The Ugly Renaissance (68 page)

Berating kings and potentates:
Petrarch,
De vita solitaria
, Z II, iv, 4;
P
II, ix;
Prose
, 492–94; trans. Zeitlin, 245.

Unless something were done:
Ullman,
Humanism of Coluccio Salutati
, 79.

“to persuade princes and peoples”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 6.33, p. 269. On the sermons delivered by itinerant preachers, see Hankins, “Renaissance Crusaders,” 111–24.

Although this ultimately came to nothing:
The best study of Pius’s attitudes toward the Turks is unquestionably Helmrath, “Pius II und die Türken.”

“to rule all of Europe”:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, II.1, 1:211.

“once the Hungarians were conquered”:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, III, 113.

Apollonio di Giovanni and Marco del Buono:
On this
cassone
front, see Callmann,
Apollonio di Giovanni
, 48–51, 63–64. For a general overview of themes in the art of
cassone
fronts, see Campbell,
Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence
.

13. O
F
H
UMAN
B
ONDAGE

Alberto da Sarteano:
Biccellari, “Un francescano umanista”; Biccellari, “Missioni del b. Alberto in Oriente per l’Unione della Chiesa Greca e il ristabilimento dell’Osservanza nell’Ordine francescano.”

“full of unusual faces and costumes”:
Trexler,
Journey of the Magi
, 129.

“dry and awkward in their bearing”:
Ibid.

Pope Eugenius was thrilled:
See Cerulli, “L’Etiopia del sec. XV in nuovi documenti storici”; Cerulli, “Eugenio IV e gli Etiopi al Concilio di Firenze nel 1441”; Tedeschi, “Etiopi e copti al concilio di Firenze”; Gill,
Council of Florence
, 310, 318, 321, 326, 346.

the pope commissioned Filarete:
For a broader contextual view of Filarete’s commemorative reliefs, see Lowe, “ ‘Representing’ Africa.”

From Greek texts such as Herodotus’s
Histories
:
Herodotus,
Histories
, 4.42–43.

while from Roman accounts they derived:
See Yamauchi,
Africa and Africans in Antiquity
; Thompson and Ferguson,
Africa in Classical Antiquity
.

Along with Moors and Berbers, a few black African slave girls:
Klapisch-Zuber, “Women Servants in Florence,” 69.

Even as late as the 1430s, such fantasies:
For example, Slessarev,
Prester John
.

works such as Ca’da Mosto’s
Navigazioni
:
For an English translation, see Ca’da Mosto,
Voyages of Cadamosto
.

“the … trade in black slaves”:
Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 91.

In July 1461, for example, Giovanni Guidetti:
For the following, see Tognetti, “Trade in Black African Slaves in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” 217–18.

“for a black head they received from us”:
Ibid., 218.

authentic children of Ham:
Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 95; Schorsch,
Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World
, 17–49.

While Caspar and Melchior were often linked:
For what follows, see the excellent study by Kaplan,
Rise of the Black Magus in Western Art
.

Isabella d’Este’s growing interest:
See Kaplan, “Isabella d’Este and Black African Women.”

one more proof that the Golden Age had arrived:
O’Malley, “Fulfilment of the Christian Golden Age Under Pope Julius II,” 323–25.

Pope Leo X was petitioned by King Manuel:
See Filesi, “Enrico, figlio del re del Congo, primo vescovo dell’Africa nero (1518)”; de Witte, “Henri de Congo, évêque titulaire d’Utique (+ c. 1531), d’après les documents romains”; Bontinck, “Ndoadidiki Ne-Kinu a Mumemba, premier évêque du Kongo.”

Particularly from the early fifteenth century onward:
For a useful introduction to this subject, see Minnich, “Catholic Church and the Pastoral Care of Black Africans in Renaissance Italy.”

Children were baptized:
Ibid., 296.

San Benedetto il Moro:
See Mariani,
San Benedetto da Palermo, il moro Etiope, nato a S. Fratello
; Fiume and Modica,
San Benedetto il moro
.

In addition to finding places as wrestlers:
Lowe, “Stereotyping of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe,” 34.

the Medici employed a certain Grazzico “il Moretto”:
Ibid., 33.

black Africans were widely thought:
See Castiglione,
Book of the Courtier
, I, p. 96.

Created duke of Florence in 1532:
For a discussion of Alessandro’s parentage, see Brackett, “Race and Rulership.”

In his account of his journey:
Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 94.

Alvise Ca’da Mosto was repulsed:
Ibid.

In his 1480 tax return:
Rubiés, “Giovanni di Buonagrazia’s Letter to His Father,” 107, trans. in Lowe, “Stereotyping of Black Africans,” 28.

Drawing on Ca’da Mosto’s contention:
Ca’da Mosto,
Voyages of Cadamosto
, 89.

Africans’ supposed musicality:
Lowe, “Stereotyping of Black Africans,” 35.

14. B
RAVE
N
EW
W
ORLDS

Marco Polo had authoritatively stated:
Polo,
Travels
, 243–44; see also Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 24–27.

whenever medieval writers spoke of islands:
Fuson,
Legendary Islands of the Ocean Sea
, 118–19.

As early as 1291, two Venetian brothers:
Moore, “La spedizione dei fratelli Vivaldi e nuovi documenti d’archivio.”

The discovery of Lanzarote:
Verlinden, “Lanzarotto Malocello et la découverte portugaise des Canaries”; Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, esp. 33–39.

While hopes for a new passage:
For a fuller survey of the topics covered in the following paragraphs, see Fernández-Armesto,
Before Columbus
.

João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira:
For an overview, see Parry,
Age of Reconnaissance
, 146–48.

“Yet ever and again”:
Burckhardt,
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
, 184.

Even before the discovery:
Burke,
European Renaissance
, 210.

Drawing on the tales of a maritime adventurer:
Pastore Stocchi, “Il
De Canaria
boccaccesco e un ‘locus deperditus’ nel
De insulis
di Domenico Silvestri”; for further discussion of this text, see Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 36–41; Abulafia, “Neolithic Meets Medieval.”

“man of noble stock”:
Petrarch,
De vita solitaria
, Z II, vi, 3;
P
II, xi;
Prose
, 522–24.

the two canon lawyers appointed:
See Williams,
American Indian in Western Legal Thought
, 71–72.

“discoveries of new lands, new seas”:
Burke,
European Renaissance
, 210.

Columbus’s account of his travels:
The accounts of all three men are found in Firpo,
Prime relazioni di navigatori italiani
.

Thrilled by these discoveries, cartographers:
On Toscanelli, see Edgerton, “Florentine Interest in Ptolemaic Cartography as Background for Renaissance Painting, Architecture, and the Discovery of America.” The Contarini-Rosselli map—the sole surviving copy of which is held by the British Library—is the first known cartographical work to show the Americas.

Giulio Cesare Stella:
On the
Columbeis
, see Hofmann, “La scoperta del nuovo mondo nella poesia neolatina”; Hofmann, “Aeneas in Amerika.”

Hence, in some of the earliest printings:
For an intriguing introduction to this subject, see Turner, “Forgotten Treasure from the Indies.”

Even though a smattering of exotic artifacts:
Burke,
European Renaissance
, 212; Olmi,
L’inventario del mondo
, 211–52.

The Genoese, for example, enthusiastically supported:
Hunt and Murray,
History of Business in Medieval Europe
, 181, 221.

Giovanni da Empoli:
Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 159.

Although the coastal territories of West Africa:
Ibid., 146.

Luca Giraldi:
Ibid., 159–60; V. Rau, “Um grande mercador-banqueiro italiano em Portugal: Lucas Giraldi,” in
Estudos de história
, 75–129.

“as a very small edifice”:
S. Greenblatt, foreword to
Mapping the Renaissance World
, by Lestringant, xi.

“evidence of social anthropology”:
Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 14–18.

Although Boccaccio seems to have been:
Ibid., 36–41.

“are without refinement”:
Petrarch,
De vita solitaria
, Z II, vi, 3;
P
II, xi;
Prose
, 524; trans. Zeitlin, 267.

If their complete ignorance:
Muldoon,
Popes, Lawyers, and Infidels
, 121; quotation at Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 86–87.

“They observe most barbarous customs”:
Original text in Firpo,
Prime relazioni di navigatori italiani
, 88, trans. in A. Brown,
Renaissance
, 122.

“No one of this race”:
Ibid.

E
PILOGUE
: T
HE
W
INDOW AND THE
M
IRROR

“open window” (
finestra aperta
):
Alberti,
De pictura
, 1.19, p. 55.

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IBLIOGRAPHY

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———.
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