Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Last Things First: Notes On Sources: Cerretani, Parenti On Francesco Valori

Here's a quick pairing of sources for two modern biographies in English on the life and times of Girolamo Savonarola. Specific instances of footnotes are followed by specific citations on specific topics, quotes or mentions. These are followed by quotes or notes about the source or sources, as well as a more recent secondary collection, etc.

In Lauro Martines: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006 

Cerretani, Bartolomeo. 1994. Storia fiorentina. Ed. G. Berti. Florence. 248: "Description of Valori" [as Gonfalonier of Justice for the months Jan-Feb 1497]
"A man of gravity and few words, with a long reddish face, he is described by Cerretani as having had 'a giant of a spirit' (animo vastissimo), 'great presence', and 'extraordinary courage'. Although ambitious and 'austerely proud', he was generally regarded as a man of exceptional honesty and integrity, ... he lived sparely, dressed modestly, and had no children to whom he could pass on his political fortunes." [p. 152]
Francesco Valori, elected as Gonfalonier in the two-month stint January/ February of 1497, had been a man at the center of things before, and could be seen as a mostly reliable ally by the Frateschi and the Dominicans at San Marco. A chief rival of his had been Piero Capponi, killed in battle outside Pisa just the previous October 26. Valori proclaimed himself publicly as a partisan for the Frateschi. This fluid group in these uncertain times were political actors that publicly sided with the reforms called for by Savonarola and their Piagnoni, or, 'Wailers'. Then Valori was selected again to the Signoria and then by end of 1496 as chosen as Gonfalonier to start the new year. He would also play a decisive role in the execution of the five in August that year as well, and pay for that with his life the following spring.

Bartolomeo Cerretani our primary source here, is, along with Parenti and Landucci, Martines says, 'one of the leading chroniclers' for Florence in the period around the invasion of France and the rise and fall of Friar Savonarola. Martines calls Cerretani  'anti-Savonarolan', as well. Still he wasn't so partisan to leave out that the Friar had his effect in the City against gambling, the displayance of finery, and crimes like sodomy.

Along with Piero Parenti, Cerretani is called an 'upper class chronicler', but could still make huge errors. For instance, Cerretani doubles the number of French men at arms that Parenti says entered the city with the King of France. But he also may have been close enough to the center of action that day. Enough to give quotes of the lively interchange between the King and Piero Capponi, with troops in the city, in a moment of heat, where both could bluff about their intentions. Later, Cerretani seemed certain that Piero d'Medici's forces assembled outside the walls would have captured the city, if not for the rain that April day of 1497.

Worse, Cerretani repeats the story that the Dominican Friar had sent a note to Gonfalonier Bartoli in August 1497, calling tacitly that 'God wants justice', and that certain high-profile captive citizens should be executed for treason. Martines details this story, notes the source and disagrees due to the majority of the rest of the evidence, saying it would be outside the Savonarolan character. Sources say Cerretani died in 1524, but I can't find a birthdate.
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Parenti, Piero. 1994. Storia fiorentina I 1476-78, 1492-96. Ed. A Matucci. Florence. 317-18:
[On shifting pro-Medicean influence (going for and then against Savonarola) and the alliances in Florence]; and, vol. 4, 181-2, Parenti (Schnitzer)

In 1910 Liepzig published a collection of writings Savonarola nach den Aufzeichnungen des Florentiners Piero Parenti that dealt with the history of Florence in the years of Savonarola's prominence there. In 1912 a review of Schnitzer's work was published in The English Historical Review. A summary of Parenti's life can be found in that simple review.

Parenti was related to the Strozzi and an adult when Florence was overcome in turn by the French, and then by Savonarola. Thus he is a chief eyewitness to the many twists and turns in the lead up to the dissolution of the Republic of Florence. Parenti himself went on to live (d. 1518) and to see the return of the de'Medici family into his city. Parenti's church was that of the Franciscans at Santa Croce who were among those critical of Savonarola's prophecies and mysticism.

During the time that France was in Italy and the famines and upsets that followed, the continued battles over Pisa and even the warnings sent from the papacy about the Dominican friar, Parenti seems undecided about Savonarola's perceived power. Parenti seems more concerned about the return of de'Medici influence by whatever means. But when Francesco Valori announced himself a partisan with the Savonarolan stamp late 1496, and then elected to the Signory with the priors then selecting him as Gonfalonier for earliest 1497, Parenti's view becomes more critical of Valori.

Valori would go on to work his way in the Signoria and manage to cast out and ban many critics of the Dominican friar. His successor Bernardo Del Nero actively spoke out against the Friar and would continue to act with a pro-Medician lean.

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In Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

Parenti, Piero di Marco, 1994. Storia fiorentina Ed. Andrea Matucci, 2 vols. (Florence, 2004-5). vol2, 1496-1502.

Much of Weinstein's discussion (pp. 214-6) on the time of Valori as Gonfalonier relies on Matucci's 2nd volume of Parenti's Storia fiorentina.  Weinstein gives us this intensive view of Valori's style of leadership, which by leaping into view, brings much into clear focus.
"Valori knew how to get his way with legislators even in the absence of majorities. One of his favorite tactics was to convene large consultative bodies (pratiche larghe) that he stacked with men he trusted to propose measures favorable to his party. When those bills duly came before the Council of Eighty and the Great Council only those known to be in favor were allowed to speak. If a measure faltered, Valori would introduce it again and again until all objections were overcome and its opponents silenced. In this way Valori speedily pushed through much of Savonarola's stalled reform program, including more thorough marshalling of the Florentine faniculli, more drastic penalties for sodomy and gambling, and tighter regulation of women's dress and ornament." [p.215]
A notable exception quickly diverting from Parenti's narrative via Weinstein, is a mention of Guicciardini's History of Florence  (123), where he says that the death of Piero Capponi in the field was necessary for the elevation of Francesco Valori in the Signoria.
and...
"Documents and information regarding the Valori in L. Polizzotto and C. Kovesi, Memorie di casa Valori (Florence, 2007)". But this is very recent.
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Never Cede Anything To The Proud; Machiavelli: Discoursi, ii, 13-14

Running roughly in chronological order thru Roman History, in the second part of Niccolo Machiavelli's Dicourses On the Ten Books of Livy, he writes of the time of the Roman Samnite Wars c. 340 BCE. This thirteenth heading, or chapter-heading in the second part (or, the 73rd chapter if counted from the beginning as some editions do) in Machiavelli's Discoursi, states a sort of truism. Almost an accusation, it is the simply constructed idea that the rise of low men (those of small fortune, piccola fortuna) to high positions, came as a result usually of fraud rather than by force.

In this section, however, Machiavelli goes into some detail describing the conflict between the Latins and the Samnites, as neighbors of the Romans in the days of Alexander the Great.  Kings commit fraud all the time, he asserts, and deceive in all sorts of ways but, he says, even Livy knew that the Republic was not above deception, if it led to the growth of the state. The author of the famous earlier twentieth century translation of the Discoursi, Leslie J Walker did not think that Machiavelli had made his case to prove the truism that this chapter heading seemed to assert. Or, at least, the reference to a speech in Livy was not enough to prove the assertion true.

The speech itself as written in Livy (viii, 4) was probably modeled after the one in Thucydides , when the Corcyreans came to Athens to ask for protection. This speech in Livy comes from a Latin praetor acting as ambassador to the Senate in Rome, representing interests of herself and her neighbors, both seeking and not seeking help. This passage in Livy and since has excited scholars in almost every age. There is still debate over what Machiavelli extracts from this, or, whether Livy meant to agree or not with Annius Setinus, the embassy speaker, or if the encounter, or start of the war, even happened this way. But more simply, could this speech merely be a bald acceptance of the sometimes fraudulent access to power, thru immoral means of deception, if such a means becomes the more practical route?

The reason this is an issue at all is because of the oft-vaunted glory of Rome and its Republic. Livy and Machiavelli both had reasons to show Rome as setting a very high bar, an exemplar for the right methods of rule, for the virtues of a state. Again and again in both authors, Roman wisdom, prudence and military glory are often continually praised. This rare exception where Livy shows some of the lengths Rome let itself go, so to speak, Machiavelli casually accepts and then pushes the envelope further.

In a chapter or subject heading such as "Pride In Others is Not Overcome by Humility in Oneself", ther fourteenth, a bit of hubris might be suspected. But Machiavelli seems quite clear reiterating his point that, in some public circumstances, humility in action may no longer win the day, the battle, or the war. Here he is drawing out the point, as he says Livy describes the start of the Roman-Samnite Wars, in Livy's History.
"There are to be found numerous cases in which humility is not only no help, but is a hindrance, especially when used in dealing with arrogant men who, either out of envy or for some other cause, have come to hate you."
This was the lesson, Macchiavelli says 'our historian' Livy assures "...was the cause of the war between the Romans and the Samnites...". But a proper response to this situation, for any leader, Machiavelli tells us, is to
"... never forget his dignity, nor ... should he ever waive a point agreed upon unless he can enforce it, or thinks he can enforce it."
The practical problem in not following this advice, the counter argument Macchiavelli offers, is that of the ever-weakening slippery slope with regard to strength, power and control of the situation.
"... if you yield to a threat, you do so in order to avoid war, and more often than not, you do not avoid war. For those before whom you have thus openly demeaned yourself by yielding, will not stop there, but will seek to extort further concessions, and the less they esteem you the more incensed will they become against you."
If, in the event force is used, even a little show early on can be used as an advantageous bit of leverage.
 "But, ... if you prepare to use force, even though your forces be inferior to his, he will begin to respect you.... This applies to where you have but one enemy. If you have more, the wiser course is to hand over some of your possessions ... to win him to your side."
Returning then to how this might be applied to the situation with the Latins and the Campanians aluded to in the end of chapter thirteen, Machiavelli makes a summation.
"... when the power of the Romans was first beginning to grow, they did not fail to use fraud; of which it is always necessary that those should make use who from small beginnings wish to rise to sublime heights, and the better they conceal it, as the Romans did, the less blameworthy it is."
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Niccolo Machiavelli: The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy Edited by Bernard Crick, translated by Leslie J Walker, thrird revision by Brian Richardson, Penguin Books, London, 1970, 2003
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Friday, February 10, 2017

Queen and King Push For Influence In Catholic Appointments

The enduring stability of what became Greater, and eventually Imperial Spain, was made possible by the systems drawn out from tradition by the Royal House. It's reform of the courts , law enforcement and municipal administration that came to pass out of the Councils, such as that of Madrigal and Toledo, established these in formal agreements. These also maintained, but also reestablished the legal precedence of the Crown over such affairs across Castilian lands. There was also the turning of hidalgos across Old Spain into various levels of king's men. But all of these and their effects could reach only so far. There was also the Church to consider.
"They could never be absolute masters in their own land until they had brought under royal control the immensely powerful Spanish Church. The power of the Church in Spain was reinforced by its vast wealth and by the vast extent of its privileges. There were seven archbishoprics and forty bishoprics.... The regular and secular clergy shared with hidalgos the privilege of exemption from the taxes levied by the Crown, and they were more successful than the hidalgos in evading the payment of municipal dues...." [p. 99]

The Church members even excelled at promoting the welfare of their own servants and helpers. They grew great demesnes, held hereditary offices, enabling great families to remain central to power in many places. Over the centuries, of course, this independence furthered fueds. For example, in the fifteenth century, the act of presentation of "...the more important benefices was a source of constant dispute." Sees, Cathedral chapters, monastic Orders all felt pressured to conform from the ministers of the papacy as well as the King and Queen. For example, the handing over of certain fortresses of Don Alfonso Carillo to royal officials was coupled with royal demands that royal judgements and jurisdictions would remain superior to any local decisions, whether in the Church or not.

In 1475, Isabella asked that she be able to pick the Archbishop of Zaragoza when the office fell vacant. The practice that she said she recalled was that a sovereign could pick a candidate 'in supplication to the Papacy' who would then 'give the blessing' of their pick. [p.100] In 1478 the sovereigns called a Council at Seville.
"The programme laid before the council for discussion made it clear that the Crown was determined to secure control over all benefices in Castile, and that it expected clerical ratification for its defiance of Rome. The council duly agreed to intercede with the Pope, but the delegation which it sent to Rome met with no success." [p 101] 
Next, Elliott tells of the vacancy in the see at Cuenca in 1479 where the sovereigns demanded their selection be met with the blessing in Rome. This wasn't resolved until 1482. As time went on, the sovereigns pushed their agenda to establish greater control over the Church in other ways as in Granada, in 1486 where the Crown did gain superior privileges. The eventual consequences of these early motions pushing the sovereign agenda would be huge for Europe in all sorts of ways.
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
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Thursday, February 2, 2017

news: two weeks inside the 'Trump as POTUS' Daily Rollercoaster: late Jan 2017


There was the rainy Inauguration celebration the Friday that Trump became president. But the day after, Saturday, a much larger march was held in protest in Washington, DC called the #WomensMarch. But even though this seemed considerably larger than Trump's gathering, this also had become a march in many other cities that day across the US, and across the world.

The day of this Saturday march, Sean Spicer, acting Press Secretary for the new president, called a meeting to rail and yell at the press for their comments about crowd sizes that were in fact true. And this presentation was on his first day on the job. These were clearly not comments that the new president and his fans wanted to hear. Some in the press warn that this official disapproval of actual facts on the national level may, in addition, be meted out with repressive local legislation.
Also that same Saturday, President Trump went to the famous Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters ostensibly trying to patch up his already rocky relationship with the Agency. But, seeing as how the skills necessary in gathering intelligence include the set of skills necessary for detecting deception, many were left unimpressed.
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In addition to announcing appointees to his cabinet and White House team, there was much talk about first executive orders. Within days the new President began issuing Executive Orders conflicting with past tradition and effacing cultural norms, decrying the press, and aiming to limit government institutions, agencies and offices of all manner. Several stood up against such swift, and often unknowing, even authoritarian, effrontery. These included the acting Attorney General Susan Yates, and the head of ICE but also included many in the EPA, NASA and the National Park Service.

A week in the office, President Trump signed another Executive Order demanding targeted vetting for certain immigrants into the country. This order is particularly focused on people coming from seven majority Muslim countries.

This temporary ban has been met with widespread confusion within government and airline services. It also has generated a fair amount of condemnation and protests from people all over, fear from those targeted and, jubilation from those mistakenly believing that immigrants, and particularly Muslim immigrants cause their problems here in the US.
Thousands went to airports all over the country to protest the order and support immigrants, refugees and Muslims.
After verbally attacking China and Mexico as well, the list grows again by Thursday.

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The day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, Josh Rogin for The Washington Post wrote about Mr Trump's inner circle of closest advisors.
Some analysts see this shake-up, both in the way Trump will get his information and control National Security - as having placed responsibility for these weighty matters seemingly in the same person - as working toward specific ends.
There is little that might keep the majority from learning what happened with the election, the conflicts of interest that Trump and his Admin are ignoring or, the ends that Trump's closest advisers seem bent toward. It's all in the public record. Until now.

And unless they want to cover it up. But, there is also much superfluous else in the media - whether officially broadcast or not - that seems to wash away by sheer volume what should be the most alarming of these stories.
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Friday, January 27, 2017

notes, sources on Savonarola: nov1496 - aug1497

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 

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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]
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from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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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.
"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.
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p. 135: 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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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.
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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
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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.
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.

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.
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.

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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.

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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.

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quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
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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.
[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.]
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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
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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.

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...
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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.

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.

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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.
"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 

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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.
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from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

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Monday, October 31, 2016

news and reflections late Oct 2016

This Halloween it would be welcome to see more of these. A portrait of a kind of civic order. By Edouard Vuillard, 1911, reworked in 1923. Rather than spend money on more war, maybe we could cut off more energy trains. And not just in North Dakota. ______________________________________________________
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. _________________________________________________________
The purge of old officials in Turkey continues following this summer's attempted coup. Some more context on Turkey's recent movement. _______________________________________________________
Earthquakes in Italy continue to upset their increasing desire for stability.
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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.
"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]
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002

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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.
"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.

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quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

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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.

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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.
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.

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.
Also, in the US more people feel that this is happening:

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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.

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
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