Holy League Research Articles

The Tsar and the Papal Nuncio : An Awkward Interconfessional Meeting

As soon as the Apostolic Nuncio Cornelio Bentivoglio heard of Peter I’s arrival in France, he had the idea to meet him. However, without the authorisation of his hierarchy, it was impossible for him to approach this “heretical” or “schismatic” prince. Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci, in charge of Foreign Affairs at the Roman Curia, warned him to use utmost prudence. Bentivoglio had a “serious” mission to accomplish and was allowed to visit the Russian sovereign so long as he respected etiquette. In those times, an apostolic nuncio had the same rank as a representative of the emperor and was therefore entitled to special considerations. He had to observe a certain reticence towards a non-Catholic prince who did not rank highly, for the Roman Church, in the hierarchy of the great western powers because of his religious practices. Paolucci allowed him to call the tsar “majesty”, but only orally. In this case, how could he write to Peter and ask for an audience? Prudent, the nuncio waited for instructions from Clement XI. He received them on 17 May 1717, when Peter I had been in Paris for nearly two weeks. Cornelio Bentivoglio had orders to approach Kurakin first and to find a manner of meeting the tsar without compromising the order of precedence. According to the instructions, two major subjects were to be mentioned: the freedom of religious practice for all Catholics of the Russian Empire, including Uniates, and the formation of a new Holy League against the Ottomans. After long negotiations with Kurakin, the nuncio met Peter a week before his departure. The tsar attentively listened to Bentivoglio’s remarks on the religious freedom of Catholics, and of Uniates in particular, in Russia. Peter did not, however, deign to reply to the nuncio’s words and sent him to Shafirov. The latter surprised the representative of Clement XI by proposing the establishment of a nunciature in St Petersburg. Without instructions, he could not enter into such considerations. As for Peter I, he did not want to talk to Bentivoglio, too well known for his antipathy to all forms of Protestantism. The nuncio left a remarkable portrait of Peter I but was not able to refrain from criticising him for his unbridled manners. From the pen of an apostolic nuncio, such remarks resulted in a condemnation. Peter was not an interlocutor worthy of the Holy Father, while the tsar himself preferred simple clergymen, who inspired some of his reforms.

A Jesuit Missio Castrensis in France at the End of the Sixteenth Century: Discipline and Violence at War

France was a crucial testing ground for the Counter-Reformation conduct of war. In 1590–92, the Holy League appeared a receptive field for the model of an ideal “Christian soldier,” and a Jesuit apostolate to an army at war and some examples of missio castrensis were therefore attempted in France, or in close contact with French battlefields. In particular, a Jesuit mission was established for the papal troops sent to support the Duke of Mayenne (1554–1611), and the Holy League. An earlier Jesuit mission to the troops of Alessandro Farnese in the Low Countries served as an inspiration to the Leaguers, the more so as on two occasions he led his soldiers into France to help them. As shown in numerous writings coming from the radical and urban circles of the League, as well as from the clergy engaged alongside the soldiers and urban militias in certain towns, the Christian soldier model was welcomed. However, no formal religious service was introduced within Mayenne’s army, and the Jesuit project ended in failure, largely because the expected discipline and moral reform of soldiers’ behavior failed to materialize. The failure of the mission is equally highlighted by the levels of violence during the war.

Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and the Shifting <em>Telos</em> of Traveling Libraries

The large collection assembled by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1503–1575) in his residence in Venice, a city that Charles V had the political imperative to keep within the Holy League, included an impressive range of objects: books and manuscripts, but also antiquities and paintings. By placing Hurtado de Mendoza in the context of specific Venetian trends of book-collecting and antiquarianism—with particular regards to the Greek library of Bessarion and its other public competitors of the time—this article argues that, rather than thinking of the archive as a collection of passive objects amassed and wielded by a sovereign agent for rivalry or anticlericalism, it makes more sense, both materially and historically, to think of the library as a networked assemblage of objects that are themselves mutable and “in motion” at all levels.

Two Marian Iconographic Themes in the Face of Islam on the Adriatic Coast in the Early Modern Period

This paper analyzes the Islamic presence in the paintings of Marian iconography between the 16th and the 18th centuries on both sides of the Adriatic coast, or more precisely the iconography of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of the Rosary, two themes equally and frequently represented in the above mentioned territory. In the first part of the paper we discuss the presence and the role of the famous Arab astrologist Albumasar, active in the 9th century, and the Prophet Muhammad in the context of the iconographic theme of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception, as well as the origin and the meaning of the inscriptions on their scrolls which serve as the interpretative key to understanding the role of the two Arab figures in the context of this particular Marian iconography. In the second part of this essay we analyze the iconography of Our Lady of the Rosary which, after the Battle of Lepanto, acquires a clear political value (when representatives of the Holy League are inserted into the paintings) to become explicitly anti-Ottoman in the 18th century.

Une source pour l'histoire de la campagne de Kamieniec en 1689

The campaign of Kamieniec, the year 1689 is part of the armed conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the states members of the Holy League - the Republic of Poland, the Holy Empire and the Republic of Venice - which took place in the years 1684-1699.

Udział wojska litewskiego w wojnie polsko-tureckiej w latach 1684-1699

The article constitutes an attempt to describe the participation of Lithuanian forces in the warfare with Turks and Tatars from 1684 to 1699, i.e. from the formation of The Ho-ly League until the Karłowice Treaty. In particular, the author describes the campaigns in Podole, Ukraine, and Northern Moldavia and then analyzes them in a broader political and social context of Polish-Lithuanian State at the end of 17th century.

Erasmus and the War-Poets in 1513

During Erasmus’ English residence 1509–1514, Henry viii invaded France, as part of the “Holy League,” and, in the English king’s absence, England was attacked by Scotland. The events engendered a great quantity of poetry, as well as other writing: analyzed herein particularly are the verse contributions of Erasmus himself, his amicus Andrea Ammonio, Pietro Carmeliano, Camillo Paleotti, and Bernard André (the poems of these last two being edited and translated in appendices). This poetry in its context of events, both literary and political, influenced the anti-war writings that Erasmus was conceiving at the time, though he only published them later.

“Rather with Papists than with Turks”

This article examines the reception in England of news of the victory of the Holy League over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571, and suggests its utility as a window on patterns of confessional relations and religious identity-formation in Elizabethan England. A sense of common Christian identity, manifested by extensive public rejoicing in London, co-existed with attempts by both Protestants and Catholics to use the image of “the Turk” to disparage their opponents. But the equation of Pope and Turk was increasingly portrayed as an instinct of fractious Puritanism, and its rejection was increased by the appearance of James VI and I’s poem on the battle.

Patronage and Humanist Literature in the Age of the Jagiellons: Court and Career in the Writings of Rudolf Agricola Junior, Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox by Jacqueline Glomski (review)

REVIEWS 741 givingbalanced treatment to all majorregionaland imperialactorsin the region: theCrimeanKhanatewhichdependedmostly on theconsideration of theOttomanSultans;theNogai,who overtwocenturies lostmuchoftheir influence; the Kalmyks, who to some extentassumedtheirpositionin the seventeenth century; theCossacks,whosecommunities had evolvedsincethe late fifteenth century along thelargerrivers, particularly theDon Cossacks and theZaporozhianHost,and sincethemid-seventeenth century theUkrainian CossackHetmanate;thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whichlost influence during thecourseoftheseventeenth century, and lastbutnotleast MuscoviteRussia. To investigate and describethe interaction of all these actorsin an area whichis, forgeographical reasonsalone, alreadyhighly complex(further and more detailedmaps than the two includedshould havebeen added)requires extensive research and higherudition. Davies has fulfilled his task superbly.The book can be recommendedto historians withvariousscholarly interests: thosewho are interested in theprocessesof (military) colonization willfind important chapters on theso-called Abatisand theBelgorodLine or on garrison towns;social historians willfinddetailed information on socialgroupssuchas theodnoduortsy' historians ofUkrainewill acknowledge thatDavies has takenthemostimportant Ukrainianhistorical literature intoconsideration (e.g.inhistreatment ofthePereiaslav agreement); military historians willreadwithinterest abouttheMuscovite wagenburg tactics, different commandstructures and foreign formations inRussia'sarmy.In the lastthird oftheseventeenth century, Muscovite Russiaabandoneditspolitical isolationand became morethana regionalpoliticalactorby participating in the Holy League againstthe OttomanEmpire.In 1696 Russian and Ukrainiansoldierssuccessfully laid siege to the Ottomanfortress of Azov, locatedat themouthoftheDon. Although thisis an accountofa worldfarremovedfrom thepresent day, Davies's volumenevertheless contains muchthatcouldbe valuablyappliedto our understanding of thecomplexities of contemporary Polish,Lithuanian, Russianand Ukrainian political relations. Historisches Seminar Universität Freiburg G. Hausmann Glomski,Jacqueline. Patronage andHumanist Literature in the Ageofthe Jagiellons: Courtand Careerin theWritings ofRudolfAgricola Junior,Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox.University ofTorontoPress,Toronto,ON, Buffalo, NY and London,2007. xiv + 336 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Appendices. $75.00:£45.00. Despite thepatronageofRenaissanceartand architecture by Sigismund I (1506-48),Cracowwas nota hospitable place forwandering humanists inthe earlysixteenth century. The springs ofcourtpatronageweredrunkdryby royalservants suchasJustus LudovicusDecius andJohannes Dantiscus, while theuniversity itself was onlybeginning to reform itscurriculum. The present 742 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO worktracesthefortunes ofthree poetae and teachers whoworkedin Cracow in and aroundtheseconddecade ofthesixteenth century: RudolfAgricola (nottobe confused withtheDutchhumanist ofthesamename)and Valentin Eck,bothofwhomoriginally hailedfromsouth-western Germany, and the Englishman, Leonard Cox. Through theirprodigiousoutputthese three helpedintroduce the normsof Italianateneo-Latinliterature to a part of CentralEurope. Glomskigivesus herenot so mucha biographical accountof thethree scholars as a guideto humanist practice.Her study consists ofthreesections thatarerespectively entitled 'Careerism inCracow','Hero-Making3, and 'The Need forImmediateProduction'.Glomskiexplainsthetypesof dedicatory and commendatory poem thatmight be appendedto a workto winovera patronorpublisher. Forpatrons, panegyrics shouldfollow a standard format ofenumerato (recounting theprospective patron'sdeeds),comparano (comparing theseto theaccomplishments ofclassicalheroes), praeteritio (begging to leave outthepatron'smerits becausethey wereso many, buttelling themanyway), dubitatio (claiming an insufficiency oftalent with whichtorecount thesemerits), andnarratio (relating stories thatillustrated thepatron's virtues). Forpublishers, commendatory poemsmightbe enlisted eitherfrom well-known scholarsor fromstudents themselves, fortheseconstituted the marketforthe bulkof humanist texts. In thecase ofthelatter, itwasparticularly important thatthe commendation dwelton thework's brevity. Butitwasseldomenoughtorelate in formulaic fashiontheachievements ofprospective sponsors. The patrons themselves had tobe rendered heroic,and givenillustrious pedigrees. Alexius Thurzó,patronofEck,was descendedfrom insignificant Hungariangentry, butEck,bycouplingThurzóto theLatintursio (porpoise), was able to arrive at an ancestry thatwentback to Neptune.At thesame time,theneedsof themomenthad to be addressedand humanists preparedto use theirpen to extolan event,promotea policy,or urgea dynastic alliance.Glomski's accountof humanist practicein Cracow is supported by seventy scholarly pagesofnotesthatgivelengthy quotations from texts toillustrate thestyle and technique ofhersubjects. Eck,Agricolaand Cox were,however, largely unsuccessful in theirsearch forpatronage.Cracow University was not fully'laicized' and so salaried opportunities werefewthere. Although Glomski provides detailedevidenceas to whomthethreehumanists soughtoutforpatronage, we cannotknowfor surejust how successful theywerein obtaining preferment. The careersof Eck,Agricolaand Cox suggest thatdespitesome earlygainstheymade no greatbreakthrough intocourtpatronage norobtainedsustained support from theheroeswhosedeeds theyenumerated and whosepoliciestheyextolled. Agricolathusspenthislastyears(he died in 152 1,aged thirty) lamenting his impecuniousness and wishing to return to Lake Constance;Eck wentoffto Hungaryto teach in the school at Bártfa(Bardejov)beforebecomingthe town'smayor;and Cox spentsomeyearsas a schoolteacher in neighbouring Löcse (Levoca)before returning, via Cracow,toEnglandand totheheadship of Reading School in Berkshire. It was therethathe publishedhis most importantwork, TheArteorCrafle ofRhetoryke (1530). reviews 743 Hungaryis normallycontrasted badly with its early sixteenth-century neighbours. It had no university and,after the1470s, no printing press.Most ofitsmagnates wereboorsand eventhoseholdinghighjudicial office were frequently illiterate. Hungary's greatest Renaissanceachievement, thelibrary gathered byMatthiasCorvinus, gathered dustafter hisdeathin 1490.It is all themorecurious, therefore, thatall threeofGlomski's humanists shouldhave spentsucha considerable...

Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500–1700. Warfare and History by Brian L. Davies (review)

740 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2010 Obsidio Iadrensis, Opsada^adra. Edited and translatedby Veljko Gortan, Branimir Glavicic,VladimirVratovic, Damir Karbic,MiroslavKurelac and Zoran Ladic. MonumentaSpectantiaHistoriamSlavorumMeridionalium ,54. CroatianAcademyof Sciences and Arts,Zagreb, 2007. Notes.Indexes.Facsimiles. 341pp. + 78 fols.HRK 200. The seriesMonumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium began publicationinZagrebin 1868,intheyearoftheNagodba. Despiteitstide,theseries was alwaysconcerned withthepublication ofhistorical sourcesilluminating Croatianhistory. Inevitably, itsearlyfecundity driedup to a trickle in both thefirst and secondYugoslavia,while- in one ofthevagariesofYugoslav nationalities policy - official supportwas in the 1950sput behinda rival series, Monumenta Turcica Spectantia etc.,published in Sarajevo. Following the re-establishment oftheCroatianAcademyofSciencesand Artsin 1991,the series waseffectively re-launched. In 2002,theAcademy published a collection of sourceson the history of fourteenth-century Splitunderthe Monumenta imprint. This latestwork,a contemporary accountoftheVenetiansiegeof Zadar in 1345-46,is itsimmediate successor. The volumeincludesa critical editionoftheoriginal Latintext,a paralleltranslation intoCroatian,a facsimile oftheearliest extant version ofthetext, and several introductory essays, in Croatianand English, thatexplorethehistorical background to thesiege, thepossibleidentity oftheauthorand hisstyle and grammar. UCL SSEES Martyn Rady Davies, Brian L. Warfare, Stateand Society on theBlack Sea Steppe, 1500-iyoo. Warfare and History. Routledge, Londonand NewYork,2007.xv+ 256 pp. Maps. Notes.Bibliography. Index.£22.99 (paperback). The blackearthforest-steppe and thesteppenorthoftheBlack Sea was a frontier zone fortheEast Slavicforest people(thepeopleofmedievalKievan Rus') sincemedievaltimes.Conflict had dominatedhere overcooperation and culturalexchangewithvariousTurkicpastoralpeople. After themidsixteenth century, afterMuscoviteRussia's conquestof the Khanates of Kazan' and Astrakhan had secureditssouth-eastern frontier, the southern frontier remainedthe mostcontestedfrontier zone forMuscoviteRussia, followed onlybyRussia'swestern borderzone.Thischangedprofoundly only withtheconquestof thenorthern shoreoftheBlack Sea by Russia under Catherine II in thesecondhalfoftheeighteenth century. The authorofthiswonderful newbook,BrianL. Davies from theUniversity ofTexas at San Antonio, explores howthethreat oftheCrimeanKhanatestimulated Muscovite Russiatoimprove itsmilitary organization alongits longand opensouthern frontier. Thisis initself an ambitious task.The story has neveryetbeenfully written inWestern historiography, butDavies'sbook offers farmorethanit initially setsout to achieve,by presenting a multidimensional accountoftheblackearthforest-steppe and stepperegionfrom around1500to Russia'sconquestoftheportofAzov in 1696.It does so by REVIEWS 741 givingbalanced treatment to all majorregionaland imperialactorsin the region: theCrimeanKhanatewhichdependedmostly on theconsideration of theOttomanSultans;theNogai,who overtwocenturies lostmuchoftheir influence; the Kalmyks, who to some extentassumedtheirpositionin the seventeenth century; theCossacks,whosecommunities had evolvedsincethe late fifteenth century along thelargerrivers, particularly theDon Cossacks and theZaporozhianHost,and sincethemid-seventeenth century theUkrainian CossackHetmanate;thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whichlost influence during thecourseoftheseventeenth century, and lastbutnotleast MuscoviteRussia. To investigate and describethe interaction of all these actorsin an area whichis, forgeographical reasonsalone, alreadyhighly complex(further and more detailedmaps than the two includedshould havebeen added)requires extensive research and higherudition. Davies has fulfilled his task superbly.The book can be recommendedto historians withvariousscholarly interests: thosewho are interested in theprocessesof (military) colonization willfind important chapters on theso-called Abatisand theBelgorodLine or on garrison towns;social historians willfinddetailed information on socialgroupssuchas theodnoduortsy' historians ofUkrainewill acknowledge thatDavies has takenthemostimportant Ukrainianhistorical literature intoconsideration (e.g.inhistreatment ofthePereiaslav agreement); military historians willreadwithinterest abouttheMuscovite wagenburg tactics, different commandstructures and foreign formations inRussia'sarmy.In the lastthird oftheseventeenth century, Muscovite Russiaabandoneditspolitical isolationand became morethana regionalpoliticalactorby participating in the Holy League againstthe OttomanEmpire.In 1696 Russian and Ukrainiansoldierssuccessfully laid siege to the Ottomanfortress of Azov, locatedat themouthoftheDon. Although thisis an accountofa worldfarremovedfrom thepresent day, Davies's volumenevertheless contains muchthatcouldbe valuablyappliedto our understanding of thecomplexities of contemporary Polish,Lithuanian, Russianand Ukrainian political relations. Historisches Seminar Universität Freiburg G. Hausmann Glomski,Jacqueline. Patronage andHumanist Literature in the Ageofthe Jagiellons: Courtand Careerin theWritings ofRudolfAgricola Junior,Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox.University ofTorontoPress,Toronto,ON, Buffalo, NY and London,2007. xiv + 336 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Appendices. $75.00:£45.00. Despite thepatronageofRenaissanceartand architecture by Sigismund I (1506-48),Cracowwas nota hospitable place forwandering humanists inthe earlysixteenth century. The springs ofcourtpatronageweredrunkdryby royalservants suchasJustus LudovicusDecius andJohannes Dantiscus, while theuniversity itself was onlybeginning to reform itscurriculum. The present ...

"Are we turned Turks?": English Pageants and the Stuart Court

early June 1613, Queen Anne made a westward progress, stopping for a few days in Bristol. Part of the entertainment that greeted her was a sea battle, allegedly between Christian and Turkish forces. some ways this pageant recalls the 1574 entertainment in Bristol for Queen Elizabeth, but with the striking difference of the Turks. This paper tries to answer why Turks should be represented in this and several other pageants in the Stuart period by situating the pageants in the context of the English understanding of the threats and attractions of the emerging Ottoman Empire. the early days of Elizabeth's reign, the church issued A Fourme to be used in Common prayer every Wednesday and Fridaye, which attempted to pray for a victory over the Turks in the siege of Malta. The service, used in celebration, closed with this prayer: Almightye and everlyving God ... we thy disobedient and rebellious children, howe by the juste judgemente sore afflicted and in great daunger to be oppressed, by thine and our sworne and most deadlye enemyes the Turkes, Infidels, and Miscreantes, doe make humble sute to the throne of thy grace for thy mercye. The prayer characterizes the Turks as impure, wicked, and abhominable lyre. The Turk goeth aboute to set up, to extol, and to magnify that wicked monster and damned soule Mahumet. (1) Although Queen Elizabeth herself sought to have favorable relations with the Ottoman Empire, the prayer probably captures considerable public sentiment about the Turks. And James, author of the celebratory poem Lepanto, which sees the Turks in bleak terms, does not interrupt the prejudice against the Turks, even though trade with them began to flourish during his reign. James's first year in England saw the republication of Lepanto and, perhaps more important, Richard Knolles's Generall Historie of the Turkes, which underscored antipathy toward this group. The Christian resistance to the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century gained its singular reference point in the Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571, which pitted European forces, organized by Pope Pius V, against the Turkish navy, which had earlier captured Cyprus from the Venetians, except for Famagusta, which lay under siege for months. The forces of Sultan Selim II had invaded Cyprus in 1570 in an attempt to drive the Venetians out of the eastern Mediterranean. Such action rallied the pope, the Spanish, and the Venetian Republic to form a Holy League under the military leadership of Don Juan of Austria, illegitimate half-brother of the Spanish king Phillip II. This enterprise satisfied the pope's desire to war against the infidel and thus protect western Europe from further encroachment by the Ottoman expansionist zealots. The European forces began to gather in Messina, Sicily, in July 1571; Don Juan arrived in August. They learned that the Turkish navy had stationed itself in the Gulf of Lepanto, near Corfu, Greece; and the European navy therefore set its sights on an encounter there. The Christian fleet of 208 galleys completely defeated the Turks on that single day in October, capturing 180 out of the 274 Turkish ships and thereby freeing thousands of Christian prisoners. Don Juan confronted Ali Basha, the opposing commander, boarded his ship, and captured the Turks. A common solider killed and beheaded All Basha, whose head was then fixed to the masthead of Don Juan's galley. This total victory did not last long; within a year the Turks had regrouped and captured the Spanish protectorate of Tunis. In 1573 the Venetians, working independently of the League, negotiated a separate peace with the Ottomans, ceding Cyprus and a large indemnity in return for the reestablishment of trade. (2) Thus the Battle of Lepanto represented a tactical, not a strategic, victory for the Christian forces. (3) But that realization did not dim enthusiasm for and idealization of this battle, which lingered in the English imagination, although England had had no involvement in the battle whatsoever. …

Henry VII, France and the Holy League of Venice: the diplomacy of balance

This article discusses Henry VII's reaction to Charles VIII's 1494 invasion of Italy and conquest of Naples, and it examines the complex negotiations leading up to Henry's July 1496 entry into the Holy League of Venice, which had been formed seventeen months earlier to force the French from Italy. The article challenges the standard view that Henry was not concerned about the French conquest of Naples because he thought Italy too distant from England, and it refutes the idea of some historians that Henry encouraged Charles to invade. It also questions the view that Henry joined the Holy League only as a means to strengthen his political ties with leading European powers better to secure his dynasty, and only after he was exempted from the League's military and financial obligations. This article shows that Henry had a perceptive understanding of Italian affairs, and that he wanted a unified League that could counterbalance French power and deter another French invasion of Italy.

Narrating the Ineffable Lepanto: The Austrias carmen of Joannes Latinus (Juan Latino)

In his two-book epic poem, the Austrias carmen , Joannes Latinus (Juan Latino) chronicles the Battle of Lepanto and asserts himself as a worthy heir to Virgil. Along the way, the poet grapples with the age-old poetic question of how to narrate heroic actions undertaken to build or buttress empires. A former slave who gained fame as a Latin professor in Granada, Latinus crafted his epic in a manner that both celebrates the Holy League victory over the feared Ottoman navy and mourns war’s steep human toll. Unsettling opening verses invoke a militant Spanish Catholicism hardened during Granada’s bitter civil war, the Second Revolt of the Alpujarras (1568–1570). Yet as the poem focuses on Lepanto, it looks past the militant Catholicism of the day, highlighting cultural reference points that link Christians and Muslims across the Mediterranean. In fact, the poem’s emotional highpoint centers on the death of the admired Ottoman admiral, Ali Pasha. Spanish troops display his severed head as a trophy on the captured Turkish flagship. At this point, narrated action pauses as the poetic voice records the moment Ali Pasha’s two sons see this horrific sight. In the poem’s longest passage of direct discourse, the brothers lament their father’s death and ponder their own future as slaves of their Christian adversaries. This elegy for the fallen Turkish commander prompts closing reflections about how Latinus positions the Austrias carmen within the epic canon.

The ceremonial city: history, memory and myth in Renaissance Venice

This wide-ranging study vividly presents the major events that took place in Venice in the 1570s, culminating in a deadly outbreak of the plague that claimed one-quarter of the Venetian population. Analyzing reactions to this dramatic decade, Iain Fenlon throws fresh light on the historical machine that produced the distinct civic and cultural ethos of the city and uncovers new aspects of its urban topography, ceremony, and cultural life. At the heart of the book is a detailed account of four historical events: the formation of the Holy League, a coalition that brought the Republic into conflict with the Ottoman Empire; the victory of that League against the Turkish fleet at the battle of Lepanto; the ceremonial welcoming of Henry III of France to the city in 1574; and the devastating plague of 1575--77. The author considers how these events, above all the victory at Lepanto, were reconfigured in the realms of memory and myth, and he describes in detail a religious matrix that provides the key to the civic ethos of the city in this era.

Jan Onghers tézislapterve. Kísérlet egy dicsőítő allegória újabb meghatározására

Abstract The topic of analysis is a high-quality piece in the little-known oeuvre of the Netherland artist Jan Onghers (1656–1735). The pen drawing of excellent composition and linearity was fundamentally dictated by Franciscan themes based on Biblical and theological parallels, around 1699–1700. At first sight, the Peace of Karlóca concluded with celestial help is perpetuated by it, the triumphal procession emphasizing the victory of the Holy League and the merits of the emperor and the pope, and also indicating the major events of the liberation of Hungary. The iconographic program of the drawing is hard to decipher for want of sufficient captions; its earlier brief interpretations resigned from any attempt to do so. There was hesitation in defining the genre and some details were misinterpreted totally. It was therefore expedient to put it to thorough examination. As the sign indicates, the sheet was made in Prague where Onghers spent most of his life. It is not impossible that the precedents are to be found in Lotharingian and French court art and among the works of another Prague-based artist, Karel Škréta. On the basis of some details drawn in reverse and the examination of the material it is almost certain that the sheet is the preliminary drawing for an engraving, and the identification of the few quotation fragments confirms that it was a university thesis sheet that is latent at present or was never completed. Since the thesis sheets were normally designed by artists of the locality of the university (or college), the artist was probably commissioned by a student and professor of Prague university. Among the thesis sheets of students taking examinations in the faculty of arts two sheets by Onghers survive: no. 387 from 1702 (engraved by Augustinus Neurautter) and no. 181 from 1705 (engraver: F. v. Pütt). The former is not onlycloser to the studied sheet in time but it also displays similar details. Its composition was inspired by Skreta's philosophical thesis sheet of 1672 for which he borrowed some allegorical female figures and saints from his own earlier works. Its theme is presumably the system of virtues and vices in the second part (Secunda Secundae) of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae as well as the Immaculata Conceptio defended by Duns Scotus. The patron was probably Leopold I or his son Joseph I sitting by his side in the most accentuated section of the triumphal procession. In view of the theme, it was probably at some theological faculty (?) in the course of which a student belonging to the Capuchins propounded the tenets harmonizing the Tomist and Scotist views and advocating Mary's exemption from the original sin. For the time being, the place of the examination, the identity and origin of the student cannot be determined. The known archival sources suggest that Prague university was beyond the scope of the peregrinations of Hungarian friars at that time. Because of the Hungarian implications of the sheet, the student should be searched among 17th century Hungarians studying in the Austrian province of the Jesuit order but in the surviving court lists there is only one student taking an exam under the emperor's patronage (“sub auspiciis imperatoris”). His thesis sheet does not survive and no detail of the pen drawing can be related to his coat of arms. Nothing proves the Hungarian origin of the candidate, and besides, it is also presumable that it is not a singular sheet on which usually the figure of the candidate and his coat of arms (if any) were also depicted but an unfilled form usable several times, which became increasingly fashionable from the turn of the century.

Marlowe's Guise: Offending Against God and King

Argues that a syntactical ambiguity in Christopher Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris during the scene of the murder of the Duke of Guise signals the text's intertextual engagement with two prior French tragedies presenting that event from the point of view of the Holy League: La Guisiade, by Pierre Matthieu, and Le Guysien, by Simon Belyard.

Victory of the West: the great Christian-Muslim clash at the Battle of Lepanto

On the morning of October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Lepanto on the Ionian Sea, the vast and heavily-manned fleets of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League clashed in one of the most significant battles in history. By four oclock that afternoon the sea was red with blood. It was a victory of the west-the first major victory of Europeans against the Ottoman Empire. In this compelling piece of narrative history, Niccolo Capponi describes the clash of cultures that led to this crucial confrontation and takes a fresh look at the bloody struggle at sea between oared fighting galleys and determined men of faith. As a description of the age-old conflict between Christianity and Islam, it is a story that resonates today.

Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto (review)

Reviewed by: Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto Gábo Ágoston Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto. By Niccolò Capponi . New York: Pan Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 1-4050-4588-4. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxxvi, 411. $27.50. Niccolò Capponi has written an excellent book on the battle of Lepanto, the last major naval combat of rowing fleets in the Mediterranean, fought on October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Patras between the Ottomans and the alliance of Christian powers, known as the Holy League, who aimed at recapturing Cyprus, conquered by the Ottomans the previous year. The fight–called the battle of Curzolaris by contemporaneous Venetians and Niccolò Capponi, since it took place some forty nautical miles west of Lepanto around the Curzolaris islands—ended with the stunning victory of the Holy League fleet and the almost total destruction of the Ottoman navy. However, it seemed as though Lepanto had altered the balance of power in the Mediterranean little. By the spring of 1572, the Ottomans had built 134 new vessels, complete with artillery, and had a navy of some 250 galleys and several smaller ships at their disposal. They continued to hold Cyprus, and the Holy League collapsed as Venice concluded a treaty with the Ottomans in March 1573 and as Spanish resources were redirected to meet new challenges in the Netherlands. Yet, Niccolò Capponi, following earlier historians (notably Fernand Braudel), is right to underline that the battle stopped further Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, and that the Ottomans' "rebuilt fleet was unable to dominate the Mediterranean as before" (p. 320), despite their recapture of Tunis in 1574. The bulk of Capponi's monograph (pp. 1-253, 287-320) deals with the diplomatic and military context of the confrontation, the intricacies of the Christian alliance, the Cyprus war, and the aftermath of the combat, whereas the battle gets only some 30 pages (pp. 253-86). While the strength of this [End Page 223] book is its author's remarkable familiarity with the relevant Italian and Spanish sources, Capponi, unlike some recent studies (e.g., those by Hugh Bicheno and Angus Konstam), also used Ottoman sources and specialized studies by Ottomanist historians, and tried to provide a balanced treatment of the opponents' strategies, tactics, strengths and weaknesses. The most rewarding part for this reader was the splendid examination of the opposing navies' ships, weaponry, crews and recruitment methods (chapter 7). Although Capponi is cautiously skeptical of military technology, he does not deny its role. In his reading, the "reasons for the Christian victory at the Curzolaris include: galleass fire, better tactical use of artillery, harquebuses, body protection and Ottoman overconfidence…[and] that the allies largely succeeded in stopping the Ottomans from exploiting their skill in hand-to-hand fighting" (pp. 320-1). Ottomanists would add that the sultan's fleet was exhausted as a result of the unusually early start (March 16) of the 1571 campaign, and that most Ottoman galleys were undermanned due to the losses in that campaign and to the fact that many of the soldiers aboard the coastal beys' ships had already left for the winter. More extensive use of Ottoman sources will certainly change many details of the narrative. Based on Ottoman imperial orders and "campaign daybooks," for instance, idris Bostan has recently reconstructed the itineraries of the Ottoman navy during the 1570 and 1571 naval campaigns, correcting inaccuracies and clarifying uncertainties repeated by western historians, including Capponi. According to Bostan, the sultan's navy left Istanbul in three groups (in March, April 26, and May 16) led respectively by Murad Reis, Piyale Pasha, and Lala Mustafa Pasha (accompanied by Müezzinzade Ali Pasha); the three fleets of 256 ships of various types (and not 400 vessels as reported by western sources) joined on June 5 at Rhodes; started to land troops near Limassol on July 2, whereas the main army landed two days later near Larnaca. They captured Nicosia on September 9, and took some 20,000 prisoners, of whom 13,719 were listed in a pençyek-register, containing one-fifth of booty belonging to the...

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