trump's legitimacy is his unwillingness to resolve his business conflicts of interest. He seems to owe billions to sovereign nations, contractors and individuals all over the world. The US Government's Office of Government Ethics has made it clear that Trump's announced plans to divest and place his assets in a 'blind trust' with his sons is woefully inadequate. Unfortunately there are partisan members of Congress who are doing their best to get that same office to complete reviews of Trump's picks for his cabinet done in a brief matter of days. Or, to stop talking about the longstanding rules.
____________________________________________
Last year was hottest on record. Third year in a row, but last year was another el Niño. Scientists expect averages to not exceed last year's highpoints this coming year. But we're still in a warming trend.
Regular meetings with the press is a practice that goes back many decades here. This is generally understood as an opportunity for the executive branch of government to remain open and to answer questions from the 'Fourth Estate' - that last bastion of critical and public scrutiny: the adversarial press. This basic scrutiny (still demanded by citizens at large), still remains necessary if only for the country to be able to cultivate an informed democracy.Watch President Obama's final news conference https://t.co/ZpL5xly1ym via @YouTube— neditsimple (@neditssimple) January 19, 2017
This is how it has been. The press still remains that chief non-governmental actor in western society that can hold governmental actors accountable to what they promise to do. Or the press can at least try. There have been many instances in the last few months where even these basic traditional actions or attributes of the press seem in question. Or perhaps they are merely disregarded by the whims of Mr Trump, or even supplanted by the misinformation that he is occasionally informed with. A recent example of this was where Trump got into an argument with all of the US Intelligence Offices. And denied any wrong-doing on his part. And this shows the mood in the country about it.
This is Donald Trump's most hated headline. From, of course, the failing New York Times. Do not retweet. He hates it. #IllegitimatePresident pic.twitter.com/nfvNIkGoTZ— ImpeachTrump (@dumptrump33) January 14, 2017
So, Donald Trump is having problems with the media, and the CIA and the other US Intelligence Agencies. I won't mention the problem with the FBI since the election is over. But maybe also he's having problems with the Russians. It's hard to tell at this time. And he's provoked China unnecessarily. Irony and irons in the fire seem to be all over the place.
"The Kremlin doesn't collect kompromat." https://t.co/gYiNCrdOfq— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) January 12, 2017
Also, just as central to Mr Trump's legitimacy is his unwillingness to resolve his business conflicts of interest. He seems to owe billions to sovereign nations, contractors and individuals all over the world. The US Government's Office of Government Ethics has made it clear that Trump's announced plans to divest and place his assets in a 'blind trust' with his sons is woefully inadequate. Unfortunately there are partisan members of Congress who are doing their best to get that same office to complete reviews of Trump's picks for his cabinet done in a brief matter of days. Or, to stop talking about the longstanding rules.
The last few weeks have seen a rush in Congress of hearings for Trump's picks to fill his cabinet, for all positions that require Congressional approval. Only one or two have very wide appeal.On Thursday, Office of Government Ethics official critical of Trump was now threatened by a House Republican leader.https://t.co/dnkw2bcqUX— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) January 13, 2017
Opinion | Just when you thought the Trump ethics disaster couldn’t get worse, it did https://t.co/ZxLh9ZS7gr— neditsimple (@neditssimple) January 18, 2017
____________________________________________
Last year was hottest on record. Third year in a row, but last year was another el Niño. Scientists expect averages to not exceed last year's highpoints this coming year. But we're still in a warming trend.
JUST IN: U.S. scientists officially declare 2016 the hottest year on record. That makes three in a row. https://t.co/0ZiFam8zGy— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) January 18, 2017
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Catching Up With Henry VII, in England, late 1497
Through the summer of 1497, and into late fall, Henry VII the Tudor, may well have been disturbed by the many tumults and upsets that had threatened his reign, time and again that year. But by Christmas, he could also look back to a year marked also by a steady supply of surprise breakthroughs, resolutions and alliances. The results by end of year for Henry, according to J.D. Mackie, after so much offense, intrigue, and suspense, looked very well indeed.
There had been the uprising that started with Cornish miners and who faced off with the King's men near Blakheath in June. The week after these were put down, Henry squared off with James IV in Scotland over the pretender Perkin Warbeck [p. 143]. Scots advanced on Norham in July, and were repulsed. That same month there was also the finalising of the Magnus Intercursus [p. 139] and the many certain worrisome details to iron out of the previous year's omnibus trade law with the Dutch.
After Warbeck was scared into submission and surrendered himself, (around the first of October, 1497 [p. 145]), Warbeck's wife, Lady Katherine Huntly was also captured and in time was brought into Henry's court.
In addition to using Don Pedro de Ayala from the Spanish court the year before (1496) as an ambassador with James IV in Scotland, Henry also used this diplomat to finalise certain milestones in his relations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with a marriage. The betrothal of ten year-old Arthur, the English heir apparent would have him marry Catherine of Aragon, the infant daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella [p. 148]. The settlement reached in July, was celebrated formally in August, and every few months thereafter, until the youths could come of age. By the end of September, Ayala had also secured a truce between James and Henry for ten years.
Through November, while at Exeter, Henry also established a great tax collecting scheme. The program was extensive, strict, and far-seeing. It's reach and effects, Mackie tells us, went on for some ten years til 1507. [p. 146] At some point Henry and his train left Exeter, arriving in Westminster November 27. Here again Warbeck was made to tell his tale again. An assistant to him, a serjeant farrier and a deserter were captured and hung at Tyburn on December 4 [p. 147]. After much hard work, and even well laid plans, Henry could see himself as, and be respected all over as, a stable monarch [p.150]. At peace with everyone but the French, and quiet again domestically, these were reasons a King could rest contentedly.
Each of these stories, the one Perkin Warbeck told after his capture about what he had in fact done, the story of the truce of Henry and James, a peace that would last til their deaths, and the one about poor Prince Arthur and his bride to be Catherine of Aragon, all deserve to be chapters of their own. I'd like to find a book in English about Pedro de Ayala.
___________________________________
quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
There had been the uprising that started with Cornish miners and who faced off with the King's men near Blakheath in June. The week after these were put down, Henry squared off with James IV in Scotland over the pretender Perkin Warbeck [p. 143]. Scots advanced on Norham in July, and were repulsed. That same month there was also the finalising of the Magnus Intercursus [p. 139] and the many certain worrisome details to iron out of the previous year's omnibus trade law with the Dutch.
After Warbeck was scared into submission and surrendered himself, (around the first of October, 1497 [p. 145]), Warbeck's wife, Lady Katherine Huntly was also captured and in time was brought into Henry's court.
In addition to using Don Pedro de Ayala from the Spanish court the year before (1496) as an ambassador with James IV in Scotland, Henry also used this diplomat to finalise certain milestones in his relations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with a marriage. The betrothal of ten year-old Arthur, the English heir apparent would have him marry Catherine of Aragon, the infant daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella [p. 148]. The settlement reached in July, was celebrated formally in August, and every few months thereafter, until the youths could come of age. By the end of September, Ayala had also secured a truce between James and Henry for ten years.
Through November, while at Exeter, Henry also established a great tax collecting scheme. The program was extensive, strict, and far-seeing. It's reach and effects, Mackie tells us, went on for some ten years til 1507. [p. 146] At some point Henry and his train left Exeter, arriving in Westminster November 27. Here again Warbeck was made to tell his tale again. An assistant to him, a serjeant farrier and a deserter were captured and hung at Tyburn on December 4 [p. 147]. After much hard work, and even well laid plans, Henry could see himself as, and be respected all over as, a stable monarch [p.150]. At peace with everyone but the French, and quiet again domestically, these were reasons a King could rest contentedly.
Each of these stories, the one Perkin Warbeck told after his capture about what he had in fact done, the story of the truce of Henry and James, a peace that would last til their deaths, and the one about poor Prince Arthur and his bride to be Catherine of Aragon, all deserve to be chapters of their own. I'd like to find a book in English about Pedro de Ayala.
___________________________________
quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Is it time for breakfast, yet?
Found a bunch of semi-related things in front of me today. This hardly ever happens to me anymore. Different unintended paralells or, overlaps from different fields and areas, also seeming to call attention to themselves and each other.
Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.
"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.
They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.
'Mediocrità' indeed.
or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
_____________________________________
Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.
Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
[definitions from, Javitch, Daniel : Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture , ed. Robert W. Hanning and David Rosand (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983). More later.]___________________________________
Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.
"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
_____________________________________
There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.
They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
Businesses of different walks have begun boycotting this Platform of Breitbart, because of how they talk about people and their behavior, by the disallowing of ads of these companies on said Platform. Ads on the internet these days act as subsidy contracts between the major advertised companies and high traffic websites. So, this comes as a potential blow fiscally, a limiting of the ad market for Platform Breitbart to 'keep the lights on' and for their columnists to get paid. And when big influential companies start paying other outlets to advertise on other platforms, other companies follow suit.No Facts Chex #BreitbartCereals— A.M. Pines (@AM_Pines) December 1, 2016
Cornfederate Flakes. #BreitbartCereals— Mona Lisa Scowl (@memepunk) December 1, 2016
So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.
Now we have to eat Kelloggs,for standing up to Breitbart, like Lego dropped D Mail ads. And back #StopFundingHate https://t.co/SkzHLTiHzJ— Polly Toynbee (@pollytoynbee) December 1, 2016
‘Honey bunches of a-holes’: Internet eviscerates rightwing boycott of Kelloggs with #BreitbartCereals https://t.co/xTwU3weNSX pic.twitter.com/i8MysWXqGN— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 1, 2016
'Mediocrità' indeed.
or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
_____________________________________
Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
Maybe funniest of all was the very random approval by the Gov Office of Ethics yesterday afternoon via twitter. A series of tweets from the office came upon the announcement that the PEOTUS shamboll we are currently pretending to find unity with made a public announcement that he would opt to postpone til 15December, an announcement about his business dealings, but not get into the details, quite yet.Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President https://t.co/Pk5fW3l54w— neditsimple (@neditssimple) November 27, 2016
The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Papal Brief on Dominican Congregation Strikes At Savonarola: October 16, 1496
A papal brief was received in Florence at San Marco's, the Dominican house where Friar Girolamo Savonarola carried out his orders. The brief asserted that a new congregation of Dominican convents be established with the effect that they would form an unbroken line down the length of Italy from Tuscany to Rome. In September of 1495 another papal brief, also from Pope Alexander VI, had reaffirmed and placed the Dominican orders of Florence and Fiesole back in the Lombard Congregation of houses. This had come after the secession of this Dominican house in Florence from the Lombard Congregation in 1493.
In turn, this new brief of 1496 plainly countered those previous moves and gave Savonarola's House a new overseer. The reason promoted by Rome was for a 'smoother functioning of the bureaucracy' of these houses. But it turned out, with its implied threats, to be another crucial event for Savonarola and he took it quite seriously.
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
___________________________________________
Again, a bit more detail in citing both Romeo de Maio (1969) and the collection of documents of Alesandro Gherardi (1887), Weinstein in his biography Savonarola shows the San Marco House of Dominic to be steadfast. The only way the friar thought he could counter this papal brief from Rome was from the ground up. An Apologeticum was sent to Rome and this pope from all 250 friars of the Congregation of San Marco asking for this reorganization to not transpire. At first it was thought by Cardinal Carafa and ambassador Becchi that perhaps, in becoming part of a larger congregation, spreading down the length of Italy could spread 'God's work' as Savonarola once had wished.
____________________________________
from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
In turn, this new brief of 1496 plainly countered those previous moves and gave Savonarola's House a new overseer. The reason promoted by Rome was for a 'smoother functioning of the bureaucracy' of these houses. But it turned out, with its implied threats, to be another crucial event for Savonarola and he took it quite seriously.
"The brief closed with the threat of excommunication latae sententiae, to be levelled against anyone who contradicted or impeded or tried to work against the new arrangement. ... The vicar of the new congregation was announced in December and he was a Sicilian." [p. 138]This simple reorganization made by the brief received in Florence on November 7, 1496, made Savonarola's pulpit at San Marco no longer independent. What should have been good news was that it was Cardinal Oliviero Carafa who was placed by the pope as vicar of this new enlarged congregation. He had been in Rome on Savonarola's behalf, an influential Neapolitan noble doing his best to dissuade this Spanish Pope Borja not to deal too harshly with the little friar in Florence the year before. This time Savonarola would be sceptical of the good Cardinal's direction. As Lauro Martines puts it,
"Rightly suspicious, Savonarola opposed the change from the start. ... At the end of 1496, Savonarola was still committed to seeing King Charles and 'the barbarians' return to Italy to complete the 'scourging'. In Florence, the aristocrats who wanted his head were seeking, on the contrary, to draw the republic back under their control or under the domination of the Medici,...".Whether through various alliances, by weakening or changing the great Council, or through a coup, the oligarchy grew more determined to oust Savonarola. [p. 139]
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
___________________________________________
Again, a bit more detail in citing both Romeo de Maio (1969) and the collection of documents of Alesandro Gherardi (1887), Weinstein in his biography Savonarola shows the San Marco House of Dominic to be steadfast. The only way the friar thought he could counter this papal brief from Rome was from the ground up. An Apologeticum was sent to Rome and this pope from all 250 friars of the Congregation of San Marco asking for this reorganization to not transpire. At first it was thought by Cardinal Carafa and ambassador Becchi that perhaps, in becoming part of a larger congregation, spreading down the length of Italy could spread 'God's work' as Savonarola once had wished.
"As they saw it, there was more at stake for the Church than the independence of a single friar, however dedicated he might be. Conflicts within the Dominican Order had to be resolved and papal authority upheld. But to Savonarola submission was not an option; he could only see it as the abandonment of God's work." [p. 210]Weinstein tells us that here, in this Dominican Congregation which Cardinal Carafa would lead, Savonarola's response began to look more like that of some self-centered friar. One who had become an over-reaching, self-important character, rather than a servant of the church. Much had changed since Cardinal Carafa had petitioned the pope in 1493. This most recent act of this papal breve sent from Rome (and its consequences in Florence) would reverberate. And this news had come at the end of several days of intense preaching from Friar Savonarola.
____________________________________
from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2016
news and reflections late Oct 2016
This Halloween it would be welcome to see more of these.
But militants attempting to counter the Maduro regime, go on the offensive after a summer of deepening violence and a swelling lack of basic necessities.
The purge of old officials in Turkey continues following this summer's attempted coup.
Earthquakes in Italy continue to upset their increasing desire for stability.
A portrait of a kind of civic order. By Edouard Vuillard, 1911, reworked in 1923.ANTI-LUNATIC SQUAD pic.twitter.com/dYcVkSl3W6
— Batman 66 Labels (@BatLabels) October 26, 2016
Rather than spend money on more war, maybe we could cut off more energy trains. And not just in North Dakota.Edouard Vuillard
— Accióninteligente (@pilotourbano) October 25, 2016
Mademoiselle Jacqueline Fontaine
1911 pic.twitter.com/jewhaCBbqS
______________________________________________________Russia withdraws request for warships to refuel in Spain, following concern among Nato allies https://t.co/OcSXW77gPt
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) October 26, 2016
But militants attempting to counter the Maduro regime, go on the offensive after a summer of deepening violence and a swelling lack of basic necessities.
________________________________________________________ In the US, at the height of our quadrennial pre-election media frenzy, the Republicans seem bent on destroying their own brand to the extent that old-guard conservative leaders are trashing the reputation of actual office holders.Venezuela crisis enters dangerous phase as Maduro foes go militant https://t.co/oX4Ruwhmbt
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 27, 2016
_________________________________________________________The Republican obsesssion with Clinton scandals is about political self-preservation, not governmental oversight. https://t.co/tzoSippbRN pic.twitter.com/V2wsmKM8ru
— New Republic (@NewRepublic) October 29, 2016
The purge of old officials in Turkey continues following this summer's attempted coup.
Some more context on Turkey's recent movement.Turkey fires another 10,000 civil servants in post-coup purge https://t.co/tONDDQPJFg pic.twitter.com/11yC5wyYQh
— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) October 30, 2016
_______________________________________________________The best piece Ive read on Turkey's failed coup. Incredible reporting by Dexter Filkins: https://t.co/Hfeg1BnIGf via @newyorker
— Ceylan Yeginsu (@CeylanWrites) October 11, 2016
Earthquakes in Italy continue to upset their increasing desire for stability.
Latest Italian earthquake devastates medieval sites https://t.co/2hzqCJnZOL
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 30, 2016
Better Control, More Money, More Problems: Cortes of Toledo, 1480
Key among the reforms that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in Spain began with the 1480 Cortes of Toledo, were in its own royal counsel, the Consejo Real. This essential but traditional entity despite its fluidity had become unwieldy. These reforms, as they played out, would remove many of the greater magnates in Castile from influence in the central state decisions, those of the sovereign King and Queen. This also, as J.H. Elliott relates, allowed a shifting in revenue streams for the Crown and thus, another kind of removal of influence, providing greater control over the Spanish magnates in Castile.
Though the Royal Council had long been central as working bodies that represented the Crown, certain offices and leaders were promoted and others were let go. They had advised on appointments and acted as 'a supreme court of justice and supervised local Castilian governments'. These were reduced to a dozen or so roles dependent on royal prerogative. A prelate, three caballeros and eight or nine jurists (letrados) would do the work of all the rest. Others might come to meetings but would not be allowed to decide matters.
The Consejo had previously been remade under different circumstances in the 1300's due to the same sort of expansions of magnate control and power, with much of that falling to local regidores acting as municipal administrators. Based on the model in Burgos, as Elliott tells us, there were six alcaldes or judges with judicial duties and sixteen regidores who operated a sort of closed oligarchy. In city after city in Castile, more and more municipalities expanded on this model of civic office-holding with corregidors, royally chosen representatives to influence these municipal affairs with royal input. But the Crown lost a lot of power thru the 1400's and this entire system needed to be reformed. As a result with the Cortes of Toledo in 1480, more of these corregidors took on more duties across Castile.
In time the old alcaldes were replaced with temporary royal corregidores that acted as justices. By the mid 1500's in the reign of Phillip II there were 66 corregimientos in Castile. [p. 95] Similarly the economy of Castile and then greater Spain was effected. Independent revenues that came from sources other than the traditional Cortes was crucially important for the independent viability of the Crown and its continued well-being. Too often had the Crown of old required assistance from this or that municipality or this or that collection of royal representatives in order to carry out its goals. With greater diversity in revenue streams, of new and trusted eyes and voices out in the many towns and cities, in time, the sovereigns could extend their own control, bit by bit, becoming greater arbiters of power and their regal will. The process would expand over decades.
Earlier in their reign they found the Cortes useful in putting down rebellions and upstarts. By the time of the Cortes of 1480, and in the midst of the Reconquista program pushing out the older traditional forms of rule in many cities, the Crown also found it useful to promote their own trusted figures in doing so. The putting down of rebels, and muslims, of corrupt locals and puffed up magnates, coincided with an increase of wealth and wealth distribution in Castile. [p. 92] These benefits, including better record keeping and accurate informants, even firmer judicial decisions by trutsed appointees, all effectively swelled the coffers of the crown, allowing them to operate outside the decions of the limiting Cortes. In turn, more wealth led to a kind of virtuous cycle, in that it renewed attention to goals like the Conquest of Granada, and establishing greater influence in Italy, bringing more power to the Crown. [p. 93]
____________________________________
J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
Though the Royal Council had long been central as working bodies that represented the Crown, certain offices and leaders were promoted and others were let go. They had advised on appointments and acted as 'a supreme court of justice and supervised local Castilian governments'. These were reduced to a dozen or so roles dependent on royal prerogative. A prelate, three caballeros and eight or nine jurists (letrados) would do the work of all the rest. Others might come to meetings but would not be allowed to decide matters.
"This exclusion of the great magnates from voting on matters of state meant that the traditional offices of some of the proudest families of Castile were transformed into empty dignities. The Velascos continued to be Constables of Castile, the Enriquez Admirals of Castile, but their high-sounding titles ceased to give them a proscriptive right to the exercise of political power."Instead, 'new men' were promoted and the old, well established bureaucracy was left to drift. People of university learning were established as secretaries who acted as scribes detailing communications and remained dependent on the workings of the Council's activities. It hadn't always been that way. [p.90]
The Consejo had previously been remade under different circumstances in the 1300's due to the same sort of expansions of magnate control and power, with much of that falling to local regidores acting as municipal administrators. Based on the model in Burgos, as Elliott tells us, there were six alcaldes or judges with judicial duties and sixteen regidores who operated a sort of closed oligarchy. In city after city in Castile, more and more municipalities expanded on this model of civic office-holding with corregidors, royally chosen representatives to influence these municipal affairs with royal input. But the Crown lost a lot of power thru the 1400's and this entire system needed to be reformed. As a result with the Cortes of Toledo in 1480, more of these corregidors took on more duties across Castile.
"The growth of venality, and the decline of royal control, left the field open for local magnates and competing factions to extend their influence over the organs of municipal government, so that towns were either bitterly divided by civil feuds, or fell into the hands of small, self-governing oligarchies." [p. 94].By the time Isabella had come to power these problems had become more important to quell, and once they were, new order had to be asserted. Hereditary grants of offices were revoked. New town halls were erected in many towns that had not had them before. Written records were to be kept of what transpired in all the places.New offices of these corregidors would be entrusted with administrative and judicial duties. These individuals were to be selected by Queen and King and they would work hard to choose the replacement figures from any place they saw fit. Not necessarily, Elliott warns, were these chosen from the lower classes, but at least, these selected were not limited to those former traditional noble families. So on the one hand there was a kind of greater inclusion from society at large, while simultaneously cutting out many of the old family namesakes.
In time the old alcaldes were replaced with temporary royal corregidores that acted as justices. By the mid 1500's in the reign of Phillip II there were 66 corregimientos in Castile. [p. 95] Similarly the economy of Castile and then greater Spain was effected. Independent revenues that came from sources other than the traditional Cortes was crucially important for the independent viability of the Crown and its continued well-being. Too often had the Crown of old required assistance from this or that municipality or this or that collection of royal representatives in order to carry out its goals. With greater diversity in revenue streams, of new and trusted eyes and voices out in the many towns and cities, in time, the sovereigns could extend their own control, bit by bit, becoming greater arbiters of power and their regal will. The process would expand over decades.
Earlier in their reign they found the Cortes useful in putting down rebellions and upstarts. By the time of the Cortes of 1480, and in the midst of the Reconquista program pushing out the older traditional forms of rule in many cities, the Crown also found it useful to promote their own trusted figures in doing so. The putting down of rebels, and muslims, of corrupt locals and puffed up magnates, coincided with an increase of wealth and wealth distribution in Castile. [p. 92] These benefits, including better record keeping and accurate informants, even firmer judicial decisions by trutsed appointees, all effectively swelled the coffers of the crown, allowing them to operate outside the decions of the limiting Cortes. In turn, more wealth led to a kind of virtuous cycle, in that it renewed attention to goals like the Conquest of Granada, and establishing greater influence in Italy, bringing more power to the Crown. [p. 93]
____________________________________
J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Florentine Cultural Patrons In the Fifteenth Century: Portrait from Weinstein's "Savonarola", III
In depicting the broad cultural milieu of the period in Florence prior to the main subject of Weinstein's Savonarola , he describes, in addition to the famous Medici family, a group of thinkers and doers, teachers and clergy that had great influence. Despite this Republic's advancement of external holdings like Pisa, of growing internal urban industry, and economics in the 1400's, there were a few who would be able to help steer them through the many changes until at least the period up to the Italian Wars and Savonarola. The short list that Weinstein chooses in order to offer up some of the voices for the contours of those times, skates over a mere fifteen pages addressing church ritual, the scourge of forced loans, the ideas inherent in humanism and charged interest as well as taxes. The footnotes should be good too.
The Archbishop of the City held a special, privileged position. Married to the Church in a pageant of prestigious ritual, he also held great responsibility and power and influence.
It was his generation's misery to witness the slow demise or a shift in certain cultural attitudes. There was more money by mid-century and hence more ways to make money for more people. Pierozzi could still preach until his end that this pursuit of wealth may not all be bad so long as it was for public works, for aid to the poor and for the greater good of the community. But this generosity and magnanimity must be performed, he thought, as one of a few necessary civic duties, and not just for personal salvation. This was also an idea that Cosimo de' Medici could get behind. But for a city full of bankers and takers this must have been hard to reconcile for a mendicant Dominican. He was made a saint in 1523.[p. 51]
But Cosimo was also constantly reminded about the costs for security. The proliferation of mercenaries to quell bandits or just protect messengers, as well certainly, for the transport of goods and coin, was also more and more expensive. Interested in extending the influence of Florence, Cosimo also went ahead and built palaces in the cities and countryside round about. He could fill them up too, by extending his generosity to artists and builders, to musicians and those who studied rhetoric. Of course he did, and he did so for schools as well as churches and monasteries or the Mendicant Orders. His patronage of the arts 'was personal, open and princely', Weinstein says.
____________________________________________
quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
The Archbishop of the City held a special, privileged position. Married to the Church in a pageant of prestigious ritual, he also held great responsibility and power and influence.
"He was the chief authority in matters regarding the clergy. He presided over the ecclesiastical court, exercising jurisdiction over the laity in important matters such as marriage and faith. From the revenue producing properties under his control he dispensed patronage, most of it to the city's illustrious families. A successful archbishop had to know how to balance the interests of the local clergy with those of the curia. He had to speak for the laboring classes without aggravating their masters. He had to be a skillful administrator, a student of canon law and theology, a diplomat ... and ... shepherd of his flock, and effective preacher and doctor of souls." [p. 50]One Antonino Pierozzi played the role from 1444 to 1459. His father was a notary, and he himself became a protege of Pope Eugenius IV and 'chief disciple' of the founder of Dominican Observance in Florence. As archbishop he became known as one who banned lewd festivals and issued death warrants for errant Franciscans. But in his semons, Weinstein says, Pierozzi tended to weave an ethos of humanism into the prior predominant mold of Thomas Aquinas. "He promoted the idea that service to the common good (bene comune) was a Christian as well as a civic virtue, especially relevant to life in a communal polity such as Florence." A chief problem was in the charging of interest which was not in agreement with Church teaching. [p.50]
It was his generation's misery to witness the slow demise or a shift in certain cultural attitudes. There was more money by mid-century and hence more ways to make money for more people. Pierozzi could still preach until his end that this pursuit of wealth may not all be bad so long as it was for public works, for aid to the poor and for the greater good of the community. But this generosity and magnanimity must be performed, he thought, as one of a few necessary civic duties, and not just for personal salvation. This was also an idea that Cosimo de' Medici could get behind. But for a city full of bankers and takers this must have been hard to reconcile for a mendicant Dominican. He was made a saint in 1523.[p. 51]
But Cosimo was also constantly reminded about the costs for security. The proliferation of mercenaries to quell bandits or just protect messengers, as well certainly, for the transport of goods and coin, was also more and more expensive. Interested in extending the influence of Florence, Cosimo also went ahead and built palaces in the cities and countryside round about. He could fill them up too, by extending his generosity to artists and builders, to musicians and those who studied rhetoric. Of course he did, and he did so for schools as well as churches and monasteries or the Mendicant Orders. His patronage of the arts 'was personal, open and princely', Weinstein says.
"He was an avid builder of palaces and churches, employed the finest painters and sculptors of his time, and retained agents who traveled far and wide hunting for rare manuscripts and books. He sponsored Greek and Latin scholars, most notably Marsilio Ficino, the son of his physician, setting him up with the income from a farm at Careggi and a house in town, where he translated and commented on Plato and taught his brand of Neo-Platonism to leading citizens and their sons."
"... [He] also liked to be seen as a benevolent father figure who embodied the traditional Florentine virtues of the pious Christian, shrewd pragmatic merchant, and republic-loving patriot. He played on the symbolism of the family name: the Medici were the republic's medici, physicians protecting the health of the polity." [p. 52]But, he also nearly broke the bank funding Francesco Sforza's successful overthrow and capture of Florence's long time rival Milan, in 1449. When Cosimo died in 1464 he was hailed as Father of His Country and defender of its liberty.
____________________________________________
quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Maximillian In Italy, later 1496: Index of Francesco Guicciardini, ii
It is in the second volume of the 1763 edition of Austin Goddard's translation of Francesco Guicciardini's History of Italy, that the tale of Maximillian Habsburg's trip to Italy - to save Pisa from so many suitors - forces its way into view. Max had a mix of changing intentions and not enough money and not enough troops to accomplish so much. The uncrowned emperor tried to get as much of these as he could. He tried to find out what the players really wanted and found instead that was a changeable thing, too. There were motives all over, there were motions on the field. In the end, the players, as well as Max, returned to what they were doing before he came to Italy. The result was a great loss of prestige for Maximillian and for Ludovico, the duke of Milan.
Here follows then a bird's eye view of the many turns and switchbacks, presented as a glossing index of topics in the same sequence as Goddard's text of Guicciardini.
pp 48-52, Venetian doge gives reasons for protecting Pisa
pp 52- 55, reasons for a vain Ludovico, safe in his delusions of grandeur, not to worry
pp 56-108: troop movements, payments, allocations, battles thru summer 1496
p.108 Why King of France decided to stay in France, for now,
pp 109:::>> Max goes to Italy and then leaves, then comes back
p 110 Ludovico convinces Max to come to Italy, w/ promise of 30,000 additional ducats above the 60K already promised. Ferdinando of Naples dies, Giovanni son of F&I in Spain offered as King of Napoli which doesn't happen.
p 111 Max returns w/ few troops to Vigevano, where allies counselled to take Asti, then Montferrat & Savoy. But no one was impressed w/ Max's troops and wouldn't budge much.
p 112 Max asked Ercole duke of Ferrara to come but he wouldn't budge since Max 'held' Genoa;
p 112-3 Ludovico of Milan took it upon himself to influence Pisa w/ money and Max's prestige should give to himself and Milan the power over Pisa.
p 114 Guicciardini thinks Max wanted Pisa and more money for himself and that is why he was there
p 115-6 motives and view of Florence on Pisa, influence of Savonarola at this point
pp 117-19 Pisa takes action again and again to defend itself against Ludovico, Venice
pp 120-21 battles of Florence and Pisa
p 122 Pisa leans toward Venice after supplies granted
p 123 Ludovico was ill tempered and seen as ill-suited to be put in charge of Pisa
p 124 Max convinced he should go to Pisa, sent ambassadors to all allies to 'take Cognizance'
p 125 Venetian influence grew in Pisa w/ supply of troops and food
p 126 fear grows in Florence of losing Pisa
p 127 Ludovico of Milan kept petitioning the Pisan's to wait for Max
p 127-29 Pisa decided they should not defer to Max's decision and give up their rights before they had received their lost possessions taken thru violence
pp 130-32 Florentine ambassadors refuse to talk to Ludovico of Milan
p 132 Max leaves Genoa w/ six galleys and many more Genoese vessels, Venetian ships, and many armies in order to 'get a closer look' at Pisa from Livorno; Pietro Bembo says this happened on October 7, 1496.
p 133 but the French were in communication w/ Florence
p 134 French fleet encounters allies' preparatiions near Livorno
pp 135-36 siege of Livorno from sea and land: French ship drops off grain and leaves,
pp 137 cannon is used on Florentine castle but then a storm sinks Genoese ship w/ Max and 2 Venetian ships
p 138 Max makes it to Pisa, leaves for Vico Pisano, lays 2 bridges across the Arno then leaves for Milan asking Venice for more money. They refuse and he asks for 22000 Rhenish florins a month
p 139 Max goes on to Pavia, then Lomellino and then Cusago w/out entering Milan, and then Como
p 140 Max hurries home instead of seeing the pope's rep, Florence retakes Pisan forts and
p 141 Ludovico withdraws his armies. Venice consolidates theirs and looks for supplies. Meanwhile Tortona is taken by Venice
p 142 French retreat from more forts and return to France
pp 143-44 France decides to go after Genoa and Pope goes after holdings of the Orsini
pp 145-47 siege by pope of Bracciano the fortress of the Orsini
p 148 French arrive to give aid to Bracciano
pp 149-51 the siege was raised in time but incursions continued until
pp 152 peace articles over the Orsini were finalised
p 153 pope turns to secure the port city of Ostia from French
Alll the above taken from the online photocopy of the John Adams Library copy of this Second Edition of Austin Goddard's translation of The History of Italy, volume ii, London, 1763.
Here follows then a bird's eye view of the many turns and switchbacks, presented as a glossing index of topics in the same sequence as Goddard's text of Guicciardini.
pp 48-52, Venetian doge gives reasons for protecting Pisa
pp 52- 55, reasons for a vain Ludovico, safe in his delusions of grandeur, not to worry
pp 56-108: troop movements, payments, allocations, battles thru summer 1496
p.108 Why King of France decided to stay in France, for now,
pp 109:::>> Max goes to Italy and then leaves, then comes back
p 110 Ludovico convinces Max to come to Italy, w/ promise of 30,000 additional ducats above the 60K already promised. Ferdinando of Naples dies, Giovanni son of F&I in Spain offered as King of Napoli which doesn't happen.
p 111 Max returns w/ few troops to Vigevano, where allies counselled to take Asti, then Montferrat & Savoy. But no one was impressed w/ Max's troops and wouldn't budge much.
p 112 Max asked Ercole duke of Ferrara to come but he wouldn't budge since Max 'held' Genoa;
p 112-3 Ludovico of Milan took it upon himself to influence Pisa w/ money and Max's prestige should give to himself and Milan the power over Pisa.
p 114 Guicciardini thinks Max wanted Pisa and more money for himself and that is why he was there
p 115-6 motives and view of Florence on Pisa, influence of Savonarola at this point
pp 117-19 Pisa takes action again and again to defend itself against Ludovico, Venice
pp 120-21 battles of Florence and Pisa
p 122 Pisa leans toward Venice after supplies granted
p 123 Ludovico was ill tempered and seen as ill-suited to be put in charge of Pisa
p 124 Max convinced he should go to Pisa, sent ambassadors to all allies to 'take Cognizance'
p 125 Venetian influence grew in Pisa w/ supply of troops and food
p 126 fear grows in Florence of losing Pisa
p 127 Ludovico of Milan kept petitioning the Pisan's to wait for Max
p 127-29 Pisa decided they should not defer to Max's decision and give up their rights before they had received their lost possessions taken thru violence
pp 130-32 Florentine ambassadors refuse to talk to Ludovico of Milan
p 132 Max leaves Genoa w/ six galleys and many more Genoese vessels, Venetian ships, and many armies in order to 'get a closer look' at Pisa from Livorno; Pietro Bembo says this happened on October 7, 1496.
p 133 but the French were in communication w/ Florence
p 134 French fleet encounters allies' preparatiions near Livorno
pp 135-36 siege of Livorno from sea and land: French ship drops off grain and leaves,
pp 137 cannon is used on Florentine castle but then a storm sinks Genoese ship w/ Max and 2 Venetian ships
p 138 Max makes it to Pisa, leaves for Vico Pisano, lays 2 bridges across the Arno then leaves for Milan asking Venice for more money. They refuse and he asks for 22000 Rhenish florins a month
p 139 Max goes on to Pavia, then Lomellino and then Cusago w/out entering Milan, and then Como
p 140 Max hurries home instead of seeing the pope's rep, Florence retakes Pisan forts and
p 141 Ludovico withdraws his armies. Venice consolidates theirs and looks for supplies. Meanwhile Tortona is taken by Venice
p 142 French retreat from more forts and return to France
pp 143-44 France decides to go after Genoa and Pope goes after holdings of the Orsini
pp 145-47 siege by pope of Bracciano the fortress of the Orsini
p 148 French arrive to give aid to Bracciano
pp 149-51 the siege was raised in time but incursions continued until
pp 152 peace articles over the Orsini were finalised
p 153 pope turns to secure the port city of Ostia from French
Alll the above taken from the online photocopy of the John Adams Library copy of this Second Edition of Austin Goddard's translation of The History of Italy, volume ii, London, 1763.
Friday, September 30, 2016
the lens grows darker: late September 2016
It is widely acknowledged that there is one person in the US driving the discussion of public issues through as many least common denominators as he can find. Many times before he has shown this habit, but recently the Republican nominee has increasingly resorted to forms of dishonest rhetoric in order to support his personal claims. The problem with this of course is that anyone who knows about fractions, or factions, knows that there is only one number found in or common to all denominators - even if it may not be counted. And that is one. Anyone can have an opinion. But if the basis for the opinion are merely a tissue of lies and misppropriations, then it becomes the problem of that audience, then who repeats them. Donald Trump keeps telling people he won the first round of Presidential Debates with Hillary Clinton. The overwhelming consensus is that he clearly did not.
It's alarming how so many people can't seem to get enough of the petty scandals and outrageous pychopathic behaviors.
But it seems even Congress has a difficult time understanding the gravity of their actions.
A graphic with the last date that people can register to vote has been circulating.
It is common knowledge these days that 'lack of education', in addition to 'poverty' makes these problems worse. But there is even disagreement on what that means, and less agreement on what to do about it. There is a problem with the shrinking middle class in the US as well.
The press disagrees with that assessment partly because their credibility has been called into question. Not the least over how Trump has seemingly sucked the air out of the collective media exposure of his tactics, since the summer of last year. He repeats a lie until others are repeating it too. Then the 'issue' is either a 'scandal' or, just another 'two-sided' disagreement. The facts, what is really happening, in turn, gets ignored as 'less interesting'. People become unaware of what is actually happening and, react instead to another orchestrated scandal. (Today, it is over the nominee's 3AM tweets attacking Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe winner, who accused the nominee of mental abuse after her win. Irrationally, in order to discredit her, he then invited his followers to watch a fake sex tape that didn't involve her.) There's been such a scandal, or two, or three, or more, every week since Trump started running for President. One example is that Trump doesn't seem to understand the US had an embargo against Cuba, for over fifty years. Another is that he doesn't seem to understand how a charitable foundation, that is, his charitable foundation functions.Via @NPR: No, Donald Trump Didn't Win Post-Debate Polls https://t.co/n7yIPDcYNW— Pitt Griffin (@pittgriffin) September 29, 2016
Per NY Attorney General, Trump Foundation is an illegal charity #CrookedTrumphttps://t.co/dNySd2JPhz— Puesto Loco (@PuestoLoco) September 30, 2016
It's alarming how so many people can't seem to get enough of the petty scandals and outrageous pychopathic behaviors.
But it seems even Congress has a difficult time understanding the gravity of their actions.
they really are this dumb--after overriding Obama veto re/ 9/11 bill GOP announces it agrees w/ Obama's concerns abt 9-11 bill. https://t.co/pG2SIlExwn— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) September 30, 2016
A graphic with the last date that people can register to vote has been circulating.
For those in other states, this graphic shows the last day that you can register to vote. #NationalVoterRegistrationDay pic.twitter.com/fXclBlYByE— John Moffitt (@JohnRMoffitt) September 27, 2016
It is common knowledge these days that 'lack of education', in addition to 'poverty' makes these problems worse. But there is even disagreement on what that means, and less agreement on what to do about it. There is a problem with the shrinking middle class in the US as well.
Also, in the US more people feel that this is happening:The decline of the middle class is causing even more economic damage than we realizedhttps://t.co/pmxjxrYmp3 by @LHSummers— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 29, 2016
This is the new normal:— Zero Democracy (@NotE0157H7) September 30, 2016
1 - cops murder someone
2 - protesters and bystanders gather at scene
3 - police overreact to impromptu gathering
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Queen Isabella of Castile & the Cortes of Madrigal: 1476
Castile was the most populous Spanish realm when Isabella and Ferdinand came to power. After the War of Succession in 1476, they immediately held a great council, the Cortes of Madrigal, that very year in April. For decades Greater Spain and Castile in particular had suffered internal civil wars and constant waves of anarchy and corruption. With this new arrangement and those reorganizations that followed later, Isabella formed at first a solid grasp on the region that grew in time to a tight control over the breadth of Castilian lands. The formation of a workable system had to be established first and order needed to be restored. This took time, but within just a few years and, by a number of careful selections, a broad framework for order could flourish.
There is the sure certainty of 20-20 hindsight here in the ripe summation that Elliott offers us in taking leave of one topic and turning to another. There was much violence and tumult to quell and other old institutions needed reworking, as well. No single way forward was assured success.
When news arrived (also in 1476) that the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago had died, Isabella raced on horseback to Udes where the Council of the Order had gathered to choose a successor. Once there she insisted on a suspension of the hearing, and for her husband King Ferdinand to be named the new Grand Master. Later, Elliott tells us Ferdinand demurred, but the precedent was set. When in 1487 and 1494 the same office of the other Orders fell vacant, they sent representatives asking for royal permission.
In this same time, the Crown drew more and more of these gigantic revenue streams for their own use. Between the three Orders they controlled 183 different encomienda, or 'commanderies', with combined annual rents of 145,000 ducats. In addition, with the numerous offices and officers (some 1500 and more) in these Orders, a rich store of potential dignitaries therein could be individually encouraged and, in time, selected from. This would go a long way toward ensuring regal control in all the districts. [p. 89]
Another form of controlling the many magnates came in the decisions ironed out during the 1480 Council of Toledo. As sovereign entities they also felt they needed a stronger hand in the operation of governmental activities. The Consejo Real, the old royal Council of Castile also needed refashioning, and for more than just money streams.
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
The cities and towns of Castile all had different histories. They all had their own memory of who had taken whom and whose allegiance was due, or not. The monarchy wanted greater royal supremacy and stronger, more effective control over Castile as a whole.
"... the walled cities and towns which dotted the Castilian landscape had many of the characteristics of city states and enjoyed a high degree of independence of the Crown. Established one after another during the southward march of the Reconquista, they had been given their own fueros or charters of liberties by generous kings, and had been liberally endowed with vast areas of communal land, which extended their jurisdiction far into the surrounding countryside and served to meet the bulk of their expenses. Their charters gave them the right to form a general assembly or concejo, which was ordinarily composed of the heads of families (vecinos), and which chose each year the various municipal officials." [p. 93]Judicial officials were called alcaldes, and below them were large numbers of regidores, local police officers. There were also escribano, who kept the municipal registers. These were the long-standing traditional arrangements baked in to the broader culture over centuries. But even these, and often too, in many places, these local officials werethen replaced with the Santa Hermandad and corregidor by Isabella and Ferdinand. Established during the Cortes of Madrigal in 1476, these were the reestablishment of a particular order of men used for 'security'.
"The Hermandad combined in itself the functions of a police force and of a judicial tribunal. As a police force, its task was to suppress brigandage and to patrol the roads and countryside. Every town and village was expected to provide its quota of troops, at the rate of one horseman to every hundred householders."
...
"If the malefactor was caught by the Hermandad he was also likely to be tried by it, for the tribunals of the Hermandad enjoyed complete jurisdiction over certain carefully specified classes of crimes -- robbery, murder, and arson... together with rape, housebreaking and acts of rebellion ...". [p. 87]These often inflicted terrible punishments to offenders. The desired effect achieved was an overall suppression of disruptive crime and disorder. There was widespread revolt at thier tactics, but they remained useful through the recapture of Granada in 1492 and weren't entirely disbanded until 1498.
There is the sure certainty of 20-20 hindsight here in the ripe summation that Elliott offers us in taking leave of one topic and turning to another. There was much violence and tumult to quell and other old institutions needed reworking, as well. No single way forward was assured success.
"The organization of the Hermandad was therefore essentially a temporary expedient devised to deal with an acute national emergency. The year... saw another move by the Crown to reassert its authority over the magnates... the mastership of the powerful Order of Santiago." [p. 88]The Orders were traditional medieval institutions. As groups of (at least nominally) ordained soldiers with their own traditions, offices, and hierarchies, they served both Church and Crown. In Castile, certain members of the prominent Orders - Elliott lists those of Santiago, Calatrava and Alcantara - held vast tracts of land and could count on thousands of vassals serving them. Similar in practice to so many princes in German lands and beyond, they fought with each other over principle and prestige, the confiscation of goods or revenue streams. Some kind of control over the leaders, at least, of these 'states within states' by the Crown could certainly help unify central Spain.
When news arrived (also in 1476) that the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago had died, Isabella raced on horseback to Udes where the Council of the Order had gathered to choose a successor. Once there she insisted on a suspension of the hearing, and for her husband King Ferdinand to be named the new Grand Master. Later, Elliott tells us Ferdinand demurred, but the precedent was set. When in 1487 and 1494 the same office of the other Orders fell vacant, they sent representatives asking for royal permission.
In this same time, the Crown drew more and more of these gigantic revenue streams for their own use. Between the three Orders they controlled 183 different encomienda, or 'commanderies', with combined annual rents of 145,000 ducats. In addition, with the numerous offices and officers (some 1500 and more) in these Orders, a rich store of potential dignitaries therein could be individually encouraged and, in time, selected from. This would go a long way toward ensuring regal control in all the districts. [p. 89]
Another form of controlling the many magnates came in the decisions ironed out during the 1480 Council of Toledo. As sovereign entities they also felt they needed a stronger hand in the operation of governmental activities. The Consejo Real, the old royal Council of Castile also needed refashioning, and for more than just money streams.
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
Excerpted Lives of Katherine Hughen & Wibbe Arnts: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings
A couple more quick sketches of lives spent in devotion under direction at those Houses in Holland here. The more of these the better, yes, as they act like tiny windows on individual lives, long ago. Still, the existence of these texts themselves shed light on what these houses thought memorable and noteworthy. They clearly thought these were people worth remembering: the forebears and former 'sisters' in this particular House of Devotion. And with just a few, poles of activity and the personalities and their roles, a view on how a house could operate also comes into view, so there should be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.
These two snapshots are of older women who perhaps saw the earliest Houses of 'sisters' in their earliest years. But both were older by the time they entered their devotional practices in these separated spiritual spaces, both stayed there for years and both died about the same time. One was Sister Wibbe Arnts.
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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988
These two snapshots are of older women who perhaps saw the earliest Houses of 'sisters' in their earliest years. But both were older by the time they entered their devotional practices in these separated spiritual spaces, both stayed there for years and both died about the same time. One was Sister Wibbe Arnts.
"Good sister Wibbe [d. 1412] used to take care of the inner courtyard of our house, and this was her office. She did this humbly; it was her way of turning herself to our dear Lord. She was an elderly sister and had lived here a long time, but she walked about simply and plainly as if she were a young sister. She was a plain and simple creature by nature, and she turned to our dear Lord in this same way. She was never sharp or complaining, and was never heard talking or murmuring about the things her superiors had charged or ordered. She did the work charged to her very devoutly and was at peace with it, allowing things to go up and down just as God and her superiors wished. She also spurred others on, according to their abilities." [pp. 126-7]Another sister Katherin Hughen had died the year before and had come to join the others already after the age of fifty.
"She was an ardent and devout person and took pains -- because she had entered the Lord's vineyard in her eleventh hour -- to give herself all the more ardently to the virtues, for she had spent her time in the world foolishly." [p. 126]The word ardent comes up frequently in these encomia. It was indeed a mark of high praise in these houses. Van Engen tells us in his introduction that ardent (in both the English and Latin use) referred to an inner fire or glow.
"Every brother or sister who had caught the spark, whose inner life was moved with desire toward God and goodness, was described as "ardent" or "kindled" or "fervent". The New Devout looked for that glow, for that inner radiance, that inner light, marking a heart now folllowing down the path of the new devotion with intensity, with "fire."" [p. 34]In this new place, in her ardent reaction to her former 'worldly foolishness', Katherine, "... tried.. to retrieve twice as much:"
"Just as earlier she had served the world with everything that was in her, so now she served our dear Lord with everything that was in her. She had once lived with people who were great in the world's eyes, and there she had grown accustomed to much worldliness and done all to serve her own pleasure. But when she came to join the sisters, she converted herself wholly to God and gave herself over to great humility and lowliness, as if she neither had nor had ever had great possessions in the world. For she saw what she had done and therefore counted nothing as what she now did in turn. Because she had joined fully in the idle pleasures of this world, she possessed all kinds of beautiful jewelery; this she brought along and gave to our dear Lady, or elsewhere as there was need." [p. 126]It would be interesting to find out how Katherine Hughen in her pursuit of 'idle pleasure' in those days (c. 1370-1400) could acquire so many 'kinds of beautiful jewelery'. Also interesting would be the chain of events that led her to enter into such a modern devotion instead of the other many canonical houses. This move would possibly be away from courtlife, or the gambling houses and brothels, or even, any of the other leading abbeys and Houses with Canoninc Orders. The question of why and how the chain of events of her conversion to such a House and toward this form of practice scratches at the imagination. While the record is silent on these matters, a spare clue is given.
"She was very loyal to our house. Because she wanted so very much that the sisters should receive her earthly possessions, she held on so powerfully in her final illness that she nearly died without the holy sacrament." [p. 126]Were these houses or their practitioners taxed? What rights did she have over her earthly possessions when she died? Why did this matter at this time? Why was this matter, even for these worldly renouncing sisters, seemingly so important? It's hard to answer these basic questions from so far away.
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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Bembo Shows Venice Most Willing For War Over Pisa: Fall 1496
The official view from Venice was that the City had been playing its role in the recovery of Pisa. At last coming to agreement to do something, they agreed to build more ships, and as the summer wore out, to send plenty of gold and troops and envoys out into the field. There were the discussions with Maximillian, then on Italian soil, with details of his perambulations closely following Burchard's own. But tensions were rife as this anecdote from Bembo's History of Venice shows.
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from Pietro Bembo: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, for The I Tatti Renaissance Library; by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007
Bembo implies that it was while the King was at Vigevano that the discussions with the Pisans were had, and that there was some sort of impasse. [iii,54] But for him as well, it also seems that when word came that Venice was willing to take a more prominent role in protecting Pisa, and the money came in, Maximillian then resolved at last to actually go help the Pisans. Word came out that Max would go first through Tortona on his way to Genoa and there board ship in a fleet to approach Pisa, via Livorno (Leghorn) its port.
The scene quickly tumbles into view. Florence had its partisans, to be sure, but all Florentines (with or against the current Council) could point to Pisa as being their traditional protectorate. And it was the French who had liberated it from the de'Medici faction, only lately previously in power in Florence. So, for those remaining as Florentine partisans, it seemed, Pisa should naturally fall under Florentine rule. The Pisans as they repeatedly told all, wanted to find some way to maintain their independence from all callers. Yet, Venice would say, that's not what was told to them.
"At Tortona, the following incident occurred. Meeting by chance on the street two Florentine ambassadors who had come to Maximillian, the Venetian ambassadors greeted them, but got not a word in return as the Florentines continued on their way in an ill-bred and haughty manner. Meeting again the next day, they would not give way to the Venetian ambassadors, but practically jostled them with their retinue in an arrogant manner. Morosini, who had a face of remarkable dignity and was very strongly built, cried, "Learn to give way to your betters!" and gave one of them such a push that he fell over in the mud."Then after this exchange, almost as an afterthought or a conclusion, this additional transaction was (quite a bit) more simply spelled out.
"As he reached Genoa from Tortona, Maximilian asked to be given the Genoese citadel. When his request was refused, he left the town the next day and spent a number of days in the outskirts preparing his fleet." [iii,55]It would not be until October that Maximiliian would actually make his approach to Livorno. When soon after a French and Florentine fleet arrived full of grain and troops, Bembo says it was a Venetian ship that drew off the French captain's ship, while Maximillian retreated in the hail of explosions and cannon fire.
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from Pietro Bembo: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, for The I Tatti Renaissance Library; by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007
Thursday, September 8, 2016
news late summer 2016
The constant churn of disasters all over still leaves survivors to sort it all out. Ten thousand refugees were rescued in the Mediterranean in a 36-hour period at the end of August.
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Why is is it that for eighteen months current US policy is to help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen?
Some ask if GLOBO Brasil's primary news source isn't partly to blame for their change in government this summer. Already the same media reports bonfires over their new temporary president after last week's impeachment vote ousting President Dilma Roussef.
Many Americans are deeply concerned about water and land rights. This looks big from here people.
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We lost another couple legends last week. In addition to the wonderful Gene Wilder, we also lost longtime recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder.
Fires in Spain and California, earthquakes in Italy and Oklahoma, and floods elsewhere accumulate, as do great mounds of hail on top of terrible earthquakes in New Zealand, and snow in Montana. The celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London seems an odd thing to celebrate.In 36 Hours, More Than 10,000 People Are Rescued In The Mediterranean https://t.co/lM0AsETSi6— NPR (@NPR) August 31, 2016
350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London finale – in pictures https://t.co/oRnu7aOgTc— The Guardian (@guardian) September 5, 2016
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Why is is it that for eighteen months current US policy is to help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen?
______________________________________________The Mideast conflict Obama still could solve#Yemen #YemenCrisis #TheForgottenWar #StopArmingSaudi https://t.co/zgi5kiZFCI— Zaid Ali (@zaidalrazhi) August 23, 2016
Some ask if GLOBO Brasil's primary news source isn't partly to blame for their change in government this summer. Already the same media reports bonfires over their new temporary president after last week's impeachment vote ousting President Dilma Roussef.
_______________________________________________In Report from Al Jazeera, Is Brasil's GLOBO press partly to blame for 'soft coup' and GOV change? MT: https://t.co/l678NzeGzp via @YouTube— neditsimple (@neditssimple) September 7, 2016
Many Americans are deeply concerned about water and land rights. This looks big from here people.
Obama went to Asia, and assuredly sealed a deal with China over the environment,Largest Native Protest In HISTORY Is Happening Right Now & YOU Need To Know About It! https://t.co/QpTO9rW3fe pic.twitter.com/X9kjYqz9j3— Indigenous (@AmericanIndian8) September 4, 2016
but his TPP trade plan has problems.China and America formally commit their countries to the Paris climate agreement https://t.co/IC7z167PgB pic.twitter.com/fIGQxKT9a1— The Economist (@TheEconomist) September 7, 2016
Back in session the US Congress has work to do.Co-byline w/@ryangrim on Congressional reaction to ISDS media reports (Warren, Merkley, etc) & prospects for TPP https://t.co/2b9rZAw8g4— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 7, 2016
Fun fact: Congress has a little over a month to appropriate funds for FY2017 or the government shuts down.— David Dayen (@ddayen) August 26, 2016
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We lost another couple legends last week. In addition to the wonderful Gene Wilder, we also lost longtime recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder.
Rudy Van Gelder has died, at 91. Truly sad news for the world of recorded music, jazz first and foremost. #RIP #RVG pic.twitter.com/VfpdVEVgkR— Nate Chinen (@natechinen) August 25, 2016
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Johann Burchard, Diary Digest: Afield in Lombardy, Aug-Sep 1496
Johann Burchard wrote many details of ceremonies and interactions in his official capacity as the master of ceremonies for the papal court in Rome. The office was appointed and he served under several popes. He also travelled overland and wrote of those activities. On a Saturday at the end of July 1496 Burchard was sent, 'on order of the pope', north from Rome after Cardinal Carvajal, the pope's legate. Burchard met up with the Cardinal 'on Sunday before dinner at one of the inns of Otricoli', a couple days after the legate had left Rome. The details of the following itineraries and the arrangements for meetings of such notable persons - and who should decide what - reveals both physical exposition but cultural explanations as well in a multipolar world.
The next day, Burchard tells us, he received some letters. These detailed the arrival of King Maximillian at Carimate, some miles north of Milan. Reporting this news to the Cardinal, asking if there was any other service he might offer, the cardinal 'was most pleased' to send Burchard off in his capacity of legatine ambassador to meet with the King's group, and, 'in accordance with the instructions sent by Cardinal Piccolomini'.
It is possible Burchard had a difficult time of these exchanges. This may have had to do with his sense of the importance of his office, - that's how he writes about it - also recognizing the importance of the issues at stake, and showing he wanted things to be done in a procedurally sound way. But he wasn't negotiating, or persuading. He was there almost perfunctorily to explain the order of things, literally the precedence of persons, and the distinction of a king's own station, to his face, upon first meeting. Burchard had done this before, and back in Rome usually (like with the French King Christmas week two years back), but not before this king or these chamberlains and other attendants, so far afield like this.
Burchard returned that afternoon (Aug30) to report back to Cardinal Carvajal. His group then left for Monza on the way to meet up with Max at Carimate. There he was given orders by the legate and the duke to leave before dawn next day and return to Carimate and the King carrying the proposed itinerary and timetable for the arrival and meeting of the legate with Max. That night, Burchard notes, 'if I remember rightly', he slept in a nearby public inn, the Campana.
Before dawn, Burchard had saddled up and returned to Carimate, where he learned that the King 'had not yet breakfasted' and could 'give no audience', but that the papers could be sent ahead. Later, he received word that the legate and the duke should go to Meda in order to meet up with the King there. This message was returned to the duke and the legate whereupon they agreed to all the king's requests. All these goings and comings to ensure that their eventual meeting could be worked out smoothly, shows how high the degree of respect that each wanted to pay to the other. The actual physical approach of one to the other, and who should dismount, and how the legate should then pay his respects to the mounted King, etc. are details that Burchard most dutifully explains.
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963
"We eventually reached Milan on August 24th, and there the legate attended various services and ceremonial functions during the next two or three days. On Sunday, August 28th, he rode out with the Duke of Milan and the ambassadors that were present to the monastery of the Augustinian nuns, whose abbess was the duke's sister, although she was of illegitimate birth, and where there were about a hundred and thirty nuns following the Rule."This may have been Bianca Francesca Sforza (1448-1516), abbess at Santa Monica in Cremona, some miles southeast of Milan. This off-hand remark by Burchard connecting Ludovico Sforza's half-sister with the abbey outside Milan, by itself, shows so much. The previous couple years this Lombard region of north Italy, had been full of threats of, rumors of, and evidence of, wars and battles. In running an abbey, it was especially the sister to the local Duke Ludovico (who continued to be instrumental in fomenting, prolonging and often worsening affairs), who had to be selective on who she might let in. As I wonder what duties she might have running such a place, one also wonders how many other sisters were employed detailing the arrangements affording accomodation there to the many dignitaries and emissaries and thir attendants and horsemen and so on. Heirs of nobles, and often the 'illegitimate' heirs especially, would be sent, fulfilling in some capacity, and often for a fee to such sequestered, holy orders. Still, even for her place, this daughter of Francesco Sforza had much responsibility.
The next day, Burchard tells us, he received some letters. These detailed the arrival of King Maximillian at Carimate, some miles north of Milan. Reporting this news to the Cardinal, asking if there was any other service he might offer, the cardinal 'was most pleased' to send Burchard off in his capacity of legatine ambassador to meet with the King's group, and, 'in accordance with the instructions sent by Cardinal Piccolomini'.
"The legate commissioned me to speak plainly and suitably about everything that need not be concealed from the Duke of Milan, who thereafter arranged for my journey by placing me in the care of his chamberlain. The latter arranged for me to be provided with hospitality and all other necessities in Carimate, which I reached that same evening at about seven o'clock, only to find that there was no time then to have an audience with the king and that my accomodation was not yet available."So, Burchard retreated 'under protection of the duke's chamberlain' to another nearby town named Lentate where they spent the night. The info he might keep from the Duke of Milan while being protected by the Duke's chamberlain, refers to agreements and arrangements the pope wanted to send to Maximillian but without the Duke of Milan's knowledge. It wasn't until later that Burchard would be able to do this. The next day there was a meeting at Carimate. Burchard paid his due respects, 'as a servant should', and immediately began discussing precedence, and who should sit next to whom.
"Properly speaking, His Majesty's place should be next to the legate, and this I had to explain to him at the same time as I pointed out what the difference was between a crowned Emperor and the King of the Romans." [p. 123]The German lords present agreed that the legate could sit at the left of the King since the King already 'held the full powers of imperial administration'. After all, the distinction that Maximiliian Habsburg, King of the Romans desired, to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, could only be bestowed by the pope. Pope Alexander VI had offered this possibility in exchange for helping in keeping the French out of Italy. Abruptly, Burchard turns from his narrative to retrace his steps, telling details of how difficult matters had been for him on this trip in exercising what he saw was his correct duties.
It is possible Burchard had a difficult time of these exchanges. This may have had to do with his sense of the importance of his office, - that's how he writes about it - also recognizing the importance of the issues at stake, and showing he wanted things to be done in a procedurally sound way. But he wasn't negotiating, or persuading. He was there almost perfunctorily to explain the order of things, literally the precedence of persons, and the distinction of a king's own station, to his face, upon first meeting. Burchard had done this before, and back in Rome usually (like with the French King Christmas week two years back), but not before this king or these chamberlains and other attendants, so far afield like this.
Burchard returned that afternoon (Aug30) to report back to Cardinal Carvajal. His group then left for Monza on the way to meet up with Max at Carimate. There he was given orders by the legate and the duke to leave before dawn next day and return to Carimate and the King carrying the proposed itinerary and timetable for the arrival and meeting of the legate with Max. That night, Burchard notes, 'if I remember rightly', he slept in a nearby public inn, the Campana.
Before dawn, Burchard had saddled up and returned to Carimate, where he learned that the King 'had not yet breakfasted' and could 'give no audience', but that the papers could be sent ahead. Later, he received word that the legate and the duke should go to Meda in order to meet up with the King there. This message was returned to the duke and the legate whereupon they agreed to all the king's requests. All these goings and comings to ensure that their eventual meeting could be worked out smoothly, shows how high the degree of respect that each wanted to pay to the other. The actual physical approach of one to the other, and who should dismount, and how the legate should then pay his respects to the mounted King, etc. are details that Burchard most dutifully explains.
"They thereupon continued to Meda to wait for the king, and they joined the Duchess of Milan and her ladies-in-waiting who had arrived in three carriages. King Maximillian then appeared with about two hundred cavalry, and he was met by the legate, the duke and the duchess. On reaching the legate, the king dismounted and embraced him, and all four together went into an inner room. The legate presented the apostolic letter to the king who, receiving it, handed it on to his secretary to open and read. This was done publicly, after which the legate spoke some suitable words about the commission given him by His Holiness, and blessed the king according to his authority whilst they remained seated on their thrones, together with the duke and duchess, and the envoys standing around." [p. 126]Maximillian had a prepared response written out and delivered by his secretary 'in a finely-composed, polished Latin'. A local nobleman's villa had been prepared to receive the king, the duke, the legate and the various councillors, and this is where they then went and spent the afternoon. Later, when the king retired again to Carimate, the duke, duchess and the legate returned to Monza. And the following day (Sep 1) they went on to Milan. By Sunday they had again gone on to another villa, by boat and on horse to Vigevano, situated between Milan and Novarra to the west. There the group spent most of September receiving many dignitaries from all over, including Spain, Venice, Naples and Florence.
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963
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