showing her various dagger grips; so that the poor woman was in torment and thought that the hour was a thousand years until she was rid of him, almost in fear lest he kill her, too, like those others. Such errors are incurred by those who pay no heed to circumstances, which you say you’ve heard from the friars.

“And so I say that among physical exercises some are never performed except in public, like jousting, tourneying, hurling reeds, and all the others connected with weaponry. And so, since our courtier has to take part in these, he must first strive to be so well furnished with regard to horses, weapons, and clothing that nothing is lacking; and, if he feels he’s not completely well furnished, he mustn’t participate in any way, because, if he doesn’t perform well, he can’t say to excuse himself that this isn’t his profession. Further, he must consider seriously in whose presence he performs and who his companions are; because it wouldn’t be proper for a nobleman to go and honor with his person a rural festivity where the spectators and companions are lowborn folk.”

Then Lord Gasparo Pallavicino said: “In our region, Lombardy, we don’t have those constraints; rather, there are many young noblemen who dance at parties with rustics all day in the open air, and compete with them at hurling the bar, wrestling, running, and jumping; and I don’t think it’s wrong, because it isn’t a contest of high birth that is being made there, but one of strength and skill, at which matters rural men often are just as good as noblemen; and that chumminess seems to have a certain pleasing liberality in it.” “Such dancing outdoors,” Master Federico rejoined, “I cannot like at all, nor do I know what profit you see in it. But if someone insists on wrestling, running, and jumping with peasants, I think he should do it so as to test himself and, as the expression goes, out of condescendence, and not in order to compete with them; and the fellow ought to be almost sure of winning, or else he shouldn’t participate; because it’s too improper and ugly a thing, beneath one’s dignity, to see a nobleman bested by a peasant, especially at wrestling: and so I believe it’s well to refrain from that, at least where there are many onlookers, because the profit in victory is almost nil and the loss in being beaten is tremendous.” [. . .]

18. Guicciardini (1483–1540): Florentine Histories & History of Italy

(A) Thus Brother Girolamo Savonarola was killed with dishonor; with regard to whose merits it won’t be irrelevant to speak more at length;

lità sua; perché né l’età nostra né anche e nostri padri, e avoli non viddono mai uno religioso sì bene instructo di molte virtù né con tanto credito e autorità quanto fu in lui. Confessano eziandio gli avversarii suoi lui essere stato dottissimo in molte facultà, massime in filosofia, la quale possedeva sì bene e se ne valeva sì a ogni suo proposito, come se avessi fattala lui; ma sopra tutto nella Scrittura sacra, in che si crede già qualche secolo non essere stato uomo pari a lui. Ebbe uno giudicio grandissimo non solo nelle lettere, ma ancora nelle cose agibili del mondo, negli universali delle quali si intese assai, come a giudicio mio dimostrano le prediche sue; nella quale arte trapassò con queste virtù di gran lunga gli altri della età sua, aggiugnendosigli una eloquenzia non artificiosa e sforzata, ma naturale e facile; e vi ebbe drento tanta audienzia e credito che fu cosa mirabile, avendo predicato tanti anni continuamente, non solo le quaresime, ma molti dì festivi dello anno, in una città piena di ingegni sottilissimi e anche fastidiosi, e dove e predicatori, benché eccellenti, sogliono, al più lungo termine da una quaresima o due in là, rincrescere. E furono in lui sì chiare e manifeste queste virtù che vi concordano drento così gli avversarii suoi come e fautori e seguaci. [. . .]

(B) Ma più maravigliosa ancora è stata la navigazione degli Spagnuoli, cominciata l’anno mille quattrocento novanta . . . per invenzione di Cristoforo Colombo genovese. Il quale, avendo molte volte navigato per il mare Oceano, e congetturando, per l’osservazione di certi venti, quel che poi veramente gli succedette, impetrati dai re di Spagna certi legni, e navigando verso l’occidente, scoperse, in capo di trentatré dì, nell’ultime estremità del nostro emisperio, alcune isole, delle quali prima niuna notizia s’aveva; felici per il sito del cielo, per la fertilità della terra, e perché, da certe popolazioni fierissime in fuora che si cibano de’ corpi umani, quasi tutti gli abitatori, semplicissimi di costumi e contenti di quel che produce la benignità della natura, non sono tormentati né da avarizia né da ambizione; ma infelicissime, perché, non avendo gli uomini né certa religione né notizia di lettere, non perizia di artificii, non armi, non arte di guerra, non scienza, non esperienza alcuna delle cose, sono, quasi non altrimenti che animali mansueti, facilissima preda di chiunque gli assalta. Onde allettati gli Spagnuoli dalla facilità dell’occuparle e dalla ricchezza della preda, perché in esse sono state trovate vene abbondantissime d’oro, cominciorno molti di loro come in domicilio proprio ad abitarvi: e penetrato Cristoforo Colombo più oltre, e doppo lui Amerigo Vespucci fiorentino, e successivamente molti altri, hanno scoperte altre isole e

because neither our generation nor even our fathers’ and grandfathers’ has ever seen a friar so well endowed with many virtues, nor enjoying such repute and authority as were his. Even his adversaries admit that he was very learned in many disciplines, especially in philosophy, which he knew as well, and made as good use of whenever it was relevant, as if he had invented it himself; but above all in Holy Scripture, in which it’s believed that for some centuries now he has had no equal. His judgment was wonderful not only in literature, but also in practical worldly matters, all of which he understood perfectly, as his sermons show, in my opinion. In that art, with such merits, he far surpassed the others of his generation, because to those other merits he added an eloquence that was not artificial and forced, but natural and easy-flowing; and his sermons were attended by such great crowds, and were so highly regarded, that it was a marvel, since he had preached continually for so many years not only Lenten sermons, but those for many holy days during the year, in a city filled with extremely subtle and even pretentious intellects, where preachers, excellent as they may be, usually become tiresome beyond one or two Lenten sermons. And these merits were so clear and manifest in him that his enemies as well as his partisans and followers are in agreement about them. [. . .]

(B) But even more wonderful was the navigation of the Spaniards, begun in the year fourteen hundred and ninety . . . with the discoveries of Christopher Columbus of Genoa. He, having sailed the Atlantic many times, and conjecturing through the observation of certain winds that which later actually befell him, requested and received certain vessels from the king of Spain and, sailing westward, discovered, after thirty-three days, at the farthest reaches of our globe, some islands that had been completely unknown before; islands fortunate in their climatic location, in the fertility of their soil, and because, except for some very fierce tribes that feed on human bodies, nearly all the inhabitants, very simple in their ways and contented with that which a benign nature produces, are tormented neither by avarice nor by ambition; but islands most unfortunate because, the people having no firm religion and no knowledge of letters, no skill in machinery, no weapons, no art of war, no science, no experience of worldly matters, are, almost the same as meek animals, a most easy prey to anyone attacking them. Therefore, many of the Spaniards, lured by the ease of occupying those islands and by the richness of the booty (because extremely abundant seams of gold have been found in them), began to dwell there as if at home. Exploring further, Christopher Columbus, and after him, Amerigo Vespucci of Florence, and many others in succession discovered other islands and

grandissimi paesi di terraferma; e in alcuni di essi (benché in quasi tutti il contrario e nell’edificare pubblicamente e privatamente e nel vestire e nel conversare) costumi e pulitezza civile; ma tutte genti imbelli e facili a essere predate; ma tanto spazio di paesi nuovi che sono, senza comparazione, maggiore spazio che l’abitato che prima era notizia nostra. Ne’ quali distendendosi con nuove genti e con nuove navigazioni gli Spagnuoli, e ora cavando oro e argento delle vene che sono in molti luoghi e dell’arene de’ fiumi, ora comperandone per prezzo di cose vilissime dagli abitanti, ora rubando il già accumulato, n’hanno condotto nella Spagna infinita quantità; navigandovi privatamente, benché con licenza del re e a spese proprie, molti, ma dan-done ciascuno al re la quinta parte di tutto quello che o cavava o altrimenti gli perveniva nelle mani.

Anzi è proceduto tanto oltre l’ardire degli Spagnuoli che alcune navi, essendosi distese verso mezzodì cinquantatré gradi, sempre lungo la costa di terraferma, e di poi entrate in uno stretto mare, e da quello per amplissimo pelago navigando nello oriente, e poi ritornando per la navigazione che fanno i Portogallesi, hanno, come apparisce manifestissimamente, circuito tutta la terra. Degni, e i Portoghesi e gli Spagnuoli, e precipuamente Colombo inventore di questa più maravigliosa e più pericolosa navigazione, che con eterne laudi sia celebrata la perizia, la industria, l’ardire, la vigilanza e le fatiche loro, per le quali è venuta al secolo nostro notizia di cose tanto grandi e tanto inopinate; ma più degno di essere celebrato il proposito loro, se a tanti pericoli e fatiche gli avesse indotti non la sete immoderata dell’oro e delle ricchezze, ma la cupidità di dare a sé stessi e agli altri questa notizia o di propagare la fede cristiana; benché questo sia in qualche parte proceduto per conoscenza, perché in molti luoghi sono stati convertiti alla nostra religione gli abitatori.

Per queste navigazioni si è manifestato essersi nella cognizione della terra ingannati in molte cose gli antichi: passarsi oltre alla linea equinoziale; abitarsi sotto la torrida zona; come medesimamente, contro all’opinione loro, si è per navigazione di altri compreso abitarsi sotto le zone propinque a’ poli, sotto le quali affermavano non potersi abitare per i freddi immoderati rispetto al sito del cielo tanto remoto dal corso del sole; èssi manifestato quel che alcuni degli antichi credevano, altri riprendevano, che sotto i nostri piedi sono altri abitatori detti da loro gli antipodi. Né solo ha questa navigazione confuso molte cose affermate dagli scrittori delle cose terrene, ma dato, oltre a ciò, qualche ansietà agli interpreti della Scrittura sacra, soliti a interpretare che quel versicolo del salmo che contiene che “in tutta la terra

very extensive countries on the mainland; and in some of them (though in almost all of them the opposite was true with regard to public and private buildings, clothing, and human interactions) they found cultivated manners and political customs; but all those populations were unwarlike and easily despoiled; there’s such an extent of new lands that, without comparison, they cover more ground than the inhabited world we knew before. Spreading out in them with new adventurers and further navigations, the Spaniards, now extracting gold and silver from the seams occurring in many places, and from river sands, now buying them from the natives in exchange for very cheap goods, now stealing what had already been amassed, brought a huge amount of them to Spain; many sailed there privately, though with the king’s leave, and at their own expense, but each of them giving the king a fifth of everything that he had extracted or that had fallen into his hands in other ways.

In fact, the boldness of the Spaniards proceeded so far that some ships, having reached fifty-three degrees south, always hugging the coast, and having then entered a strait and having sailed to the Orient from there across a very wide sea, then having come home by the route that the Portuguese follow, have circled the whole world, as it manifestly appears. The Portuguese and Spaniards, and above all Columbus, who initiated that most wonderful and dangerous navigation, deserve to have their skill, diligence, daring, vigilance, and labors celebrated with eternal praise, because through those labors our era has received word of such great and unexpected things; but their intentions would be worthier of celebration if they had been induced into such great dangers and labors not by an immoderate thirst for gold and riches, but by the longing to give this news to themselves and others or to propagate the Christian faith (though this has occurred in some places thanks to the new knowledge; because the natives of many areas have been converted to our religion).

It has become clear through these navigations that the ancients erred in many ways in their knowledge of the world: people have passed beyond the Equator; they can live in the Torrid Zone; just as, similarly, contrary to the opinion of the ancients, thanks to the navigation of others, it has been learned that one can live in the zones near the poles, in which they affirmed it was impossible to live because of the extreme cold caused by their being located so far from the sun’s course. That which some ancients believed and others denied has been clarified: that beneath our feet there are other inhabitants, whom they called the Antipodeans. Not only have these navigations refuted many things asserted by the old geographers, but they have also given some alarm to the interpreters of Holy Scripture, who usually state that the Psalm verse [19:4] reading, “Their line is gone