The rise of satire

Ralph Roeder, The Man of the Renaissance: Reading Notes Part XV

Leo's favorite pastime is hunting. Roeder describes one five week fit of venery that involved a cavalvade of 2000 hunters, traveling to far-flung Papal preserves, pursuing an array of beasts including red deer, wolves, hares, hosts, stags, and hedgehogs.

Leo plays cards with abandon: "he played cards briskly, promptly paying his losses and flinging his winnings over his shoulder."

Roeder introduces the satirist Aretino whose anonymous lampoons give him great influence over the affairs of the Vatican. Recognizing satire and gossip as the lifeblood of the Vatican, Castiglione sees the low-born Aretino's dominance of that form as a portent of further social decay.

Machiavelli finally advances within the Medici ranks not because of his political theory but due to his satire -- the success of his play "The Mandrake."

Pope Leo dies and Cardinals are assembled to elect successor, with both Medici and Gonzagan heirs vying.

Election drags on for so long, that one Cardinal dies in the process and rations for electors are reduced to one meal a day and then to just bread and water in order to hasten their deliberations.

Astoundingly, the new Pope, Adrian VI, is Flemish and a reformer who lives in a small corner of the Vatican with a single housekeeper. Aretino rails against his pedantry. Rome's economy, dependent on Papal largesse, collapses.

Adrian lives only a short time and, after another long conclave, a new Medici Pope is elected: Clement VII.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry