Certame coronario October 1441

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IN WORK

Certame coronario ...
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certame_coronario
English translation by google.com
https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.go ... r_pto=wapp

... was a literary contest in Florence in 1441 initiated by Leon Battista Alberti. It happened in October 1441. Actually I would like to know, what happened then precisely. "It happened in October 1441". That's not very precise.

Petrarca in 1341 became poetus laureatus. Actually it's just my suspicion, that this literary contest 1441 (100 years later) took place to honor him, but I didn't found a confirmation till now.

Here is the translation
The coronary Certame was a poetry competition in the vernacular conceived in 1441 in Florence by Leon Battista Alberti , under the patronage of Piero de 'Medici .

The intention was to demonstrate how the vernacular had full literary dignity and could also deal with the highest topics, in a period that was witnessing, with the flourishing of Humanism , a strong resumption of the use of Latin . Both well-known writers of the time and popular rhymers participated in the competition, which had a silver laurel wreath as a prize (hence the name), who had to compose texts on the theme " true friendship ". It took place on 22 October 1441 in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and was attended by a large audience, as well as a group of civil and religious authorities of the city.

The prize was not awarded to any of the speaking poets because the works were not considered worthy, but it was delivered by the ten apostolic secretaries of Eugene IV , as can be deduced from the Palatine code 215 of the National Library of Florence , to the church where the competition.

An anonymous protest was addressed to the jury , probably to be attributed to Alberti himself, in which the conservative position of traditional humanistic culture, notoriously adverse to the vulgar, was criticized. [1] The fact that the crown was not assigned to any of the poets in competition, in fact, testifies how the rehabilitation of the vernacular was not yet fully mature; however the coronary Certame is an indication of an ongoing and irreversible trend. According to Parronchi , who resumed a conference by Lanyi ( 1940 ), the statue of Donatello 's David may have been donated to the patron Medici as a thank you.

In the second half of the century the literary revival of the vernacular took place first in Florence: and it is no wonder, since in Florence vulgar literature had an illustrious and prestigious tradition, which could boast real classics, such as Dante , Petrarca and Boccaccio . The poets of the Medici circle , Lorenzo the Magnificent in the lead, refer to this tradition in search of models.

A precious document of this attention to the vulgar tradition is the so-called Aragonese Collection , an anthology of the first centuries of Tuscan poetry sent in 1476 by Lorenzo de 'Medici as a gift to Federico d'Aragona . The letter that serves as a preface is signed by Lorenzo, but it is almost certainly by Angelo Poliziano . In addition to Florence, however, the vulgar regains literary dignity in Ferrara with Matteo Maria Boiardo and Pietro Bembo , in Naples with Jacopo Sannazaro , Masuccio Salernitano and the Petrarchist poets.

The revival of the vernacular is also accompanied by a return to consolidated literary genres such as the love lyric of Petrarchist ancestry, the chivalrous narrative of Romance origin, the Boccaccio novel.
The Canzonieri and the Trionfi poem of Petrarca belonged to the vernacular poetry.

One has to assume, that there was some Trionfi poem enthusiasm around 1439-41. But there seems to have been also a strong opposition, mainly from the side of the lovers of Latin language. This were naturally the conservative forces in the Florentine society and especially those, which had a profession based on the use of Latin language. For instance preachers and the administrators of the church generally.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

S. P. Malatesta, Agnolo d'Anghiari and Giusto Giusto 1439/40/41

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IN WORK

Some automatic translations of
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1439-1440).
https://condottieridiventura.it/sigismo ... i-brescia/
Agnolo d'Anghiari (1439-1440)
https://condottieridiventura.it/angelo-d-anghiari/
Diary of Giusto Giusti by Nerida Newbegin (parts of 1439-41)
The automatic translations have a lot of errors.

1439 Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
May 600 horses in Romagna
He reaches Maiano Monti; he moves with Sforza to defend Forlì with 200 horses and 200 infantry.

Oct Rimini against Urbino in Marche
He takes away from Federico da Montefeltro three castles in the upper course of the Senatello: Casteldelci, Senatello and Faggiuola.
1439 Guisto Giusti diary (with reference to Gismondo = Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta)
25 Wednesday 28 October Agnolo told me that he wanted me to go to Rimini
to visit the gentleman Gismondo on his part.
26 Saturday 31 October in the morning I left Verucchio and we went to Rimini
at dinner time, and said to speak to Lord Gismondo and recommend to him
Agnolo. Give me a good welcome and a great offer, and he said to me
what his intention was to do anything but words to Agnolo and for me to go
with him in Cesena and that he would give me an answer more fully than his intention
etc.
27 On Monday the 2nd of November I spoke to Lord Gismondo in Cesena.
Tell me that I told Agnolo that he decided to want him to be a good brother and
give him some good castle.
1439-40 Angelo d'Anghiari . Biography of condottieridiventura.it (automatic translation)
1439 Oct. in Tuscany
The reconfirmation of his conduct (with 5 more horses) takes place in the first days of October. He is promised two wages. He was sent to strengthen the garrison of Pisa because it is suspected that a conspiracy in favor of Niccolò Piccinino is underway in the city. Averted the danger he returns to Anghiari. In the same days he sent Piero d ’Anghiari to Rimini to visit Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.
Nov. Dec in Marche and Tuscany
The Malatesta, in order to have him at his side, allows him to buy for 4000 ducats from Landedeo da Sarsina Casteldelci, Senatello and Faggiuola. Back in Tuscany, in early December he prevents the ducals, stationed in Borgo San Sepolcro (Sansepolcro) from flowing towards Carciano in order to obtain litter.
1439 S.P. Malatesta
Nov in Marche
Tavoleto lost, sacked by and by Baldaccio d'Anghiari. The Malatesta in turn breaks into Montefeltro and conquers eight castles (Castelnuovo, Montefotogno, Piatramaura, Pennarossa, Viano, Savignano di Rigo, Rontagnano and Tivizzano which is sacked).

Dec Venice against Milan in Romagna
He camps in Montegelli with the bombards and takes possession of the locality in three days: fifteen infantrymen are captured, sent to help the defenders by Guidantonio Manfredi. The soldiers are all hanged at the door of the castle.
1440 Biography S. P. Malatesta

Mar. Rimini against Milan / Urbino / Florence in Marche
Perde Ruoppolo (Rupoli), land of the vicariate of Fano, which is sacked as it happens for the castle of Fossa by Baldaccio d'Anghiari. He comes against the Piccinino; he is persuaded to switch to the salaries of the Visconti to the detriment of the Florentines.

Apr. in Marche
Under pressure from Piccinino he went to Urbino and stayed there for four days: he was greeted magnificently by Guidantonio da Montefeltro .
1440 Biography Angelo d'Anghiari
Mar. apr. 302 horses in Tuscany
He is transferred with his company to Mugello. Niccolò Piccinino threatens to approach Florence. He is placed in Scarperia to defend the city. In the middle of the month with his men of arms, the saccomanni and the infantrymen of Bernardo Dati he takes a diversionary action towards the Visconti camp of Pulicciano. Astorre Manfredi's team is attacked: the booty consists of 60 mounts and many bellies, breastplates, days and silver helmets. When Piccinino moves to the Casentino, he leaves Scarperia and stops in Ponte a Sieve to check the opponents' movements. After a few days he heads to Arezzo, where a conspiracy seems to be underway to hand over the city to the ducals.

1440 Biography S. P. Malatesta

Mag. in Marche Romagna
Malatesta leaves Fano and waits near Cervia with 800 horses and 400 infantrymen. He participates in the conquest of Modigliana.
Biography Angelo d'Anghiari
1440 Mag. in Tuscany
He sends the notary Giusto Giusti to Rimini to accept the conduct offered to him by the lord of Rimini. His representative gets a safe conduct from Piccinino to be able to go to Casteldelci. Still in the same days he accompanies Micheletto Attandolo in a raid in the Casentino, aimed at attacking the enemy saccomanni. The mission does not take place for the moment due to the capture of a Florentine infantryman, released from Rassina, who reveals the probable attack to his rivals. At the end of the month he leaves Anghiari for a raid that leads him to the capture of 80 head of cattle including sheep, goats, pigs and donkeys
.
1440 Giusto Giusti diary in May

24 Sunday 15 said I left the Ancisa and arrived in Arezzo at the hour of vespers and I found myself with Agnolo. It is said to me that he sent for me to go in Rimini to arrange it with Mr. Gismondo Malatesti and that he had I gave the safe conduct from Niccolò Piccino that I could go to Casteldelci.
25 Monday, May 16, because the safe conduct was not good, we postpone the Florentine, Agnolo's familiar, to Niccolò Piccino to have it redone.
26 Tuesday to May 17th Agnolo together with Mr. Michele with ben 4 cavalcaro horsemen towards the Casentino to attack the escort of saccomanni de ’enemies; and because a ghost who came out of Rassina, which he was of ours, el campo warned, they could not make covelle.
27 [Friday, May 20, Agnolo asked me to go to Rimini to Signor Gismondo and he gave me a commission to arrange me with the said gentleman with 400 horses and one hundred infantry with 70 florins per spear of prestige and, if he could not with so many, he arranged it as it pleased me, and wrote a letter from
belief in the lord etc.
28 Wednesday, May 25th, I had the magnificent Lord Gismondo in Rimini a letter of familiarity for me who, as his familiar, I was guarded and I could go and pass etc.
29 Friday on the 27th of May [I left Casteldelci to go towards Agnari and, before I left I lent to the men of Corezzo, that I beg of it, a reel crossbow and a targone of those of Agnolo because they doubted Niccolò Piccino's camp. I went in the evening to Anghiari.
30 On Saturday the 28th of May I rode together with the infantrymen and the men d’arm d’Agnolo who were in Anghiari in Montagutello of madonna Anfrosina.
We captured about 80 sheep, goats, pigs and donkeys.
31 On Monday the 30th of May the camp in Anghiari was expected.
1440 Giusto Giusti diary in June
32 Sunday to the 5th of June 1440 the coming night the Monday came in Fiorenza the story that Rassina was lost and that the field of enemies was ito towards Chiusi.
33 Wednesday on the 8th of June there was news in Florence that the field of Niccolò Piccino had passed the parish church in Santo Stefano and headed towards Anghiari, and it was believed that he had camped in Anghiari.
34 On Monday the 13th of June there was news in Florence that the field of Fiorentini was in Anghiari to break down the Borgo and the lands of
Madonna Anfrosina.
35 On Friday the 17th of June at 4 pm a news came in Florence that Niccolò Piccino had come to the field in Cortona.
36 On Saturday the 18th of June at 4 pm the news came in Fiorenza that the magnificent Count Francesco Sforza had broken the people of the Duke of Milan a
Soncino in Lombardy and I took 2000 horses and removed all their carriages and taken Soncino, Chiari and Monte Chiari and the old and new Orci. It was great
and good news, and a great feast with bonfires and bells was celebrated in Florence.
37 On Friday, on the 24th of June, the news that he had recovered came to Florence Castel San Niccolò di Casentino for the operation of local men.
38 On Thursday the 23rd of June I received a letter from Agnolo that our camp it was all reduced to Anghiari and that it was undoing the whole town.
39 On Thursday the 30th of June, in the morning of the third year, the story came to Florence like our people, this is the Florentines, they had broken up yesterday, which was the di San Piero, el campo of the Duke of Milan, this is Niccolò Piccino, ad Anghiari at the foot of the city towards el Borgo, and take away about 3000 cavalli e I took 16 squad leaders and other men-at-arms a lot and 1456 prisons from size of the Borgo, and other prisons from many other places. It was a great victory, and took their banners from them. He made a great celebration of it, and deservedly, why was the health of Tuscany. Niccolò Piccino escaped with about 1500 horses in the Borgo and the same night he fled and passed the Alps to the great detriment of him and shame.
Biography S. P. Malatesta
June in Romagna
Piccinino is heavily defeated by Micheletto Attandolo and Pietro Giampaolo Orsini in Anghiari: Malatesta tries to run for cover and hosts Oddantonio da Montefeltro in Rimini.
1440 Biography Angelo d'Anghiari
June. Jul. 302 horses in Tuscany

He always opposes the Visconti militias. He moves in the Casentino with Gregorio d 'Anghiari. He camps near Bibbiena and obtains this location on pacts; immediately afterwards, on the orders of the Florentine general commissioner Neri Capponi, he also occupied Rassina and Poppi with Niccolò da Pisa. At the end of the month he takes part in the battle of Anghiari. In the initial grid he is placed on the left with Pietro Giampaolo Orsini and the commissioners Neri Capponi and Piero Guicciardini. In the same days in Rimini Giusti negotiated with Malatesta the conditions of the new condotta (400 horses and 100 infantrymen, with a prestige of 70 florins per lance). In mid-July Angelo d'Anghiari goes to Florence; he gets permission to leave the wages of the republic; he leaves Arezzo to move to Romagna.
Biography S. P. Malatesta
Jul. in Romagna
Malatesta stipulates a treaty of alliance with the lord of Faenza Guidantonio Manfredi; he meets Pietro Giampaolo Orsini at the Porta di Cotogni in Forlì.
1440 Giusto Giusti diary in June/August

40 On the first day of July, on my way to Anghiari, I found at Chiaveretto Agnolo and Gregorio with their companies that went to ride in Casentino for certain understanding they had had in Bibbiena. They want to that I went with them; and so we went in the evening to lodge in Subbiano.
41 On Saturday the 2nd of July we left Subbiano and went to stay in aguato after the Monte di Risecchio; and said to vespers hour we ran in Bibbiena, and we found that all the soldiers of the duke, who were about 60 horses and 60 men from Bibbiena had gone to Rassina for grain and robba. Let's follow them and besiege them in Rassina, this is what you will camp around Agnolo and Gregorio.
42 Item said the following night, on Sunday four men came from Bibbiena in do times. Seeing that they were locked up and their soldiers, it is profersaro to Agnolo to want to give him Bibbiena for the Municipality of Fiorenza and ragionaro that Agnolo let them make some advantage from the Municipality, and that the robba de 'foreigners that was in Bibbiena was from Agnolo and Grigoro, and that and their men who were in Rassina were safe.
43 Item said night about three hours before Agnolo with his house horses and with some men-at-arms and with as many as 100 infantrymen of those from Grigoro and myself with him we entered Bibbiena for the Commune of Florence, and we found the men well disposed and that they had opened the door for us, and we ran the whole way land and we had to saccomanno some things of foreigners. He remained there fortress.
44 On Sunday the 3rd of July we fought the fortress of Bibbiena; and said in the evening Agnolo and Grigoro decided to take it to terms, and feciaro save el
Marquis of Varese, who was the main church, and all those who were with him and robbe them; and that evening at midnight we took the fortress.
45 Item known as Agnolo d'Anghiari governed Bibbiena for the Municipality of Fiorenza, and made many safe conduct and I in his name.
46 On Tuesday 5 July, I made more safe conduct in Bibiena in the name of Agnolo.
47 Wednesday on the 6th of July, with the will of Neri di Gino, 17 commissioner general of the Commune of Florence, Agnolo in Poppi went with safe conduct
del conte to understand with the count and to agree with the Municipality of Fiorenza.
48 Item said we had Rassina for the Municipality of Fiorenza by force, and put a saccomanno against the will of Agnolo, and could not be repaired. [c. 40v]
49 On Thursday 7 July I received from the Municipality of Sor! C fifteen lire for a safe conduct which I made them to get their property from Poppi.
50 Item said day I had five ducats from the Municipality of Bibbiena because I if they had faith in the chapters they wanted from the Municipality of Fiorenza with help d'Agnolo for the return of the earth.
51 Item said dì, by order of Neri di Gino, general commissioner de 'Fiorentini, I made that Piero Bernardo, constable of Niccolò Piccino, and which we took in Rassina, he gave me ducats 36, and which he had on the side, that said Neri he had known, and said dì and now I gave him to said Neri; and I prayed Neri said so much that he gave me back ten, and paid him back as he said Piero Bernardo so that he had a living. He was in the fortress of Bibbiena.
52 Item said dì, by commandment of said Neri di Gino, Giovanni di Ser Guglielmo da Bibbiena gave me 21 ducats and had other dead stuff in the hands of that of the Bracceschi soldiers for me to keep at the petition of said Neri, and said day I gave said Neri and said ducats 21 in the field at Certomondo.
53 Friday, July 8th I left Bibiena to go to Florence; I left all the stuff Neri had done to me at the Iacopo di Salvestro house deliver, and an armadura that I had earned, and a big crossbow and a targone. I went in the evening to the Borro etc.
54 On Saturday 9th July I arrived in Florence to ask the Ten gentlemen the pay that they had approved in Agnolo.
55 On Monday 11 July Agnolo d'Agnari came to Florence to be doomed sooner.
56 At wednesday on the 13th of July came the news that they had had and formworks del Borgo and Celle.
57 Item said dì and Gentlemen Ten of Balìa sent to the commissioner and men d'Anghiari a letter that threw Valialla ashore in everything and that smoothed out.
58 Saturday to the 16th of July and magnificent Ten Lords of the Balìa at prayer d'Agnolo d’Anghiari and to please him I gave him a good license that he departed from them and went to another penny, and made him a letter of well served and that it was allowed to pass for every time and collected in some land and place of the Municipality of Fiorenza as their partisan and soldier, for this is how they consider it and keep it.
59 To Nanni or Giovanni called Cagnone degli Strozzi.
60 Sunday 17 July in the evening Agnolo d'Agnari left for Florence for leave with the company fired in Romagna etc.
61 On Thursday 21 July I left Ancona and went in the evening to Bibiena for I took away certain things by Neri di Gino and mine that I had left behind ...
62 On Friday the 22nd of July in the morning I left Bibbiena to come to Anghiari, and I took all the stuff that Neri di Gino had made me give for him and for me, this is an estimate of about 45.18 guilders a large cup of low wine weighing about 18 ounces, a small cup about 6 ounces, a low-hanging helmet with a weight of about 8.19 ounces a light blue caparon of appraisal about 3 florins, do coregge with ariento, one for men and one for women with little wind, for a currency of about florins 4, do old currency days in currency about 1 florins each, 20 a pair of saddlebags old houses three face dryers and boy's shirts. All of the above
things made me hand over Neri, and I told me he wanted the cup for himself big and the jack, and the other things for me, and if it seemed to me that I had to give ten ducats of that stuff to a man of arms called Yolo who handed over said robba; and more I brought a nice big crossbow to the bank etc.
63 Item said in the evening I reached Agnari and released all said things.
64 Saturday 23 July in the morning I left Agnari and went to Arezzo a find Agnolo and give reasons for the men of arms that Agnolo had cassi and to give prestige to the others because Agnolo started from the pay of the Municipality etc.
65 On Monday 25th of July Agnolo d'Agnari rose from Arezzo with all the company to go to Romagna in the service of Mr. Gismondo; and I went with him to Agnari, and stayed in Agnari because I had to be in Florence for the Agnolo events.
66 On Saturday the 30th of July I went to Citerna to inform the vicar that he was there for Signor Gismondo as the Monterchiesi tried to take away his court
of Pantaneto.

67 In Wednesday on the 10th of August, by commandment of the Ten, Grigoro d'Anghiari
he left Fiorenza to go to Valdilamona to make certain facts.
68 On the 24th of August in the evening Gregorio d'Agnari came from Valdilamona in
Florence.
Biography S. P. Malatesta
Aug. Florence against Milan in Romagna
S.P. Malatesta fights the ducals under the orders of Sforza, while his brother Domenico leads himself to the pay of the Visconti. He sets the field in Ronco and besieges Forlimpopoli: the defenders often have the better of his men than him. He camps in Selbagnone and besieges Forlì.
Sept. Oct. Romagna In mid-September he is in Forlì with the troops of the league. He follows the allies towards Castrocaro Terme and Dovadola; after a short siege he gets Rocca San Casciano. The bombards are planted against Dovadola. In October he leaves Meldola to head to Forlì. With the Malatesta militias he places himself between Bertinoro and Cesena, while Pietro Giampaolo Orsini camps in Ronco. The approach of the enemy army pushes him to retreat first to the Savio and then to San Zaccaria. Due to the lack of provisions, especially bread, the field turns towards Bertinoro. The approach of the bad season pushes the belligerents to the winter camps.

Biography Angelo d'Anghiari
Sept. Oct. in Romagna
In mid-September he is in Forlì with the troops of the league. He follows the allies towards Castrocaro Terme and Dovadola; after a short siege he gets Rocca San Casciano. The bombards are planted against Dovadola. In October he leaves Meldola to head to Forlì. With the Malatesta militias he places himself between Bertinoro and Cesena, while Pietro Giampaolo Orsini camps in Ronco. The approach of the enemy army pushes him to retreat first to the Savio and then to San Zaccaria. Due to the lack of provisions, especially bread, the field turns towards Bertinoro. The approach of the bad season pushes the belligerents to the winter camps.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castello_ ... n_Casciano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocca_San_Casciano
Biography S. P. Malatesta
Sept Oct in Romagna
It occupies Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda and other lands in the Imola countryside. With Angelo d'Anghiari he is placed between Bertinoro and Cesena. He is unable or unwilling to prevent Francesco Piccinino from entering Forlì. He damages many villages and tries to conquer the capital. Given the inanity of the enterprise, he moves to Forlimpopoli with the other leaders. In mid-October the Florentines take the road to Capodicolle and the Val di Savio: the Malatesta stays in San Vittore because it is blocked by flooding rivers. The Florentine militias continue to Tuscany; he must, however, stop for a few days as he cannot find shelter in Cesena since his brother is a soldier in the pay of the Duke of Milan. He returns to Rimini.
Other source: He arrives at Rimini at October 23
Other sources: The wife Ginevra dies in October (very common). The wife dies at October 12. The wife dies at September 3 (Basini).
In 1440 an illegitimate son is born: Robert Malatesta, later a condottiero with some fame. He died in 1482 in a battle.
Ginevra hadn't surviving children.
Bagnacavallo is reported to have been sold to Niccolo d'Este (Ferrara) by pope Eugen against 11.000 ducats in 1440.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romagna_estense
.... le cessioni di papa Eugenio IV a Niccolò d'Este dei seguenti centri abitati:
il 24 gennaio 1437[4], della città di Lugo: il centro abitato più importante della Bassa Romagna. Lugo era nota per il mercato settimanale che richiamava ogni mercoledì molta gente da tutta la Romagna e dalle regioni vicine. Gli Este superarono la concorrenza dei conti di Cunio e di Nicolò Piccinino (comandante al servizio del duca di Milano)[5];
altri tre comuni romagnoli: Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda e Sant'Agata sul Santerno (con bolla del 23 settembre 1440)
It looks probable, that this activity triggered the visit of Bianca Maria Visconti in Ferrara in October 1440
Diary Giusto Giusti September 1440 - February 1441

September 1440
69 Saturday 10 September in Cesena, because he couldn't go safely in campo, I sent a letter to Agnolo advising him as I was in Cesena and that you get me the safe conduct of Niccolò Piccino.
70 On Tuesday the 13th of September there was news in Cesena that the field of the League had come to Forlì last night and that they had come on the day 30 miles. It was estimated that they had dealt with in Forlì.
71 Item the saying of 13 said after dinner, because I had understood that the campo had come to Forlì, I left Cesena and went in the evening to Brettinoro.
I left the drape and the rings in the house of Lodovico Poggiolini in Cesena and the belt that I had worn for Agnolo's wife, and I left mine day in peacock velvet and a pair of my red stockings.
72 Wednesday on the 14th of September I left Brettinoro and went to visit Agnolo on the Lega field, which was in Forligrande.
73 On Friday 16 September I gave Messer Gismondo to the magnificent lord a couple of naibi triumphs, which I had had in Fiorenza made on purpose with his arms, beautiful, which cost me four and a half ducats.
74 On Saturday the 24th of September in the morning and the Lega camp arose from Forlì and went to Dovadola.
75 Item said day I went to the Agnolo team together with the field; to cross a bridge between Castrocaro and Doadola, my horse fell below, down a bank, and turn everything to me, so that everyone he estimated that I was dead; and by the grace of God he did me little harm: and was kept a great miracle etc.
76 Item said day we reached Dovadola at the ninth hour: and part of the saying campo stopped there, and part went to camp at the fortress in San Casciano.
77 On Sunday the 25th of September the fortress was held in San Casciano and Misesi to saccomanno; and for question of the infantrymen and saccomanni it set fire in said castle, this is in the earth, and burned. The fortress remained.
78 On Monday 26th of September the bombards began to be planted at Dovadola castle.
79 Wednesday on the 28th said Grigoro d'Anghiari and other constables came to the field of the Municipality of Florence.
80 On Thursday the 29th, the land of Dovadola was agreed upon and presumed for the Florentines and tennesi the fortress.
81 On Friday the 30th, the fortress of Dovadola was agreed upon for all coming next Sunday.

October 1440
82 On Monday 3 October it was decided to remove the field from Dovadola and go towards Forlimpopolo.
83 Tuesday on the 4th said in the morning and the Lega camp rose from Dovadola and returned near Forligrande [in the river near San Martino].
84 Friday on the 7th said, because we were staying at the Fratta in on the river from Forlì, we had to remove the Agnolo team from there; and to stay at the houses we went to a villa near Furlì less than a mile, which we were safe because the rivers were big; and we stayed armed that night.
85 Saturday morning 8 October we got up from that villa the squad dra d'Agnolo and part of the lord's company because he had to get up the whole camp and we went to stay in the villages of Meldola to stay to homes for water's sake.
86 On Sunday the 9th of October the whole field of the League rose from that villa of Forligrande, and the Agnolo team rose from the villages of Meldola and we all went to camp in the villas of Forli in Popolo; and housed the Sforzeschi and Pietro Giampaulo in Ponte di Ronco, and the people of the Church in Casamurata, and the Agnolo team with most of the gentleman's people Gismondo went to stay in the villas of Brettinoro and Cesena, in '
borders of Ravenna, this is in San Cristofano and in Provezza.
87 On Monday 10th October we camped in that villa of Provezza.
88 Tuesday 11th said I went on the court to Mr. Gismondo for the facts of Gregory. Please tell me sir that I wrote him that he wanted to style it with the pope if said Gregory wanted etc.
89 Wednesday on 12 October, because it was said that Niccolò Piccino was when he came to Forligrande, the league camp arose because they were in discomfort
for the rain, and went to Ravenna; and Agnolo with his team went in Bagnuolo, villa of Cesena in sul Savio, which was a place of danger, and we stayed all night armed.
90 Thursday the 13th, said for suspicion, we got up from Bagnuolo; and why we didn't know where the big camp was, we went towards Cesena. And for
away came a horse of Signor Gismondo to inform Agnolo that he was going to stay in San Zaccheria, a villa in Ravenna, where he was staying said sir; and there we went to lodge.
91 Monday to said 17 in said field we had a great famine of bread, and wine and fodder and meat not stung, because you couldn't go for water neither in Ravenna nor in Cesena, who gave three panuzoli to bolognino, which weighed do ounces each.
92 Tuesday 18 said in said campo and in said villa we lacked bread. In all that day we lived on cooked apples and pears. B
93 Wednesday on 19 October, due to inconvenience of the rooms and inconvenience of supplies,
in the field of the League rose from the villas of Ravenna and went towards Bretonoro. Levossi Agnolo with his team and with Mr. Gismondo of the
villa in San Zaccheria and we went to lodge in Paterno, a villa in Cesena.
94 On Thursday the 20th, after all, the Lega camp rose from the villas of Brettinoro and walked to the rooms. Agnolo went with his team outside Cesena in the Villas.

95 To Madonna Giovanna de 'Brancalioni, wife of Agnolo d'Anghiari.

December 1440
96 Saturday 10 December and the cardinal bound over the warriors yes he left Florence and went to Rome.
97 Wednesday on the 28th said news came to Anghiari that Cristofano gave Certaldo, constable of lord Gismondo, had taken Sorci from Baldaccio at the petition of the aforementioned Mr. Gismondo.

February 1441
98 Saturday 4th February at third hour I arrived in Rimini at Agnolo. He told me that the gentleman had asked me several times that he wanted me
send to Florence for the facts of his lordship, etc.
99 Sunday to the 5th of February, because Agnolo had heard nothing suspicious of Casteldelci, he decided to go there; and so we went, and I with him.
We arrived in the evening.
100 On Monday 6 said we went from Casteldelci to Sanatello to provide to have the castle armed.
101 At Wednesday on the day 22 said in Arimino the woman from Agnolo had a nice dinner to several ladies, and among others to the niece of the Marquis of Ferrara.
102 Thursday 23 February early in the morning I left Rimini to return to Agnari and then go to Florence for and facts of Agnolo and for some chores that Mr. Gismondo committed to me. I went to Casteldelci in the evening with great effort.
Links of interest
https://www.battaglia.anghiari.it/terre ... ml&lang=EN
https://stemmieimprese.it/2011/03/03/“d ... malatesta/
Last edited by Huck on 09 Apr 2022, 07:55, edited 4 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Certame coronario October 1441

3
Good compilation. Yes, translation needs to be cleaned up where we need it.

Giusti was in and around Cesena mostly in July-September 1440 then. The last time he was in Florence appears to be late August. So maybe he commissioned the cards then. Or picked them up after previously being in Florence, when is not clear.

Agnari was close to Cesena, according to this - https://books.google.fr/books?id=az5dgZ ... ze&f=false

It's not clear to me when Sigismondo Malatesta was last in Florence.

S. P. Malatesta, Agnolo d'Anghiari and Giusto Giusto 1439/40/412

4
Ross Caldwell wrote: 26 Mar 2022, 09:50 Good compilation. Yes, translation needs to be cleaned up where we need it.

Giusti was in and around Cesena mostly in July-September 1440 then. The last time he was in Florence appears to be late August. So maybe he commissioned the cards then. Or picked them up after previously being in Florence, when is not clear.

Agnari was close to Cesena, according to this - https://books.google.fr/books?id=az5dgZ ... ze&f=false

It's not clear to me when Sigismondo Malatesta was last in Florence.
Agnari appears 53 times in the Giusto Giusti manuscript. It appears also as Agnolo d'Agnari and Giorgio d'Agnari and Giusto has clear important relations to the condottieri Agnolo d'Anghiari and Giorgio d'Anghiari, so I would assume, that Agnari is either a shortened form of Anghiari or a special part of Anghiari.
Confirmed, "Agnari (= Anghiari)" according Newbegin. In the reference list.

"Giusti was in and around Cesena mostly in July-September 1440 then." I would assume, that he was in August and begin of September in Florence. The Guisto script has a pause for this period.

"Giusti was in and around Cesena mostly in July-September 1440 then." I would assume, that he was in August and begin of September in Florence. The Guisto script has a pause for this period.
65 On Monday 25th of July Agnolo d'Agnari rose from Arezzo with all
the company to go to Romagna in the service of Mr. Gismondo;
and I went with him to Agnari, and stayed in Agnari because I had to be
in Florence for the Agnolo events.
= Giusti in Anghiari

66 On Saturday the 30th of July I went to Citerna to inform the vicar that he was
there for Signor Gismondo as the Monterchiesi tried to take away his court
of Pantaneto.
= Citarni has 9 km distance to Anghiari

67 In Mercordì on the 10th of August, by commandment of the Ten, Grigoro d'Anghiari
he left Fiorenza to go to Valdilamona to make certain facts.
= Giusti probably in Florence
68 On the 24th of August in the evening Gregorio d'Agnari came from Valdilamona in
Florence.
= Giusti probably in Florence. Valdilemona is Valle di Lamona (Lamona = river name). This is the road to Faenza.

69 Saturday 10 September in Cesena, because he couldn't go safely in
campo, I sent a letter to Agnolo advising him as I was in Cesena and
that you get me the safe conduct of Niccolò Piccino.
= Giusti in Cesena in 90 km distance to Anghiari. But Cesena should be then hostile territory, cause Domenico Novello Malatesta (Cesena) had a contract with Visconti and S.P. Malatesta (Rimini) a contract with Florence then (both are brothers). Giusti is likely in the function of a diplomat in Cesena.
Actually one shouldn't assume, that Giusto didn't write diary in such a long time. Likely the real text was shortened later.

Actually there are 5 versions from much later time and the Trionfi note for instance is only in one of them.
I guess, that Malatesta wasn't in Florence. The political change from Piccinino back to the Florentine side should have been arranged by diplomats. Possibly Guisto was one of the active diplomats in this matter.

This is the report of condottieridiventura for Malatesta:
Sept Oct in Romagna
It occupies Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda and other lands in the Imola countryside. With Angelo d'Anghiari he is placed between Bertinoro and Cesena. He is unable or unwilling to prevent Francesco Piccinino from entering Forlì. He damages many villages and tries to conquer the capital. Given the inanity of the enterprise , he moves to Forlimpopoli with the other leaders. In mid-October the Florentines take the road to Capodicolle and the Val di Savio: the Malatesta stays in San Vittore because it is blocked by flooding rivers. The Florentine militias continue to Tuscany; he must, however, stop for a few days as he cannot find shelter in Cesena since his brother is a soldier in the pay of the Duke of Milan. He returns to Rimini.
I've analysed that:

Image
Huck
http://trionfi.com

The young Giusto Guisti ....

5
In Work

Treccani.it has a good biography of Giusto Giusti ...
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gi ... ografico)/

I've arranged an automatic translation of the first part, which is of the highest interest:
Born in Anghiari, near Arezzo, from Gemma and Giovanni di Giusto di Comuccio on 31 December. 1406, G. embarked on a notary career starting to exercise at the age of 20 as a notary following the Florentine jurists in the territories subject to the dominion of the Republic. In fact, his first deed dates back to May 14, 1427, given in Campi where he was a member of the podestà's family. Subsequent assignments of this type led him to Foiano (1427-28), where he was presumably one of the notaries of the Municipality, to Barbialla (1428), to Figline (1428-29), to Tizzano (1431), to Bibbiena (1432) and in Anghiari (1437), where he was chancellor of the Florentine vicar Giovanni di Pagolo Morelli. In the meantime, on 2 July 1430 he had married Tedalda di Giovanni di Gisbertone d'Anghiari, who had brought him 200 florins as a dowry; in May 1437, after Tedalda's childless death, he married Cristofana di ser Francesco Bigliaffi, a notary from Anghiarese, with whom he would have the first three of his 12 children: Niccolò, Jacopo Felice and Agnolo.
The Giusti were one of the most important Anghiarese families of the time, belonging to the "inside" faction, which was opposed by that of the "outside" families. According to Taglieschi, an Anghiarese historian of the early seventeenth century (Annali…, pp. 108, 125), their origin would derive from the Paduan Buonaviti family. The progenitor of the Anghiarese branch would have been Bonavite, a blacksmith from Anghiari, whose name, again according to Taglieschi, appears in a deed by ser Benvenuto Negozanti on 7 March 1272 (Id., Priorista…, p. 224). In the cadastral scope delivered around 1430 by G.'s father, Giovanni, also a blacksmith, the net worth of the family was 457 florins, 12 soldi and 7 denari, among the highest of the entire community. Political prestige was added to the economic pre-eminence, as evidenced by the numerous offices held by Giovanni as early as 1392. Among the creditors listed in the scope of Giovanni appears the "Chomune d'Anghiari for supplies made for the ghuerra to defend the chastello et armadure". Giovanni's large workshop, located in the Piazza del Mercatale, produced the essential tools for one of the most important local "specializations": the art of war. Anghiari was in fact a land of foot soldiers and constables: Baldaccio, Gregorio di Vanni, Agnolo Taglia, Leale di Cristoforo were all originally from the small community of the upper Valtiberina. And Florence, always in need of paid armies, was the natural place to offer one's services. For the young notary G. these would have been the conditions for a very intense and eventful existence, spent as a procurator of gunmen and as a family member and trusted man of the Medici family - and of gentlemen such as Sigismondo Malatesta - as well as divided between the service of the Florentine Republic and the offices held in the community of origin, where the accumulated substances would have made him in 1467 one of the four richest and most taxed citizens.
The full translation is at ...
https://www-treccani-it.translate.goog/ ... r_pto=wapp

In a later part the specific relations of Giusti to Gregorio di Vanni (= Gregorio d'Anghiari) and Agnolo Taglia (= Agnolo or Angelo d'Anghiari) is reported,
From April 1437, the year in which the second notebook of his memoirs opens, until 1480, G. incessantly looked after the interests of the many constables and men of arms of whom he was procurator, starting with Agnolo Taglia and Gregorio di Vanni of Anghiari, shortly afterwards general captain of the Florentine infantry, ......

G. was in the Florentine field near Lucca with Angelo and Gregorio between 1437 and 1438, and then in Mugello and Casentino between spring and summer 1440. He was in Romagna and the Marche between 1440 and 1442 with Agnolo Taglia, who passed into the service of Sigismondo Malatesta and then of Count Francesco Sforza; in Pisa and in the Bolognese countryside with Gregorio di Vanni between the end of 1445 and July 1446, and then in Romagna at the end of the same year; again with Gregorio in Bologna in August 1447 and, always with him, in the various movements made from the Florentine camp in western Tuscany between November 1447 and autumn 1448.

Often his participation in military events went far beyond the mere presence as "chancellor of the pay". On May 28, 1440, with some of the men of Agnolo Taglia's company, G. rode towards Montagutello and the territories of madonna Anfrosina da Montedoglio, widow of Carlo Tarlati da Pietramala and ally of the Milanese against Florence, raiding cattle. Between the end of August and October 1441 he took part in the expedition organized by Agnolo Taglia and the brother-in-law of this Alberigo Brancaleoni to wrest from Guidantonio da Montefeltro some castles of Montefeltro that once belonged to the Brancaleoni and which, following the agreement of peace between Sigismondo Malatesta and Guidantonio, Taglia was forced to return,

The frequent relationships entertained as procurator of constable with the main Florentine citizens, and especially with Cosimo de 'Medici, had allowed G. to build a bond of familiarity and trust with the men of the Medici regime, which earned him important, both informal, both official. On 19 August 1442, upon hearing of Francesco Piccinino's passage from Città di Castello, the vicar of Anghiari sent him with 20 Anghiarese infantrymen to the guard of Monterchi, who together with Valialle and Montagutello had been stolen by the Florentines from madonna Anfrosina da Montedoglio in the aftermath of the battle of Anghiari (29 June 1440). Shortly thereafter, on 21 February. 1443, the Signoria elected him as the first Florentine vicar of Monterchi. On 16 July 1445 he was appointed by the Eight on guard as ambassador of the Municipality of Florence to Francesco Piccinino at the field in Lunigiana. On 28 August of the same year he was commissioned by Cosimo de 'Medici, newly elected gonfalonier, by Neri di Gino Capponi and by Alamanno Salviati, with an unspecified secret mission to Siena. And again, appointed commissioner on 5 October. 1446, he received a mandate from the eight guards of Florence to go to Anghiari and Sansepolcro to prevent Count Carlo da Montone, who was going to help the Duke of Milan, from going to Lombardy ....
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Bagnacavallo and Massa Lombardia sold to Ferrara

6
IN WORK

In the Malatesta biography is noted, that S. P. Malatesta (somehow) conquered Bagnacavallo and Massa Lombardia in September-October 1440.

Another source
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romagna_estense
.... le cessioni di papa Eugenio IV a Niccolò d'Este dei seguenti centri abitati:
il 24 gennaio 1437[4], della città di Lugo: il centro abitato più importante della Bassa Romagna. Lugo era nota per il mercato settimanale che richiamava ogni mercoledì molta gente da tutta la Romagna e dalle regioni vicine. Gli Este superarono la concorrenza dei conti di Cunio e di Nicolò Piccinino (comandante al servizio del duca di Milano)[5];
altri tre comuni romagnoli: Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda e Sant'Agata sul Santerno (con bolla del 23 settembre 1440)

***********
automatic translation:
.... the transfers of Pope Eugene IV to Niccolò d'Este of the following inhabited centers:
January 24, 1437 [4], of the city of Lugo: the most important inhabited center of Lower Romagna. Lugo was known for the weekly market which attracted many people every Wednesday from all over Romagna and neighboring regions. The Este overcame the competition of the counts of Cunio and Nicolò Piccinino (commander in the service of the Duke of Milan) [5];
three other municipalities in Romagna: Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda and Sant'Agata sul Santerno (with a bull of 23 September 1440)


Additional information to this point

Biography of Niccolo III d'Este, September 1440
https://condottieridiventura.it/niccolo-d-este/
Acquista per 11000 ducati da Eugenio IV, tramite il patriarca Ludovico Scarampo, Bagnacavallo e Massa Lombarda che sono state appena conquistate da Francesco Sforza a Guidantonio Manfredi.
automatic translation:
Buy for 11000 ducats from Eugene IV, through the patriarch Ludovico Scarampo, Bagnacavallo and Massa Lombarda which have just been conquered by Francesco Sforza in Guidantonio Manfredi.
Biography of Guidantonio Manfredi, Signore of Faenza May - October 1440
Mag. giu. 500 cavalli Romagna Toscana
Da Forlì segue il Piccinino in Toscana; partecipa alla battaglia di Anghiari. Si salva con la fuga dopo avere subito numerose perdite.
Lug. Romagna
Si ferma a Forlì ospite dell’ Ordelaffi; con il Piccinino assedia Matteo da Sant’ Angelo in Castrocaro Terme.
Ago. sett. Romagna
Difende Torre di Calamello in Val di Lamone; perde invece Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda, Portico, Rocca San Casciano e Dovadola. Si porta con le sue truppe per difendere Portico (consegnatagli in precedenza dal Piccinino); giunto a Modigliana, comprende che la sua situazione è compromessa per cui preferisce ritirarsi.
Ott. Romagna
Con Domenico Malatesta cerca di sorprendere i pontifici a Forlimpopoli. Dal punto di vista finanziario si trova così a mal partito che già dall’estate deve imporre a Faenza ed al suo territorio una tassa sui prodotti agricoli che entrano nel capoluogo.

*******************
automatic translation

May Jun 500 horses Romagna Tuscany
From Forlì follows the Piccinino in Tuscany; participates in the battle of Anghiari. He escapes after suffering numerous losses.
Jul. Romagna
Stops in Forlì as guest of Ordelaffi; with the Piccinino he besieges Matteo da Sant 'Angelo in Castrocaro Terme.
Ago. Sep. Romagna
Defends Torre di Calamello in Val di Lamone; instead lost Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda, Portico, Rocca San Casciano and Dovadola. He goes with his troops to defend Portico (previously given to him by Piccinino); arrived in Modigliana, he understands that his situation is compromised so he prefers to retire.
Oct. Romagna
With Domenico Malatesta he tries to surprise the popes in Forlimpopoli. From a financial point of view, he is in such a bad way that as early as the summer he has to impose a tax on agricultural products entering the capital on Faenza and its territory.
Biography of Francesco Sforza, Aug. Sep. 1440
https://condottieridiventura.it/francesco-sforza/
Ago. sett. Lombardia e Veneto
Devia alla volta di Pontevico e varca l’Oglio a Robecco d’Oglio; si trasferisce nel mantovano dove conquista subito Marcaria, Cavriana ed Asola la cui rocca, espugnata con l’uccisione dei difensori, è demolita dalle fondamenta. Vengono in suo potere altri centri quali Guidizzolo, Volta Mantovana, Solferino, Castiglione delle Stiviere; ottiene a patti la rocca di Lonato. Rientra nel Veneto, assedia Lazise, difesa da 500 uomini tra fanti e cavalli, circonda per terra e dal lago Peschiera del Garda la cui terra è data al saccheggio. Ne conquista la rocchetta in pochi giorni (vorrebbe impiccarne il castellano per la sua fellonia) e solo dopo trentaquattro giorni (settembre) il castello maggiore. E’ contattato a Peschiera del Garda da un emissario di Filippo Maria Visconti (il marchese d’Este come in altre circostanze) che gli è prodigo di promesse: questa volta lo Sforza si mantiene fedele ai suoi datori di lavoro ed informa delle trattative il provveditore Pasquale Malipiero. Sempre nel mese cadono gli ultimi capisaldi ducali nel Veneto (Villafranca di Verona, Vigasio, Nogarole Rocca, Valeggio sul Mincio, Isola della Scala, Nogara, Cerea, Sanguinetto).

****************
automatic translation
Ago. Sep. Lombardy and Veneto
It deviates towards Pontevico and crosses the Oglio in Robecco d’Oglio; he moved to Mantua where he immediately conquered Marcaria, Cavriana and Asola whose fortress, conquered by killing the defenders, was demolished from its foundations. Other centers come into his power such as Guidizzolo, Volta Mantovana, Solferino, Castiglione delle Stiviere; he obtains a pact for the fortress of Lonato. He returns to the Veneto, besieges Lazise, ​​defended by 500 men including infantrymen and horses, surrounds Peschiera del Garda on the ground and from the lake, whose land is given to plunder. He conquers the rocchetta in a few days (he would like to hang the castellan for his felony) and only after thirty-four days (September) the main castle. He is contacted in Peschiera del Garda by an emissary of Filippo Maria Visconti (the Marquis d'Este as in other circumstances) who is generous with promises: this time Sforza remains faithful to his employers and informs the administrator of the negotiations. Pasquale Malipiero. Also in the month the last ducal strongholds in Veneto fall (Villafranca di Verona, Vigasio, Nogarole Rocca, Valeggio sul Mincio, Isola della Scala, Nogara, Cerea, Sanguinetto).
The matter with Bagnacavallo and Massa Lombardia isn't mentioned. Sforza is not in the Romagna, but he is the major general.

History of Massa Lombarda ... 1358 -1445 (wiki)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massa_Lombarda
Nel corso del XIV secolo Massa Lombarda venne conquistata e riconquistata più volte dai signori locali. Si susseguirono i nomi di famosi capitani di ventura, come Corrado Lando (1358), Luchino Dal Verme (1366), Giovanni Acuto (1376) e Alberico da Barbiano (1399). Formalmente il signore governava in nome del Papa (il pontefice era il proprietario di tutta la Romandiola): di fatto sottraeva i territori conquistati al dominio pontificio. Nella Descriptio provinciæ Romandiolæ, redatta nel 1371, Massæ Lombardorum fu classificata come castrum. Nel 1384 Massa Lombarda si ritrovò di nuovo sotto le dipendenze di Bologna, ceduta in vicariato dal pontefice. Nel 1392 furono effettuati lavori di ristrutturazione della rocca e fu costruito un ponte fisso in muratura. Il direttore dei lavori fu il famoso ingegnere Giovanni da Siena.[25]
Nel 1424 il paese passò a Filippo Maria Visconti, uscito vincitore dalla Battaglia di Zagonara. Dieci anni dopo Visconti cedette per diplomazia tutti i territori posseduti tra Forlì e Imola al nuovo papa Eugenio IV, il quale li affidò provvisoriamente ad una famiglia guelfa, i Manfredi di Faenza. A sua volta, nel 1440 Eugenio IV cedette in feudo tutte le terre del monastero di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, tra cui Massa, al marchese di Ferrara, Nicolò III d'Este per 11.000 ducati d'oro[26]. Il passaggio di proprietà venne formalizzato nel 1445.

****************
automatic translation
During the fourteenth century Massa Lombarda was conquered and reconquered several times by the local lords. The names of famous captains of fortune followed one another, such as Corrado Lando (1358), Luchino Dal Verme (1366), Giovanni Acuto (1376) and Alberico da Barbiano (1399). Formally the lord ruled in the name of the Pope (the pontiff was the owner of all the Romandiola): in fact he subtracted the conquered territories from the papal dominion. In the Descriptio provinciæ Romandiolæ, written in 1371, Massæ Lombardorum was classified as castrum. In 1384 Massa Lombarda found itself again under the dependence of Bologna, which was ceded to the vicariate by the pontiff. In 1392 renovations were carried out on the fortress and a fixed brick bridge was built. The construction manager was the famous engineer Giovanni da Siena. [25]
In 1424 the town passed to Filippo Maria Visconti, who won the Battle of Zagonara. Ten years later Visconti ceded all the territories owned between Forlì and Imola to the new Pope Eugene IV by diplomacy, who temporarily entrusted them to a Guelph family, the Manfredis of Faenza. In turn, in 1440 Eugene IV ceded all the lands of the monastery of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, including Massa, to the Marquis of Ferrara, Nicolò III d'Este for 11,000 gold ducats [26]. The change of ownership was formalized in 1445.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Certame coronario October 1441

7
The last time before September 1440 that I can find a record of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta's presence in Florence is in March 1436. He was present for the consecration of the cathedral church of Santa Maria del Fiore, on 25 March. As part of the ceremonies of the day, Pope Eugene knighted the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, Giuliano Davanzati. The pope gave the honour of bestowing the sword, “spata,” on Davanzati to the papal vicar of Rimini, Sigismondo Malatesta.

The scene is described by Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459) in his account of the consecration of Santa Maria del Fiore, De Secularibus et Pontificalibus Pompis (Concerning the Secular and Papal Parades), 1436. The text has been edited, with a facing page translation in English and commentary, by Christine Smith and Joseph F. O'Connor in Building the Kingdom: Gianozzo Manetti on the material and spiritual edifice (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies/Brepols, 2006).

“Then the standard-bearer of justice [Giuliano Davanzati] went up to the pope at the appropriate signal and, after the usual genuflection, received from the pontiff himself the splendid insignia of military service, to the great glory of his city and to his enormous personal honor. The pope, desiring on this most solemn day, the day of the consecration, to honor greatly the Florentine name, had decided beforehand to invest with splendid military insignia the most distinguished man that could be found in the city of Florence at that time.
“To this purpose, he fittingly entrusted this duty to the noble prince of the Riminese and to the eminent ambassador of the emperor, persons of great standing. One of them placed the gilded spurs on his feet in the customary way, while the other girded him with the military sword which they call by the common name 'spata'. Thus honored with military decorations and invested with knightly insignia in this manner, that most eminent man returned to his seat near the holy feet, the feet of the pope.” (page 323, paragraphs 29 and 30)

Commentary -

insignia of military service: This is the second ceremony, the knighting of the Gonfaloniere, not part of the consecration or the Mass. Again, the analogy is to an imperial adventus: after freeing the captives the faithful followers are rewarded and honored. … On 23 March the Priors and Gonfaloniere di Giustizia elected Giuliano di Niccola di Roberto Davanzati to be knighted at the consecration. He was to be honored with the emblem of the people (a red cross on a white ground), banner, man's overcoat, and trappings for his horse, on which the Commune was prepared to spend 50 gold florins, and become Captain of Pisa. … It would seem that Giuliano was inducted into the milizia aurata or cavalieria aurata, since that involved the conferring of golden spurs, but the papal equestrian orders were strictly organized only in the sixteenth century.
noble prince: This is Sigismondo Malatesta (1414-1468), who succeeded Pandolfo Malatesta in 1427 and who, since 1428, had been commander of the papal forces in the Romagna and the Marches, and was Vicar of Rimini. [The writers of other accounts of the consecration ceremonies,] Feo Belcari and Cambi agree that Sigismondo placed the sword around Davanzati's waist, but that it was the Podestà of Florence, Count Cecchino di Campello, who put on the spurs, not the imperial ambassador. Manetti mentions only the nobility, although Battista Cigalà of Genoa, the Emperor Sigismond's representative at the Curia, assisted Sigismondo in conferring the sword and Tommaso da Fermo, Capitano del Popolo, helped fasten the spurs.
“military sword: The 'spata' or 'spatha' was a long, double-edged sword.”
(pages 357-358)

Note that their date for the birth of Sigismondo, 1414, must be a typo, since he was born in 1417. And he could not have commanded the papal forces in the Romagna at the age of 11. They are clearly a little confused about his biography. Condottieridiventura gives his first condotta, indeed for the pope, in 1431. Very young, but not 11!

Re: Certame coronario October 1441

8
Ross Caldwell wrote: 26 Mar 2022, 09:50 It's not clear to me when Sigismondo Malatesta was last in Florence.
Long time everyone!

Before losing the forest for the trees, its important to note that Giusti is a direct go between for the Florentine Dieci and Malatesta, securing contracts from the Dieci for the mercenary regiments he manages (under the brother captains Agnolo and Grigoro d'Anghiari) who are released from direct Florentine operations to go work under Malatesta in his efforts to recoup dominions in the Romagna, closer to his base of Rimini. Giusti not only appears personally before the Dieci but even deals directly with one of the heroes of the battle of Anghiari and Dieici member, Neri d'Gino Capponi, dividing up the spoils taken in the mop up action at and around San Sepolcro.

2nd biggest point for grounding the context: The Malatesta had historically controlled San Sepolcro and 'Gismondo wanted it back, although he did not participate at Anghiari. Instead Florence made a deal with the Pope for this papal possession and kept it for themselves (L. Bruni duly notes it as a prize that enlarged the Florentine state under his chancellorship in the conclusion to his Memoirs)...thus walking the tight rope of trying to keep Malatesta allied to them. Toward that end it is noteworthy that not only Giusti's mercenaries are found fighting alongside Malatesta that September but the papal troops under the papal captain Pietro Giampaulo Orsini (present at Anghiari) for an assault on the former Malatesta possession of Forli, now held by the Milanese. A gift of trionfi made in Florence but delivered to Malatesta in the field outside Forli has to be understood in that light. The gift came at a diplomatically sensitive time in Florentine-Malatesta relations - Papal-Florentine support was given to Malatesta in the Romagna in lieu of the latter getting San Sepolcro back.

So let's relook at the 1440 timeline of Giusti's journal translated by Huck:
25th of July Agnolo d'Agnari came from Arezzo with his companies to go to Romagna in the service of 'Gismondo;
and Giusti went with him to Agnari, and stayed in Agnari "because I had to be in Florence for the Agnolo transactions." [this means Giusti is going to be Florence sometime after July 25, nearly a month after the battle]

30th of July I went to Citerna [from Florence?] to inform the vicar that he was there for Signor Gismondo as the Monterchiesi tried to take away his possession at Pantaneto.

10th of August, by commandment of the Ten, Gregorio d'Anghiari, he left Fiorenza to go to Valdilamona to make certain facts.

24th of August in the evening Gregorio d'Agnari came from Valdilamona in Florence.
[this is undoubtedly to muster to fulfill the soldier head count obligations of the contract; not only is Giusti probably still in Florence but will travel to the Romagna with Gregorio's contingent]

10 September in Cesena, because Giusti couldn't go safely to camp, and sent a letter to Agnolo advising him he was in Cesena needed to obtain the safe conduct from Niccolò Piccinino. [presumably Giusti is still with Gregori's contingent trying to get to his brother' camp, which is with Malatesta's main force
We thus have Giusti in Florence as of 24 August (albeit doing a variety of errands tied to material spoils, dispositions of minor properties changing hands, and signing a condotte with the Dieici) and in the field of operations in the Romagna by 10 September.

In my theory trionfi are a novel creation of a new suit added to existing decks of naibi and given this time-line the new decks could have been created between 29/30 June (dates of the battle and follow-up) and 25 August, the soonest Giusti could have left Florence. Two months would seem to be an adequate amount of time to add a fifth suit to existing card decks.

Was Giusti buying a gift to win his own good graces with Malatesta? He wasn't the one depriving Malatesta of San Sepolcro - the Florentine Dieci were. The Dieci made up for that by sending mercenaries via Giusti for Romagna military actions and the Florentine-made gift of trionfi (celebrating the victory of Anghiari in my mind), customized with Malatesta's arms. Yes, Giusti duly notes he had them made - was he asked to make that commission along with the men transferred to Malatesta? His journal isa stark accounting of materials, contracts, etc. There is no literary pretension and no other mentions of artistic commissions. The Dieci was used to paying him as their intermediary and one can understand him as simply carrying out their wishes via his contractual fees. His compensation could have simply included an amount to cover such a commission and the more important condotte: Gregorio's contingent, joining his brother in the field, already with Malatesta. The cards were a diplomatic touch, symbolically including Malatesta in a victory commemoration he played no part in, but a gesture that welcomed back into the fold, as it were.

We then have the problem of the Milanese CY and its relationship to what I posit as the Florentine ur-tarot created in the summer of 1440.

Resuming the timeline (using M. King and Giusti's journal):
9 and 12 October 1440, due to pressures from Visconti/Piccicino, the combined allied Lega/Malatesta army retires to the villages just outside Ravenna and at this time Giusti notes sforzeschi among the men at arms. But why Ravenna?

24 October, 1440 the Venetion Marcello, assisted with Attendolo’s men (also at Anghiari) marches on Ravenna and deposes the ruling family aligned with the Visconti, the Polenta (see M. King, 252-53). [and see my separate Ancona arch post regarding the CY "world" - why a view from Cremona looking at the Adriatic sea with Ravenna on the coast, recently lost from Visconti, would be depicted in a Milanese deck in 1441 given to a condottiero on whom hopes for regaining such lost possessions someday would be pinned]

December 1440 through February 1441 Sforza is in Venice to ride our winter and attend the Foscari-Contarini wedding.

6 July 1441 Sforza is at the Adige River, perhaps near Verona (King, 254; Marcello was also sent by Venice to keep an eye on him) but this must have been to meet with Milanese envoys in what ultimately lead to the renewed condotte and wedding to Bianca some four months later, in late October 1441).

August 12, 1441 Giusti is still with Malatesta in Rimini where he reports that ‘Gismondo had returned from Lombardy that day and married Sforza's daughter. (Newbigin, 69)

August 16 1441, Giusti leaves Rimini for Florence : “because I had to leave, and the magnificent Signor 'Gismondo committed some of his secret things to me that I was to look after in Florence with Cosimo and with others.”

August 17 1441 Giusti “went to see Cosimo at Careggi [Villa], on an embassy commissioned by Signor ‘Gismondo and reasoned about our facts, of which he [Cosimo] replied he was happy.”

21-31 August 1441, King cryptically notes “at his palace in Venice, Sforza discusses maters of state” (249). Clearly this was related to the ensuing Treaty of Cavriana (between Milan and Papacy/Florence/Venice and less powerful allies).

24-28 October 1441. Sforza/Bianca wedding,

20 November 1441. Treaty of Cavriana (whose terms were largely dictated by Sforza).

The direct relations between Giusti and Malatesta, and Giusti the Medici regime couldn't be more crystal clear; the deck would tie all three parties together. The CY deck, a Visconti reaction to the Florentine deck made specifically to celebrate flipping Sforza to a Milanese condotte (with a marriage thrown into boot), could be associated with the wedding/peace time period as well as the Pisanello medals cast for Visconti and Sforza at this time). Regarding the CY I especially interpret the female personification of the "World" card (the fame of prudent Sforza marrying the duke's chaste daughter), which to me is clearly a Po Valley landscape showing the dowry city of Cremona, standing between Milan and Venice...facing towards Ravenna on the Adriatic, that Filippo no doubt hoped to recover (hopes that would be frustrated almost immediately by Sforza as he continued to be feted in Venice).

Finally, partial records of card production in Florence leading up to the battle of Anghiari, from two Pratesi articles:
1439, Arezzo, 24 decks sold (November, 1439). “1421-39 - PLAYING CARDS TRADED IN AREZZO by AGNOLO DI GIOVANNI”, Franco Pratesi, 15.12.2012. Pratesi: “Here we find two different kinds of playing cards – each of them has something worth discussing. The dozen packs of Naibi Piccoli …they had been acquired not to be kept for sale in the shop in Arezzo, but with the intention to send them to Borgo. …I believe that Borgo San Sepolcro was intended here [a town that defected to Piccinino before Anghiari]. In addition to local inhabitants, many soldiers and civic servants from Florence and other provenances lived by then in and around San Sepolcro, and seemingly they needed more cards than usual for spending their free time there, far from home.”

1440, Prato/Florence. “NAIBI SOLD BY SILK-DEALERS”, by Franco Pratesi, 03.03.2012.
March 1440: 16 decks sold in Prato
April 1440: 24 decks sold in Prato
May 1440: 12 decks sold in Florence, 9 in Prato
September, 1440: 36 decks sold in Florence
November, 1440: 15 decks sold in Florence

So why an uptick of card production in 1439-40? Florence and the Papacy were mobilizing for war. See the timeline in Margaret King (1994: 247-249): In March 1439 Piccinino inaugurates the campaigning season by attacking the areas around Verona and Vicenza; by June 23rd Sforza signed up with the “united colors of Venice, Florence and Genoa sent him as emblem of command”; October 1439 Marcello urged by Venetian Senate to persuade Sforza to cooperate with Pope Eugene [in Florence] and Michele Attendolo arrives on scene (249). Tellingly the ensuing decks produced in 1440 before Anghiari are sold especially to the north (Prato again) where Piccinino was expected to arrive from (and where soldiers would have been quartered) or from the mountainous eastern route where he indeed swung south through, into the Casentino to Borgo San Sepolcro and then onto Anghiari (where Pratesi says cards were also targeted). Most of the decks sold in Florence – certainly the largest spike of 36 decks in September sticks out - are after Anghiari, the same month Giusti records his delivery of the commissioned trionfi deck for Sigismondo Malatesta. If trionfi was a brand new game, as I argue (and there is no previous association of this word with cards in any archive yet found), it’s decks might still generically be referred to as simply naibi. What can be said here is a spike in card production in Florence occurred at the same time Giusti ordered a deck to be made there embellished with Malatesta’s arms.

Phaeded

Re: Certame coronario October 1441

9
Huck wrote: 19 Mar 2022, 12:19 IN WORK

Certame coronario ...
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certame_coronario
English translation by google.com
https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.go ... r_pto=wapp

... was a literary contest in Florence in 1441 initiated by Leon Battista Alberti. It happened in October 1441. Actually I would like to know, what happened then precisely.
And this happened approximately 1 year after Giusti gave Malatesta the first known trionfi deck.

Can this literary event shine any light on the origins of the ur-tarot in Florence given the temporal proximity?
Of course how one defines the ur-tarot matters, and for me the equally close proximity to trionfi production in Ferrara with a reference to a number 14 images (made for Bianca Visconti, which I take to be trumps) on 1 Jan 1441 and the CY of about November 1441 which suggests all seven virtues as trumps, possibly with 7 matching ant-types or exemplars, would allow a reconstructed deck of 14 trumps.

Of course all we have pictorially is the CY and its highest "World" card was clearly influenced by the productions of the French court into which the Visconti had intermarried; below on the left are Venus and Mercury upon a nimbus cloud and their exempli or "children" from Pizan's Othea ("Letter from the goddess of Prudence, Othéa, to Hector of Troy", c. 1400), while on the right is the CY World with similarly-placed allegorical divinity (fama-prudence to my mind, or rather the "fame of the prudent ruler" indicated below). The key difference is the celestial vault above the planetary divinities has been moved to below the divinity, the CY divinity thus placed in a tutelary position over the landscape below - her "children" are at once the knight-ruler arriving on the scene and the dominion itself (the fame of the prudently ruled land to be lauded by the divinity).

Image

As I previously remarked in an old post:
viewtopic.php?p=20860#p20860
Why is the form of the CY “World” the only arch?

All of the other 15th century hand-painted or engraved “worlds” are a tondo/mirror shape featuring an urban or urban-dotted landscape view (veduta), typical of representations of the earth at the center of concentric cosmological diagrams. Why then does the oldest known example, the CY, not conform to a model that was readily adopted almost universally once it was created (the PMB being the oldest example of the tondo version)? Was the arch especially meaningful in the context of the creation of the ur-tarot?
...
What gets little attention in regard to the Florentine victory after Anghiari are the specific prizes meted out. The following excerpt from the biography on Castagno provides the basic details of the prize awaiting the Florentine commissioners, Benardo (aka Bernardetto) de Medici and Neri Capponi, who were with the army as official commissioners and alerted the commune of the great victory:
"The citizens of Florence recognized the importance of the victory as well [as the commissioners]. The dome of the cathedral and the campanile were illuminated as they were for the feast day of John the Baptist. Litta reports that upon their return to Florence the commissioners were honored with a pennon, a caparisoned horse, a shield with the arms of Florence, and a helmet."
(John Richard Spencer, Andrea Del Castagno and His Patrons, 1991: 19).
Source for illumination of dome: Howard Saalman, Filippo Brunescelli: the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore, 1980: 279, doc. 303 (misdates illumination as June 11, 1440. Which must be July 1, per Spenser).
...
The Florentine Signoria’s herald, Anselmo Calderoni, also charged with celebrating the victory praised not Attendolo but the name of Sforza, so overshadowed was he by his uncle Francisco:
“O Lord, we praise you, all of us singing, / together with your Mother the glorious Virgin…And all honor to the men of Sforza,/who enforced the triumph of the Holy League,/pursuing and driving out the mend of the duke” (translation in Dale V. Kent, Cosimo de' Medici and the Florentine Renaissance: the patron's oeuvre, 2000: 280).
...
...in 1436 when the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore was completed and the cathedral officially consecrated by this same pope, with Sigismondo Malatesta at his side (the same recipient of an ur-tarot deck). It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to perform a sort of shorthand of this complex fresco and place Mary on the arch, as we find with Bianca-fama in the CY, perhaps conflated in her guise of “del Fiore” with the historical symbol of Florentia. The lilies held by Mary are in fact the same motif that would have been depicted on the pennant and caparisoned horse’s shield “with the arms of Florence.”
...
The dome itself had taken on mythical dimensions for the Florentines, an arch civic symbol in which she was thought of as imposing herself over the rest of Tuscany, indeed described as such in the dedicatory letter of Alberti’s Della Pictura to the dome’s creator: “…an enormous construction towering above the skies, vast enough to cover the entire Tuscan population with its shadow.”
Thus in the very mind of the organizer of the Certame, the dome was omnipresent and the only concrete urban triumphal pomp for celebrating Anghiari being the illumination of this very dome. The minor trappings of the pennant and horse to the commissioners present at the victory could have course been translated into a generic Florentine Guelph knight beneath the dome or the triumphal arch shape of the dome as we find in the Milanese adaptation in the CY World (a different post of mind of why an arch would have been especially relevant for Sforza: viewtopic.php?p=21284#p21284

For the Certame to be more meaningfully grounded beyond just the "World" trump, in my reconstruction at least, the following parallels would need to be present:
* A reference to the Virtues
* clear links to the Duomo
* perhaps even a reference to the number 14

First off, an article by Brian Maxson, "The Certame coronario as Performative Ritual" in Jurdjevic, Mark and Rolf Strøm-Olsen (eds.), Rituals of Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of Edward Muir. Essays and Studies, 39. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2016: 137-163. Maxson sets the stage as it were:
On 22 October 1441 the eyes of Florence were fixed upon a raised platform at Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral’s towering dome completed less than a decade before and still lacking its lantern...At one level, the Certame, as a ritual, sought to ensure the success of the marriage — occurring almost on the exact same day — in the north between Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti, daughter of Sforza’s long-time rival Filippo Maria Visconti, as well as the related peace negotiations to end the wars in Lombardy. Additionally, the Certame had another context closer to home, where it served to attempt to quell tensions rising over the death of the condottiere Baldaccio d’Anghiari..
The allegorical figure would of course go where the lantern was missing, but the important thing is a stage had been set up for 10 papal judges in front of the cathedral so that the silhouette of the dome was indeed visually present. The connection to Sforza was self-evident yet Maxson spends a good deal of ink on the subtext of Capponi and the Pope's favored condottiero Baldaccio recently murdered by Medici henchmen (which need not concern us here). The general point is the connection of all of these cultural productions and condottiere.

In reimagining the Milanese CY version of the "World" trump, Maxson offers this, in which we can conceive the allegorical divinity as the urban patron of Mary herself instead of a more generic fama:
The choice of the Virgin Mary as the key saint for the event and the Florentine cathedral as its host were ripe with significance. One of the most prominent iconographical traditions associated with the Virgin Mary was that of Misericordia images. In these paintings the Virgin appeared spreading her cloak with her arms to protect the individuals within its confines. In Florence, a popular image featured the entire Florentine community under her charge.
This resonates with Alberti's earlier description of all of Tuscany under the shadow of the dome and implicitly, Mary of the flowers.

Maxson again, back to the place of judgment and its parallel at the Palazzo Vecchio:
The setting for the Certame coronario mirrored the rituals accompanying the Protest to Justice speeches while moving the action from the civic center of the city to its religious heart. Instead of speaking from the ringhiera, a raised platform was installed in front of Santa Maria del Fiore. The ten apostolic secretaries took over the role of the nine members of the Florentine Signoria. 153
Justice is course a virtue as well, but the new context of the duomo would call for a theological virtue (arguably Charity, as touched on further below). What is significant in not naming one winner was the little known fact that ten apostolic secretaries named four poets as tied and so gave the crown to Santa Maria del Fiore. The 10 judges and 4 nominees gives us the magic number 14 - just a coincidence so close in time to Anghiari?
The planners had dictated that the best poet would be crowned “with a silver crown worked into the likeness of a laurel,” that is, a laurel crown. The papal judges determined that “there were four individuals who deserved the prize equally.” thus, “they gave the
said crown to the before-mentioned church of Santa Maria del Fiore.” 156
To get to that number four seems like a random number of winners (who were not the winner, which was "Mary"). If the point was to highlight the number 14 then it would have meaning. And the crown going to Mary matches precisely what is retained on the subsequent CY World...but is absent on the Pizan children of the planets prototype. In this case the hypothetical ur-tarot would have featured a lily-holding Mary in a misericordia position atop the dome silhouette framing Florence, perhaps with her contado (newly enlarged with the annexation of the Casentino/San Sepolcro), and thus the awarding of the Certame crown to Mary a foregone maneuver by the Medici regime with the willing consent of the resident Papacy, selecting four winners to get to 14 to match the newly coined trionfi sequence (all of this to the great frustration of Alberti).

In fact Alberti favored one of the poetic participants above all the others as following the intent and rules of his competition, Leonardo Dati (whose piece had an absence of literary citations in keeping with the volgare), out of the distinguished line up of Francesco Alberti, Antonio Agli, Mariotto Davanzati, Anselmo Calderoni (the herald who wrote the Anghiari poem hailing Mary and Sforza) , Benedetto Accolti, Cyriac of Ancona, and Leon Battista Alberti himself, although Antonio di Meglio and his son Gregorio recited the poems by Agli and Davanzati for them (Maxson, 154; but see also Stefano Pezze', "Sul processo elaborativo del Certame coronario", in L'autorialità plurima. Scritture collettive, testi a più mani, opere a firma multipla, Atti del XLII Convegno Interuniversitario (Bressanone, 10-13 luglio 2014), especially 376, where indicates more of a sense of collusion between Alberti and Dati).

What is intriguing is that Alberti, a vicious wit (see his Momus,which is partially a disguised attack on the papacy), came up with a proposal for a second Certame, whose theme would have been invidia/envy and for which Dati actually wrote a play (but ironically only a Latin version survives). Why Envy, when the first contest was about "friendship")? Given the pre-eminence of Giotto and the seven virtues we can only recognize Envy as the paired vice opposite Charity, the penultimate virtue associated with the papacy (and the literally elevated virtue of the seven virtues on the Loggia dei Lanzi); the example of this paired virtue/vice most famously painted in Padua:

Image

Charity in her special niche on the Loggia dei Lanzi (flanked by her sister Theological virtues, all facing the Palazzo Vecchio; the Cardinals face the piazza)
Image

Although the first Certame was about friendship, hypothesizing that Alberti casts aspersions at how the Papacy colluded with the Medici to pre-select four (non)winners he must have been making fun of something associated with the virtues - the trionfi - explains the the theme of the second proposed contest. And being something of a prelate himself, chose the vice opposite the virtue of charity associated with the 10 papal judges and papacy: Invidia. Why else would Alberti's reaction to the fiasco made of his competition be in terms of that particular vice?

I will also point out that Dati was responsible a little later for the Trophaeum Anglaricum (c. 1443), the poem celebrating the victory of Anghiari and used for Da Vinci's famous painting of the same, which points to its longer term relevance. Near the beginning of the poem we see Dati's use of the phrase fama volat
Line 17:Fama volat, tum finitimi terrore tremiscunt. Lindner, T. (2011). Leonardo Dati: Trophaeum Anglaricum. Textkritische Edition. Herausgegeben von Thomas Lindner (Praesens TextBibliothek, 8). Wien: Praesens Verlag 2011: 8.
We meet the phrase again in Minchiate, which splits off the landscape/orbis element of the "World" from the "Fama" trumpet over a landscape aspect; in the latter we find just that phrase, right beneath the dome:

Image

Did the original Florentine "World" trump contain the phrase fama volat? Some of the CY have tituli on them (for instance the Judgement card).

Finally, I've made much about the dome and its conversion into a triumphal arch in the CY version, with a knight beneath, so let me offer one more comparable data point. No one can dispute Ferrara was in close diplomatic relations with both Florence and Milan at the time the ur-tarot was created (notably hosting both the original Church Union and Bianca Visconti's visit). Their earliest decks do not survive, but assuming they were similar to the Florentine ur-tarot and CY, then the arch might have been employed on the "World" card there. The ruler of Ferrara at that time was Niccolo d'Este, d. 26 December 1441. An equestrian monument was then planned for him and executed a few years later. What is interesting is the prototype for the statue, holding a baton in the same manner, is clearly Uccello's paining of Hawkwood in the Santa Maria del Fiore in 1436. But instead of a pedestal, as in Uccello's version, Niccolo is mounted on an arch...what we have is the knight beneath fama/prudence in the CY, now elevated in her place as a humanist token of the apotheosis of the learned condottiero prince:

Image
Image

Trionfi wasn't invented in a vaccum and reflected the aspirations of the historical moment, that had become condottiere-centric - the above I think makes that clear. It merely pressed an omnipresent series of ideals - the canonical virtues - into a new expanded series celebrating victory in terms of the symbols of a given dominion and the mercenary captains she employed. And not to end on a tangent, but the series was expanded later (arguably with the PMB in c. 1451) - there is zero evidence for a series of 22 subjects ca. 1440.

Phaeded

Re: Certame coronario October 1441

10
Huck wrote: 19 Mar 2022, 12:19 Certame coronario ...

Here is the translation
The coronary Certame was a poetry competition in the vernacular conceived in 1441 in Florence by Leon Battista Alberti , under the patronage of Piero de 'Medici .

The intention was to demonstrate how the vernacular had full literary dignity and could also deal with the highest topics, in a period that was witnessing, with the flourishing of Humanism , a strong resumption of the use of Latin . Both well-known writers of the time and popular rhymers participated in the competition, which had a silver laurel wreath as a prize (hence the name), who had to compose texts on the theme " true friendship ". It took place on 22 October 1441 in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and was attended by a large audience, as well as a group of civil and religious authorities of the city.
A few more notes about the context for the Certame, and by that I mean not just the events leading up to it but the very place of the contest, Santa Maria del Fiore.

* Filelfo taught Dante in S. Maria del Fiore...and used Dante to attack the Medici, for which he was forced out of Florence shortly after the Albizzi faction was exiled in 1434. The relevance of Dante to Alberti's contest would have been self-evident to all, as Dante was the author of De vulgari eloquentia, an essay by Dante arguing for giving vernacular the same dignity and legitimacy as Latin.
* Filelfo subsequently wrote On Exile (c. 1440) in which one of the main speakers is Palla Strozzi, the richest of the Albizzi faction and patron of Filelfo and, indirectly, Alberti...
* Alberti's patron Giovanni Rucellai, was the wealthy banker who commissioned him to design both the famous Palazzo Rucellai and the marble façade for Santa Maria Novella. Rucellai himself began by entering the banking house of Palla Strozzi and and married his daughter Iacopa di Palla Strozzi. Moreover, there are even more direct links between Alberti and Strozzi, as there are at least 13 marriages between them (see
Baxendale, Susannah Foster. “Exile in Practice: The Alberti Family In and Out of Florence 1401-1428.” Renaissance Quarterly 44, no. 4 (1991): 720–56, 748).

So the place of old wounds, S. Maria del Fiore, where Filelfo had promoted the Albizzi-Strozzi faction over the Medici using Dante, is now a place of healing, as it were, by a poetic contest on the subject of "Friendship". Who could this benefit if not the exiled Strozzi that Alberti had so many links to (namely the wife of his main benefactor was Strozzi's daughter)? Strozzi did not not take part in the active banishment of Cosimo (that was all Albizzi) and his return was conceivable (it is also conceivable Alberti was given money by Strozzi for this poetic contest). Of course banishment was never revoked.

As to why the papal judges did not award Alberti's candidate, or any contestant, might be because the true aims were ultimately understood by the Medici and Pope Eugene; they willingly sabotaged the whole affair and its intention to promote "friendship" and ultimately a pardon for Strozzi (that never came).

More speculatively is my Dante theory of the ur-tarot - that the trionfi was purposely designed with Dante's Paradiso framework in mind (7 virtues/planets filled with corresponding exempli from civil and ecclesiastical history) as a rebuttal to Filelfo, still firing off antagonistic missives at the Medici from Milan (his 1440 On Exile is just one example of a litany of literary projects Filelfo concocted against the Medici). Following through with Alberti's seemingly innocuous contest about friendship in the cultural battleground of S. Maria del Fiore, just a year after the victory at Anghiari, must have eventually seemed like a bad idea to Medici and Pope once the implications of the contest were clearly understood, hence no victor proclaimed and the undoubted indignity of Alberti who then pressed on with a second contest on envy.

Phaeded
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