Europe (c.1400-1458)

50. Italy: Venice

Italy: Venice 231 and magnificent building was speedily rebuilt by the same hands that shortly before had torn it down.619 190. Francesco Filelfo, a famous author of satires, turned to epic poetry during this time and began to write about the deeds of Sforza .620 Leodrisio Crivelli began to achieve fame in both prose and poetry.621 50 ITALY: VENICE 191. AMONG the Venetians, who wield enormous power by land and sea and have made the name of Italy famous among foreign622 nations far and wide, the son of the doge Francesco Foscari623 was driven into exile on the grounds of plotting against the state. Subsequently recalled, he was charged again with suspicion of crime and most cruelly tortured. Though he admitted no wrongdoing, he was banished to the Peloponnese and there came to the end of his wretched life.624 The son-in-law of the same doge, Andrea Donato, 619. Known today as the Castello Sforzesco. 620. Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), a famous and controversial humanist who studied in Greece and briefly taught in Florence before falling out with Cosimo de’ Medici. He spent most of the last decades of his life in Milan under Visconti and Sforza’s patronage and wrote a sixteen-book epic Latin poem, the Sforziad, in Francesco Sforza’s honor; for more on Filelfo, see Diana Robin’s article in Grendler, ER, vol. 2: 362–64. 621. Crivelli (1420–76) was Filelfo’s student; he later wrote an account of Pius II’s crusade. 622. Lit. “barbarian.” 623. Doge Francesco Foscari (1373–1457); (r. 1423–57). 624. The situation was more complex. Jacopo Foscari was first accused of accepting bribes in exchange for public offices in 1445 and banished for life to Modon in Venetian Greece. When he fell ill two years later, the republic recalled him and cancelled his sentence at his father’s request. In 1450 he was accused, on weak evidence, of murder and exiled to Crete; he did not confess to this crime, even under torture. In Crete, however, he began a secret exchange with Mehmed II in order to escape the island in 1456. He was charged in Venice, readily confessed his crime, and again was banished to Crete, this time with a year’s sentence in prison. He died six months later. See John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 334–38; Dennis Romano, The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari 1373–1457 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007). Lord Byron adapted the story in The Two Foscari (1820). 232 Italy: Venice had been named duke of Crete while governing the island on behalf of the Venetian empire, but he was summoned home, deprived of the honor, fined a large sum of money, and sent into exile.625 Ermolao, a man who held high rank and influence among the Venetians, was struck and killed by a spear as he returned home late at night from the council.626 The person who perpetrated such a wicked crime was not discovered, though an accusation was laid against the son of the doge. Francesco Barbaro, who excelled in the liberal arts and published many small works that were highly praised, departed from life at a ripe old age, having earned a distinguished reputation.627 Emperor Frederick visited Venice on his return from Rome together with his wife, King Ladislas [Postumus] of Hungary, and his whole retinue.628 He was welcomed with gladness and goodwill and heaped with unbelievable honors. 192. Francesco, the doge of this people, had ruled the city for thirty-five years to the highest acclaim. He had stolen Brescia and Bergamo from Duke Filippo of Milan and routed his troops in several places.629 He had beheaded Francesco Carmagnola, a famous commander, on suspicion of treason.630 He had also seized and killed Marsilio of Carrara, whose ancestors had long ruled as tyrants over Padua, when he attempted to claim his paternal in625 . Husband of Camilla Foscari and duke of Crete, Donato was sentenced in 1447 for accepting bribes from Francesco Sforza; see Romano, Likeness of Venice, 201–3. 626. Senator Ermolao Donato (d. 1450) was serving on the Council of the Ten when he was murdered. 627. Francesco Barbaro (1390–1454), one of Venice’s most prominent humanists and author of On Wifely Duties (c. 1416) among other works. 628. Frederick visited Venice in May 1452 with his bride, Eleonora of Portugal, and his ward, Ladislas...