Story of Civilization ~ Will & Ariel Durant

[Frybabe]

"I want to know what were the steps by which
man passed from barbarism to civilization (Voltaire)"

What are our origins? Where are we now? Where are we headed? Share your thoughts with us!

   Volume Five (The Renaissance)

       
"Four elements constitute Civilization -- economic provision, political organization, moral traditions, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. "
 
"I shall proceed as rapidly as time and circumstances will permit, hoping that a few of my contemporaries will care to grow old with me while learning. "
       
"These volumes may help some of our children to understand and enjoy the infinite riches of their inheritance."
       
"Civilization begins where chaos and insecurity ends."

In this volume the  term "Renaissance" refers only to Italy. Will Durant studies the growth of industry, the rise of banking families like the Medici, the conflicts of labor and capital and considers the reasons why Italy was the first nation, and Florence the first city in Italy, to feel the awakening of the modern mind. He follows the cultural flowering from Florence to Milan, Mantua, Ferrata, Verona and Venice, Padua and Parma, Bologna, Rimini, Urbino, Perugia, Siena, and Naples. 

In each city of Italy we witness a colorful pageant of princes, queeens, dukes, or doges -- of poets, historians, scientists, and philosophers -- of painters, sculptors, engravers, illuminators, potters, and architects -- of industry, education, manners, morals, crime, and dress -- of women and love and marriage -- of epidemics, famines, earthquakes, and death.

Dr. Durant draws vivid vignettes -- of Petrarch, Boccaccio, Cosimo de' Medici, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca, Signorelli, Perugino, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Aldus Manutius, Correggio, Alexander VI, Caesar and Lucrezia Borgia, Julius II, Leo X, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

The Renaissance, by recalling classic culture, ended the thousand year rule of the Oriental mind in Europe.

This volume, then, is about YOU. Join our group daily and listen to what Durant and the rest of us are saying. Better yet, share with us your opinions.

SeniorLearn Contact: JoanK & Discussion Facilitator: Trevor
 

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I remember that conversation, Emily, with my Dad when I was a teen. We used to have such marvelous debates. He said he was speaking from the real world and I from an ideal. I cannot tell you how many times I would go back to him, sometimes years later, and say "Dad you were right". Thanks for the memory jogger. I miss my conversations with my parents.

[JoanK]

That's a wonderful story, Trevor.

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'   SoC
Vol. V.
Pages  626-628



Milan reverted to the Emperor. All Italy itself at his mercy, and one Italian state after another presented him with diverse bribes for permission to remain in existence. Clement, fearful of invasion by the imperial army, and a revolution against the Medici in Florence, abandoned his French alliance and signed a treaty ( April 1, 1525 ) with Charles de Lannoy, Viceroy  of Naples for Charles, pledging Pope and Emperor to mutual aid; the Emperor would protect the Medici in Florence accept Francesco Maria Sforza as imperial vicar in Milan; the Pope would pay  Charles, for  past affronts and future services, 100,000 ducats ($1,250,000 ?) which were badly needed for the imperial troops. Shortly afterward Clement connived at a plot by Girolamo Morone to free Milan from the Emperor. The Marquis of Pescara revealed it to Charles, and Morone was jailed.

Charles treated captive Francis with feline procrastination. After softening him with almost eleven months of courteous imprisonment, he agreed to free him on the impossible conditions that the King should surrender all the French rights, actual or alleged, to Genoa, Milan, Naples, Flanders, Artois, Tournai, Burgundy, and Navarre .That Francis should surrender all ships and troops for an expedition against Rome or the Turks, that Francis should marry Charles sister Elenora, and that the king should surrender his eldest sons == Francis, ten, and Henry, nine years old== to Charles as hostages for the fulfilment of these terms. By the treaty of Madrid (9 January ) Francis agreed to all these conditions with solemn oaths and mental reservations. On March 17 he was allowed to return to France, leaving his sons in his place as prisoners. Arrived in France, he announced he had no intention of honouring promises made under duress. Clement, with the support of canonical law, absolved him from his oaths and on May 22 Francis, Clement, Venice, Florence, and Francesco Maria Sforza signed the League of Cognac, pledging them to restore Asti and Genoa to France, to give Milan to Sforza as a French fief, to return to each Italian state all its prewar  possessions, to ransom French prisoners for 2,000,000 crowns, and to bestow Naples upon an Italian prince who would pay a yearly tribute of 75,000 ducats to the King of France. The Emperor was cordially invited to sign this agreement; if he refused, he knew the league proposed  to war upon him until he and all his forces were driven from Italy.

While Christendom so exercised itself in treachery and war, the Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent overwhelmed the Hungarians at Mohacs (August 29, 1526), and captured Budapest ( Sept.10). Clement, alarmed less Europe should become not merely Protestant but Mohammedan, announced to the cardinals that he was thinking of going to  Barcelona in person to plead with Charles to make peace with  Francis and join forces against the Turks.

On September 20 the Colonna family entered Rome with 5000 men and, overriding feeble resistance, plundered the Vatican, St. Peter’s and the neighbouring Borgo Vecchio, while Clement fled to Castel Sant’ Angelo. the papal palace was completely stripped, including Raphael’s tapestries and the Pope’s tiara; sacred vessels, treasured relics, and costly papal vestments were stolen; an hilarious soldier went about in a white robe and red cap of the Pope, distributing papal benedictions with mock solemnity. On the following day the Pope’s tiara was restored and he was assured that the Emperor had only the best intentions toward the papacy.  The frightened Pope signed an armistice with the Empire for four months, and pardoned the Colonna Family.

Despite this Clement raised a new papal force of seven thousand troops. At the end of October ordered to march against the Colonna strongholds. At the same time he appealed to Francis I and Henry VIII for aid; Francis sent dilatory excuses; Henry, absorbed in the difficult task of begetting a son, sent nothing.  Another papal army, in the north, was kept inactive by the apparently treacherous Fabianism of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who could not forget that Leo X had ousted him from his duchy, and was not especially grateful that Adrian and Clement had let him return and stay. A braver leader was with that army-- young Giovanni de’ Medici, handsome son of Caterina Sforza, heir to her dauntless spirit . Giovanni was all for action against Milan, but Francesco Maria overruled him.

[Emily]

This is like reading about a group of teenagers playing dungeons and dragons or grade schoolers in a game of 'King of the hill'. No one can trust anything the other says. In that atmosphere a mans word is not his bond and is absolutely worthless.

In Durant's writing so far, he has used the word 'Mohammedan' to describe Muslims. I looked up Muslim in my dictionary and found the date 1615 for the word Muslim in Arabic.

Since Arabia did not have a unified language when Mohammed was dictating the Koran, and Arabic only came into use later, his followers were called Mohammedan as Durant has done so far in his story. I know that some of the older books that I have read used that description exclusively.

Emily

[Frybabe]

I don't know much about Dungeons and Dragons but all of this seems pretty comical if it weren't that these people were serious. Tragicomedy!

The etymology of Mohammaden is interesting, Emily. Studying word origins is fun and enlightening.

[3kings(Trevor)]

I was surprised to find the Durants using the, to me, modern term Fabianism, as in " treacherous Fabianism of Francesco Maria della Rovere .... "
I have always felt that fabianism, capitalism, communism, socialism etc. were modern terms, that post-dated the early 16 th century.
By the way, I'm also thankful that persons names these days are shortened to at most three.  Typing out long winded names becomes something of a bore. I would prefer some thing like F.M. d'Rovere, and such. I wonder, did they use such long names in everyday speech?----Trevor.
 

[mabel1015j]

I think i still have a textbook from my grad school course of comparative religions titled Mohammedenism.  I was told some decades later, maybe in the 80s that that was no longer an acceptable term. I don't remember if i was given a reason and i don't to this day know why it is so...... Jean

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'  S  o  C
Vol. V  The Renaissance.
Pages 628-633



                                       The   Sack   of   Rome.

Charles, still remaining in Spain, and moving his pawns with magic remote control, commissioned his agents to raise a new army. They approached the Tirolese condottiere, Georg von Frundsburg, already famous for the exploits of the Landsknechte-- German mercenaries -- who fought under his lead. Charles could offer little money, but his agents promised rich plunder in Italy. Frundsberg was still nominally a Catholic, but he strongly sympathized with Luther, and hated Clement as a traitor to the  Empire. He pawned his castle, his other possessions, even the adornments  of his wife; with the 38000 gulden so obtained he collected some 10,000 men eager for adventure and pillage and not averse to breaking a lance over a papal head; some of them, it was said, carried a noose to hang the Pope. In November, 1526, this impromptu army crossed the mountains and descended toward Brescia. Alfonso of Ferrara repaid the papacy for its many efforts to depose him, by sending Frundsberg four of his mightiest cannon. Near Brescia Giovanni delle Bande Nere was shot in a skirmish with the invaders; he died at Mantua on November 30, aged  twenty-eight.. No one remained to hinder the Duke of Urbino from doing nothing.
Frundsberg’s rabble crossed the Po as Giovanni died, and ravaged the fertile fields of Lombardy so effectively that three years later English ambassadors described the terrain as “the most pitiable country that ever was in Christendom”. In Milan, the imperial commander was now Charles, Duke of Bourbon; created constable of France for bravery at Marignano, he had turned against Francis when the King’s mother, as he felt, had cheated him of his proper lands; he went over to the Emperor, shared in defeating Francis at Pavia, and was made Duke of Milan. Now, to raise and pay  another army for Charles, he taxed the Milanese literally to death. He wrote to the Emperor that he had drained the city of its blood. His soldiers, quartered with the inhabitants, so abused them with theft, brutality, and rape that many Milanese hanged themselves, or threw themselves from high places into the streets. Early in February, 1527, Bourbon led his army out of Milan and united it with Frundsberg’s near Piacenza. The conglomerate horde, now numbering nearly 22,000 men, moved east along the Via Emilia, avoiding the fortified cities but pillaging as it went, and leaving the countryside empty behind it.

Now at last Rome realized that it was the intended and helpless prey. On Holy Thursday (April 8 ), when Clement was giving his blessing to a crowd of 10000 persons before St. Peter’s, a fanatic clad only in a leather apron mounted the statue of St. Paul and shouted to the Pope; “Thou bastard of Sodom! For thy sins Rome shall be destroyed. Repent and turn thee! If thou wilt not believe me, in fourteen days thou shalt see .”

Bourbon, perhaps hoping to satisfy his men with an enlarged sum, sent to Clement a demand for 240,000 ducats; Clement replied that he could not possibly raise such a ransom. The horde marched to Florence; but the Duke of Urbino, Guicciardinni, and the Marquis of Saluzzo had brought in enough troops to man its fortifications effectively; the horde turned away baffled, and took the road to Rome. Clement, finding no salvation in truce, rejoined the League of Cognac against Charles and implored the help of France. He appealed to the rich men of Rome to contribute to a fund for defence; they responded gingerly, and suggested that a better plan would be to sell red hats. Clement had not hitherto sold appointments to the college of cardinals, but when Bourbon’s army reached Viterbo, only forty-two miles from Rome he yielded and sold six nominations. Before the nominees could pay, the Pope could see, from the windows of the Vatican the hungry swarm advancing across the Neronian fields. He had now 4000 soldiers to protect Rome from an attacking host of 20,000 men.

On May 6 Bourbon’s multitude approached the walls under cover of fog. They were repelled by a fusillade; Bourbon himself was hit, and died almost instantly. But the assailants could not be deterred from repeated attack; their alternatives were to capture Rome or starve. They found a weakly defended position; they broke through it, and poured into the city. The Roman militia and Swiss guards fought bravely, but were annihilated. Clement, most of the resident cardinals and hundreds of officials fled to Sant’ Angelo, whence Cellini and others tried to stop the invasion with artillery fire. But the swarm entered from a confusing variety of directions; some were hidden by fog; others so mingled with fugitives that the  castle cannon could not strike them without killing the demoralized populace. Soon the invaders had the city at their mercy.

As they rushed on through the streets they killed indiscriminately any man, woman, or child who crossed their path. They marched into St. Peter’s, and slew the people who had sought sanctuary there. They pillaged every church and monastery they could find, and turned some into stables; hundreds of priests monks, bishops, and archbishops were killed. Every dwelling in Rome was plundered, and many were burned, with two exceptions: the Cancellaria, occupied by Cardinal Colonna and the palazzo Colonna, in which Isabella d’Este and some rich merchants had sought asylum; these paid 50000 ducats to leaders of the mob for freedom from attack, and took 2000 refugees within their walls. In most houses all the occupants were required to ransom their lives at a stated price; if they did not pay, they were tortured, thousands were killed; children were flung from high windows to pry parental savings from secrecy; some streets were littered with dead. The millionaire Domenico Massimi saw his sons slain, his daughter raped, his house burned, and then was himself murdered. “In the whole city,” says one account,” there was not a soul above three years of age who had not to purchase his safety.”

Of the victorious mob half were Germans, of whom most had been convinced that the popes and cardinals were thieves, and that the whole wealth of the Church of Rome was a theft from the nations, and a scandal to the world. The Lutherans among the invaders took especial delight in robbing cardinals, exacting high ransoms from them as the price of their lives, and teaching them new rituals Nuns and respectable women were violated ‘in situ,’ or were carried off to promiscuous brutality in the various shelters of the horde. Women were assaulted before the eyes of their fathers or husbands. Many young women, despondent after being raped, drowned themselves in the Tiber.

The sack lasted eight days, while Clement looked on  from the towers of Sant’ Angelo. He ceased to shave, and never shaved again. He remained a prisoner in the Castle from May 6 to December 7 1527, hoping that rescue would come. Charles, still in Spain, was glad to hear  that Rome had been taken, but was shocked when he heard of the savagery of the sack; he disclaimed responsibility for the excesses, but took full advantage of the Pope's helplessness. On June the 6 his representatives compelled Clement to sign a humiliating peace. The whole edifice of the papacy , material and spiritual, seemed to be collapsing into a tragic ruin that awoke the pity even of those who felt some punishment was deserved by the infidelities of Clement, the sins of the papacy, the greed and corruption of the Curia, the luxury of the hierarchy, and the iniquity of Rome.

Erasmus wrote : “Rome was not alone the shrine of the Christian Faith, the nurse of noble souls, and the abode of the Muses, but the mother of nations. To how many was she not dearer and sweeter and more precious than their own land !..... In truth  this is not the ruin of  one city, but of the whole world.”

[Frybabe]

The horrors of the Sack seem outsized in proportion to Clement's poor performance as a Pope. There must be a lot I am missing in this narrative. Of course, a lot of it can be attributed to the excesses of previous Popes as well. The Protestant Reformation was underway which, I am sure, contributed greatly to the conflicts.

[Emily]

Yes, the excesses of the Popes going back many years contributed to the sack of Rome.

These passages read like a movie script. This is not the first time Rome has been sacked. One of the quotes I remember came from the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire when (was it Alaric?) who approached the gates of Rome and stopped his army outside the gates.

Rome sent out emissaries to see what they wanted. They asked how much they wanted for payment to pass on by. The leader answered, ''everything you have".

The Roman emissary answered, "Then what would that leave us".

The leader of the Army answered, "Your life".

It was the custom to 'pay opposing armies off' with a bribe if possible and give them safe passage around the city. This form of bribery was still alive and well after over a thousand years.

The actions of the soldiers was no different from what has happened in 'armies on the move' taking territory since time began. Remember that Islam was on the march during this century and killing in wholesale slaughter. They attacked the Slavs and murdered and plundered until they were driven out of their territory into the far icy regions of the north. Those not murdered on the spot were enslaved. The young men were taken and sold as slaves to the Jews of Venice who chained them in the bottom of ships to row with oars. The women who survived the forced march to Samarkand were sold in the slave market to the far east.

So if one sees a person with blue or green eyes, anywhere in the middle east or far east, it is the result of at least one girl surviving to produce a child. Most died and did not survive long enough to produce anything.

This was a case of genocide against the Slavs and the jews and muslims produced it, so christianity was not the only religion at war. The Arab religions were also at war against Europe.

The word slave derives from Slav.

Emily

[Emily]

The   Sack   of   Rome.

Charles, still remaining in Spain, and moving his pawns with magic remote control

Durant's use of the word 'magic' to describe remote control is understandable in the era in which he wrote. In today's world where many things are controlled by remote devices the word 'magic' would seem silly.

I've read several articles about the predator drones we use all over the world but mainly in the war zones around Afghanistan. The 'remote controller' is sitting in a room outside Las Vegas, Nevada and on his screen the predator drone flys over Afghanistan. He sees someone who is digging alongside a road and assumes he is planting a bomb.

He prepares the missiles to fire, and goes in for a closer look. One person is digging and a smaller one is standing by. He prepares to go in closer for the kill, when the smaller one bundles up what looks like brush and puts it on his back and turns up the mountain. The man stops digging and gathers up the remaining brush and follows the boy.

Wood is scarce and many afghans dig up brush alongside the roads for heat and cooking. The controller in Las Vegas was ready to fire a missile and this man and boy barely escaped being blown to bits when he realized what they were actually doing. He related this story to the writer of the article.

The other article did not have that good ending. A large group of boys were playing in a field with old bicycle rims and a stick (they were racing each other) were all killed by a remote controlled missile.

No magic needed today, just push a button.

Emily

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'  S  o  C
 Vol.  V     The Renaissance
Pages  634-637




The opponents of Charles began seriously to think of rescuing the Pope. Henry VIII, fearing that an imprisoned pontiff might not grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, sent Cardinal Wolsey to France to confer with Francis on measures to liberate Clement. Early in August, the two kings offered Charles peace and 2,000,000 ducats on condition that the Pope and the French princes should be freed and that the Papal States should be restored to the Church. Charles refused. By the treaty of Amiens ( August 18 ) Henry and Francis pledged themselves to war against Charles; soon Venice and Florence joined the new league. French forces captured Genoa and Pavia, and sacked the latter city almost as thoroughly as the imperialist army sacked Rome. Mantua and Ferrara, dreading the present French more than the distant Charles, now joined the league. Nevertheless Lautrec, the French commander, unable to pay his troops, dared not march upon Rome.

The Emperor, hoping to restore his grace in Catholic Christendom, and to cool the ardour of the growing league, agreed to release the Pope, on condition that Clement should give no aid to the league, should at once pay the imperialist army in Rome 112000 ducats and should give hostages for his good behaviour. Clement raised the money by selling red hats, and by granting the Emperor a tenth of ecclesiastical revenues in the Kingdom of Sant’ Angelo. Then, disguised as a servant, he made his way humbly out of Rome to Orvieto, apparently a broken man.

Charles seems to have thought for a while of deposing Clement, annexing the Papal States to the Kingdom of Naples, making Rome the seat of  his empire, and reducing  the Pope to his primeval role as Bishop of Rome and subject to the Emperor. But this would drive Charles into the arms of the Lutherans in Germany, and would court civil war in Spain, and would arouse France, England, Poland, and Hungary to resist him with their full and united power. He abandoned the scheme, and returned to the idea of making the papacy his dependent ally and spiritual aid, in dividing Italy between them.

Charles and Clement met at Bolonga on November 5, 1529, each now convinced that he needed the other. Strange to say , this was Charles first visit to Italy; he had conquered it before seeing it. When he knelt before the Pope at Bologna, and kissed the foot of the man whom he had dragged in  the dust, it was the first time that these two figures-- the one representing the Church in decline, the other the rising and here victorious modern state -- had ever seen each other. Clement swallowed all pride, forgave all offences; he had to. He could no longer look to France.

The alliance of Pope and Emperor was sealed with Florentine blood. Resolved to restore his family to power, Clement paid 70,000 ducats to Philibert, Prince of Orange ( who had kept him prisoner ), to organize an army and overturn the republic of rich men that had been set up there in 1527. Philibert sent on this mission 20,000 German and Spanish troops, many of whom had shared in the sack of  Rome. In December, 1529, this force occupied Pistoia and Prato, and laid siege to Florence. Michelangelo left his sculpture of the Medici tombs to build or rebuild the ramparts and forts. The siege continued mercilessly for eight months; food became so scarce in Florence that cats and dogs brought some $12.50 apiece.  Churches surrendered their vessels, citizens their plate, women their jewelry, to be transformed into money for the provision of arms. Patriotic monks like Fra Benedetto da Foiano kept up the spirit of the people with fiery sermons. The general whom Florence had hired to lead the defense, Malatesta Baglioni, entered into a treacherous agreement with the besiegers; he let them into the city, and turned his guns upon the Florentines. Starving and disorganised, the republic surrendered ( August 12, 1530).

Alessandro de’ Medici became Duke of Florence, and disgraced his family by his rapacity and cruelty. Hundreds of those who had fought for  the Republic were tortured, exiled, and slain. Fra Benedetto was sent to Clement, who ordered him imprisoned in Sant’ Angelo; there, said an uncertain report, the monk was starved to death. The Signory was disbanded; the Palazzo della Signoria now began to be called the Palazzo Vecchio; and the great eleven ton bell, ‘La Vacca -- the Cow --’ that had from the lovely tower called so many generations to ‘parlamento’, was taken down and broken to pieces, “in order” said a contemporary diarist, “ that we shall hear no more the sweet sound of liberty .“
[/i][/b]

[JoanK]

We Yanks are too full of turkey from Thanksgiving today to think about the Medici. Does New Zealand have a similar harvest celebration? I asked a friend who'd lived in England if England had a harvest celebration, and she couldn't think of one.

[Brian]

" no more the sweet sound of liberty "

If a movie director were to use this last page for the script of a film
he would be lambasted by the critics for portraying the "unbelievable".

Thanks to Trevor for his heroic efforts to keep us reading.

I do not post very often now,  but I continue to read all the posts.

Brian

[mabel1015j]

Ditto Brian!

Clement raised the money by selling red hats, ....what does that mean? Is Durant saying he sold the cardinal positions, or is that a literal statement?

[Brian]

Yes,  mabel1015j  - - - I am sure he means selling the rank of cardinal.
In the Catholic Church the colour of the cardinal's hat is RED,  other churches
have been known to use other colours.

This means dollars (or ducats !) for the recipient.

Brian

[3kings(Trevor)]

JoanK.  You asked if NZ had a harvest festival. No, we do not. I don't think such festivals are held in any part of the British community of nations. But come to think of it, Canada might do so, being influenced by her big neighbour to the south.  I wish all folk in the U.S. had an enjoyable day.  ---  Trevor.

[Brian]

Canada might do so

Yes,  Trevor,  Canada does celebrate Thanksgiving Day (on the 2nd Monday in October).
The original day was to celebrate the safe passage of Frobisher on his return to England.

It is now more of a Harvest Festival,  and comes well before Thanksgiving Day in the U.S
which falls on the 4th Thursday in November.

Brian

[JoanK]

Yes, Thanksgiving is late for a harvest festival. Nontheless, it's good to remember that, thanks to good harvests, we'll have food to eat this winter. not everyone in the world is so lucky.

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'   S o C
Vol V  The Renaissance.

Pages 637 - 645


Pope Clement’s efforts to restore Rome revealed a spark of the administrative genius and aesthetic appreciation that had made the Medici family great. He took vigorous action to protect Italy from the Turkish fleets that now commanded the Eastern Mediterranean. He fortified Ancona, Ascoli, and Frano, and paid the costs by persuading the consistory of June 21, 1532-- over the opposition of the cardinals-- to impose a levy of fifty percent upon the incomes of the Italian clergy, including the cardinals. Partly by selling ecclesiastical offices, he raised funds to rebuild the property of the Church, to restore the university of Rome, and to resume the patronage of scholarship and art. He took measures to ensure the proper supply of grain despite the raids of the Barbary pirates upon shipping near Sicily. In a remarkably short time Rome was functioning again as the capital of the Western world.

The city was still rich in artists. Baldassare Peruzzi made his  sonorous name ring for a generation across the mountains of Italy. He was the son of a weaver. (Artists were mostly of lowly stock: the middle classes seek utility first, hoping to have time for beauty in their senility; aristocrats, though they nourish art, prefer the art of life to the life of art.) Born in Siena ( 1481 ) Baldassare learned painting under Sodoma and Pinturicchio, and soon went off to Rome. Apparently it was he who painted the ceiling of the Stanza d’Eliodoro in the Vatican, and Raphael thought the work good enough to leave much of it unchanged. Meanwhile, like Bramante, he fell in love with the classic ruins, measured the ground plans of the ancient temples and palaces, and studied the diverse forms and arrangements of columns and capitals. He became a specialist in the application of perspective to architecture.

When Agostino Chigi decided to build the Villa Chigi, Peruzzi was invited to design it (1508). The banker was pleased with the result-- the stately crowning of a Renaissance facade with classic moldings, and cornices; and finding that Peruzzi could also paint, he gave the young artist freedom to decorate several rooms of the interior in competition with Sebastiano del Piombo and Raphael. In the entrance hall and the loggia Baldassare pictured Venus combing her hair, Leda and her swan, Europa and her bull, Danae and her golden shower, Ganymede and his eagle, and other scenes calculated to raise the tired moneylender from the prose of his days to the poetry of his dreams. Peruzzi set off his frescoes with borders painted in such tricks of perspective that Titian thought them to be veritable reliefs in stone. In the hall of the upper floor Baldassare made illusory architecture with his brush: cornices sustained by pictured caryatids, friezes supported by pictured pilasters, mimic windows opening upon pictured fields. Peruzzi had fallen in love with architecture, and made painting a handmaid, obeying all the builder’s rules, but spiritless. Let us make an exception here for the biblical scenes that he painted in a semidome of Santa Maria della Pace ( 1517), where Raphael had painted sibyls three years before. Baldassare’s frescoes stood the comparison well, for these are his finest paintings, while Raphael’s there were not his best.

Despite his multiform ability Peruzzi died poor, not having had the heart to haggle with popes, cardinals, and bankers for fees commensurate with his skill. When Pope Paul III heard he was dying he bethought himself that only Peruzzi and Michelangelo remained to raise St. Peter’s from wall to dome.. He sent the artist a hundred crowns. Baldassare thanked him, and died  nevertheless, at the age of fifty-four.(1535) Vasari, after suggesting that a rival had poisoned him, relates that “all  the painters, sculptors, and architects in Rome followed his body to the grave.”

                                                    The End of an Age.  1528-34

Clement did not die until he had one more reversal of policy, and had crowned his disasters by losing England for the Church. (1531) The spread of the Lutheran revolt in Germany had created for Charles V difficulties and dangers that might, he hoped, be eased by a general council. He urged this upon the Pope, and was angered by repeated excuses and delays. Irritated in turn by the Emperor’s award of Reggio and Modena to Ferrara, Clement veered again toward France. He accepted a proposal of Francis that Caterina d’ Medici should marry the King’s second son Henry, and he signed secret articles binding himself to help Francis recover Milan and Genoa ( 1531) It was a prime defect of the Medici as popes that they thought of themselves as a royal dynasty, and sometimes rated the glory of their family above the fate of Italy or the Church. Clement tried to persuade Francis to make peace with Charles; Francis refused, and had the audacity to ask papal acquiescence  to a temporary alliance of France with the Protestants and the Turks against the Emperor.  Clement thought that this was going a bit too far.

“Under these circumstances,” says  Pastor, “it must be considered fortunate for the Church that the Pope’s days were numbered.” At his accession Henry VIII was still‘Defensor fidei,‘ defender of the orthodox faith against Luther; and the protestant revolt had as yet proposed no vital doctrinal changes, but only such ecclesiastical reforms as the Council of Trent would legislate for the Church in the next generation. At Clement’s death ( Sept 25, 1534 ) England, Denmark, Sweden, half of Germany, part of Switzerland, had definately broken away from the Church, and Italy had submitted to a Spanish domination fatal to the free thought and life that had for good or evil marked the Renaissance.

It was beyond doubt the most disastrous pontificate in the history of the Church. Everyone had rejoiced at Clement’s accession, everyone rejoiced at his death; and the rabble of Rome repeatedly defiled his tomb.

[Emily]

Below a link to Bablassare Peruzzi's work at Villa Chigi (now known as Villa Farnesina)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9JXPhqBs8M

Emily

[Emily]

At Clement’s death ( Sept 25, 1534 ) England, Denmark, Sweden, half of Germany, part of Switzerland, had definately broken away from the Church, and Italy had submitted to a Spanish domination fatal to the free thought and life that had for good or evil marked the Renaissance.

This looks like the end of the Renaissance in Italy. Eventually most of western Europe will leave the church with the exception of France and of course Spain who is now in control of events. The 50% tax was sure to end any popularity Clement had within the church.

Emily

[bookad]

Emily/Mabel

regarding your posting from mid-October...I was with a group doing the civilization books but they were beginning Dec or so 2003 Durant's summary of history then beginning the civilization books in January 2004...hoping to complete 6 pages/day and be done in 8 or so years....I began reading the first book with them and completed the 'orient' book when my husband and I first started coming down to Florida in 2004...but sometime after the first book was completed I lost touch with the group and ran into your group a year or so ago

I found it hard reading the greek/roman books having no background and being confused by the numerous 'foreign' names and the fast progression of events...struggling to catch up once again and try to stay current with the discussion...looking forward to the next book where it looks like it may be easier to keep up with the Durant's narrative

its been amazing though following all the pope's and their human failings reinforcing my feelings about religion groups in general

been a fascinating read, following all everyones postings and all the links

Deb

[Emily]

Welcome Deb. We are nearing the end of the 'Renaissance', and our next book will be the 'Reformation'. That will be book six in the series.

When the Renaissance is finished we will have completed five books. There are six more to go so we are not half way through yet. I will never make it through to the end and have tried to recruit some younger members to no avail.

Please join in and comment on Trevor's posting. He posts excerpts from the book, so if you don't have the book, you can still comment. Most libraries have Durants work.

Again....welcome.

Emily

[JoanK]

Welcome. Deb! Just go along -- if one piece of history confuses you, there'll be another one along.

Thanks to Trevor's hard work, I haven't felt it necessary to own the books, but follow along on the computer.

[bookad]

nice to be here once again

up to now have just been reading the online passages...but hope to buy a copy of the next book ...it seems there are copies to be had for very little money from amazon...as long as the books haven't been written in I would be happy with a well worn copy or library cast off

have an e-reader but not that proficient using it yet ...do any of you read this book from an e-reader?

take care
Deb

[Brian]

Welcome Deb - - -  I don't think our book is available in e-book form.
If it were, it would lighten Trevor's job immensely.

Brian

[Emily]

Brian thanks for your post. I just looked to see if SOC was available on e-books. It is available. I am providing the link.

Since my library has all eleven volumes, I can download on the Kindle via the library. The kindle has recently added the library connection. I have not tried it so don't quote me until it is a done deal.

My daughters are getting me an e-book for Christmas which I have resisted, but since I can't keep all the books I have and am in the process of distributing them to the children, I suppose I will have to adapt. I am downsizing so it seems a natural fit.

http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/durants-the-story-of-civilization-available-in-ebook-form/

Emily

[Frybabe]

It's great to see that the volumes are in ebook form. Several of mine are falling apart even though I have not or hardly touched them. Very poor quality binding.

[JoanK]

That's GREAT! I've long meant to buy the Greek volume (I joined the discussion at the start of the Romans. The Romn volume was a great help when we were reading Plutarch, lives of some of the Romans. If we do some Greeks next, Durant would be a good thing to have.

[3kings(Trevor)]

The Durants'  S o C
Vol. V   The  Renaissance
Pages 686 - 688



                          The Waning of the Renaissance.      1534 -1576

The wars of invasion were not yet at an end, but they had already changed the face and character of Italy. The northern provinces had been so devastated that English envoys advised Henry VIII to leave them to Charles as a punishment. Genoa had been pillaged; Milan had been staved to death. Venice had been subdued by the league of Cambrai and the opening of new trade routes. Rome, Prato, and Pavia had suffered sack, Florence had been starved and financially bled, Pisa had half destroyed herself in her struggle for freedom, Siena was exhausted with revolutions. Ferrara had impoverished herself in her long contest with the popes, and had dishonoured herself by abetting the irresponsible attack upon Rome. The Kingdom of Naples, like Lombardy had been ravaged and plundered by foreign armies, and had long languished under alien dynasties. Sicily was already the nursery of brigands. The only consolation of Italy was that its conquest by Charles V had probably saved it from spoliation by the Turks.

By the settlement of Bologna ( 1530 ) the control of Italy passed to Spain with two exceptions: cautious Venice retained her independence, and the chastened papacy was confirmed in its sovereignty over the States of the Church. Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Milan became Spanish dependencies, ruled by Spanish viceroys. Savoy and Mantua, Ferrara and Urbino, which had usually supported or connived with Charles, were allowed to keep their indigenous dukes subject to their good behaviour.  Genoa and Sienna retained their republican forms, but as Spanish protectorates. Florence was compelled to accept another line of Medici rulers, who survived by co-operating with Spain.

The victory of Charles marked another triumph of the modern state over the Church. What Philip IV  of France had begun in 1303 was completed by Charles and Luther in Germany, by Francis I in France, by Henry VIII in England, and by all in Clements's pontificate. The powers of northern Europe had not only discovered the weakness of Italy, they had lost their fear of the papacy. The humiliation of Clement injured the respect that the transalpine populations had felt for the popes, and prepared them mentally for their secession from Catholic authority.

In some ways the Spanish hegemony was a boon to Italy. It put an end for a time to the wars of the Italian states against one another, and after 1559 it ended, till 1796, the battle of foreign powers on Italian soil. It gave the people some continuity of political order, and quieted the fierce individualism that had made and unmade the Renaissance. Those who craved order accepted he subjugation with relief; those who cherished freedom mourned. But soon the costs and penalties of peace by subjection damaged the economy  and broke the spirit of Italy. The high taxes levied by the viceroys to sustain their pomp and soldiery, the severity of their laws, the state monopolies in grain and other necessaries discouraged industry and commerce; and the native princes, competing in vain luxury, followed the same policy of taxing to frustration the economic activity that supported them. Shipping declined to a point where the surviving galleys could no longer protect themselves from Berber pirates, who raided ships and coasts and carried Italians off to serve Moslem dignitaries as slaves. Almost as irksome were the foreign troops quartered on Italian homes, openly despising a once unrivalled people and civilization, and contributing more than their share to the sexual laxity of the age.

Another misfortune befell Italy, more enduringly disastrous than the devastations of war and the subjection to Spain. The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope (1488) and the opening of an all water route to India (1498) provided a cheaper means of transport between the Atlantic nations and Central Asia and the Far East than the troublesome route across the Alps to Genoa or Venice, thence to Alexandria, overland to  the Red Sea, and again by ship to India. After 1498 Venetian and Genoese trade, and Florentine finance, declined. As early as 1502 the Portuguese bought so much of the available pepper in India that the Egyptian- - Venetian merchants there found little left for export. The price of pepper rose 33% in one year on the Rialto, while in Lisbon it could be had for half the price that Venetian merchants had to charge. German traders began to desert their Fondaco on the Grand Canal and transfer their buying to Portugal. In 1517 Luther pinned his rebel theses to the door of Wittenberg church. 

The Reformation was both a cause and a result of the economic decline of Italy. It was a cause in so far as it diminished the movement of pilgrims and ecclesiastical revenues from the northern nations  into Rome. It was an effect in so much as the replacement of the Mediterranean-Egyptian route to India by the all-water route, and the development of European commerce with America, enriched the Atlantic countries while helping to impoverish Italy; German trade moved more and more down the Rhine to North Sea outlets, less and less over the mountains to Italy; Germany became commercially independent of Italy; a northward drift and pull of power wrenched Germany from the Italian web of trade and religion, and gave  Germany the will and strength to stand alone.

The discovery of America had even more lasting effects upon Italy than the new route to India. Gradually the Mediterranean nations declined, left on a siding in the movement of men and goods; The Atlantic nations came to the fore, enriched with American gold and trade. This was a revolution in commercial routes than any that history had recorded since Greece, by her victory at Troy, had opened to her vessels the Black sea route to Central Asia. It would be equalled and surpassed only by the airplane transformation of trade routes in the second half of the twentieth century

[3kings(Trevor)]

Please correct the line four from the bottom.  insert  " this was a greater revolution "   etc.  Sorry about that.

[3kings(Trevor)]

I read that these books are available on 'Kindle'. Is there some way that the e books can be used so as to get around all this typing from a real book ? Would it be possible ?  And can copyright restrictions be overcome ?  I'm hoping it may be so. What do you think BRIAN ?  Trevor

[Brian]

Trevor - - - I,  personally,  tried to download one of the books without success.
And I do not have,  or use,  an e-reader.

I don't think there could be any problem with the copyright,  but you might find trouble
with the logistics.   Give it a shot.   I might be persuaded to use a Kindle.

Brian

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'  S o C
Vol. V  The Renaissance
Pages 688-691


The final factor in the fading of the Renaissance was the Counter Reformation. To Italy's own political disorder and moral decay, to her subjugation and desolation by foreign powers, to her loss of trade to the Atlantic nations, to her forfeiture of revenue in the Reformation, was now added a detrimental but natural change in the mood and conduct of the Church. The unformulated, perhaps unconscious, gentlemen’s agreement by which the Church, while rich and apparently secure, had permitted considerable freedom of thought in the intellectual classes provided these made no attempt to disturb the faith of the people -- to whom that faith was the vital poetry, discipline, and consolation of life-- was ended by the German Reformation, the English seccession, and the Spanish Hegemony.

When the people themselves began to reject the doctrines and authority of the Church, and the Reformation made converts even in Italy, the whole structure of Catholicism was threatened in its foundations, and the Church, considering herself a state, and behaving like any state imperilled in its very existence, reacted from tolerance and liberalism to a frightened conservatism that laid severe  restraints upon thought, inquiry, publication, and speech. The Spanish domination affected religion as well as politics; it shared in transforming the lenient Catholicism of the Renaissance into the rigid orthodoxy of the Church after the council of Trent ( 1545-1563 ). the popes who followed Clement VII took over the Spanish system of uniting Church and state in strict control of religious and intellectual life.

Just as a Spaniard had been instrumental in establishing the Inquisition when, in the thirteenth century, the Albigensian revolt had vitally challenged the Church in southern France, and new religious orders had then been founded to serve the Church and renew the fervour of the Christian faith, so now in the sixteenth century the rigour of the  Spanish Inquisition was imported into Italy, and a Spaniard founded the Jesuits ( 1534 )-- that remarkable Society of Jesus which would not only accept the old conventional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but would go forth into the world to spread the orthodox faith, and to fight, every where in Christendom, against religious heresy or revolt. The intensity of religious debate in the age of the Reformation, the Calvinist intolerance, the mutual persecutions in England, encouraged a corresponding dogmatism in Italy; the urbane Catholicism of Erasmus gave place to the militant orthodoxy of Ignatius Loyola. Liberalism is a luxury of security and peace.

That censorship of publications which had begun under Pope Sixtus IV was extended by the establishment of the ’ Index librorum prohibitorum ’  in 1559 and the Congregation of the Index in 1571. Printing facilitated censorship; it was easier to watch public printers than private copyists. So in Venice, which had been so hospitable to intellectual and political refugees, the state itself, feeling that religious division would damage social unity and order, instituted ( 1527 ) a censorship of the press,
and joined with the Church in suppressing Protestant publications. Italians here and there resisted these policies; the Roman populace, on the death of Paul IV (1559), cast his statue into the Tiber, and burned the headquarters of the Inquisition  to the ground. But such resistance was sporadic, unorganized, and ineffectual. Authoritarianism triumphed, and a solemn pessimism and resignation fell upon the spirit of the once joyous and exuberant Italian people. Even the dark Spanish dress-- black cap, black doublet, black hose, black shoes-- became the fashion in once colourful Italy, as if the people had put on mourning for glory departed and liberty dead.

Some moral advance accompanied the intellectual retreat. The conduct of the clergy improved, now that competitive faiths put them on their mettle; and the popes and the Council of Trent reformed many ecclesiastical abuses. Whether a similar movement occurred in the morals of the laity is hard to determine; apparently it is as easy to gather instances of sexual irregularity, illegitimacy, incest, obscene literature, political corruption, robbery, and brutal crime in the Italy of 1534-1576 as before. Criminal law remained as severe as before: torture was frequently applied to innocent witnesses as well as to the accused, and murderers still had their flesh torn away by red-hot pincers before being hanged. The restoration of slavery as a major economic institution belongs to this period. When Pope Paul III opened war upon England in 1535 he decreed that any English soldiers captured might lawfully be enslaved. About 1550 the custom developed of using slaves and convicts to row the galleys of trade and war.

Nevertheless the popes of this period were men of relatively high morals in their personal lives. Paul II was the greatest of them -- that same Alessandro Farnese who had obtained the cardinalate through the effect of his sister’s golden hair upon the spirits of Alexander VI. It is true that Paul had begotten two bastards; but this had been an accepted custom in his youth, and Guicciardini could still describe him as “a man adorned with learning, and of unspotted character.” He had been trained as a humanist by Pomponikus Laetus; his letters rivalled those of Erasmus, in the classic elegance of their Latin; he was an accomplished conversationalist, and surrounded himself with capable and distinguished men. However he was elected probably less for his talents and virtues than for his age and infirmities; he was sixty-six, and the cardinals could reasonably rely upon him to die soon and give them another chance to make bargains and receive more lucrative benefices. He held them at bay for fifteen years.

For Rome his pontificate was among the happiest in the history of the city. Under his direction Latino Manetti, his ‘maestro delle strade’ drained, levelled, and widened  streets, opened up many new public squares, replaced slum houses with handsome dwellings, and so improved one avenue -- the Corso-- that it became the Champs Elysees of Rome. As a diplomat Paul’s greatest feat was to persuade
Charles V and Francis I to a ten years’ truce ( 1538 ).He almost achieved a greater aim-- a reconciliation of the Church with the Protestants of Germany; but his efforts came too late. He had the courage-- so lacking in Clement VII -- to call a general council. Under his presidency and with his approval the Council of Trent restated the orthodox faith, reformed many ecclesiastical abuses, restored discipline and morality among the clergy, and shared with the Jesuits in saving the Latin nations for the Roman Church.

Paul’s tragic failure was his nepotism. He gave Camerino to his grandson Ottavio, and he invested his son Pierluigi with Piacenza and Parma. Pierluigi was assassinated by discontented citizens, and Ortavio joined the conspiracy against his grandfather. Paul lost his love of life, and died two years later of a heart stroke at eighty-three ( 1549 ) He was mourned by the Romans as no other pope since Pius II a century before.

[JoanK]

funny how you hear bits of history, but never put them together. Somehow, I never thought of the stream of happening: the liberalism of thought while the church was secure in power, the reformation, in part as a reaction to the corruption, the reaction with the inquisation and rigidity of thought that accompanies it, closing down on art as well as thought. And Spain at the center.

[bookad]

.....and how habits began with cultures ...as the Italians adopting the Spanish way of dress, sombre, black, austere and it sounds like their mode of dress before was quite the opposite,

Deb 

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durants'  S  o  C
Vol. V.  The Renaissance
Pages 691 - 695

                                   Science and Philosophy.
In those sciences that did not affect theology Italy continued to make such moderate progress as could come from a nation predominantly disposed to art and literature, and in reaction against an intellect that had discarded conscience. Varoli, Eustachio, and Fallopio, whose names are imbedded in the terminology of modern anatomy, date from this brief age. Niccolo Tartaglia found a way to solve cubic equations; he confided his method to Jerome Cardan ( Geronimo Cardano), who published it as his own ( 1545 ). Tartaglia  challenged him to an algebraic duel, in which each was to propose thirty-one problems to be solved by the other. Cardan accepted, but disdainfully delegated one of his pupils to solve Tartaglia’s problems. The pupil failed, Tartaglia succeeded, but Cardan wrote a strange and fascinating autobiography which has kept his head above the Lethe of time.

It begins with the startling candor that characterizes it to the end;
       “Although various abortive medicines, as I have heard, were tried in vain
        I was born on September 24 1501.....  Since Jupiter was in the ascendant and Venus ruled the  horoscope, I was not maimed save in the genitals, so that from my twenty-first to my thirty-
first year I was unable to lie with women; and many a time I lamented my fate, envying all other  
        men their good fortune.”

This was only one of his disabilities. He stuttered, suffered all his life from hoarseness and catarrh of the throat, frequently from indigestion, palpitation of the heart, rupture, colic, dysentery, haemorrhoids, gout, itching skin, a cancerous growth on the left nipple, the plague, tertian fever, and “an annual period of sleeplessness lasting about eighty days.” “In 1536 I was overtaken with an extraordinary discharge of urine; and although for forty years I have been afflicted with this trouble, giving from sixty to a hundred ounces in a single day, I live well”

Endowed with all this clinical experience, he became a successful physician, cured himself of almost everything except vanity, achieved the reputation of being the most sought-for physician in Italy, and was called as far afield as Scotland to cure an incurable archbishop, whom he cured. At thirty-four he gave public lectures in Milan on mathematics, and at thirty-five, on medicine. In 1545, borrowing a title from Raymond Lully, he published a book, “ Ars magna, “ wherein he made substantial contributions to algebra-- which still speaks of “Cardan’s rule,” for solving cubic equations. He was apparently the first to perceive that quadratic equations might have negative roots. With Tartaglia, and long before Descartes, he considered the application of algebra to geometry. Amid sickness, travels, and devastating tribulations, he wrote 230 books, of which 138 have been printed, some he had the courage to burn.

He was as expert and as absurd as Freud in interpreting dreams, and as firm a believer in guardian angels as Fra Angelico. Yet he named , as the ten greatest intellects in history, men not overwhelmingly Christian: Archimedes, Aristotle, Euclid, Apollonius of Perga, Archytas of Tarentum, al-Khwarizmi, al-Kindi, Gebir, Duns Scotus, and Richard Swineshead-- all scientists except Duns. Cardan made a hundred enemies, invited a thousand calumnies, married miserably, and fought unsuccessfully to save his eldest son from being executed for poisoning an unfaithful wife. In 1570 he moved to Rome. He was arrested there for debt or heresy or both; but Gregory XIII released  and  pensioned him.

At seventy-four he wrote De vita propria liber ( a book of my own life )-- one of three remarkable autobiographies composed in this period in Italy. With almost the garrulousness and fidelity of Montaigne, he analyzes himself-- body, mind, character, habits, likes and dislikes, virtues and vices, honors and dishonors, errors and prophecies, illnesses, eccentricities, and dreams. He accuses himself of obstinacy, bitterness, unsociability, hasty judgment, pugnacity, cheating at gambling, vengefulness, and mentions “ the debaucheries of the Sardanapalian life I led in the year when I was rector of the University of Padua. He lists “ things in which I feel that I have failed“-- especially the proper rearing of his sons. He asks himself, “What animal do I find more treacherous, vile, and deceitful than man?” and offers no reply. But he records many things that gave him happiness, including change, food, drink, sailing, music, puppies, cats, continence, and sleep. “Of all else that man may attain, none seems more worthy or more pleasing than the recognition of truth “

Medicine was the only science that made any significant progress in this period of Italy’s decline. The greatest scientists of the age spent many years in Italy as students and teachers--  Copernicus from 1496 to 1506, Vesalius from 1537 to 1546; but we must not steal from Poland and Flanders to further honor Italy. Realdo Colombo expounded the pulmonary circulation of the blood in De re Anatomica ( 1558), probably unaware that Servetus had proposed the same theory twelve years before. Colombo practised the dissection of human cadavers at Padua and Rome, apparently without ecclesiastical opposition; he seems also to have vivisected dogs. Gabrielle Fallopio, a pupil of Vesalius discovered and described the semicircular canals and the chorda tympani of the ear, and the tubes, now named after him, that bear the ova from the ovaries to the uterus. Costanzo Varoli studied the pons Varolii -- a mass of nerves on the under surface of the brain.

We have no figures as to the effects of medicine on human longevity in the Renaissance. Varoli died at thirty-two, Fallopio at forty, Colombo at forty-three, Eustacio at fifty. On the other hand Michelangelo lived to eighty-nine, Titian to ninty-nine, Luigi Carnaro to approximately a century. Born at Venice in 1467 or earlier, Luigi was rich enough to indulge in every luxury of food, drink, and love. “These excesses caused me to fall a prey to various ailments, such as pains in the stomach, frequent pains in the side, symptoms of gout-- a low fever that was almost continuous... and an unquenchable thirst. This evil condition left me nothing to hope for except that death should terminate my troubles.” When he was forty his physicians abandoned all medicaments and advised him that his only hope of recovery lay in “ a temperate and orderly life..... I was not to partake of any foods, either solid or liquid, save such as are prescribed for invalids; and of these, small quantities only. He was allowed to eat meat and drink wine, but always in mo0deration; and he soon reduced hisdaily intake to twelve ounces of food and fourteen of wine. Within a year, he tells  us, “ I found myself entirely cured of all my complaints..... I grew most healthy, and have remained so from that time to this. i.e. age eighty-three.” He found that this order and moderation of physical habits made for similar qualities and health of mind and character; his “ brain remained constantly in a clear condition;..... melancholy, hatred, and the other passions “ left him; even his aesthetic sense was sharpened, and all lovely things seemed to him now more beautiful than ever before.

He spent a quiet and comfortable old age at Padua, undertook and financed public works, and wrote at eighty-three, his autobiographical Discorsi della vita sobria.  Tintoretto has pictured him for us in a delectable  portrait:  bald head but ruddy face, eyes clear and penetrating, wrinkles spelling benevolence, white beard thinned with years, hands still revealing, so near to death, an aristocratic youth. His octogenarian vivacity encourages us as he rallies those who thought life after seventy to be a meaningless valetudinarian procrastination :

“let them come and see me, and wonder at my good health, how I mount on horseback without help, how I run upstairs and uphill, how cheerful, amusing, and contented I am, how free from care, and disagreeable thoughts. Peace and joy never quit me.... all my senses ( thank God ) are in the best condition, including the sense of taste; for I enjoy more the simple food that I now take in moderation than all the delicacies that I ate in my years of disorder... When I come home I see before me not one or two but eleven grandchildren. I take delight in hearing them sing and play on different musical instruments. My life therefore is alive, not dead; nor would I exchange my old age for the youth of such as live in the service of their passions.”

At eighty-six, “ full of health and strength” he wrote a second discourse, expressing his joy at conversion of several of his friends to his way of life. At ninety-one he added a third essay, and told how “I constantly write, and with my own hand, eight hours a day, and .... in addition to this I walk and sing for many hours... For I feel, when I leave the table, that I must sing.. Oh how beautiful and sonorous my voice has become!” At ninety-two he composed “ A loving exhortation.... to all mankind to follow the orderly and temperate life“. He looked forward to completing a century, and to an easy death through the gradual diminution of his senses, feelings, and vital spirits. he died in 1566; some say at ninety-nine, others at one hundred and three or four. His wife, we are told, obeyed his precepts, lived to nearly a century and died in “perfect ease of body and security of soul”

[Emily]

Jerome Cardan (Geronimo Cardano).......I don't understand why Durant would include this blathering, blubbering, hypocrondiac, and delusional egomanic in his history. If ever a man should be thrown in the dustbin, it should be him.

Cardano states, "An annual period of sleeplessness lasting about eighty days".

It must have been during his annual 'eighty days without sleep'  that he wrote his delusional books.

I doubt if anyone knows who this bozo was, but he was unfit to be in public no matter who he was or 'pretended to be'. Charlatans always cover up their true idenity.

Emily

[JoanK]

Wow! you really like him.

Here is a black and white version of his portrait:

http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/result.html?*sform=wellcome-images&_IXACTION_=query&%24%3Dtoday=&_IXFIRST_=1&%3Did_ref=M0013767&_IXSPFX_=templates/t&_IXFPFX_=templates/t&_IXMAXHITS_=1