The ancestry of Palunčić family, from Palude to Palunco Miroslav Palunčić “But as many as wish to see with clarity the things which have happened, and the similar and analogous things which are going, according to the human condition, to happen sometime again – it will be enough for them to judge this work to be useful.” Thucydides (1.22.4) _____________________________________________________________________________________ T his book is first published in 2018, under the title: “The Palunčić family, originally Palunco, and their participation in historical events from the VIII to XX century”, www.academia.edu. I wish to thank Filip Palunčić for his advice on matters of Indo-European linguistics which played a key role in elucidating the etymology of the surname Palunco, and who also acted as an editor of the English text version of this work. 1 The etymology of the surname Palunco The recorded history of the Palunčić family commenced in the year 800 AD, with the insurrection in Rome against pope Leo III. Historian Angelo Mario da Erbo, in his “Chronaca di citta di Parma,” published in 1565, writes: “Famous family Della Palu (Palude) had arrived from Rome in 800 AD, and had brought with them (the relics) St. Basilides on the Mount Cavana, where they had built the church to honor the saint.” 1 Fra Iraneo Affo quoted Fra Salimbene de Adam, who was the contemporary of Della Palude in the 13th century, and wrote about the Counts of Palu in his “Storia della citta di Parma,” published in 1785.2 De Adam mentioned also the family Da Gente, as one branch of the family Della Palu, which had changed their surname after members of the family had come from the Crusade, repeating stories of the brave Italian peoples – ‘gentes.’3 Fra Girolamo Tiraboschi, in his “Dicionario Topografico,” from 1724, writes about the members of family Della Palude (Palu), who were “gentil uomini,” who had brought the relics of the saint, hidden in a barrel of wine, after they had left Rome in 800 AD.4 Tiraboschi speaks of the antique sepulchers of Della Palude, where they had buried the saint.5 In the book “Serie Cronologica dei vescuovi di Parma” (Chronology of the Parma bishops), we find that the church of San Basilide di Cavana was built in the 9th century by the noblemen from Della Palude family, who left Rome with the body of the saint. In the book which is in the Florence state archive, we find the section of diplomatic writings under the name “Diplomi Pisani – Archivio Diplomatico di Firenze,” by Anziani and Priori, and on the page 179, the following text: “Ubaldus de Palude has to be read as Paule, which is legally correct, and accordingly the Pisan Senate made the following decision: “Antichissima e nobilissima famiglia da Paule, da Padule, e da Palude, e stata ed e riconosciuta i tutti e tre questi casati.” It was the official confirmation that all forms of the surname were identical. Translated: “The ancient, noble, and the most honorable family da Paule, da Padule, and da Palude, are to be considered identical with the above mentioned surnames.” Reason for this intervention of the Pisan Senate was that Della Palude had held important positions in the Republic of Pisa, and that their documents were often signed with various forms of the surname. It was also understood that the Italian language was dynamic, and that the Latin version of the surname Palu/Palude/Paludanus had changed to the Tuscan version Padule, where the consonants -d- and -l- changed places, and Paule, where the consonant -d- was dropped. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), in his “De Vulgaris Eloquentia,” written between 1303 and 1305, requested from his peers not to underestimate the Italian language, calling it the language of the illiterate.6 With an extra grammar and syntax, it could become the academic language, Dante argued. Slow changes are noticeable only from the 16th century, when the Renaissance initiated a freedom of writing in the vernacular. The Romance languages descended from Latin and went through the dynamic changes of the so called ‘Vulgar’ Latin. Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages, when Europe had still to emerge, new languages came slowly into being. It has been calculated that toward the end of the fifth century people no longer spoke Latin but Gallo-Romanic, Italo-Romanic, or Hispano-Romanic (Umberto Eco, Serendipities). While intellectuals continued to write in Latin, bastardizing it even further, they heard around them local dialects in which survivals of languages spoken before the Roman civilization crossed with new roots brought by the barbarian invaders. Revealing the knowledge of Angelo Mario Edoari Da Erbo: Racolto da Angelo Mario Edoari – Parmigiano per il medesimo l‘anno 1572, libro 8, pagina 755 2 Fra Irraneo Affo: Storia della Cita di Parma, I – IV, 1785-87. 3 Cronaca di fra Salimbene Parmigiano, Vol. II, Parma, 1882. 4 Fra Girolamo Tiraboschi: Dicionario Topografico – Storico degli Stati Estensi Opera Postuma, vol. 2, 1724. 5 Fra Girolamo Tiraboschi: Memorie Storiche Modensi, Modena, 1793, vol. 2. 6 Umberto Eco: Serendipities, Language and Lunacy, First Harvest edition, Columbia University Press. 1 2 comparative linguistics, exceptional for his time, Dante sought to demonstrate how the fragmentation had actually taken place. First, languages split up into the various zones of the world and, using the vernacular word for – yes, as a measuring rod, the languages (within what we today call the Romance area) further split into the – oc, oil, and si groups. Then, even these vernacular languages further fragmented into a welter of local dialects, some of which might, as in Bologna, even vary from one part of the city to another. All these divisions had occurred, Dante observed, because man is by custom, habit, language, and according to the differences in time and space a changeable animal. Between the fifth and sixth centuries Latin had ceased to be the living language of the Romans. Vulgar tongue is the language spoken by everyone (by vulgus, or common people). It is known that 40% of the French population had been the Occitan speakers in 1840. Dante had distinguished three languages by their word yes: language where yes was – oc, he called Langue d’oc, or the Occitan; language where yes was – si, was Italian; and French, or Langue d’oil, was distinguished by the word – oil. Consequently, the Latin surname Palude, which derives from Latin word – palus, is the same in the Italian – Palude, while in the French language it had become – Palud. The Occitan version was – Palun. The French grammar states that palud is the singular masculine of the word – palun. Varro, the famous Roman linguist (Marcus Terentius Varro: About Latin language), who was born in 116 BC, and studied philosophy with Antiochus of Athens, had concluded that the word – palus, paludanus is derived from the Greek word – palos, with a meaning shallow water. French grammar explains that the word – palun derives from the Greek language (palun - peut bien elre derive du grec, bouc, marais). From Palude to Palunco Palunco is obviously the diminutive, derived from the surname Palun, translated from Palude into the Occitan language, with suffix -co added to the surname. It was common in most of the Indo-European languages to add the suffix -co to make the diminutive, and it signified that the Palunco was actually a nickname, used only later as a surname. It was standard practice in the Italian city states to make a surname from a nickname after the Council of Trent, with the strict direction that every person must have a surname (as prevention against spreading the Reformation), which resulted in fanny and unusual surnames, or those linked to the certain professions. From the Vatican archival documents we extracted the documents that covered the period of so called “The Babylonian captivity,” because the popes and curia were in Avignon, in Provence, under the strict control of French kings for more than seventy years. Personal letters were part of the Papal registers, a huge number of the letters, most of them without a date or place of writing. It helped when the UK Catholic church sorted out most of their letters in 1902, which had covered important Church personnel’s correspondence with the papal office. In the Avignon period we found our Palunco at the same page of the papal register where there was Flandini, who was the papal nuncio (legate) in England, in the first half of the 14th century. It gave us an approximate date of the papal regesta No: 576, with the Palunco name in it. The Dominican, Stjepan Krasić, wrote a number of the articles about the generals of the Dominican Order, highlighted the problems with the papal register.7 According to Krasić, the letters were registered by the scribes, who were by an established rule the strangers, who wrote foreign names and often added the names later between the rows. The researchers had to identify persons by the place from which they had come, to find out the identity of certain persons in the register. The language of those letters is the 7 S. Krasić: Regesti pisama generala dominikanskog reda poslanih u Hrvatsku (1392-1600). 3 Medieval Latin with characteristics of that period. The errors were made with personal names, unknown to the scribes, and sometimes the names were written from the memory and consequently, in some cases we had a title without the name, or a name without the title. The letters are without a date and they are written one after another, without an alphabetical order. In the 14th century letters were written on papyrus, and when the popes had returned to Rome, in 1377, most of the letters were left at the pope’s palace in Avignon, only important copies were made on sheep skin and sent to Rome. Most of the scholars could not find a regulation of how these letters were divided, except the bulk of letters with the notification “litterae communes,” or “litterae de curia” of a general importance. In the first half of the 14th century we could distinguish from the Avignon letters (those with dates) certain letters sent from the pope John XXII to Pietro and Ludovico Della Palude: “Datum ut supra Avinione, kalendris septembris, anno decimo octavo 5566 Avignon, 4. Septembre 1334.” where one can read: “Archiepiscopo Lugdunensi… et une parte, et Petrum de Palude de Varrambonis… et Ludovicum de Palude de Virocastro, Lugdunensis et Bisuntinae diocesum…” The letter was the pope’s request for help when he was challenged by the German king on the subject of possessing of property. John XXII had persecuted ‘the Spirituals’, with the support of Michael of Cesena, the general of the Franciscan Order. But there had been an arrangement by which property left to the friars was given by them to the pope, who allowed them the benefit of it, ‘without the sin of ownership.’ This was ended by John XXII, who said they should accept outright ownership. At this, the majority of the Order, headed by Michael of Cesena, rebelled. William of Occam, who had been summoned to Avignon to answer charges of heresy, sided with Michael of Cesena, as did another important man, Marsiglio of Padua. All three were excommunicated in 1328, but they escaped from Avignon and took refugee with the Emperor Louis. Louis was one of the two claimants to the Empire, favored by Germany, but the other was favored by the pope. The pope excommunicated Louis, who appealed against him to the General Council. The pope himself was accused of heresy. It was said that Occam, on meeting the Emperor said: “Do you defend me with the sword, and I will defend you with the pen.” At any rate, he and Marsiglio of Padua settled in Munich, under the protection of the Emperor. Conflict between the pope and the Emperor was really conflict between France and Germany. Pietro Della Palude was appointed by the king of France in 1332 to preside over deliberations of a body of prelates and theologians, whom king Philip had convoked at Versailles, to discuss the charge made against the pope John XXII, of asserting that “the souls of a just will not be admitted to the beatific vision until after the general judgment.” Pietro Della Palude, and his associates, manifested the consummate prudence in dealing with this matter. In letter to the king they declared: their entire submission to the pope’s authority, and their filial devotion to his person; their belief, based on the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, that John XXII had not held, much less taught the opinion attributed to him; that since the death of Christ souls of the just with no faults to expiate immediately after death, and the souls of other just persons after complete purgation, are admitted to the beatific vision, which will endure forever. Pope John XXII was born in Cahors, in southwest France around 1244, in a wealthy family. He studied in Montpellier and Orleans and received a legal doctorate. He studied theology in Paris and was the professor of civil law at Toulouse. In 1300 he was elected the bishop of Frejus. For some time, he was at the court of Naples, in the service of Robert of Anjou. In 1312, at the age of 68, he was appointed cardinal, and the following year he was awarded the rich bishopric of Porto. His election to the papacy, in 1316, was extremely complex and the start of his turbulent pontificate. Our ancestor, Pietro Della Palude, was born in Varembon, in 1275, as the sixth child of Gerardo Della Palude, the Count of Varembon in Bresse, north of Lyon, the Duchy of Savoy. He entered the Dominican Order in Lyon, and completed his theological studies at the University of Paris, and was made Doctor of Theology in 1314. Craving to devote his life to the teaching and writing, he avoided all offices of honor, but he was elected the general vicar of the Order, and sent to Pamplona in 1317. The following year pope John XXII sent him to Flanders as a papal legate, in hope of establishing the peace between the prince of 4 Flanders and the king of France. The mission was not successful, and some associates made charges against the legate, who easily cleared himself. In 1329, the pope recalled him to Avignon, and consecrated him the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Thirty years older pope John XXII had a special affection for Pietro, who in the Occitan speaking Avignon was called – Pierre de la Palun, and the pope gave him the nickname – Palunco. A number of secret letters between them were addressed only to Palunco, not to the Archbishop, or Patriarch Della Palude, and only one of those letters, addressed to Palunco, we found in the papal register No: 576. It is obvious that the scribe who wrote it wasn’t aware who the person was to whom the letter was sent. After the name of Palunco in the regesta, he added three exclamation marks, in order to clarify it later. We will return to our Palunco – Pietro Della Palude, an amazing scholar, after covering other important persons from an earlier period of the family. What was a nickname at the beginning, become the surname in due course, as a matter of personal protection. After the French Revolution during the period of “The Reign of Terror,” a surname had to be changed under a threat of the guillotine, and even king Louis XVI had to change to the ordinary surname of Capet, by the order of the revolutionaries. However, it was not sufficient to escape the death penalty. All prepositions, that were a part of aristocratic names, were quickly dropped and changed for more “appropriate” surnames. Robert Ergang tells us about the order issued to the immigrants to return to their respective properties under death penalties.8 Those who ventured to return, received a small portion of the land, the rest of the properties were sold to the peasants. Half a million people had been arrested immediately and Marat, one of the leaders of the Revolution, had calculated that at least a quarter of a million heads should have rolled, in order to save France. Shortly before the king’s execution, they formed an assembly with three political wings: right, the rich bourgeoisie called “the Girondines”; left, “the Montaniards”; and center, which Ergang translated “the Simple – Marsh.” The Italian writers tell us that center of the assembly was actually called “the Palude”, or “the Palun.” What Ergang calls “Marsh,” is actually his translation of the word “Palun”. An attorney, Palun, was one of the leaders of the center party “Palun,” and the prominent member of the same party was colonel Palun, the leader of Avignon defenders, whose signature was on the temporary treaty. Another prominent person was the sea captain, Palun, who was posthumously decorated in 1840, with the highest French medal, after saving his sailors during the Reign of Terror. How Palude became Desmarais and Marsh During the time of the English king, Henry VIII, the attitude of public opinion in northern nations towards Renaissance Italy is illustrated in the English saying of that time: “An Englishman Italianate, is a devil incarnate.” It will be observed how many of the villains in Shakespeare are actually Italians. Moral indignation against Italians had much to do with the Reformation. Unfortunately, it involved also intellectual repudiation of what Italy had done for civilization. Bertrand Russell, in his survey “Western philosophical thought” said: “The Reformation and Counter-Reformation represent the rebellion of less civilized nations against intellectual domination of Italy.” The three great men of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation are Luther, Calvin and Loyola. All three are medieval in philosophy, as compared to such men as Erasmus and More. Erasmus and Sir Thomas More were close friends and had much in common, both aimed at ecclesiastical reform from within, but deplored Protestant schism when it came. Before Luther’s revolt they were leaders in thought, but after it, the world was too violent on both sides for men of their type. Erasmus (1466-1536) was born in Rotterdam. He was for a time at the University of 8 Robert Ergang: Europe from the Renaissance to Waterloo, D. C. Heath & Co, Lexington, Mass. 1967. 5 Paris, but found nothing there that was of profit to himself, according to the cynical comment of Bertrand Russell, but in fact, he had to run away from the plague in 1502. After the Reformation, Erasmus lived in Louvain which maintained perfect Catholic orthodoxy, then in Basel, which became Protestant. Each side tried to enlist him, but for long time in vain. Luther’s violence repelled him and he hated war. At last, he came down to the Catholic side, and in 1524, he wrote a work defending free will, which Luther, following and exaggerating St. Augustine, rejected (Russell). Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), was as a man much more admirable then Erasmus, but much less important as an influence. In 1504, he was a Member of Parliament and led the opposition to Henry VII’s demand for new taxes. The king was furious and sent his father to the Tower. More won the favor of Henry VIII, and he was knighted in 1514, and employed on various embassies. He was appointed chancellor, and when the king decided to divorce Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne Boleyn, More was opposed. In 1534, the king got Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, declaring him head of the Church of England. Under this Act an Oath of Supremacy was exacted, which More refused to take. It was, allegedly, proved that he had said Parliament could not make Henry head of the Church, and on this evidence he was convicted and beheaded. His property was given to princess Elisabeth. More was remembered, almost solely, on account of his “Utopia” (1518). Utopia is an island in the southern hemisphere where everything is done in the best possible way. Erasmus was a friend with his mentor, professor at the University of Louvain, whose name was Johannes de Palude, or Paludanus. Louvain was established in 1425, initiated by pope Martin, and cardinal Ludovico Della Palude. Johannes de Palude was also known as Jan Desmarais in the Netherlands, or Jean Desmarez, in France, as well as John Desmarats, what was the straight translation of the Palude into “des-marais.” Johannes was born in Cassel near St. Omer in the Netherlands. He was a professor of poetry, rector of the college St. Donatian, and Canon of St. Peters, in 1490. He was the rector of the faculty of law in 1519. Friendship with Erasmus, and his love for poetry, made for successful collaboration with More on his project “Utopia.” Johannes contributed with one poem about the imagined Mores’ island. On the list of the rectors of Vecchia Universita di Lovanio, or Universitas studiorum Lovaniensis, as it was known in Italian, and Latin respectively, we could find Joannes Nicolai de Palude, the rector in: 1507, 1513, 1523, and 1526. In the years 1607 and 1615, the rector of Lovanio was Joannes Paludanus. Paludanus was the Latin form of the Palude. Lovanio University was closed immediately after the French Revolution. In Basel, in 1488, we could see the impressive sprout of the Varembon aristocracy, with the name of Johannes Parva Petra et de Rupe dominus De Palude et de Warambone. This gentleman, with the magnanimous surname, from the French branch of the Palude family in Bresse, Varembon, was the rector of Basel University. Jean Baptiste Desmarais was a painter, born in Paris, who studied in Rome between 1786 and 1790. He was professor and rector of Carrara Academy of Arts. According to the book “Western Canadian Peoples in the Past,” a number of the Desmarais had chosen Canada as homeland between 1650-1820. Sir William Dogdale affirms that Guido de Palude was appointed the Canon of the St. Paul Cathedral in 1243, and that he had received orders regarding the church directly from the king.9 Fra Salimbene de Adam wrote that Adam Marsh, or de Marisco, was the most intelligent man in the world and the best administrator, personal adviser of the English king Henry III. Fra Salimbene tells us, that Marsh didn’t accept the offer from the Duke of Savoy to work at his court. Salimbene De Adam wrote that the cousin of Adam Marsh was Richard Marsh, the bishop of Durham, in 1226. His previous title was the Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, but his highest rank was the Lord Chancellor of England. It was known that he had studied and got the title of magister. Sometimes he went with an unusual surname de Marisco, as his cousin had. Nevertheless, the very unusual surname Marisco couldn’t be found in any register of Italian names, but both of them used it occasionally and deliberately. It is rather bizarre, because it means – sea food, if translated. Geoffrey, or Goffredo de Marisco, was known as de Mariscis (Latin); or de Mareys (Celtic); and de Mares, probably Welsh. He did not use the Marsh surname, but a number of scholars 9 Sir William Dogdale: The History of St. Paul Cathedrale, 1818. 6 asserted that he was the brother of Richard Marsh. After returning from the Crusade in 1219, he was appointed by king John as the Iusticiarus of Ireland, and later the Viceroy of Ireland. He was an important feudal lord in Munster, with his huge fief given by the king. All three were by descend from the Duchy of Savoy. Hildebrand, who later became pope Gregory VII, convinced pope Alexander to allow William the Conqueror’s conquest of England. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was friend of the Countess Matilde de Canossa and Arduino Della Palude. The Norman William heavily relied on his Italian friends in establishing his rule in England. It is speculative, but we will allow ourselves the hypothetical conclusion that the Marsh were actually the Palude, and that the Marsh was only the English translation of their original surname, as in a case of the Desmarais, where we can see parallel use of the Dutch and Italian surname. Our ancestors were satisfied, for the time being, with their change from Palude to Palunco, and thankfully, they hadn’t opted for another bizarre change such as Marsco - a sea food. Nevertheless, they did change the surname, but in very different circumstances after Napoleon conquered the Venetian Republic and continued to descend into Dalmatia, as their own security protection. The intention to protect themselves was expressed in the surname of the Aix branch of de la Palud, who changed the surname, over a period of time, from Palud to Pallut, Palu and Palude, and finally adopted Palunco after the Reign of Terror. Currently, the majority of the Palunco surnames are to be found in Provence, southern France, and in Croatia. In Sicily, the last Palunco was recorded in XIX century, before the surname was extinguished. Contrary to the usual assumption, there are no longer Palunco surnames, or Palude, in the entirety of Italy. I was kindly contacted via e-mail by Mr. Mario Derata, from Piacenza, whose grandmother was from the family of Palude, the Crovara branch. He confirmed the fact, already known, that the last Count of Crovara passed away in seventies of the 20th century. Fortunately, Mr. Derata inherited a bulk of documents of the last Conte di Crovara, and he sent a portion of that bulk to me, for which I thank him sincerely. The conclusion of Mr. Derata was that we all descend from the same progenitor and that was, actually, the intention of my first book on the family (History of the Paluncic family, original Palunco…), to prove what the majority of medieval chroniclers and subsequent historians missed, dividing the unique medieval family of the Palude based on national key, or their nationalistic affinity. Hegel is probably the best example of this nationalistic attitude in history, in his case the Prussian view of how history should be divided: first period, up to Charlemagne; the second, from Charlemagne to the Reformation; the third, from the Reformation onwards. To the Germans, Charlemagne is German, not a Frenchman. The great Bismarck showed his sense of history when he said: “We will not go to Canossa.” We’ll explain shortly, as an integral part of our history, why Canossa was the big ‘thorn’ in the entire German history. The Palunco mission in the Eastern Adriatic More than four hundred years ago, two Palunco brothers had arrived from Sicily to their destination, the island of Melita near the ancient city of Ragusa, today’s city of Dubrovnik on eastern Adriatic coast. After disembarking from the ship, one brother went to the local court of the Count, the ruler of the island, while the second brother continued the journey to the near island of Šipan. They had arrived in order “to build, not to destroy,” as were the famous words of pope Gregory VII to the Norman, Guiscard, five centuries earlier when Rome was almost destroyed. The two Palunco brothers were Georgius and Ioannes, the sons of Paulo Palunco, thus known as they had hammered their names into the marble 7 column on the wall of newly built portico, below their Coat of Arms. The year was 1616, month November, when they had consecrated the portico for the purpose of the future Dominican monastery. From the text written on the marble column, we read: “Georgius et Ioannes Pauli Palunci filii ob pupls (publicam) cam commoditatem suis sumtibus, porticum construere fecerunt andni (Anno Domini) MDCXVI hag-Novembris.” Translated it states: “Georgius and Ioannes, the sons of Paulo Palunco, announce the convenience of their building of the portico for this edifice. Anno Domini 1616, the month Dubrovnik (Ragusa), the medieval city 8 of November.” The building of the Dominican monastery commenced in 1624, according to the Dubrovnik diocese. On the website of the church of St. Vlaho10 we find the text “as Dominicans arrived on the island of Melita, they started building the monastery in 1624, which has been destroyed in the earthquake in 1667, and the ruins of the monastery are known today as “The friar house.” The second brother was in charge of another building site at the island of Šipan, where building of the Dominican monastery commenced in 1543, but was delayed, probably because of insufficient funds. T he Sponza palace, the customs building of Ragusa (courtesy N. Srzentić) 10 St. Vlaho (St. Blaise) was the bishop of Sevasta, in Armenia, and perished under Licinius in 320 AD. The Dubrovnik legend was that his relics were brought to Ragusa in 974. Other sources tell that the bishop Vitalis venerated him as the city protector, shortly after the doge Pietro II Orseolo, in 1008. It was written that the citizens of Ragusa had paid to a certain Greek, in 1026, 500 golden coins for the saint’s head. Thomas Paleolog had sent the saint’s right hand in 1459, and the hand was delivered to the Rector who, in procession that had followed, delivered it to the church St. Mary. However, Janeković-Römer writes, in 2005, that city had had the right hand since 1026, and from XIV century the left one as well. 9 T he Palunco family Coat of arms from 1616, on the island of Mljet 10 The Palunco brothers were sent to Dalmatia to hasten building of the Dominican monasteries under Dominican pope Pius V. The Dominicans, or Ordo Praedicatorum were engaged in a holy war against the Turks, after the Christians won the Battle of Lepanto against Turks in 1571, under the banner of the Holy League, and the Turks ceased to dominate in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Pius V claimed that the success of the Holy League, under the leadership of Juan of Austria, was won with help of a Holy Rosary. New confraternities, inspired by St. Rosary were established in Dubrovnik and started to spread in the 16th century with great enthusiasm. The Venetian Senate had declared that battle was won with the help of Madonna and the Holy Rosary. Pius V was venerated in Dubrovnik and still holds a special place in the Dominican church. The first Dominican monastery dates from 1225, and after the monastery St. Nikola at Lopud, the Dominicans were allowed to establish their congregation in Dubrovnik. Serafin Crijević was the historian and vicar of the Dominican Order, and he tells us of the great enthusiasm of citizens who flocked to monastery as if it was an oracle, or a special kind of the temple. After the earthquake in 1667, the Dominican church was the only one left standing and served for the time being as the Cathedral. The pope Urban VIII writes to the king of Spain, Filipe IV, in 1624, that the Dominican monastery in Ragusa is the fortress of Christianity, on the border with the violent Turks, and that the duty of the pope and Christian rulers is to maintain it. St. Dominic (1170-1221) was Castilian and like Loyola had a fanatical devotion to orthodoxy. His main purpose was to combat heresy, and he adopted poverty as a means to this end. The Dominican Order was consecrated in 1215 by Innocent III, and won quick success. The only human trait known in St. Dominic was his confession to Jordan of Saxony that he liked talking to young women better than to old ones. In 1242, the Order solemnly decreed that this passage should be deleted from Jordan’s life of the founder. Another Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas (1226-74), is regarded as the greatest of scholastic philosophers. He was the son of the Count of Aquino, whose castle in the Kingdom of Naples was close to Monte Cassino, where the education of ‘angelic doctor’ began. He was six years at Frederick II’s university of Naples, then he became Dominican and went to Cologne to study under Albertus Magnus, a leading Aristotelian. Pietro Della Palude (1275-1342), son of Gerardo Della Palude, theologian and archbishop, consecrated Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1329, venerated by his contemporaries as a saint and was considered an equal in the rank. K. Vojnović used an earlier source, fra Mattei Zibaldone, who had asserted that the first brotherhood in Dubrovnik was established in 1290. 11 Vojnović wrote of his research into the Dubrovnik brotherhoods and stressed that in Diocese Dubrovnik he learned about two, or three, brotherhoods operating on the island of Melita, present day island of Mljet. The local priest from Mljet had reported to the Diocese headquarters, that there had been in Babino Polje (the main village in Mljet) the brotherhood of Holy Sacrament, and that their Statute was missing. All that was left was an accounting book from 1772: “Libro dei legati e conti della Confraternita del SS. Sacramenti dell’anno 1772.” The brotherhood had been registered in Dubrovnik in 1550, and the Senate had given its approval of the Statute in 1569, as reported by Zibaldone. The Statute was in the old archive of the bishopric, made on parchment, with the title: “Libro in cai se contegono le parti e le capitolazioni iella Venrabil Confraternita del SS. Sacramento del 1668.” The Leader and members of the brotherhood SS Sacramento were the most important persons of the Ragusan Republic. Vojnović writes: “The truth is that the first Dominicans had arrived in 1225, ten years after the Order had been established, and four years after the death of their founder (St. Dominic), and they had built the church and monastery in 1306. They had brought veneration of the Holy Rosary with them, in a same manner as the Order had spread extraordinarily fast in that same century throughout entire Europe. It would not be an overestimation that the brotherhood had been established in that same century.” 11 K. Vojnović: Bratovštine i obrtne korporacije u republici Dubrovačkoj, sveska 1, JAZU, 1899. 11 The Byzantine Emperor, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, writes that the oldest cult in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) was the cult of St. Pancratius, whose body was in the church St. Stephen Martyr in the 10th century.12 The cult of St. Pancratius was embedded in the memory of ordinary citizens of Mljet even after the church of St. Vlaho was built in 1420-30. Ana Marinković affirms that meetings of the community of the island, together with Count and judges, were held in front of the church of their protector (conphalon di Melita) St. Pancratius in 1549. 13 Image of the saint was still present on the official seal of community in the 16th century. The island was slow in accepting the new cult of St. Vlaho, as directed by the government. According to Marinković, it had become obvious, because the court of Count (knez, lat. knesus) was far from the church of St.Vlaho (a few hundred meters), and there was no attempt to repeat the symbiosis that characterized the relationship between the church of St. Pancratius and Sotnica, the old administrative building. Marinković tells us that citizens were punished by the Rector (ruler of Dubrovnik), for failing to maintain the road between the Court and St. Vlaho church in 1581, and that it was a clear sign of a passive rebellion against the Republic after the island was annexed. The government was literally embedding the churches of St. Vlaho (Marinković) in its new administrative centers together with the Court of the Count. However, Mljet did not follow this pattern because of the existing presence of the old island cults. An important political, rather than an ecclesiastical, balance was made in the building of the portico, right next to the church of St. Vlaho, and after that the Dominican monastery in 1624. T he Palunco portico with the Coat of arms It was clearly the wish of the Palunco brothers to stress the importance of the new cult, and to enforce its veneration, and consequently, to surpass the resentment towards the Republic. That attitude of the Palunco brothers made them dear to the rulers of the Republic, and provided them with the necessary funding for the monastery and every other support. Consequently, the Palunco brothers were elected as judges on the island for a considerable time, appointed to provide the rule of law. 12 De Administrando Imperio, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, editor G. Moravcsik, transl. R.J.H. Jenkins, Washington, 1967. 13 A. Marinković: Territorial Expansion of the Ragusan Commune/Republic and t he Churches of its Patron Saints, Anali Dubrovnik 45, 2007. 12 Before the island became an integral part of the Republic of Ragusa in 1410, it was governed by the Benedictine monks from Pulsano in Apulia, who received the island as donation from the Serbian prince Desa, from the Vukanović dynasty, which ruled Serbia from 1091-1163. Desa was the ruler of the principality Zahumlje, between 1144 and 1153, and had become the ruler of Dioclea. In the charter of donation of the island Mljet to the Benedictines his title is “dux Dioclie” (the Duke of Dioclea), and in the second charter he is titled as “magnus comes” (Grand Count). The Byzantine historian John Kinam writes that Desa was twice the ruler of Raška, as was the medieval name of the Serbian Kingdom, appointed by the Emperor Michael Commnen.14 The Duke of Venetia, Enrico Dandolo, writes that the Duke Desa had married his daughter to the Prince of Osor, Leonardo, the son of Venetian Duke Vital II (1156-72), with the recommendation from the Hungarian king Stephen III. The Historian Šišić asserts that the year of marriage was in 1170, according to the document “Historiae ducum Venatum,” as well as the Czech historian K. Jireček in his “History of the Serbs.”15 According to the Ragusan medieval historian Mavro Orbini, who was the friend and contemporary of Palunco, as he served as the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Mljet, Desa had died in Trebinje (30 km east of Dubrovnik), and had been buried in St. Peter monastery.16 Desa negotiated with the Norman king Roger II, in whose court Della Palude held the prominent positions, after Roger had conquered the Ionian Sea islands, Corinth in Peloponnesus, and Thebes. The historian Kinam tells us that Desa was part of the anti-Byzantine coalition with the Norman king Roger II, Hungary, and the German ‘Velfs’. The Byzantines attacked the Normans in Apulia in 1155, and it seems logical that they attacked Desa immediately after Roger died in 1154, as Desa was Roger’s main ally. The Hungarians didn’t help Desa, and Kinam affirms, that the Serbs themselves had brought Desa before the Emperor for his judgement, and that Desa ended in a gaol in Constantinople. However, Kinam writes that the Emperor forgave him, and allowed him to continue to rule his principalities. Desa’s donation was confirmed by the first Serbian king, Stefan, in 1220. A hundred years later, in 1324, the pope, John XXII, issued bulla – confirmation that “the island Melita belongs to the Benedictines from Pulsano in the Italian province of Apulia.” Nenad Vekarić writes about patronymic surnames in Dubrovnik after the 14th century, and the impression is that Roman surnames dominated, such as: Bincola, Crosio, Manana, together with those which he calls ‘apostolic,’ such as: Judah, Matthew, Luca, but in the Slavic derivation: Juda, Matesa, Luka, Petranja. According to Vekarić, the non-Slavic surnames could get Slavic suffixes and Slavic ones could get nonSlavic suffixes: Desimir-us, Volcas-so, or equivalents: the Slavic Krvas become non-Slavic Gervasius.17 The Slavic family Negomirić became – Proculo; Manana became the Slavic – Crne, and then Crnesić. The unique Romano-Slavic city went through changes and the Slavic and the Roman became a cultural melting pot. However, the vernacular was not allowed and, in 1472, the decision had been made that the official language of the Republic was not “lingua slava,” but “lingua vetus ragusea aut latina vulgaris,” which signified that the official language was not the local Slavic vernacular, but Vulgar Latin. In 1518, a Ragusan poklisar (envoy) delivered the message to the Doge in the Venetian Court – “una oration in lingua ragusea.” 14 Ioannis Cinnami Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Commnenis gestarum, editors: A. Meineke, Bonnae, 1836. Konstantin Jireček: History of the Serbs, vol. I, Naučna knjiga, Beograd, 1952. 16 Mauro Orbini: Il Regno de gli Slavi hoggi corrottamente detti Schiavoni, Pesaro, 1601. 17 N. Vekarić: Vlastela grada Dubrovnika 1. Korjeni, struktura i razvoj dubrovačkog plemstva, HAZU, 2011. 15 13 T he Benedictine monastery St. Maria, Mljet Joško Jelaska affirms that the documents were written more in the Venetian-Italian then in Latin, and consequently, there were a number of errors in writing because the scribes didn’t follow the rules.18 In Jelaska’s examples of a spelling we could find that – x was read as – sh, or the Slavic – š. The name of the judge, Niksa Palunco, was listed as – Nixig Palunco in the 18th century. Vekarić writes that the Italian language was used in the administration of the Republic instead of Latin. The wave of emigration from Florence, Rome, Apulia and Sicily made the Italian language an elitist language in the 14th century, and we witness changes in surnames: Bobalio becomes – Bobali; Basilio – Basegli; Crieva – Cerva; Georgio – Giorgi; Mence – Menze; Goce – Gozze; Poca – Pozza, and so on. Poca also became the Slavic – Pocić; Pozza became – Puzić. Vekarić affirms that the greatest influence was coming from the local writers in Dubrovnik, as they followed Dante’s recommendation to write in the vernacular. Thus, Cerva became – Crijević, and Giorgi changed to – Djordjić. The Latin text of the Statute of Mljet was translated in 2002, in the edition of I. Petranović.19 According to the text from the library of the Franciscan monastery of Minor Friars in Dubrovnik, the meeting of the Community of Mljet (Universitade del Comun de Meleda), was held between 1774 and 1782, and the appointed judge was Niksa Palunco. After the election of Palunco, we find following text on page 122: “Per comandemento di miser Conte ser Nicolo Uicenco di Poza et sui iudesi nomine Nixa Paucouig, Matco Paluscouig, Marco Iuanouig et Palunco Nixig…” or the following translation: “After the commendation of the Count, his magistrates were elected…” In the following text we read: “Rector de Ragusi cum el suo Conselio per Francesco Hillig et Nixa Paluncouig Melitani, mandati vostri presenti latori habiamo receputo la uostra et inteso el tenor de quella et grautione che hano fato auanti de noi gli ditti Francesco et Nicolo per nome della uostra uniuersita…” On the page 254 we find that Paluncouig Nixa is – latore, and Paluscouig Mateo is – guidice (judge). It is obvious from the above text that Count Pozo had selected his magistrates and that the scribe (a certain Bartolomeo), didn’t know the proper names and surnames of the elected magistrates, and consequently, he wrote them from memory, and afterwards edited his writing with lots of errors. The first judge nominated was Nixa Paucouig, with the wrong spelling of the surname, as the consonants -l- and -n- were missing. On the page 254, the name is 18 19 Joško Jelaska: Hrvatska prezimena i topomimi u katasticima splitskog kaptola na početku 17. st. A. Marinović, I. Veselić: Mljetski Statut, Književni krug i Zavičajni klub “Mljet”, Split – Dubrovnik, 2002. 14 corrected to Pa(l)u(n)couig Nixa, if we read Nixa as – Niksa/Nikša, as Jelaska suggested. However, Nixa was a nickname, and later in the text that followed, the scribe corrected it to the full name – Nic(c)olo, even if it should have been the Slavic – Nikola, as it is obvious that the family had already changed the Italian names into Slavic ones. On the page 122, we can see that the surname was irregularly shortened into Pa(l)u(n)couig, dropping the consonants -l- and -n-, but on the page 254, the surname is corrected into Paluncouig, and the later title is – latore, added to the former of – Iudice, which means that he was going to perform both duties of the magistrate, and the duty of representative (latore) to the Court of Rector. The following judge on the list of the elected magistrates was Matco Palu(s)couig, where the scribe made an error substituting the consonant -n- with the consonant -s-, because the surname is supposed to be Paluncouig. We should accept those errors as genuine writing errors, from the scribe for whom the names and surnames sounded strange and who, obviously, had difficulties following the vernacular of the participants with the rules of writing that were dominant at that time, as we have already learned – the Ragusan Latin (lingua ragusea), or as per Jelaska – the Venetian Latin. We can, however, safely conclude that the proper surname was still Palunco, but the vernacular tend to change it by adding Slavic suffixes to the surname – Palun+co+uig, which should be read as Paluncovich (Palunković). The Palunco surname was changed in Šipan into the Slavic – Palunko, but not before the beginning of the 20th century, as we still read the Christian name of the bishop Vinko (Vice) Palunko, as – Vincentius Palunco. The early Palude The various authors gave different opinions (not proof) about the origin of the medieval family of Della Palude, mainly based on their nationalistic affinity. The most important historian, of that period, in Italy was Muratori (L. A. Muratori, Racolta degli Storici Italiani, Bologna) and he claimed their Lombard origin, circumstantially considering a fast ascent of the family under the family of Gandolfingi, the Lombard rulers, following the writings of an early chronicler, fra Donizone, or Donizo (“Vita Mathildis,” a cura di Luigi Simeoni), who made a lot of historical errors in his work, as he was a friar, part-time historian, and could not be blamed for his bias. The authors that followed just duly repeated Moratori’s concept. Some of them, such as Vito Fumagalli (Le origini de una grande dinastia, Adalberto Atto di Canossa, Tubingen, 1971), and especially Gloria Casagrande (Una famiglia nobiliare reggiana dal secolo IX al XII: I “Da Palude,” tesi di laurea, Uni. Bologna, 1977), made careers on such false claims. However, it is encouraging that some new scholars, like Filippo Fontana, are taking into account writings of the older historians, such as Mario Da Erbo,20 and properly asserting the Roman origin of the family Della Palude.21 The church San Basilide di Cavana 20 Mario Da Erbo was the historian of the Parma families, who was extremely respected in 15 th century, as he was an architect, engineer, and successful trader uncorrupted by the local rulers, and he received his information from the members of the Palude family directly. 21 Filippo Fontana: Tesi di laurea in Archeologia e Storia dell’ Arte Carolingia e Ottoniana, Universita di Bologna, 2012. 15 The origin of the church San Basilide di Cavana is evident in the 14th century in writing of A. I. Vignali when he reports that Conte Febo Della Palude paid – livellario tax for the church, in 1579.22 Zunti (1615) is more convincing, reporting that the church Badia Cavana is the family monastery of Della Palude, and he found confirmation in the ancient sepulchers of some members of the family in the area in front of entrance to the Abby: “Extra ecclesiam portam adsunt sepulturae marmorae antiquissimae illorum de Pallude, magnae magnitudinis et sumptuositatae.” Fontana tells of altar and the underlying ‘sacello,’ where the relics of San Basilide rest, is actually the Romanesque church layout. Vignali affirms that the church San Basilide di Cavana was a Palude family project, built between 1090-1115, and that that place was selected for their sepulchers. According to Casagrande it was obvious that the Palude had their proprietary rights over the church because they had built the magnificent sepulcher with a huge sarcophagus in the church cloister for Gerardino Saviola, who was married to the daughter of Gandolfo, the uncle of Arduino. Nevertheless, there are still authors that claim that the church was built by San Bernardo. The triple capitals in the church St. Basilide 22 A. I. Vignali: L’Abbazia di San Basilide in Cavana nella storia e nell’arte, 1943. 16 Badia Cavana founded in 1111 AD, by Della Palude and Contessa Matilde de Canossa T he sepulcher of Gerardo Saviola, built by Della Palude in the cloister of the church San Basilide di Cavana (photo Filippo Fontana) 17 The historical fact is that Contessa Matilde de Canossa and Count Arduino Della Palude built the church in favor of their close friend, the bishop Bernardo (later consecrated saint), after Arduino saved him from the prison of the antipope Cadalus in Rome. Alberzoni speaks of three columns of real power of the Canossa’s Tuscan state: Matilde di Canossa – Della Palude – Bernardo degli Uberti.23 Filippo Fontana affirms that the church Badia Cavana was the family monastery of Della Palude, with the marble sepulchers of the family members. Vignali wrote that in the Archive of Della Palude one can find various confirmations of their rich donations. The monumental sarcophagus of Gerardo da Saviola was made by the family of the Palude. Francesco Garbasi quoted A. Gamberini (Storia di Parma, 2010), and he listed Della Palude family’s castles and fiefs in the 14th century near Reggio: Cola, Vetto, Crovara, Rebbeco, and Neviano degli Arduini. Arduino Della Palude is one of the most important members of the entire family and the Lombard historians tend to stress his importance and the Lombard descent based on the historical fact that he was close to the Tuscan ruler, Countess Matilda.24 Some even assume that the surname Palude had been taken, at first, by Arduino himself, because the lands they inhabited were in the marshlands of the river Po, called “terra paludosa.” However, the surname Palude existed hundreds of years before they settled in Reggio Emilia, and the same surname was evident in another branch of the family which settled in Bresse, north of Lyon, after defending the Piedmont against the Saracens in the 10th century. Arduino’s father was Guido Della Palude, with the Latin title “comes Regensis” (Conte de Reggio), while Arduino used the Latin title – “comes Palude,” where the Count (Lat. comes) was the equivalent of the English Earl.25 In an account relating to the Court of Charlemagne, it is affirmed, that after the Emperor, the Counts were the first in rank in his Empire. Charlemagne was Sacrum Romanum Imperium (the Holy Roman Emperor), who was crowned when riots against the pope started in Rome, during Christmas in 800 AD. The Roman crowd was enraged and deeply disappointed with the morals of pope Leo III, after he was elected to the throne of St. Peter’s, after the pious Honorius. The cousins of previous pope Honorius organized and led the uprising in 799, and while Leo was riding in a traditional procession of San Marco day, the crowd had taken him from his horse at the San Silvestro square. The pope was badly beaten while dragged down and they tried to cut off his tongue, until they finally left him locked up in the Greek monastery St. Erasmus on the Caelian hill. The swift intervention of the Duke Winnings of Spoleto had saved him from a lynching by the angry mob. Leo begged Charlemagne to investigate accusations against him, and after hearing the insurgent’s arguments, and Leo’s oath on the Gospels claiming innocence (what was sufficient by the medieval law to accept one’s innocence), Charlemagne proclaimed him innocent and accepted to be crowned with the golden crown already prepared by Leo III. Some of the leading Roman families left Rome, clearly disappointed with the epilogue and settled in Parma in northern Italy. Charlemagne met the representatives of those families in Parma after subduing the Lombards and he granted them their lands. Charlemagne installed his ruling apparatus in Italy based exclusively on loyal vassals from the old Roman province of Gallia. Charlemagne’s life was described in Einhard’s Vita Caroli Imperatoris, according to the narrative of the Abbot of monastery in Rajhenau, Walahfrid Strabo.26 His real name was Carolus, and Charlemagne is derived from Carolus magnus (terminus technicus). Parma and Reggio, the communes where the family of Della Palude settled, were the part of Reggio Emilia, or the province Emilia Romagna, which derives the name from the Roman consul Marcus Aemilius, who had built the Roman road, Via Emilia, in II century BC. Romagna was an old name of the ancient city of Ravenna. The nearby Gaul, as was the name of the province in Roman times, was populated with a branch of the Celts (Gauls) and it wasn’t the part of the Roman Imperia but was 23 M. P. Alberzoni: La chiesa cittadina i monasteri e gli orini medicanti in Storia di Parma, vol. III, Parma, 2010. P. Gilelli: Matilde ed Enrico V in Canossa, 1994. 25 Tacoli: Momorie storiche, parte III. 26 Einhardi Vita Caroli Magni, ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH SRG in usum scholarum, Hannoverae et Lipsiae, 1911. 24 18 occupied territory, same as was the province of Sicily, after the Romans occupied Syracuse in the First Punic war. During the time of Hannibal, the Carthaginian, the Po valley was defended by a garrison in Placentia, today’s Piacenza, under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio. Hannibal had lost a huge number of soldiers, but had swiftly filled the ranks with Gauls and had won a great battle in 218 BC. The son of Publius, Scipio Africanus, was successful against Hannibal in Cartagena, and his adopted son was responsible for the final destruction of the Carthage. Today, Emilia Romagna is one of the most prestigious regions of Europe, central for the Italian luxury car production of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and famous Ducati bikes. Before the Romans took over the province it was the world of the ancient Etruscans and Celts. During the first thousand years of Christianity there flourished culture and religion and the first world university was built in Bologna in the 12th century, a hundred years before Oxford, when the Countess Matilda of Canossa had decided to open the School of law, in order to follow the Justinian Law. That was the first legal attempt to codify the medieval law, which was not tribal law that persisted in Europe for more than 700 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Tiraboschi affirms that the first castle of Della Palude was between Fabbrico and Reggiolo, and that in 10th century they had brought the relics St. Genesio from Brescello, and had built the church to honour the saint. The Count Guido da Palude, the father of Arduino, was the ruler of Rivalta in 1032. Muratori affirms the huge success of Arduino Della Palude, and about the great wealth he had left to his sons: “Arduinus de Palude filius Guidonis, a quo nobilis et antiqua comitum de Palude familia Regii propagate dudum splentuit et adhunc superset…” His cousin, Arduino I, was the bishop of Cefalu in Sicily, from 1150 to 1156. Vito Fumagalli (1971) writes of the French ancestry of Dela Palude, making the confusion over the origin of the family even bigger. In our attempt to explain his confusion we assume that Fumagalli (as a diligent medieval scholar), must have been aware of the writing of the professor C. Bouchaud (Antiquites Poetiques ou Dissertations sur les Poetes Cycliques et sur la Poesie Rhythmique) and the epitaph made by Jean (Giovanni) de la Palude, the Count of Boulignac, for his venerated cousin the Patriarch Pietro Della Palude, in 1644, at the church of St. Jacques des Jacobines in Paris, the epitaph which implies rather emotionally that Pietro’s ancestry was Gallic (and Burgundian at the same time), as one reads the epitaph as follows: “Petro a Palude, patria Sebusiano, gente Varembonia, religion Dominicano…” Fumagalli, however, missed very important comments made by the Savoya’s Royal House historian, Samuel Guichenon, in 1650, who wrote the History of Bresse, and affirmed that Pierre de la Palu (Palude), the first Count of Varembon, in Bresse, had received the fief as a gift from the Count of Savoya, in 1000 AD, for his defending of the Piedmont from the Saracens.27 It is clear from the text of the epitaph, that Louis was rather poetic giving the emphasis on ‘gente Varembonia’ (the people of Varembon), or even the ‘religion of Dominicans,’ which could be hardly distinguished from Catholicism. Nevertheless, a more important fact is that the name ‘Sebusiano’ comes from the tribe of Gaul that was annihilated during the conquest of Julius Caesar, 1000 years before Della Palude had been honored, and granted with the fief of Varembon, and the Sibusianum tribal capital was near the city of Bresse. From the year 1000 AD, we follow the two main branches of the family Palude, with two distinguished centers around the lands of the Cola Castle near Reggio, and the Varembon Castle near Bresse. We owe the reader an explanation of the Palu surname which is often used as a substitute for Palude. Guichenon, in his detailed history follows the family for 500 years, until the last Count of Varembon, in 1576, and he duly noted all the Latin inscriptions, where one could see that the original Christian names written in the Latin were Palude. The authors which followed Guichenon, used the French vernacular instead, and wrote the surname as Palud, often Palu in brackets. If one is born and buried with the surname Palude, one comes to the conclusion that it was easier in everyday conversation to use the domestic vernacular and the French substitution for the name. In the same manner in the Italian books, we find that the Patriarch Pierre de la Palud from Varembon is actually Pietro Della Palude, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, or that the 27 In the year 1000 AD, the Saracens were holding the islands of Corsica and Sardin ia, and raided the mainland of Italy. Paolo Tronci (Annali di Pisa) says that the Saracens from Calabria were attacking Reggio in 1005 AD. 19 Cardinal Louis de la Palu from Varembon, previously the bishop of Lausanne, is actually Ludovico Della Palude. To illustrate the difficulties that follow such medieval research, one should be aware of numerous different names under which Pietro Della Palude is known in history: Pierre de la Palu, Pierre de la Palud, Pierre de la Palun, Pietro Paludano, Petrus Paludanus, Petrus Hierolamus, or Peter of Jerusalem, to mention only a few. Very often, one person is only distinguished by the place of birth, or the feudal rights on a certain place, as well as, according to the rank as in case of the high office of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Sicilian and Napolitan sources According to the writings of padre Francesco (Dalla Cronologia Universale della Sicilia, libro 3), or Francesco San Martino (La Storia dei Feudi e dei Titoli Nobiliari di Sicilia dello loro Origini), and P. M. Emanuele (Della Sicilia Nobile, vol. 2), we read that the fiefs in Caltagirone in Catania, the province of Sicily, belonged to Gentile di Padula (noblemen of the Padula), or Guglielmo la Padula. The other fiefs were De Chanzeria and Fabara: “Padula della Gente eredi di Caltagirone cioe Guglielmo de Padula per i feudi di Chanseria e Fabara di Caltagirone e Mulara.” According to the history of Canzaria, the fief of Gigliotto, with the monastery, in 1300 AD, belonged to Guglielmo di Padula da Caltagirone. This custom to attach the name of the fief as a surname started with the Normans in Sicily and other southern territories under their rule. In the province of Sorento, the Kingdom of Naples, in the 12th century the local barony belonged to Guglielmo di Postiglione. His barony was made of fiefs: Postiglione, Aquara, Castellucio, Alburno, Civita, Controne, Corneto, Pantoliano, Ricigliano, San Zaccaria, Selvanegra and Serre. His wife brought as her dowry: Fasanella, Harier, Capaccio, San Pietro, portion of Corneto, Otatti, Roccadaspide, and Sant’Angelo. F. Della Mara wrote “Discorsi delle Famiglie Estinte, Forestiere o Non Comprese nei Seggi di Napoli,” and “Catalogo Dei Baroni,” as he listed the Counts of Sicily under the Norman rule. Another book, “Liber Familiarum,” lists “Conti de Palude,” and the document called “Liber Inquisitionum Caroli I,” quoted by E. Cuozzo (La Nobilita dell’Italia Meridionale, Salerno, 1995) concluded that Guillelmus de Palude is the new lord in Fasanella of Norman, or Viking descent. However, we find among the records that certain ‘anonymous Genoans’ had participated in the Norman conquest of Sicily, and that they received lands in the western part of the island. As the family Palude was present in Genoa, as early as the 11th century, it would be a reasonable conclusion that they had been part of the Genoan contingent. Unfortunately, the greater part of the Sicilian archive was destroyed in Palermo in 1942, and so is unable to offer more information on the Genoans. Fusco writes that the Norman king Roger II took possession of a large part of the Vallo di Diano, near Sorento, and that the feudal lord of Caselle was Gisulfo de Palude (Padula). Fusco tells us that fiefs Padula and Tortorella were his feuds “in servitium,” and that the Count Silvestro was given those lands from the king, on behalf of Gisulfo. From 1103 to 1167, the Padula fief was divided between Gisulfo and Landolfo de Palude. However, the Fasanella fief was confirmed to Gisulfo by the King, who divided the property among the Lombards and the curia: “Emit terram que fuit Lampi di Fasanella.” If we follow the history of Cilento in the book “Economia e Societa nel Cilento Medievale,” volume II, we find the text: “Tancredi di Fasanella, del fu Guglielmo de Palude dono alla Badia di San Lorenzo di Fasanella con case, terre, vigne e diritti.” Guglielmo (the Latin Guillelmus) de Palude is the above mentioned Guglielmo de Padula, Conte di Postiglione, whose wife had brought the fief of Fasanella as dowry, and from the above text we learn that his son, Tancredi de Palude di Fasanella, donated lands, houses and vineyards to the Abby (Badia) of San Lorenzo in Fasanella. 20 Guglielmo had two sons, Tancredi and Guglielmo, and Tancredi was the “Fasanelle dominus” in 1184. Guglielmo’s son passed away and the entire property was inherited by Tancredi, who divided it between two daughters. Alexandrina married Pandolfo, who became known in the history of Italy as Pandolfo di Fasanella, taking the surname from the fief he received as dowry. Cuozzo (2005) asserts that contrary to some writings about his Lombard origin, Pandolfo was not a Lombard from Fasanella, but from an ancient family from around Sorento. The Principality of Salerno was conquered by the Norman Robert Guiscard, in 1076, and the Lombard’s fiefs were divided between the curia, and Guglielmo de Palude and his brother Gisulfo, who were the “milites” of the Count Silvestro, who was the lord of the city of Ragusa in Sicily. Cozzo expresses opinion that “their surname was actually ‘toponymic’ from “da Paludis,” or the village Padula, their fief in the province of Salerno, following the same ‘academic discourse’ of “terra paludosa,” as we already mentioned in connection with Arduino. Guglielmo died in 1184, and his son Tancredi gave the rich donations to church San Lorenzo di Fasanella, and the monastery of SS. Trinita di Cava de Tirreni, as we read in Liber Inquisitionum Caroli I: “Hec baronia de Fasanella fuit antiquitus d. Guillelmi de Postiglione (Palude), qui habuit duos filios, Tancredum et Guillelmum.” The second daughter of Tancredi, Filippa, married Pandolfo’s brother Riccardo, with a rich dowry of the fief of Postiglione. Guglielmo was a well-known historical person, who was according to the History of Italy – Guglielmo de Palude, or according to some authors – de Postiglione, and he was famous together with his brother Gisulfo, as the military commander, or the “milites” of Silvestro, Conte di Marciso. Sylvester was the lord of Ragusa, the Sicilian city that was older then the Ragusa (later Dubrovnik) by the Adriatic Sea, and he was the grandson of Rogger of Hauteville, the Norman conqueror of Sicily. According to “Catalogus Baronum,” Guglielmo, and Gisulfo, were the owners of the fiefs as”feudatario in capite de domino Rege,” meaning “on the behalf of the King.” Felice Fusco, in his history “Storia de Caselle,” affirmed that the fief Caselle was “feuda in servitium,” of Gisulfo de Palude (Padula), who also had the fiefs Tortorella and Padula, given by the Count Silvestro Sanseverino, at the King’s order. The History of Padula, in Cilento, records that the village was inhabited already in the 9th century. Padula was the family fief of brothers Gisulfo and Landolfo de Palude as early as from 1103 to 1167. In some of the Annals Gisulfo was recorded as De Padula. Our conclusion is that the village of Padula was the place where Della Palude first settled after they left Sicily in the 8th century. Cilento was only the first step on their way further north to Rome, and then to Parma. After the Norman’s conquest of Sicily (initiated by the pope), in which Della Palude participated with great zeal, they received their lands back from the king, as per medieval custom. We should point out that the most powerful family in Milan, the Visconti, also came from Sicily, a fact often forgotten in their history, and that they were peaceful neighbors of the Palude. However, things dramatically changed between these two families in the 14th century. The rise of the Papal State When Justinian’s general Belisarius had liberated Sicily from the Goths in 535 AD, the local population had greeted him with an extraordinary enthusiasm, as they became again part of the Roman Empire. Rome, with a small portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea littoral around the delta of the river Tiber, became one of the Italian exarchates (equivalent of the Duchy) with a governor, in case of Rome, the pope as a ruler, who was technically the exarch, and the subject of the Eastern Roman Empire, that we usually call the Byzantine Empire. In 568 AD, the Germanic tribe of the Lombards, or the Longobards, so called because their long beards, occupied North Italy and in 712, annexed Benevento in the south, during which time the 21 Moors and Berbers were busy occupying Spain. The popes achieved independence from the Greek Emperor, not so much by their own efforts, as by the arms of the Lombards, to whom, however, they felt no gratitude whatsoever. After the defeat of the Byzantines by the Lombards, the popes had reasons to fear that they also would be conquered by these vigorous barbarians. They saved themselves by an alliance with the Franks, who under Charlemagne conquered Italy and Germany. This alliance produced the Holy Roman Empire, which had a constitution that assumed harmony between pope and emperor. The Palude who are often falsely considered as Lombards had nothing to do with the barbarian world of the Lombards, who captured Ravenna in 751, the capital of Byzantine Italy. This event exposed the popes to the great danger from the Lombards when under the king Liutprand they attempted to conquer Rome in 739. The Lombards were strongly opposed by Gregory III who turned to the Franks for help. The piousness of the Palude was stressed by many authors who had written on them such as Fra Salimbene de Adam, that “they had read the old books and that Della Palude were an old Roman family who escaped the prosecution in Rome in 800, with the relics of St. Basilides hidden in the wine barrel, and that those “gentil uomini” built the church for the venerated saint on the mount Cavana.” The Donation of Constantine Charles Martel, who was only the Mayor of the Palace, and a bastard as William the Conqueror, took over the kingdom from the Merovingian kings, descendants of Clovis, and become rulers of Frankland, or Francia as was the Latin name of the kingdom, also called “Sleeping Kingdom.” His successor, Pepin, needed something that only the pope could bestow - legitimization of his title as king. Edward Gibbon notes (Fall of Roman Empire) that the Eastern Empire was incapable of stopping Pepin, who donated Rome with the territories from Ravenna to Ostia (Rome sea port), and instead had sent a bizarre gift to Franks – the church organ. So connected portion of the land had become the Papal State and survived until Garibaldi’s revolution. In order to give an air of antique legality to Pepin’s gift, churchmen forged document known as The Donation of Constantine, purporting to be a decree issued by the Emperor Constantine, by which, when he founded the New Rome, bestowed upon the pope Old Rome and all its Western territories. This bequest, which was the basis of the pope’s temporal power, together with the combined imperial tradition with legends of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and of Peter as the first pope, was accepted as genuine by the whole of the subsequent Middle Ages. It was first rejected as forgery, in the time of Renaissance, by Lorenzo Valla, in 1439. Oddly enough, after he had published his book against the Donation of Constantine, he was made apostolic secretary by pope Nicolas V, who cared more for Latinity than for the Church. Nevertheless, the same Nicolas V made our Ludovico Della Palude the Cardinal of the Church, and he consecrated the family chapel in Varembon built by Francesco and Ludovico Della Palude in 1451, as Guichenon duly reported. The content of the Donation of Constantine was allegedly first presented in 1054, after the split of the Eastern and Western Church, but most of the scholars affirm that the document was “found” in the corridors of the Lateran palace between 750 and 760. The document stated that after a summary of the Nicene Creed, and fall of Adam, and birth of Christ, Constantine said he was suffering from leprosy, that doctors were useless, and that he therefore approached ‘the priests of the Capitol.’ They proposed that he should slaughter several infants and be washed in their blood, but owing to their mothers’ tears, he restored them. That night Peter and Paul appeared to him, and said that pope Sylvester was hiding in a cave and would cure him. He went to cave where the “universal pope” told him Peter and Paul were apostles, not gods, showed him portraits which he recognized from his vision, and admitted it before all his “satraps.” Pope Sylvester, thereupon, assigned him a period of penance in a hair shirt, and then he 22 baptized him, when he saw a hand from heaven touching him. He was cured of leprosy and gave up worshipping idols. Then, with “all his satraps, the Senate, his nobles, and the whole Roman people, he thought it good to grant supreme power to the See of Peter,” and superiority over Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. He then built a church in his palace Lateran. On the pope he conferred his crown, tiara, and imperial garments. He placed tiara on the pope’s head and held the reins of his horse. He left to “Sylvester and his successors Rome and all the provinces, districts and cities of Italy, and the West to be subject to the Roman Church forever.” He then moved East “because, where the princedom of bishops and the head of the Christian religion has been established by the heavenly Emperor, it is not just that an earthly Emperor should have power.” Even the most eminent scholars of the West in the 10th century had a vague idea who was Constantine the Great. They were unaware that Constantine was not suffering from a leprosy, and that Sylvester was never a universal pope, and that he was, in fact, an unsuccessful and problematic character. Constantine didn’t leave the Lateran palace, as asserted in the document, because Constantinople was not built yet. Western scholars didn’t know all these unpleasant details and could not imagine that one day the truth would be discovered. Arabs were in control of the Mediterranean Sea from 711, and the already Dark Ages of Europe (V to X centuries) become even darker, a cheap papyrus from Egypt was scarce, and only the most important documents were made on sheep skin. The art of writing and reading remained only among the selected few in the monasteries. Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, himself illiterate, was celebrated as bringer of the European renaissance when he conquered the Lombard stronghold Pavia in 774, and extinguished the Lombard kingdom in 782 AD. In 788, Charlemagne, having conquered Lombardy, turned east and conquered Istria. This brought him in contact with the declining khaganate in Pannonia with its center on the Tisa river. Charlemagne launched his first campaign against the Avars in 791. He returned for the second campaign in 795, and destroyed the Avars. The king took over a fabled booty amassed by the Avars and Huns over centuries and it took him 15 large wagons, each with four oxen, to cart the gold, silver, and gems back to his capital Aachen. The Croatians in Pannonia and neighbouring Slavonia were under the župan (equivalent of count) named Vojnomir, who supported the Franks. The Franks placed those Croats under the margrave of Friuli, who tried to extend his rule over the Croatians in Dalmatia. Soon the missionaries from Aquileia began entering the territory of Pannonia, and the region was assigned to the bishop of Aquileia. J. V. A. Fine (The Early Medieval Balkans) asserts that “at the same time Franks were pressing into Dalmatia, which was theoretically Byzantine territory. Dalmatia was chiefly in the hands of Slavic tribes. North of Dubrovnik these came to be under the Croatian counts, and eventually came to consider themselves Croatians, while many of those to the south of Dubrovnik were coming to consider themselves Serbs. From 803, Frankish overlordship was recognized in Northern Dalmatia. Nin, a sea port near Zadar, became the residence of Croatian prince (or duke) named Višeslav (c. 800-810).28 His territory was from Istria to the river Cetina in the south. The Franks gained possession of Venice in 810, which resulted in a Byzantine-Frankish treaty of 812, The Peace of Aachen. The Byzantines recognized Charlemagne as the Emperor of the Franks, but not as the Emperor of the Romans, in exchange for the return of imperial territories – Venice and the Roman cities of Dalmatia. Provence and northern Italy, with local traditions of Roman Gaul, were left to administrate the provinces in the name of Charlemagne. The Holy Roman Emperor wanted to build the Kingdom of God, starting with the Aachen Cathedral, and the pious family of Della Palude, who brought Saint Basilides from Rome to Reggio, naturally, enjoyed the favor of the king. After the death of Charlemagne in 814, the kingdom was in turmoil. Some of the Croatians resented the behaviour of the Frankish officials and revolted in 819 28 John V. A. Fine, Jr.: The Early Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. Fine, as many other western scholars, has difficulties in recognizing the Slavic titles. The medieval title – župan was the ancient title of the Slavic rulers and is the equivalent of the Italian conte (count) or of the French comte, derived from the Latin – comes. The later Slavic titles such as – knez, the Latin knesus, should be considered as an English earl, however, many authors state that the suitable title is prince. In the case of Venetian doge, the title is translated as duke. The Ragusan knez was usually translated as prince, or rector. 23 under the leadership of Ljudevit, who wanted to unite the provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia, and many scholars assume that he defeated Borna and gained control over Dalmatia. In 822, a large Frankish army forced Ljudevit to flee to a Serbian tribe, and the Dalmatian and Pannonian Croats were again under the Franks. Borna’s nephew and successor in power after the Frankish campaign in 822, promised asylum to Ljudevit, who was murdered in 823. In 843, the Frankish empire was divided. Frankish Italy became suzerain of Istria and Dalmatian Croatia, while Frankish Germany took over Pannonia and Slavonia. Meanwhile the Dalmatian Croats began developing a navy. The most active Slavic fleet in the Adriatic was of the tribe Arentani (Neretljani) who occupied the territory between the rivers Cetina and Neretva. They became so aggressive that the Venetians, their major victims, launched a major campaign against them. The Arentani were supported by the Roman city of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), a commercial rival of Venice. The Venetians managed to impose a short-lasting treaty, as in 840, and the Arentani were mentioned as dangerous pirates assaulting the Italian coast. Charles III was successful in uniting the kingdom in 884, but Italy was soon in the hands of German lords. Berengar was crowned as the king of Italy in Pavia in 888, instead of Guido, Duke of Spoleto. The Romans were angry and stopped him from crowning the Holy Roman Emperor during the conquest of the Hungarians from north-east, and a number of Italian Counts planned to bring a new ruler instead Berengar. The Hungarians were the best mercenaries to be found around, and Berengar engaged them for the conquest of the southern Italy, before he was killed in 924. Fight for the throne lasted until Oton I took over in 951, and the imperial crown was in hands of the German princes. During the 10th century papacy was firmly under the control of the Roman aristocracy. The disorder and weakness of the Western Europe was so great at this period, that the Christendom might have seemed in danger of complete destruction. The Emperor and king of France were powerless to curb the anarchy produced in their realms by feudal potentates, who were nominally their vassals. The Hungarians made raids into northern Italy. The Normans raided the French coast, until in 911, they were given the whole Normandy, and in return became Christians. The greatest danger to Italy and Southern France came from the Saracens, who could not be converted and had no reverence for the Church. They completed the conquest of Sicily by the end of the 9th century. They were established on the river Garigliano, near Naples, and they destroyed Monte Cassino and other great monasteries. They had a settlement on the coast of Provence, and they raided Italy and the Alpine valleys, interrupting traffic between Rome and the North. The conquest of Italy by Saracens was prevented by the Eastern Empire, which overcame the Saracens of Garigliano in 915, but it was not strong enough to govern Rome, as it had done after Justinian’s conquest, and the papacy became, for about hundred years, a perquisite of the Roman aristocracy or of the Counts of Tusculum. The most powerful Romans at the beginning of 10th century were “senator” Theophylact and his daughter Marozia, in whose family the papacy nearly became hereditary. Marozia had several husbands in succession, and unknown number of lovers. One of the latter she elevated to the papacy, under the title of Sergius II (90411). His, and her son, was pope John XI (931-36), her grandson was John XII (955-64), who became the pope at the age of sixteen, and “completed the debasement of the papacy by his debauched life and the orgies, of which the Lateran palace soon became the scene.”29 Morozia is, presumably, the basis for the legend of the female “pope Joan.” The year 1000 may be conveniently taken as marking the end of the lowest depth to which the civilization of Western Europe sank. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that a special dread of the end of the world in the year 1000 prevailed at this time, as used to be thought. Christians from St. Paul onward believed the end of the world to be at hand, but they went with their ordinary business nonetheless. Another reason which makes the year 1000 a turning point is the cessation of conquest by both the Saracens and the northern barbarians, Goths, Lombards, Hungarians, and Normans who came in successive waves, and each horde in turn was Christianized, but each in turn weakened civilized traditions. The Western Roman Empire broke up into many barbarian kingdoms, the kings lost authority over their vassals, there was 29 Cambridge medieval history, vol. III. 24 universal anarchy, with perpetual violence on a large scale. The Normans, who were the last new comers, proved peculiarly capable of civilization. They reconquered Sicily from Saracens and made Italy safe from them. They brought England back into the Roman world, from which the Danes had largely excluded it.30 Once settled in Normandy, they allowed France to revive and helped materially in the process. As we have already seen, Della Palude had established themselves as important rulers in the Duchy of Savoya, in Varembon in Bresse, north of Lyon, in 1000 AD. Guido Della Palude, Arduino’s father was the lord of Castello di Rivalta, in 1032. Arduino Della Palude gave as donations lands in the Apennines, in Cogneto to the monastery of San Prospero, “for his wife Giulita,” in 1054. The following year he donated lands: Gavasseto, Radius, Sabbione and Rivalta. The period with which we shall be concerned, differs from earlier and later times not only in philosophy, but in many other ways as well. The most notable is the power of the Church. The Church is a social institution, built upon the creed concerned with sacred history. It achieved power and wealth by means of its creed. The lay rulers, who were in frequent conflict with it, were defeated because the great majority of population, including most of the rulers themselves, were profoundly convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith. There were traditions, Roman and Germanic, against which the Church had to fight. The Roman tradition was stronger in Italy, the German tradition was stronger in feudal aristocracy that arose from the barbarian conquest. But, for many centuries, neither of these traditions proved strong enough to generate a successful opposition to the Church. The medieval world, as contrasted with the world of antiquity, is characterized by various forms of dualism. There is the dualism of clergy and laity, the dualism of Latin and Teuton, the dualism of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, the dualism of spirit and flesh. All these are exemplified in the dualism of Pope and Emperor. The dualism of Latin and Teuton is an outcome of the barbarian invasion. The dualism of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world is found in New Testament. The dualism of spirit and flesh is to be found in Plato, and was emphasized by Neoplatonists, and it dominated the Christian asceticism of the fourth and fifth centuries. With great difficulty, beginning in the eleventh century, the Church succeeds in emancipating itself from the feudal aristocracy, and this emancipation is one of the causes of the emergence of Europe from the dark ages (Russell). Arduino Della Palude and the Tuscan rulers The period of the feudal ascend of Arduino Della Palude in 11th century is period of the Canossa rulers of Tuscany.31 Arduino is Capitaneus of the Countess Matilda de Canossa according to Nora Duff, and the general of her army. Arduino instructed the young Countess in various arts of war, riding the horse, handling of the sword and the spear, the arts that will enable her to lead the army to Rome and to defend pope Gregory VII. Dante glorified the rule of Matilda as a “heaven on earth,” mainly because of her insistence on the rule of law. For Dante, a Tuscan of the Tuscans, there could be only one Matilda, the great Countess of Tuscany, who remains forever an immortal figure in the world’s history. She was placed as a guardian of the Earthly Paradise, she who to a saintly life added noble deeds, who ruled her people wisely and well, and who in the age of lawlessness and barbarity stood for law and order to the most remarkable degree. 30 31 Bertrand Russell: History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, London, 1991. F. Fabbi: Le famiglie Reggiane e parmensi che hanno in commune l’origine con la Contessa Matilda. 25 The Canossa castle today stands with its rugged outlines on a height at the outskirts of the Reggian Apennines, barest shell of Canossa, witness of its former greatness. According to Dal Pozzo, the Tuscan Lombards assassinated Boniface, Matilda’s father at the battle of Coviolo. Under the guidance of Arduino Della Palude, Matilda learned how to ride as a lancer, spear in hand, to bear a pike as a foot soldier, and how to wield both battle axe and sword. Vedriani, the Modenese historian, tells us that two suits of her armors were kept until his days in an armory in Quatro Castelli, and in the year 1622, were sold in the market place in Reggio. Quatro Castelli is the name of four castles: Montezane, Montelucio, Bianello (or Bibbianello), and Montevetro, built by Matilda to guard the approaches to Canossa. She was in habit of riding gaily at the head of her troops, surrounded by noble knights, and her favorite form of amusement was the chase. In 1061, Anselm, the bishop of Lucca, was elected by the cardinals the new pope. The Lombard prelates, who were the most lax in morals, knowing Anselm’s strict views concerning ecclesiastical discipline, opposed his election and declared the pope Cadalus, who was the bishop of Parma. When Henry III arrived in Italy, the bishop of Parma, Cadalus, become his favorite and he was elected the antipope with the name Honorius II. With help of the converted rich Jew, Leo, the pope Alexander and Hildebrand managed to raise an army of mercenaries. The Norman help was not available, as Richard of Capua had to fight in his territory. The schismatics established a strong position in the Trasteverine quarter of Rome, while some rebel Romans held St. Angelo. The appearance of the Duke Godfrey with the huge army put an end to the combat. Vedriani affirms that Matilda shared with Arduino the command of a body of 400 archers, pikemen and of the cavalry, and that they cut into pieces the army of the schismatics, taking vengeance only on some of the Germans, who maltreated a people of Rome. Hildebrand stands out in history of the medieval church as one of the greatest popes of all time. Like that of many great man, his life had a humble beginning. He was sent, at an early age, to the monastery Santa Maria sull’ Aventino in Rome, to his uncle, an abbot. Later, he went to the famous Benedictine monastery of Cluny. The first territory acquired by the Normans in Italy was the Countship of Aversa, founded by the Norman knight Rainulf. The pope Leo IX organized an army against the Normans in the Battle of Civitate, which was a severe blow to the authority of papacy, and a great help to the prestige of the Normans. The Norman commanders at this battle had been brothers, Humphrey and Robert Guiscard, the sons of the Norman “seigneur” de Hauteville. Robert Guiscard arrived in Italy six years before the Battle of Civitate, already making his name famous in warfare, often unscrupulous in his methods, gathering around him a crowd of adventurers, he succeeded in winning for himself fame and territory beyond all dreams, he deserved his nickname Guiscard – Wizzard. He was in many respects equal to Gregory VII, although at first they were at issue, a strong friendship grew between them. At one moment, when all the rest of powerful lords in Italy abandoned his cause, Gregory VII stood with Canossa and Guiscard, as his only two supporters. Arduino’s friendship with Guiscard associated the Palude family with the Normans in their conquest of Sicily. The pope Nicolas visited the Normans in Apulia in 1059, and he received an oath of fidelity from Robert Guiscard, and solemnly invested him with the Duchy of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, while Richard was given Capua as his fief. The Normans gained a right to the lands of southern Italy and Sicily, but a great part of the island was still to be conquered, and from then on, the Normans called themselves the Princes and Dukes, by the grace of God and St. Peter. During the papacy of Alexander, Richard of Capua extended his conquest north, and he appeared at the gates of Rome, demanding the title of Patricius, reserved for the Emperor-elect, and once again Alexander had to rely on Canossa’s and Arduino’s help. It is said that he begged Canossa to be ready to defend Rome, once again if necessary. During the pontificate of Symmachus, at the end of 5th century, a papal residence was built near the church of St. Peter’s and foreign pilgrims began to establish settlements there. These were called “borghi” and the whole district was known as Borgo. In the 9th century, pope Leo IV surrounded this region with a wall to protect it against the ravages of the Saracen invaders, and from that time, it was also known as the Leonine quarter. The antipope Cadalus captured Leonine borgo and sacked the Vatican palace and St. Peter’s. The Tuscan army followed closely and arrived the day after they took Borgo. 26 Vedriani (Life of Matilda, lib II) says: “In the face of the schismatics she, Matilda, entered Rome with her army, with such train of provisions that Richard (Norman) began to form plans for retreat to some strong place. Matilda kissed the feet of pope (Alexander) and then took counsel with her Capitaneus (Arduino) on the best way of delivering the city from siege. Rallying the faint hearted Romans, she attacked the enemy with such fury that they were forced to abandon the greater part of Borgo, and could only retain the castle of St. Angelo.” The tomb of Hadrian, called later the castle of St. Angelo, on the right bank of Tiber, was converted into a fortress in the 5th century, prior to the invasion of the city by the Ostrogoths in 537, and was regarded as the citadel of Rome, the possession of it was considered an equivalent for the mastery over the whole city. During that time, the pope Alexander recommended his nephew, Anselm, future Archbishop of Canterbury, for Matilda’s guidance. The Normans continued to overrun the province of Campania in the hope to conquer the whole province. The Tuscan army challenged them with a huge success near Aquino and the battle lasted 18 days, and finally, the Normans were beaten back and forced to restore Roman territories. Canossa was hailed in Rome as a conqueror and treated with every honour. The respect that Arduino forged on the battlefield against the Normans made it an easier task for the next generation of the family who established themselves in Sicily. The Battle of Aquino took place in May of 1066, one year before the conquest of Sicily. Gregory VII Against the wish of young king Henry IV, Hildebrand was elected new pope in 1073, with pope’s name Gregory VII. Gregory was anxious to take every precaution against Henry’s tampering with Rome’s vassals, and he made treaty with the Norman, Richard of Capua. The Saxons rebelled against Henry, and the German bishops made their peace with Gregory. In 1074, Gregory planned an expedition to Constantinople, allegedly to help the Byzantines repel the Turks. The main goal was to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher. Canossa and Arduino organized an army of thirty thousand, under the condition that the pope would have allowed Canossa to participate. 32 Two weeks after the decision was made and the army started gathering, Henry pushed the Lombard prelates to organize riots in the Tuscan province, and the plan for the Crusade had to be abandoned. The world at large were shocked by Emperor’s treatment of the pope in 1076. The following year (1077), Henry decided to seek absolution from the pope. In the depth of the winter, with his wife and infant son, he crossed the Mont Cenis pass in the Alps, and presented himself as a suppliant before the castle of Canossa, where the pope was under the protection of Matilda and Arduino. In the times with which we are now dealing, the passage over the Alps was a very different matter as to what it is nowadays. The old Roman roads had disappeared across many of the passes, but in some cases a track was kept open for pilgrims, who were journeying mostly on foot. In winter, however, the best of these roads were mostly impassable. This winter, certainly none but the king, outcast and wretched, deserted by all, save a faithful few, and a most tender wife, none but a man in mortal fear lest worse ills should befall him, would have dreamed of attempting such a feat. For the winter of 1076-77, it is noted by all chroniclers as one of the severest on record. The Rhine and Po were frozen over from November to April. Nothing, however, could deter Henry from the journey once undertaken, since only a few weeks remained to the fatal term, unless absolved before its expiration, the sentence of his excommunication would be rendered final. Matilda met the pope in Florence to escort him safely to Canossa. Lombardy was in state of ferment and discontented bishops were assembling troops to support 32 Gregory VII: Register of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), translation: H. E. J. Cowdrey, Oxford, 2002. 27 Henry, never doubting that he had come for war. For three days pope kept him waiting, bare foot and in penitential garb. At last, he was admitted, and having expressed penitence and sworn, in future, to follow the pope’s direction in dealing with his German opponents, he was pardoned. The pope’s victory, however, was illusory, because he had been caught out by the rules of his own theology. Also, strange to say, he was taken in by Henry and supposed his repentance sincere. He soon discovered his mistake. Henry’s German enemies elected a rival Emperor, named Rudolf. Having experienced the insincerity of Henry’s repentance, Gregory VII accepted Rudolf in 1080. The Norman Robert Guiscard never gave up the idea of capturing Constantinople and he started his campaign to conquer Dyrrachium in the eastern Adriatic, the starting point of the ancient Roman road to Constantinople – Via Egnatia. On the throne of Byzantium was the young Emperor Alexius Commnenus, who employed the English mercenaries ‘the Varangiani,’ an old English tribe eager to fight the Normans after their conquest of England. The Byzantines suffered heavy casualties and the mercenaries fled to the church in Dyrrachium, which Guiscard swiftly burned down, according to the queen’s memories “The Alexiad” of Anna Commnena. 33 The Byzantine Empire was in dire straits, wrote Commnena, and Alexius played his last card, he opened the treasury rich with the gold and silver and sent it to Henry in Germany begging for help. Henry, happy to oblige, organized a mutiny in Apulia and Guiscard was forced to abandon the conquest as the province of Apulia, which was central for his hold over Italy. Gregory VII gave the crown to the first Croatian king, Dimetrius Zvonimir, who allegedly participated in the Norman conquest of Dyrrachium against the Byzantines and Venetians. Vinko Foretić affirms in his History of Ragusa, that the Ragusans were also involved in order to throw off the Venetian suzerainty. In 1077, Gregory crowned Michael as the king of Diocleia. Michael’s son, Constantine Bodin, married the daughter of the Norman count, Arhiris, from Bari and continued close relations with Rome. Michael’s daughter was married to the Norman commander, Longivardopulus, according to Scylitzes Continuates. 34 Bodin conquered Serbia and Bosnia and the trilled Gregory wrote: “Filius noster…Rex Scalavorum glorisimus,” translated: “Our son…the glorious king of Slavs.” 35 After Guiscard left the eastern Adriatic to defend Apulia across the Adriatic, Bodin took over Dyrrachium and gave it back to Alexius. Bodin’s cousins fled to Ragusa as Bodin’s Norman wife advised him to kill them all, to protect his rights over the kingdom. According to Mauro Orbini, Bodin killed the cousins in front of the church St. Nicola which was in part of the city called Prijeko, as it was opposite the swamp that divided Ragusa from the littoral in the 11th century. The swamp was later dried and it became the main street Stradun. Orbini wrote that the citizens were reluctant to defend Ragusa, and asked the surviving cousins to leave and they fled the city by ship and reached Apulia. After conquering the city, Bodin built the tower – Rocca di Bodino, mentioned by Orbini and Ragnina. On a drawing from the 12th century, saved on the copy of the drawing in archive of the Serbian Academy of the Sciences and Arts (manuscript No: 38), the tower was on the contemporary coast of the bay. The siege of the Ragusa lasted for two years and Bodin buried the slaughtered cousins in the Benedictine monastery on the island of Locrum in front of the port. In 1100, Bodin donated to the Benedictines the church St. Matin, as recorded by Zibaldone, the Franciscan friar, and confirmed by the historian Smiciklas. By this time, Henry had got the better of the most of his opponents in Germany. He had an antipope, elected by his supporters, and with him he entered Rome in 1084, and his antipope, Clement III, duly crowned him the Emperor, but both had to retreat before the Normans, who advanced to relief of Gregory. Gregory’s situation was desperate, and he had sent messengers to Robert Guiscard, begging him to come to help Rome, while he was forced to leave Lateran palace and flee to St. Angelo. Guiscard and Roger of Sicily obeyed the summons, and marched from Salerno with a large force. Liberated, Gregory was 33 Anna Commnena: The Alexiad, translation: E. R. A. Sewter, London, 2003. Joannes Scylitzes Continuates, editor: Th. Tzolakis, Thessaloniki, 1968. 35 D. Obolensky: The Byzantine Commonwealth. Eastern Europe 500-1453, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1971. 34 28 installed in the Lateran palace. Henry, on hearing the news of Guiscard’s approach, had at once abandoned Rome together with his antipope, declaring to the Romans that urgent matters of state called him back to Germany. Unfortunately, the Romans decided to defend the city. The Normans had in their army detachments of Saracen mercenaries, and these committed the most terrible atrocities, many ancient monuments perished, and the greater part of the city was in flames. Although, there were various traditions that it was Gregory who threw himself at the feet of the Norman, Guiscard, begging him to have mercy on Rome, saying: “I came to build, not to destroy.” Some authors, who wanted to ‘polish’ the history of the great pope, wrote that only the Teutons who mistreated the Romans were killed. Gregorovius, in his volume IV says, that “there is not a single contemporary historian, who speaks of any effort on Gregory’s part to spare Rome.” The Normans, after brutally sacking Rome, took Gregory away with them, as he was their prisoner as the previous pope Leo IX had been. Gregorovius wrote that from the time of Attila the Hun, Rome hadn’t been destroyed like that. The pope remained, virtually, their prisoner until his death next year in Amalfi in 1085. Guiscard died “somewhere in the East,” as reported by chroniclers, but he was killed in skirmishes with the Emperor Alexius between 1085-1090, as the Byzantines became a stronger adversary. Two schismatic bishops of Parma and Reggio halted before the castle of Modena and proceeded to assault it. Anselm advised Canossa to take immediate action, on the news that the besieging force was growing careless, and with little vigilance of their sentries. Accompanied by Arduino she started the celebrated Battle of Sorbara. Canossa surrounded them while the enemy soldiers were still sleeping. The surprise was so great, and although their commander attempted to rally his men, he was killed and the bishop of Parma, together with six captains and a hundred knights, were taken prisoners. The bishop of Reggio fled naked, and remained hidden in the bushes for a few days, until he was captured too. Five hundred horses and armor were taken on the spot. In 1087, while holding her court in Lucca, Canossa was visited by Robert of Normandy, the son of the William the Conqueror of England. He had rebelled against his father, and consequently had been driven out of Normandy, and he visited different courts of Europe in the hope of being reinstated in his Duchy. After few years he returned to Lucca once again, to become a part of the First Crusade. In the spring of 1090, Henry collected a huge army, and marched down onto Mantua. The city didn’t have a protective walls from the outside, but the great stretches of water were guarded by high towers, so Mantua succeeded in resisting Henry’s army for some time. He tried to bribe citizens to open the gates of the city, and in 1091, after given a bribe, Mantua opened the gates. Next was Ferrara which showed no resistance. Henry directed his attention to Montebello, the strongest of Canossa’s fortresses. It offered brave resistance for many months, and while besieged showed great courage making frequent attacks to the rear of Henry’s army. Henry made extra effort to capture Montebello in the fall. He made a huge engine of war, and placed it close to the walls, enabling his soldiers to scale them. Arduino successfully burned the monster and Henry retired to Parma. Instead of going to Parma, he made a sudden move to Canossa, in order to capture the castle by surprise. Henry’s army was met with a violent onslaught, before it even got to Canossa. Those who came from Bianello attacked Henry from the rear, and his troops were forced to surrender. Henry’s standards were captured from him, with the other trophies of war, and they were dedicated by Matilda to the church St. Apollonio, perched on the hill halfway between Canossa and Bianello. After the battle, Henry spent the night in Bibbiano and fled hastily across the river Po. The Crusades 29 The crusade to the East was first preached by Gregory VII, who had assembled under Gisulfo of Salerno 50 thousand of men in the woods of Ciminian hill, above Viterbo. But, affairs of the church in Europe were too troubled for Gregory to leave, and he had to abandon all hopes to lead a Crusade, and the army had to be disbanded and sent home as we mentioned. Moved by the pope Victor, the Genoese and Pisans led a Crusade against the Saracens in Africa, but war ended in nothing, and the Holy land was no nearer freedom. Under pope Urban, idea of liberating Jesus’ tomb started to grow. As the war in Italy had ceased, there were great numbers of idle warriors. The feudal system, which rendered the carrying of arms an obligation on men of noble birth, had gradually evolved into the institution of knighthood, with its chivalrous code, ‘bringing help to the injured and oppressed.’ The Crusade offered the army of knights of Christendom the opportunity to wield their arms in the noblest of all causes. It appealed to everyone and fired the imagination of all. When Urban addressed the men at Piacenza, demanding aid in the Holy war, his words were eagerly accepted by the crowd. At the Council of Piacenza were present envoys of Alexius Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who gave an account of brutal massacres of Christians and pilgrims in Palestine. The enthusiasm was unbounded, and great armies were ready to sail to Jerusalem following the spring, among them huge number of Pisans and Genoans, the members of the Palude with their detachments. Vedriani tells us that Canossa sent, at least, seven thousand men from Parma, Cremona, Modena and Reggio. Previously, in returning from France in 1096, pope Urban met Matilda at Cremona, and together they proceeded to Lucca, where the great army of French, Norman and English crusaders had arrived to receive blessings, before going to Bari, where they were to set sail. Forces were commanded by Hugues de Vermandois, brother of the king of France, Stephen of Blois, Robert of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy. Six hundred thousand departed, and only 40 000 thousand reached Jerusalem. Many fought and perished on the way, and some turned back, disillusioned long before quitting Italy, struck with horror and amazement at the anarchy and disorder in Rome, and many turned back in consequence. After two years of fighting, in July of 1099, Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher were liberated. The Serbian historian, Vladimir Ćorović, described how the Provencal crusaders passed through the Dalmatian littoral on their way to the south Adriatic coast. Crusaders, led by Raymond of Toulouse, came from North Italy and Istria during winter 1096-97, without notifying their intention to pass through the territories to the Croatian king.36 Their chroniclers described the Croats and Serbs as cunning and barbarian, rough and distrustful, running away from the knights, which they had seen for the first time. Land of the littoral was mountainous and forested, with big rivers as obstacles on their way and scarcely populated. There were a lot of casualties among crusaders, because of their initial rough handling of the population they deemed unfriendly. In some cases, to make people afraid of them, crusaders mutilated men on their way, and consequently suffered severe attacks on their rear. After forty days, they reached the city of Skadar. They were accommodated in a friendly manner by king Bodin of Dioclea, who unsuccessfully tried to stop the attacks on crusaders, as they were attacked all the way until they entered Dyrrachium. From Dyrrachium, crusaders took the old Roman road Via Egnatia to Constantinople. On the recommendation of pope Paschal, Matilda and Arduino associated themselves with cardinal Bernardo. Another important person visited them in 1103. It was Anselm, Italian by birth and the famous Archbishop of Canterbury, who made a great impression on all. When Henry IV appeared on the road to Rome, to claim the crown of Emperor, Paschal had no choice but to receive him and consecrate him as the Emperor. When the news reached Canossa, they started the preparations for defense. Henry arrived in Italy with an army of thirty thousand, commanded by the dukes and bishops, and as Gibbon duly noted, the bishops were the first to change their mitre for helmets. Nogara was reduced to ashes for daring to resist Henry, and many castles were burnt down. Milan refused to open the gates, but Henry was hasty to rich Rome and to be crowned, to stop and organize a siege. He encamped near Piacenza. From there he sent envoys to Canossa, to the castle of Bianello, to see her attitude, but she maintained a neutral position. 36 V. Ćorović: History of Yugoslavia, Narodno delo, 1933. 30 Henry’s attitude towards the pope was hostile and an incident occurred within St. Peters itself. Henry ordered his guards to surround the church and carried off Paschal, together with many cardinals and bishops as prisoners and retired into the Sabine area, leaving Rome in a state of anarchy. Romans attacked the guards and killed them mercilessly. Among prisoners were Bernard and Bonsignore, the bishops of Parma and Reggio, vassals of Canossa. As the news reached her, she sent her faithful Capitaneus Arduino Della Palude to Rome, to remind Henry of the pact made with Canossa, requesting that bishops were immediately liberated. His mission was a success and Arduino was highly priced for his diplomatic abilities. In the highest place of honor came the valiant general who had been her lifelong friend and companion, Arduino Della Palude. Very important work was undertaken at this time, to found the School of jurisprudence at Bologna, which for many centuries gave great renown to the famous university. There had been much confusion in Italy regarding the practice of law. Every barbarian conqueror brought with him his own laws, and in many parts of the country the old Roman code was forgotten. At the beginning of XI century in Ravenna, there existed a flourishing school of law based on Roman law, but modified to satisfy the feudal system. Since Ravenna was a hot bed of heresy and had been the headquarters of the antipope Guibert, it was important for Canossa to establish another school for her domain. A certain scholar, Imerius, was employed to recollect and arrange the forgotten Code of Justinian. Frederick I Barbarossa Cavallari, the chronicler of Verona, writes of the family “Arduinici,” and very often we find a generic surname “degli Arduinici” in documents, describing the entire family of Della Palude, probably based on merits of Arduino himself. Cavallari confirms Arduino as the Count of Parma, but asserts that Verona had another branch led by the Conte Arduino in 950. The earliest record of the Palude in Crovara is from 1182, and it affirms that Alberto Caro Della Palude is the feudal lord of Crovara. Alberto Caro was prominent in the Third Crusade, together with Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-90). The Emperor Frederick was an able and energetic man who would have succeeded in any enterprise in which success was possible. He was a man of education, who read Latin with pleasure. His classical learning was considerable, and he was an admirer of Roman law. He thought of himself as the heir of the Roman Emperors, and hoped to acquire their power. But, as a German, he was unpopular in Italy. Hadrian IV, a vigorous Englishman, who had been a missionary to Norway, became pope two years after the accession of Barbarossa. The pope, having made a peace with Normans, ventured in 1157, to break with Emperor. For twenty years there was continuous war with the Emperor on the one side, and the pope with the Lombard cities on the other. The Normans mostly supported the pope. The bulk of the fighting against the Emperor was done by the Lombard League. The Emperor besieged various cities, and in 1162 even captured Milan, which he razed to the ground. Five years later, he entered Rome with a great army and the antipope. Rome was desperate, but pestilence destroyed Frederick’s army, and he returned to Germany a solitary fugitive. Sicily and the Greek Emperor sided with the Lombard League, and his another attempt to capture Italy ended in defeat at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. The Third Crusade was led by Barbarossa and Richard Lion Heart. All roads led to the Balkans. William of Tyre was the historian of the First Crusade, and he lamented about the “miserable Greeks,” who deliberately failed to maintain the roads. The Roman provinces Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior, today Serbia and East Bulgaria, were populated by the Emperor Justinian, who had given, in 545, the Slavic tribes of Antae and Sklavini lands, and considered them – Imperial Foederati, in order to defend 31 the river Danube from Bulgars (Procopius, De bellis). Huge forests were a natural defense, maintained as such by the Greeks, but they were also a big obstacle for the Crusaders. Through these forests had passed the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Biuillon, in 1096. Conrad III, and Louis VII, had led the Second Crusade in 1147, and finally Barbarossa arrived in 1189. The road led to Singidunum (Belgrade), then towards Naissus (Niš), the birth place of Constantine the Great, and then along Vardar valley to Constantinople. Barbarossa was a guest of the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja, who offered an ambitious plan to the Emperor, to join forces and sack Constantinople. Barbarossa was not too enthusiastic about Constantinople, and soon he continued to Jerusalem. He drowned in Syria during the crossing of the river Salef, with heavy knight’s armor.37 Richard the Lion Heart, and his French counterpart, Philip Augustus, were too busy with their quarrels to continue this crusade. According to the legend, Richard had bad weather on his return, and gave an oath that he would have donated a church to the place where he could safely disembark. That place was the small island of Locrum in front of the Ragusan port, and Richard duly gave the Benedictines sufficient funds to build the monastery.38 According to Liber Grossus, Alberto Caro’s son, Arduino II, gave an oath to Canossa, Albert I, who became the Tuscan consul. Arduino II Francesco was the bishop of Cefalu from 1217-1238. Canossa participated in the Fourth Crusade when the Venetians brutally sacked Constantinople, made them rulers of Thessaly and Thebes, in Boeotia in Greece, in 1210. Together with them in the Crusade were Pietro Della Palude, from Varembon, and Gilberto da Gente, from Parma. Frederick II Barbarossa’s son, Henry VII, had married Constance, heiress of the Norman kings. Their son was Frederick II, one of the great men of the 13th century, together with Innocent III, St. Francis, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The kingdom was turbulent and Constance needed the pope’s help, so she made him guardian of the infant Frederick, and secured her son’s rights in Sicily, by acknowledging papal superiority. Portugal and Aragon made similar acknowledgements. In England, the king John, after vehement resistance, was compelled to yield his kingdom to Innocent, and receive it back as a papal fief. During the Fourth Crusade, soldiers were to embark in Venice, but there were difficulties in procuring enough ships. No one had enough except the Venetians and they concluded that it would be much better to conquer Constantinople than Jerusalem. It would be a useful stepping stone, and the Eastern Empire had never been very friendly to the Crusaders. Constantinople was captured, and the Latin Emperor established. At first, pope Innocent was annoyed, but he reflected that it might now be possible to re-unite the Eastern and Western churches. Initiated by Innocent, the Fourth Crusade started in 1202. The Venetians first objective was the city of Zadar in the eastern Adriatic, and they had promised bargain price for shipping the troops, provided they would have help from them to capture Zadar. The Venetian Doge, Enrico Dandolo, was ninety years old when he had led the crusaders against Zadar. In order to seal the bargain, the prince Alexius arrived in Zadar, while his uncle, the Emperor Alexius, was left in Constantinople. Alexius IV was greeted in 37 According to Ibn al Atir, Barbarossa couldn’t have drowned in the river, because level of the river was less one meter. His son, Fridrih of Swabia, preserved the body in vinegar, and continued to Accra with intention to bury his father in Jerusalem. He died during the siege of Accra, and the Germans had to return from the crusade. 38 According to writing of A. K. Matas: History of Dubrovnik until the 13 th century, Zbornik o Zagori, knjiga 12, Zagreb, 2016, who used earlier sources Luccari and Crijević, king Richard helped in the building of the church St. Maria Maggiore: “Ricardo …ordino si fabbricasse la chiesa di S. Maria Maggiore…” 32 Ragusa and Dyrrachium, Byzantine subjects, as their new Emperor, in 1203. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204, the Venetians demanded the price for their participation in the Crusade, and that caused general discontent among the priesthood and riots against the Latins. Angry, Dandolo ordered the uncle and the young Emperor to be killed immediately. Dandolo, who was the architect of the Venetian conquest, refused the crown and Balduin of Flanders became the new Emperor, consecrated in the basilica Hagia Sophia, built by Justinian, which was already robbed of the gold. The Byzantine court was transferred to Nicaea in Asia Minor and, in 1208, while the Emperor was Theodor I Laskaris. The Adriatic city Ragusa became a Venetian vassal and the Rector was a Venetian, elected for life. Nemanja’s son, Stefan, became the ruler of Serbia and after learning of the plan of Henrick, the new Byzantine Emperor, to conquer Serbia in 1216, he decided to find a new ally, namely Venice. He married Ana Dandolo, the granddaughter of mighty Doge Dandolo, and she became his third wife in 1217, according to the historian K. Jireček. Marriage was an important stepping stone to get the crown of the king from the pope. Pope Honorius III accepted the bargain, and sent his envoy to Split, and from there to Serbia, where Ana and Stefan were both crowned in 1217. His close relation with Rome further influenced his decision to confirm the donation of Mljet to the Benedictines from Apulia in 1220.39 Frederick II went to Germany in 1212, and by the pope’s help was elected to replace Otto. Innocent did not live to see what a formidable antagonist he had raised up against the papacy. Frederick II was one of the most remarkable rulers known in history. Palermo, where Frederick passed his childhood, was subject of certain troubles. There were Muslim revolts, the Pisans and Genoese fought each other, and everyone else for the possession of Sicily, while important people in Sicily were constantly changing sides. Culturally, however, Sicily had great advantages. Muslim, Byzantine, Italian, and German civilization met and mingled there, as nowhere else. Greek and Arabic were still living languages in Sicily. Frederick learnt to speak six languages, and in all six he was witty. He was at home in Arabian philosophy, and had friendly relations with Muslims, which scandalized pious Christians. He was from Hohenstaufen house and in Germany could count as a German. But in culture and in sentiment he was Italian, with a tincture of Byzantine and Arab. His contemporaries gazed upon him with astonishment, gradually turning in horror as they called him “wonder of the world and marvelous innovator.” The new pope Honorius III was, at first, on good terms with Frederick, but difficulties soon arose. First, Frederick refused to go on the crusade, then he had the trouble with the Lombard cities, which in 1226, contracted an offensive and defensive alliance for 25 years. Frederick wanted to remain in Italy, to deal with the cities, but in 1227, Honorius died, and he was succeeded by Gregory IX, a fiery ascetic who canonized St. Francis only two years after his death. Gregory thought nothing else was so important as the Crusade, and excommunicated Frederick for not undertaking it. Frederick, who had married the daughter and heiress of the King of Jerusalem, was willing enough to go when he could, and called himself the King of Jerusalem. In 1228, while still excommunicated, he went and this made Gregory even angrier than his previously not going, for how could the crusading host be led by a man whom the pope had banned? 39 Close relations of Serbian rulers with the Venetians started with Desa in XII century. Jireček writes that the Italian Archive (Archivio Storico Italiano, libro VIII, Firence 1845, pagina 754) affirms that the second wife of the Doge Tiepolo (1268-75) was the daughter of the Serbian king – “figliuola del Re di Rascia.” The famous queen Jelena, married to the king Uroš I in 1250, was the mother of Stefan Dragutin, and Uroš II Milutin, both Serbian kings. The Archbishop Danilo, her contemporary, had written that she was from a royal family of French origin. She was extremely popular among her folk, both Latin and Orthodox, and they venerated her as pious queen Jelena. In charters of Charles I, and Charles II Angevin, she was called the cousin – “cognata nostra.” The daughter of Hungarian king Stephen V, Catherine, was married to Stefan Dragutin, and her sister, Elisabeth was married to Milutin. Constance, from the Venetian house Morozini, was married to Dragutin’s son, Vladislav in 1293. The king Uroš III, planned to marry Blanca, the daughter of the Latin Emperor Philip, in 1331. The Serbian Emperor, Stefan Dušan, and his wife Jelena didn’t have a son, and the Emperor planned a marriage with Elisabeth, the daughter of the king Fridrih in 1336. 33 Arriving in Palestine, Frederick made friends with the Muslims, explained to them that the Christians attached importance to Jerusalem, although it was of little strategic value, and succeeded in inducing them to peacefully restore the city to him. While he was sleeping near Al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem, built on the foundation of the Jerusalem Temple, the Arabs didn’t called for prayer, in order not to spoil his dream. This made the pope still more furious, because one should fight the infidel, not negotiate with him. However, Frederick was duly crowned in Jerusalem, and no one could deny that he had been successful, and peace between the pope and the Emperor was restored in 1230. Frederick again came into conflict with the Lombard League in 1237, and the pope threw his lot in with them, and again excommunicated the Emperor. From this time, until Frederick’s death in Palermo in 1250, the war was practically continuous, growing on both sides, gradually more bitter, cruel and treacherous. The king of France, Louis IX, was only king who earned his sainthood. In 1248, he decided to repeat Frederick’s success on the request of the pope, equipped with the army of 50 000 strong. However, he stacked in the Nile delta mud and surrendered to the Egyptian Arabs. As we follow Arduino’s descendants we find out that Arduino had three sons: Umberto, Guido and Gerardo. They were all mentioned in the charter in 1145, together with their mother Gisla, as the donators to the Abbey of Marola, today in Estense region. Tiraboschi writes that Umberto died without children and that Guido had two, and one of them, Jacopo, who was mentioned in the donation from 1198, as “Jacobus filius qu. a Guidonis.” Tiraboschi laments, that the family Palude became so big that he should spend too much time to name them all. He says, however, that Jacopo died in the war with Fogliano in 1224. Jacopo was the father of Buonaccorso, Sigifredo and Aimerico. Another Jacopino Della Palude, the son of Sigifredo, was the podesta 40 of Siena in 1262, by the king Manfred’s order (Manfred was the son of Frederick II), podesta of Pisa in 1264, podesta of Genoa in 1266. Tiraboschi writes that the podesta of Verona was Buonaccorso Della Palude in 1239, and podesta of Pisa in 1244. As Buonaccorso was one of the most distinguished in the entire Palude family, together with his son Jaccopino, we will describe their deeds in the following chapter. Alessandro da Morrona established that Arduino Della Palude is the direct ancestor of Buonaccorso based on the writing of Cappellano Zucchelli from 1515, Del Borgo, Domenico Pacchi,41 Rinaldi da Machilonia (1748), Muratori and other historians.42 The words “Guelf” and “Ghibelline” begun to be used at the time of Frederick II’s contest with the Emperor Otto. They are corruptions of “Welf” and “Waiblingen,” the family names of the two contestants. Guelfs were those who supported the pope, and Ghibelline were the opposing party. Conflicts between independent cities were the main factor in determination for one or another faction. Pavia was Ghibelline, because Milan was Guelf; Florence was the leading Guelf party in the Tuscan province, and Lucca became Guelf, while asking Florence for protection; Pisa was Ghibelline because it was at odds with Florence, and needed support from the king against Genoan supremacy in maritime trade. Buonaccorso Della Palude 40 The Podesta is a medieval title, derived from the Latin – potestatis. The ruling is based on “plenitudo potestatis,” the medieval power of a selected aristocracy for the period of one year. 41 Domenico Pacchi: Ricerche Istoriche della Provincia della Garfagnana. 42 Alessandro da Morrona: Pisa Illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno, seconda edizione, tomo primo, Livorno, Presso Giovanni Marenigh, 1812. 34 The historian Paolo Tronci says that Della Palude were one of the first seven families who settled in Pisa in the 10th century, during the time of the Emperor Otto.43 Their influence was then spread to Sardinia. Della Palude already had their branches in Genoa and Milan. Buonaccorso Della Palude was first recorded in 1224, in connection with the violent death of his father Giacomo (Lat. Jacopo), during the war with Fogliano. In this war, “illorum de Foiano et de Palude,” the entire area of the Apennines around Reggio was involved, especially around the castles: Cola, Vetto, Crovara, and Rebbeco, the major properties of Della Palude, in Comune di Vetto d’Enza, then in Carpineti, and in Pigneto. In 1229, fifty armed men, with thirty knights of Della Palude, led by Buonaccorso and his brothers occupied the house of Corniano in Bibbiano. The historian, Fra Salimbene de Adam, tells us that the family Della Palude had built the bridge (domina Egida de Palude) in Parma and had given it their name. During that time Buonaccorso and his cousin Giacomo, were designed as “milites” because of their Ghibelline point of view, and they left Parma together with many others because of the ecclesiastical ‘disagreements’ with Parma citizens, who were Guelf. However, in Parma records we find in 1209 the sons of Rolando Della Palude, who owned property in Sant’Ilario d’Enza. In Parma, in 1279, was assassinated the brother of Buonaccorso, Aimerico Della Palude, who was recorded in 1250 as the owner of the castle Mozzano, near Parma. The political career of Buonaccorso was enhanced by the Emperor Frederick II. He was the podesta of Ravenna in 1234, where in document No: 136 (written by Conte Fantuzzi, Tomo IV: Documenti Ravennati) we read: “Sententias et condamnationes et regimenta facta per dominum Bonacursium de Palude Potesta Ravenna et Judices suos et per alios etc…”; podesta of Siena in 1236, as written in Catalog of Consuls, in the Archive of the Cathedrale (Dal Borgo nell’archivio dell’opera del Duomo);44 two years the podesta of Verona, in 1238 and 1239; in Pisa we find him the podesta from 1242 to 1245 as written by Bernardo Marangoni, and as preserved in the Pisan Archivio de Paule, in “Archivio Capitolare di Pisa, sezione: Manoscriti, carte reguardantile famiglie – XI:Da Paule” (the family Palude section in the archive of Pisa). The Podesta was a title of a city ruler, as it was in the later medieval period the title of the Rector, who was elected for one year at a time. Buonaccorso was elected in Pisa in 1243 as the admiral of the entire Pisan fleet during the war with Genoa, when the Genoans conquered Savona. Buonaccorso had under his command the enormous fleet of 105 ships, against the Genoan fleet of 103 ships, and he won the battle. It is memorized on the marble inscription in Campo Santo: “Buonacursium de Paule, sive de Padule navalem Ducem eximum etc…” For a second time, he led Pisans against Genoa and Portovenere on the 8th of September 1244. We find Buonaccorso as the podesta of Pavia in 1246. The following year, on 6th of May 1247, he was appointed by the Emperor Frederick II as the Imperial Tuscan Vicar, the highest administrative office in the province. At same time, we find Giacomo (Jacoppo) Della Palude, Buonaccorso’s son, in the capacity of the podesta of Pavia in 1248. Giacomo was elected, according to Tronci, the podesta of Pisa for three years, from 1263-65, and the podesta of Genoa in 1267. He was the captain commander of the naval fleet in the famous Battle of Meloria, won by the Genoans, in 1284. Another Buonaccorso’s son, Guido Della Palude, was appointed by Frederick II as the abbot of the rich monastery Marola, which was generously donated by Della Palude since its foundation during the time of the Countess Matilde and Count Arduino. However, Guido was excommunicated by the pope, who was at odds with the Emperor regarding the investiture of the high rank ecclesiastical positions of the bishops and abbots. Frederick II sent Buonaccorso to Garfagnana in 1248 to impede the insurrection of the Guelf party in the city, as recorded by Domenico Pacchi from Castelnovo: “Fridericus Imperator videns Lucanos fables Innocentio IV Papae iterato mittit in Garfagnanam Bonaccursium de Padule.” Buonaccorso was assassinated according to “Annales Ptolomei Lucensis,” during this war by the Luccan, Barnabo Malaspina, in 1249: “Bonaccursius occiditur in Garfagnana.” Salimbene gives an earlier date of 43 44 Paolo Tronci: Annali Pisani da E. Valtancoli Montazio ed altri, Pisa, 1868. Flaminio Dal Borgo: Dissertacioni sopra l’Istoria Pisana, tomo 1. 35 his death in 1248, which we should consider as the error of the chronicler. Cappellano Zucchelli, who is well versed in all sorts of ancient memories, tells us of the sepulcher of Buonaccorso near the main door of the church San Michele in Borgo, with the last words from his son: “S. Joannis Bonajuncte Filiorum Bonaccursii de Palude de Pisis, in quo jacet Bonaccursius suprascriptus here obiit die VI. Septembris An. D. MCCLXXXIV.” Buonaccorso’s son, Gifredo, was the podesta of Vicenza from 1254 to 1256. His son, Guido, became a friar in the monastery San Prospero, richly donated by Arduino and his descendants, and the most favored by the Countess Matilda. Tronci writes that the surname was probably derived (in a manner of other Pisan families), from the place of the dominant family castle, and that they (the Palude) descended from the territory called – Padule. We have concluded that the village Padule (near Naples), was the place first visited by the family after they left Sicily during the Arab and Berber conquest, when the sons of Qayrawan crossed the sea to Mazara del Vallo, led by the qadi Asad ibn al-Furat, at the invitation of the Byzantine insurrectionist Euphemius in 827, and when the troops entered Palermo in 831 under the command of the Berber general Asbagh ibn Wakil. The penetration of Arabs through the Italian peninsula was as far as the river Garigliano, the border between Latium and Campania, in 882. Tronci (Storia delle famiglie pisane) wrote in the Tuscan journal in 1794 that Della Palude had emigrated to Capannoli (or Capanole) in Valdera, and he described their renovation of the Abby of San Bartolommeo, which was allegedly “transferred from the village of Paule,” according to the ancient memories of Pieve, then in Diocese of Lucca. Our research regarding that village is inconclusive as the only village that we could find is the Palu village. However, Dal Borgo writes that Pieve existed in 1329, and describes the peace treaty signed in Montopoli, between the Guelf league and the Pisan Republic, in following words: “Domino Francino Coralli de Upethinghis Plebano Plebis de Padule.” Zuccelli observes, that there is public document from 19th of September 1490, from the general archive of Florence, in which Batista and Niccolo, the brothers and sons of Antonio di Luca de Paule, alias de Campannoli, Pisan citizens, deliver some goods as they traded with the wool and silk. Zuccelli justifies, by the means of public instruments, that the surname is identical in all three forms: Palude, Padule and Paule, and that identical Coat of Arms belongs to the family under all three surnames. Alessandro Da Morrona, in his famous “Pisa Ilustrata nelle Arti del Disegno,” was using all three forms of the surname indiscriminately. Buonaccorso Della Palude had extraordinary power in Pisa given by the Emperor Frederick II. He had minted silver coins with his name and the family Coat of Arms, the privilege that had never been granted to any Tuscan consul or podesta before. Giorgio Viani writes that he exercised the sovereign right to make silver coins with his own name, an arbitrary power, or the faculty granted to him and his family by the Emperor himself. The coin was found underground in a field adjoining the walls of Pisa in 1809, and it was acquired by Tommaso da Paule, or Palude of the same clear lineage as Buonaccorso, wrote Viani in 1810. In 1812, Alessandro da Morrona published in Livorno his book where we read about the silver coin (moneta argentum) in the first volume of the “Pisa Illustrata.” On the coin we read: BONAC . DE PALVDE PIS. POT (Bonaccursus de Palude Pisanorum Potestas), the eagle crowned above the half-ship; and below, the lion rampant between the two letters F – I, the Madonna with Divine son in her arms and the bell on the right side. Letters F – I represent the name of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, as in all ancient coins of the Republic of Pisa, who in diploma of 25th August of 1155, had confirmed the privilege of the brand. Viani’s opinion was that Buonaccorso wanted to indicate that the coin with his name was similar to that of the Republic, or he had expounded an act of the gratitude to Frederick II, from whom he was individually honored and protected. Buonaccorso was famous with his commercial fleet and the image of the ship on the coin symbolizes his trade. In his “History of Serbs” the Czech historian Konstantin Jireček writes that the Genoans were not often seen in the Adriatic Sea, and that their routes were mainly to the Constantinople and Black Sea ports. However, the ships from Florence were present in commerce with the Republic of Dubrovnik, and Jireček gives the Slavic version of the Buonaccorso shipping company – “Bonakurzi.” 36 Pisa and Genoa Pisa tried to counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, strengthening relationship with Marseille, Narbonne and Barcelona, and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180, the two cities agreed to a non-aggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas, but the death of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation, and soon started assaults on the Venetian ships. Pisa signed the trade and political pacts with: Ancona, Pola (Pula), Zara (Zadar), Split and Brindisi, and in 1195, the Pisan fleet reached Pula, in order to defend the independence of the city from Venice, but the Venetians soon conquered Pula again. Pisa and Venice signed the treaty which was favorable for Pisa, but Pisa violated it in 1199, blockading Brindisi in Apulia, and in the following battle they were defeated by Venice. In 1206, they signed the treaty in which Pisa gave up expanding in the Adriatic. When, in 1220, Frederick II declared his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast, the Genoese and Tuscan resentment started growing again against Pisa. Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana. The strong Ghubelline position of Pisa brought the city against the pope, who was at odds with the Emperor and had designs to deprive Pisa of Sardinian dominions. In 1238, the pope Gregory IX formed an alliance against Frederick II with Genoa and Venice. The following year he called an antiEmpire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On 3rd of May 1241, Pisans with Sicilians, led by Frederick II’s son, Enzo, attacked Genoese ships carrying prelates, cardinals and bishops, from France and Northern Italy, next to the isle of Giglio in Tuscany. In that battle, the admiral and podesta, Buonacorso Della Palude, commanded the fleet of 40 ships. Genoa lost 25 ships, and two cardinals and a bishop were taken prisoners, as well as 1000 Genoan sailors. Pisans tried the conquest of Genoa itself in the aftermath of the battle. The Ligurian Republic of Genoa recovered after a few years, and reconquered Lerici from Pisa in 1256. In 1254, four years after Frederick II’s death, the people rebelled and imposed 12 “Anziani del Popolo” (the People Elders), as their representatives of the Commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with the new People’s councils, composed by the main guilds. The date of decline of Pisa was 6th of August 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoan fleet, under the command of legendary admiral Doria, in the famous battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the maritime power of Pisa, and in 1290, Genoa destroyed its main port – Porto Pisano and covered the land with salt. The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was lost to the Aragon crown. Pisa tried to build up its power after defeating Florence in the Battle of Montecatini in 1315. Pisa was occupied by Florence in 1406, as Florentines corrupted its Capitano del Popolo, Giovani Gambacorta, and he opened by night the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In the 15th century, the access to the sea became more difficult as the port was silting up, and was cut off from the sea. When Charles VII, the king of France decided to invade Italy in 1494, so that he could claim the Kingdom of Naples, Pisa tried to reclaim its independence as the Second Pisan Republic. The freedom didn’t last long, as Florence tried to besiege the city in the course of the next 15 years, but they never managed the conquest. After the long siege, the resources of Pisa were getting low, the city surrendered and was sold to Visconti family of Milan, and then to Florence again. Zuccelli affirms that the progenitor of the Pisan branch of the family was the Count Arduino Della Palude (Arduino da Padule or Paule), Capitaneus of the Countess Matilde: “Arduinus Comes de Palude.” Zuccelli (1515) tells us of a cruel vengeance against the Palude by Giovanni Galeazzo and Gabbriello Visconti, and that many illustrious families emigrated from Pisa to Sicily, “rather than to live in subordination of the enemy.” In the Pisan archive, section of the Palude family archive, “Da Paule,” we 37 read that the family had emigrated to Sicily, the first time on 20th of May 1367, and the second time in 1572, when Pietro Cammillo and Ludovico, brothers and sons of Filippo da Paule went from Pisa to Alemano in Sicily, as their brother Dr. Pompeo and sister Brigida were left in Pisa (Archive Da Paule, protocol 14, of the testaments 25). The first purge of the Palude family was caused by their Sicilian neighbors, the Visconti family, who ruled Milan for 170 years. In Sicily, the Visconti were minor lords of the fiefs in Comune di Mistretta, as per “Repertorio della faudalita Siciliana (1282-1390).” We should mention that public records are scarce from this period of Sicilian history, as majority of documents were burned during the Second World War. However, we could affirm that the fief castello was property of Enrico, and Guglielmo Visconti, in 1272-73, as well as the fief in Tripi. As we have already mentioned, Della Palude had fiefs in Favaria (Fabara) and Canzeria, as listed in “Rapertorio,” the owner of Canzeria, in Comune di San Michele di Canzaria, was Guglielmo de Padula until 1335, and then Actardo de Padula and Antonia de Padula until 1395. The fief Favaria, or Fabara, was the fief in Calatagirone in possession of “Gentile di Padula,” or Guglielmo di Padula, until 1335. Mulara was property of di Padula until 1335. Calatgirone, or Caltagiruni in the Sicilan language, is in Catania province. Bona da Paule was the sister of Buonaccorso and she was married in 1215 to Ranieri, the son of Gherardo Visconti, who was ‘Principe di Galura,’ the principality of Sardinia, while Federigo Visconti was the archbishop of Pisa. Della Palude in Milan Maria Careri contemplates the signature of “Johannes de Palude mediolani” verified between 12541257, in Milan and Turin.45 On another page she found the signature of “Jacobi de Palude de mediolano” (not Johannes is her comment), and later on in a margin: “dominus Jacobus de Pallude,” and then “domini Jacobi de palude,” and she is wondering if he was notorious? On another document she found the name of Jacopo de Palude, in 1274. As an example of the variation in vernacular that varies from place to place we are giving the following full text: “Dominus Jacopo de Palude che si trasferisce da Milano ad Aquileia a partire dal 1274 al sequis to del Patriarca Raimondo Della Torre. Il personaggio e citato in diversi documenti come “Iacobus de Palude de Mediolano,” padre di Taddeo, prete notaio, copista de parte del “Necrologium Aquileiense” (dall’ anno 1308 al 1339), e di Eusebio, notaio, identificato forse a torto con Eusebio da Romagnano. Non e da escludere che il nostro Jacopo de Palude vada identificato con quello, con lo stesso nome, ma non sequito dalla nota “da Milano,” che nel 1264 fu podesta di Pisa e nel 1266 di Genova e che apparteneva all’importante famiglia dei da Palude o Palu, attestata tra Reggio e Parma.” As we have seen, the vernacular differed significantly between the Italian cities and we can affirm that all those variations of the name mentioned above belong to the same person, the son of Buonaccorso Della Palude, Jacopo, Iacobus, Johannes, or Giacomo Della Palude, or Palu, and we should add also Padule and Paule. To clarify the above text we should say that our Giacomo was in Milan in 1250s, during the insurrection in which the heretics killed the papal nuncio, who became the martyr San Pietro. At the same time the podesta of the city was also killed. The archbishop of Milan, together with his supporters, had to flee from the city. In 1259, Martino Della Torre was elected the Capitano del Popolo, and he had expelled the rioters from Milan, and established himself as the dictator. His excessive use of mercenaries (condottieri) emptied the city treasury and caused disputes with the Visconti. Della Torre had some fiefs in Sicily, as 45 Maria Careri: Una nuova pagina di lirica romanza, Medievo Romanzo, vol. 39, 2015. 38 did the Visconti and Palude, and they had probably known each other since the time of the Norman’s conquest. In 1262, Ottone Visconti had been appointed the archbishop of Milan, against another candidate for that lofty position, namely Raimondo Della Torre, the contemporary bishop of Como. They had accused each other of heresy and contact with the Cathar sect, an extremely popular sect in Italy and France. Della Torre forced the Visconti out from Milan, an act which started a civil war, and ended in the Battle of Desio in 1277, that was won by the Visconti. Giacomo, who had his signature on the above mentioned documents, went temporarily to Aquileia, where his descendants continued to hold various church positions. The Palude had already been in Milan before 1140. Robaldus, the archbishop of Milan, had made his judgement in some dispute between the bishops of Lodi and Tortona, and it was published on pergament (according to Michele Ansani, as recorded in the University of Pavia), and five witnesses had signed the document, among them were Albertus and Guilelmus de Paule (Palude). Many authors affirm that Della Palude had given a part of the St. Basilides relics to the church in Milan, probably as early as in the 10th century, so it should not be surprising to find a branch of the Palude in Milan. After the battle of Meloria in 1284, Giacomo returned to the Cola castle, and started skirmishes with the local rulers of Reggio. As diplomacy was not his virtue, Giacomo, together with his close friends, or according to some historian’s relatives from the Rossi and Baratti clans, voluntarily closed the roads across his land in the Appenines around Reggio, and they freely charged a toll to passengers, with dismay of all the Reggio citizens. Reggio organized an army against Giacomo in 1314, and the following year they destroyed the Cola castle, according to the writing of Guido Panciroli (Storia di citta di Reggio). Reggio issued a decree stating that “the Palude are the enemies and that the castle Crovara has to be burned down.” Burning down castles was actually a final stage in the battles that ensued soon after Charles of Anjou killed Manfred, Frederick II’s son, the legitimate king of Sicily in 1266. Giacomo naturally belonged to Frederick II’s Ghibelline faction, and the Anjou from western France pretended to support the pope and Guelf faction. The first battle was between Giacomo Della Palude, on one side, and Parma, Reggio, and Mantua, on another in 1267. They made attempt to conquer the castle Crovara again in 1271, and after a long siege the castle was partially destroyed, as per document “Cronacha di Parma,” where we read: “Domini Palude munierant Corvariam et alia loca.” In 1289, Ghiberto da Gente (also a Palude branch, according to Salimbene) was thrown out of Reggio. The military garrison on the main road through the Tuscan province, Val d’Enza, was occupied by the Palude, helped by Baratti, and they started to toll the road. The castles Cola and Crovara were repaired, and Giacomo was again on the waring path, this time against Bismantova, which he conquered in 1323. From 1330, Azzone Visconti was in possession of Milan, Bergamo, Cremona, and Vercelli. Azzone suffered misfortune in 1320s, as cities which had previously come under Visconti rule, or at least protection, had withdrawn their allegiance: Piacenza, Lodi, Alesandria, Tortona, and even Milan itself for a few weeks in 1322, had rebelled. Bergamo, Novara, Cremona and Bobbio abandoned the regime in 1327, when the Emperor Lewis (Louis) IV turned to the Visconti’s Ghibelline enemies, and Galeazzo I was ousted from Milan for the second time, ending up in prison with the rest of his family. On Galeazzo’s death in 1338, Visconti fortunes seemed to be at an end. Azzone would have to pay a huge sum to Lewis for a new imperial vicariate. However, when he died in 1339, he was already master of Lombardy, lord (signore) of Milan, Piacenza, Cremona, Como, Vercelli, Novara, Brescia, Bergamo, and Lodi. Azzone project was to transform Visconti into monarchs, as Visconti never deviated from the key ambition to establish themselves as princes in Lombardy and beyond. Azzone initiated building a palace for himself in Milan, which left the people, in the words of Fiamma, “thunderstruck in ecstatic admiration.” He imitated Buonaccorso’s minting of coins with his own initials, then spelling out his full name, and finally with the family Coat of Arms with a viper, to be substituted for the cross of the Milanese commune. Giving large sums to the German Emperor because of his wish to re-enter Milan, ended in papal excommunication, with the threat of a French invasion. Visconti was forced to open negotiations with pope John XXII, and finally to submit to his authority, and consequently the curia accepted his return, and he had officially accepted an apostolic vicariate. In Modena in 1336, Obizzo and Niccolo d’Este took over 39 the city. In 1338, Mastino della Scala ruled Verona. In 1355, Emperor Charles IV granted power (vicariate) to Matteo, Bernabo and Galeazzo, who assumed joint rule. Vicariate had been granted for life, but the new Emperor, Wenceslas of Bohemia, in 1372, withdrew the privilege. Giangaleazzo, however, continued to use the title in 1378. Finally, in 1395, Giangaleazzo had been made Duke of Milan. Giangaleazzo died in 1402. The Commune Neviano degli Arduini (Nevian di Arduen in the Parmesan dialect), had been in possession of the Counts Della Palude since Arduino. Visconti took over the commune in the 14th century, but on 26th December 1402, Orlandino and Ludovico Dalla Palude repossessed their castle and held it for a year. Visconti responded with the destruction of the castle called Bastia (bastion), using the troops of Niccolo d’Este, and his condotiere Muzio Sforza. The castle was repaired, in 1411, by Paganino and Giorgio Della Palude. When Filippo Maria Visconti returned the castle to Giorgio and Paganino, they were exhausted in the long wars, and the high cost of repair. Giorgio failed to renew it, due to a lack of funds, and the territory of Neviano degli Arduini was confiscated by Parma, dependent of the Duchy of Milan. Francesco Garbasi writes that the counts of Neviano degli Arduini were Da Palu, also known as Da Palude, and that they had in their possession the castle Antesica. 46 Actually, Orlandino and Ludovico Della Palude were the owners of the Neviano community, and the Duke of Milan ordered destruction of the castle in January 1403. A. Gamberini (2010) affirms that, in 1402, the Palude had five castles in their possession: Neviano, Cola, Vetto, Crovara and Rebecco. The Cola castle was destroyed by Barnabo Visconti in 1413. That was the fief of Andriolo Della Palude, together with Vetto and Rebecco as his fiefs. Tiraboschi (Dicionario Topografico) writes that the influence of the Palude grows despite of the calamities experienced in the 14th century. When the king of Bohemia and king of Naples signed the treaty in 1333, present were the most powerful rulers of Italy, among them Cherico Buonaccorso Della Palude, the son of Giacomo. Niccolo III d’Este negotiated with Carlo di Fogliano, in order to return to Andriolo Della Palude his dispossessed properties around Reggio, the villas in Gazzola, Gottano, Vetto and Rignola, the properties in Cola and Castelnuovo ne Monti. Andriolo’s son, Giorgio, married the sister of Niccolo d’Este, who was the ruler of Ferrara. Andriolo’s listed properties were: Cola, Crovara, Legoreccio, Pineto, Spignone, and Santo Stefano. Left: Casa Conti della Palude, Pineto; Center left: Corte dei Dalla Palude, Legoreccio; Center right: Chiesa di Cola; Right: Chiesa di S. Giorgio, Crovara 46 F. Garbasi: I Barbieri di Case Barbieri (Neviano degli Arduini), Storia di una Famiglia nel quadro degli Avvenimenti del territorio Parmense tra quatrocento e cinquecento documentazione archivistica. 40 In 1397-1399, Andriolo was elected the Capitano del Popolo. In one document from 1415, Andriolo was confirmed by Niccolo d’Este as sole owner of above mentioned properties. Cherico Della Palude was a close relative of Andriolo, and Emmanuele Gerini writes of an important summit of forty members of the Italian aristocracy, in 1353, at the crowning of Mirandola. 47 One faction were those who supported Giovanni, the king of Bohemia. Another faction were members who supported Roberto, the king of Sicily and Jerusalem: Visconti, Palavicini, ambassador of Florence Strozzi, De Landi from Pisa, Noccolo d’Este from Ferrara, rulers of Verona Alberto and Mastino Della Scala, Gonzaga from Mantua, Lord of Correggio, Cherico della Palude, and others. Tiraboschi affirms that Niccolo III d’Este insisted that Della Palude sign the treaty between d’Este of Ferrara and Visconti of Milan, in 1416. The Wars of Lombardy were a series of conflicts between Venice and Milan and their respective allies. Four campaigns during the struggle for hegemony in northern Italy ravaged the economy of Lombardy and weakened the power of Venice. They lasted from 1423 until the Treaty of Lodi in 1454, and important cultural centers in Tuscany and Northern Italy such as Sienna, Pisa, Mantua and Ferrara became marginalized. The wars were a power play of Venice in mainland Italy, after “La Serenissima” (as Venice liked to call itself) took over the entire Dalmatia. Florence allied with Venice against Visconti, and afterwards switched sides with Francesco Sforza, against Venice. The Treaty of Lodi resulted in stability for the next 40 years, as Venice focused her conflicts elsewhere to the East. The peace held until a new outbreak of Italian wars when Milan called the French king, in 1494, to intervene and pressed his claim on the Kingdom of Naples. An important shift was when Francesco Sforza entered the service of Visconti and married his daughter, while Florence took turn with Cosimo de Medici. When Visconti died in 1447, Sforza, helped by the Medici, entered triumphally in Milan, in 1450. Sforza and Medici faced Venice and Aragonese from the Kingdom of Naples. However, the main theater of war remained Lombardy until 1454. Della Palude emigration to Sicily The second wave of emigration to Sicily from Pisa was in 1572. With the Florentine invasion, Pisa lived a period of strong regression and political instability. The Republic tried to revolt against Florence through different wars, but in 1509, Florence conquered the whole Pisa after having blocked the city, and took strong control that caused a decrease in population and economic and political decline. The fall of Pisa was due to Florence’s decision to isolate “all dangerous families,” a total of 300 people, imposing a strong taxation, and doing as much as possible against the merchants and corporations in order to eliminate Pisa’s competition. The collapse of the city was followed by a high death rate because of the fevers. Vincenco Adragna (Un mecenate del tempo antico: il conte Agostino Pepoli) wrote the history of the famous family of the Pepoli from Bologna, who were originally from Sicily. Quismerio dei Pepoli was a secretary of the king Manfred, son of Frederick II. Adragne wrote that Pepoli purchased property in Preda from the Counts of Della Palude in 1594. According to Adragne, the marchese Caesar Pepoli became the new owner of the Preda fief in the Reggio Appenines: the castle of Preda, Borzano, Vedriano, Compiano, with the villas in Roncovecchio, Rocovetro and Cavagnolo. Selling of the property in the Reggio area, in 1594, and their earlier emigration from Pisa to Sicily, in 1572, was obviously linked to an overall plan of the Pisan branch of Della Palude to migrate to the eastern Adriatic coast to the Republic of Dubrovnik. Part of the project included preparation for the building of Dominican monasteries, on the islands of Mljet and Šipan. 47 E. Gerini: Memorie Storiche d’Illustri Scrittori e di Uomini Insigni, vol. 2. 41 Alemano (actually Alimena) was the commune in Sicily where Della Palude emigrated from Pisa under the terror of the Visconti. It is the modern day commune of Alimena, part of the metropolitan city of Palermo. Today Alimena is located in the diocese of Cefalu (lat. Diocesis Cephaludensis), the Archbishopric of Palermo. It is 60 miles distant from Palermo, 27 miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea, around 70 miles from the province of Catania, and 60 miles from Agrigento. Its central position on the island, 750 meters above sea level, makes it a short distance from the historical fiefs of Della Palude in Caltagirone. The land records for the period after the 14th century were burned in Palermo in 1942, but one doesn’t need much imagination to conclude that Della Palude had kept some properties in Sicily permanently. However, the last Palunco who lived and died in Sicily was Giuseppe Palunco, who died in 1785 according to the public records of Palermo. The bishop of diocese Cefalu, in 1411, was Giovanni da Palude, also known as da Paludibus. According to P. Ribetti, a chronicler from 1710, he was the elected bishop “as per the personal selection of pope John XXII,” and one can only conclude from the title of the book, by some merits that Ribetti forgot to share with the reader.48 In 1342, the bishop of Cefalu was Pietro de Pietro or da Caltagirone, from the Sicilian branch of the Palude. We should add that his selection was also influenced by pope John XXII, the mentor of Patriarch Pietro Della Palude. At the same time, the bishop of the ancient diocese Vaison, near Avignon, was Pierre de Casa Patriarche, from 1341-1348, who was, as his name confirms, from the House (Ital. Casa) of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pietro Della Palude. Traditionally in the 14th and 15th century the ruler of Cefalu was its bishop, as the ecclesiastical and administrative power. The Italian Renaissance To understand the Renaissance, it is necessary to review the political condition of Italy. After the death of Frederick II in 1250, Italy was mainly free from foreign invaders, until the French king, Charles VIII, invaded the country in 1494. There were in Italy five important States: Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal State, and Naples. In addition to these there were a number of small principalities. Until 1378, Genoa rivalled Venice in commerce and naval power, but after that year Genoa became subject to Milanese suzerainty. After the final defeat of German Hohenstaufen, Milan fell under the dominion of the Visconti, whose power was plutocratic, not feudal. Tronci affirms that from the 12th century Visconti held numerous positions in the Republic of Pisa, as consuls, envoys, and capitaneus del popolo, and that they were in close political, as well as in business and matrimonial relations with Della Palude. Nominally, they were Guelf, while the Palude maintained their firm Ghibelline position in Italy. Visconti ruled Milan from 1277 to 1447, then after three years of restored republican government, a new family, that of the Sforza, connected with the Visconti, acquired the government, and took the title of the Dukes of Milan. From 1494 to 1535, Milan was the battleground between the French and the Spaniards, and Sforza allied themselves sometimes with one side, sometimes with another. Finally, Milan was annexed by the Emperor Charles V. Venetian trade suffered by the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and for various reasons the Venetians found it necessary, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to acquire considerable territory on the mainland of Italy. This roused enmities, and led in 1509, to formation of the League of Cambrai, a combination of powerful states by which Venice was defeated. It might have been possible to recover from this misfortune, were it not for Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the Cape route to India (1497-98). This, added to the power of the Turks, ruined Venice which lingered on until it was deprived of independence by Napoleon. 48 P. Ribetti: Giardino Serafico Istorico Secondo di Fiori e Fruti di Virtu, Vol. I, pagina 521, 1710. 42 Florence was allegedly the most civilized city in the world, and the chief source of the Renaissance, but for the present we are concerned with politics rather than culture. In the thirteenth century there were three conflicting classes in Florence: the nobles, the rich merchants, and the small men. The nobles were in the main Ghibelline, the other two classes Guelf. The Ghibellines were finally defeated in 1266, and during the fourteenth century the party of small men got the better of the rich merchants. The conflict, however, led not to a stable democracy, but to the gradual growth of what the Greeks would have called a “tyranny.” That was the first wave of emigration from Pisa to Sicily in 1367, which forced Della Palude to re-establish their properties in Sicily. The Medici family, who ultimately became the rulers of Florence, began as political bosses on the democratic side. Cosimo del Medici (1389-1464), the first of the family to achieve clear pre-eminence, still had no official position, his power depended upon skill in manipulating elections. He was succeeded by his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, who held power from 1469-1492. Both of them understood how to make Florence rich, as well as themselves, and under them the city prospered. Lorenzo’s son, Pietro, lacked his father’s merits, and was expelled in 1494. Then, followed four years of Savonarola’s influence, when a kind of Puritan revival turned men against gaiety and luxury, away from free thought, and towards the piety supposed to have characterized a simpler age. In the end Savonarola’s enemies triumphed, he was executed and his body was burnt in 1498. The Republic, democratic in intention, but plutocratic in reality, survived till 1512, when the Medici were restored. A son of Lorenzo, who had become a cardinal at the age of fourteen, was elected pope in 1513, and took the title of Leo X. The Medici family, under the title of Grand Dukes of Tuscany, governed Florence until 1737, but Florence meanwhile, like the rest of Italy, had become poor and unimportant. Encouragement of humanism, though it shocked the earnest North, might be reckoned a virtue, but the warlike policy and immoral life of some of the popes could not be defended from any point of view, except that of naked power politics. Alexander VI devoted his life as pope to the aggrandizement of himself and his family. He had two sons, the Duke of Gandia, and Caesar Borgia. Together they conquered Romagna and Ancona, which were intended to form a principality for Caesar, but when the pope died, Caesar was very ill, and their conquest reverted to the Papal State. The wickedness of these two men became legendary, and it is difficult to disentangle truth from falsehood as regards the innumerable murders of which they are accused. The Reformation, which began under Leo X (1513-21), was the natural outcome of the pagan policy of the Renaissance popes. The southern extremity of Italy was occupied by the Kingdom of Naples with which Sicily was united. Naples and Sicily had been the special personal kingdom of the Emperor Frederick II. After his death in Palermo in 1250, Naples and Sicily went to his son Manfred, who inherited the hostility of the Church, and was ousted by the French in 1266, who were called by the pope to conquer Naples and Sicily. The French made themselves extremely unpopular in Sicily, and were massacred in riots called “The Sicilian Vespers,” in 1282, where the Palude, then better known as the Gentile de Padula da Caltagirone were the prominent players. In 1266, Louis IX’s brother, Charles, took Sicily after killing Manfred, the son of Frederick II. In 1268, Charles killed Conradin, the great-grandson of Isabella I of Jerusalem, who was the pretender to the throne of Jerusalem. Charles got the rights to Jerusalem, for agreed amount of money, from Maria of Antioch, grandchild of Queen Isabella, rivaling the claim of Hugh III of Cyprus, Isabella’s great-grandson. Charles and Louis IX (the only king who reached sainthood) dreamed of themselves as God’s instruments to uphold papacy, and build the Mediterranean Empire. However, Charles was unsuccessful in Greece (Achaea) and Albania in 1281. Supported by the pope Martin V, he tried to crusade against the Byzantine Emperor, Michael VIII Paleologos, with a fleet of 400 ships and 27 000 mounted knights. Michael got support from Peter III Aragon, to ferment an uprising of the “Sicilian Vespers,” during which the crusaders fleet was abandoned and burned. The Sicilians called Aragon, who was conveniently near the coast of Sicily with his fleet, and he was proclaimed king, and Anjou was expelled from Sicily. Martin V excommunicated Aragon and called for crusade against him, and when 43 Charles died in 1285, allowed Henry II of Cyprus to reclaim Jerusalem. Pope Martin compromised the authority of papacy, and that led to the Avignon papacy and the Western Schism. Boniface VIII proclaimed a crusade against Peter’s son, Frederick III of Sicily, but was unable to prevent his coronation as the king of Sicily. As we have seen Tancredi de Palude, the Count of Lecce, gave his fief Fasanella as a matrimonial gift to Pandolfo, the husband of his daughter Alexandrina, and another fief Postiglione to his brother Riccardo who married another of his daughters, Philippa. Pandolfo took the name of Fasanella fief as his surname, and he was appointed podesta of Navara, in 1238, by Emperor Frederick II. There is no doubt that Tancredi de Palude was highly recognized in Frederick II’s Sicilian administration, and that his close family ties with Buonaccorso Della Palude, made a successful political start for Pandolfo. In 1239-1240, Pandolfo became “capitano generale” of the Tuscan province, and legate of king Enzo, Frederick’s son. Panolfo’s appointment gave him judiciary and financial control over the province with the cities of Florence, Pisa, Lucca, and Sienna. It was recorded that, in 1242, Pandolfo led the military against Perugia, which was allied with Rome. Pandolfo and Riccardo rebelled against Manfred and were severely punished. Postiglione was given to Pandolfina, the daughter of Guglielmo de Palude (or Giulio di Postiglione), who married Giovanni (Giani) da Procida who was the leader of “The Sicilian Vespers” in 1282. After Charles, brother of the king Louis IX, defeated the king Manfred in 1266, Pandolfo was recognized by new Anjou king as a successful administrator and given the position of the captain general of Bari, according to Liber Inquisitionum, followed by the position of vicar and senator of Rome. He was the governor of Capua and giusticiere di terra d’Otranto. His fiefs, and those that belonged to his brother Riccardo, were returned to him. Pandolfo died without heirs and Charles II of Anjou assigned his fiefs to Tomaso II Sanseverino, because Sanseverino family had rebelled against Frederick II and his son Manfred. However, Anjou was not liked in Sicily, and was accused that he robbed the island with huge taxation. In fact, Charles used Sicily as a springboard to conquer Constantinople, then under the Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos. The Sicilian Vespers were aristocrats who profited under the Normans and Frederick II, when Sicily was culturally at its zenith. Charles designs to rule the Mediterranean from Naples made Sicily less important in his grand scheme, and local counts became mere subjects of Provence. The Sicilian Vespers The Sicilians rebelled on Easter eve 1282, and the riots were called “vespers” because of the night prayer, vesper, which was a prearranged time and the signal to attack French soldiers and citizens. While the Sicilians were in the church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo, a group of soldiers led by sergeant Drouet, were indecent with a young woman on the street, and her husband pull a knife and killed Drouet on the spot. As the bells were tolling for the vesper prayer, rioters were crying “moranu il Francisi” in the Siculo-Arab language – “the death to the French.” Every French soldier, or citizen found on the streets of Palermo was immediately killed. Then, the rioters decided to kill every Frenchman in the country, together with the French children, and Sicilian women who were married to Frenchmen. They opened the doors of the monasteries and insisted that the friars pronounce the Sicilian word “ciciri,” which was almost an impossible task for a Frenchman. Whoever failed the test was killed on the spot. 44 In two weeks the whole of Sicily was liberated and the French fleet in Messina was burned down. The first message that Sicily was liberated was sent to the Byzantine Emperor, and then to the pope demanding to be allowed to organize free communes as those of contemporary Pisa and Genoa. The French pope refused, because for him Charles was legitimate on the throne of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Many years later the Emperor Michael VIII wrote: “If I say that I was an instrument sent by God to help Sicilians to liberate, I would be telling the truth.” The Kingdom of Naples and Sicily belonged to Peter III of Aragon and his heirs, and after a temporary separation of Sicily from Naples, they were reunited in 1443, under Alphonso the Magnanimous. From 1495 onwards, three French kings tried to conquer Naples, but in the end the kingdom was acquired by Ferdinand of Aragon in 1502. Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, kings of France, all had claims, not very good in law, on Milan and Naples. All invaded Italy with temporary success, but all were ultimately defeated by the Spaniards. The Italian wars Milan had been elevated to the status of Duchy in 1454, and was the dominant power in north-west Italy reaching far to the east and deep into Tuscany. Charles VIII claimed Naples by way of Rene of Anjou. Ludovico Sforza Il Moro, the ruler of Milan, formed an alliance with France to counter Aragonese threats in Naples, and France was glad with his offer. Machiavelli, in his book “Prince,” accused Sforza for a new round of atrocities on Italian soil. Aragon was unsuccessful in blockading Genoa and the city fell to the French. Florence was betrayed by Pietro de Medici. Orsini in Rome decided not to oppose the French, and Naples was conquered by Charles VIII on 22nd February 1495. Seeing the luxury of Milan, Charles decided to occupy Milan as well. Ludovico Sforza offered Maximilian I his niece to forge an alliance, and in return to get confirmation that Milan was elevated to status of a Duchy. The League of Venice consisted of the pope, the Emperor, Venice, Milan, and Spain, who convinced Charles to leave Naples immediately. The only battle on his way home was the Battle of Fornovo, near Parma, on 6th July 1495, where he took heavy losses but escaped, and the Italians lost even more, but both sides claimed victory. Ludovico Il Moro earlier planned to make a grandiose statue of his father Francesco Sforza, and engaged for the task Leonardo Da Vinci. The historian Vasari writes that Il Moro was impressed by Da Vinci, not only as a painter and sculptor, but as a musician as well. Da Vinci played the mandolin, which he himself made of silver, and showed great skill. Sforza’s secretary was Bianchino Della Palude, responsible for Sforza’s building projects. The Count Claudio Della Palude, from the family branch of Varembon, married Ludovico Sforza’s daughter, Constanca, in 1497. From the letters of the archive of Milan we see that the brothers Niccolo and Antonio Della Palude requested from Francesco Sforza, in 1452, to return them the properties lost during the Visconti rule, and that Sforza promised to investigate. In the archive of Bologna, in 1472, the Count Niccolo Della Palude, the knight from Parma, was mentioned in the Mandatorum libro XVII (pagina 201 rectum) as the podesta of Bologna, with a salary of 950 lira. In 1462, he held the position of the Governatore provvisorio di Pesaro. His son, Francesco, was also Sforza’s secretary. The new king of France, Louis of Orleans, better known as Louis XII, conquered Milan in 1498. No other city state in Italy helped Sforza, blaming him for an escalation of the Italian wars. Ludovico took the Swiss mercenaries, who refused to fight the Swiss in the French army, and Ludovico was taken prisoner in Novara, and died in 1508. The League of Cambrai invited the French to invade in 1509, and Venice was defeated in the Battle of Agnadello. Julius II declared the French as “the barbarian invaders” and formed the Holy League. In the Battle of Ravenna, on 11th April 1512, both sides had heavy loses. As a result of this war Massimiliano 45 Sforza returned as the Duke of Milan, and the Medici were re-established in Florence. The French returned in 1515, led by the king Francis I, and consequently Milan was broken as an independent power. All was set for the next round between the French and Spaniards. Charles of Habsburg became the king of Spain in 1516, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in 1519. In 1521, Milan was occupied, and the French returned in 1525, where in the Battle of Pavia they were totally destroyed, Francis was captured, and forced to give away the Duchy of Burgundy, and to leave Italy permanently. After returning to France he forgot the promise, and in 1526, the League of Cognac was founded with: the Papal State, France, Venice, Florence and Milan. The league was made in order to fight against Spain. Charles V’s army was mainly made of German mercenaries, and they hadn’t been paid for a considerable time. The Lutheran part of the army ranks was clearly unhappy with the role of pope in the League of Cognac. The battle began on 6th of May 1527, and after four hours Charles’ troops were in front of the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome where the pope and cardinals barricaded themselves. The looting of Rome started at once, because no one was in authority as Collona conveniently arrived three days later. The soldiers tortured Romans in a horrible way, demanding hidden treasure to be delivered. The looting lasted for weeks as the Imperial army settled in Rome for ten months, many houses were destroyed, and wild dogs were roaming the streets. Charles V captured Milan in 1535, when the last Sforza died, Francis occupied Turin in the Duchy of Savoy, and Charles V replied by invading the Provence. The attempt to conquer Provence failed, and Charles V challenged Francis to personal combat, tete-a-tete, with the prize for winner – Milan and Burgundy. Francis declined, but made a truce with Charles in 1538, which lasted only until 1542, when the French invaded Savoy, taking over the citadel of Nice. Francis attacked Luxemburg and negotiated with Turks. Charles V decided to invade France in 1544, and he got support from the English king, Henry VIII, to invade Normandy. Charles V earlier supported Henry’s wish to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, which was banned by the pope. The victory of Spain and the Counter-Reformation put an end to Italian Renaissance. Pope Clement VII being an obstacle to the Counter-Reformation, and as the Medici were friends of France, so Emperor Charles V, in 1527, caused Rome to be sacked by a largely Protestant army. After this, the popes became religious again, and the Italian Renaissance was at the end. Italian political life was deeply disrupted as an effect of the invasions. The states were so reshuffled that citizens didn’t know where one ended and another began. The ruling families were ruined, the cities sacked, wealth stolen or dispersed, and trade was suspended. The plaque returned in 1520, and a half of the population of Genoa died, a third died in Florence. Verona had a population of 47 000 in 1501, and it dropped to 26 000 in 1518. Pavia, from 16 000 in 1500, ended with 5 000 citizens in 1535. The power game politics in Italy were unbelievably complex. The minor princes, mostly self-made tyrants, allied themselves now with one of the larger states, now with another, and if they played the game unwisely, they were exterminated. There were constant wars, but until the coming of French in 1494, they were almost bloodless, the soldiers were mercenaries, or “condottieri di fortuna,” who were anxious to minimize their vocational risks. These purely Italian wars did not interfere much with trade, or prevented the country from increasing in wealth. There was much statecraft, but no wise statesmanship. When the French came, the country found itself practically defenseless. French troops shocked the Italians by actually killing people in battle. The wars between the French and Spaniards were serious wars, bringing suffering and impoverishment, but the Italian states went on intriguing against each other, invoking the aid of France, or Spain in their internal quarrels, without any feeling for national unity. In the end all were ruined. It must be said that Italy would inevitably have lost its importance, owing to discovery of America and the Cape route to the East, but the collapse could have been less catastrophic, and less destructive of the quality of Italian civilization. Sicily suffered under Aragon, who left viceroys to rule and were more interested in the New World of the Americas. “Condottiero di Fortuna” means that a person is paid for his military service. Today we call them mercenaries. This phenomenon was introduced during the Middle Ages, at first, by the Normans, and 46 became a very popular trend during the Italian wars. Milan, Florence, Genoa had an accumulated treasury, but they didn’t keep a permanent standing army, and they rather invested huge amounts of money in their defense by condottieri. Francesco Sforza was a mercenary of the Visconti, who paid six thousand florins for the officer, and 3000 for a soldier, monthly. Florence invested 100 000 scudi for condottieri. Cosimo de Medici, himself, was a son of a condottiero, known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere (John of the Black Band). Malatesta, the Duke of Rimini, found this business lucrative and organized his own mercenaries. Stangalino Della Palude was a knight (1372-1430), described in Italian history as a great commander condottiero. He was happily married to Elena, famous as a great beauty, until he found her with young Fornio on his return from one of the numerous wars. He killed the fellow on the spot with his sword and left his wife. He was also known as Stancellino di Paluzzo (paludo, palu-do-zzo, paluzzo). Luigi Cortesi described him in his book “Genezi di un commune Ranica delle origini al 1454,” as one of the famous condottieri. In the 1390s, we find him on the payroll of Galeazo Visconti, against Bologna. In Florence he fought in 1397. He was in the war against Bergamo, on account of Giovanni Maria Visconti, and he was appointed the podesta of Bergamo in 1405. The Bergamo citadel was attacked by Malatesta, on account of Visconti, but Stangalino managed to expel them from the citadel. In Milan he was the commander of the garrison in 1408, and fought against Orsini of Rome in 1410. Filipo Maria Visconti appointed him the Capitano del Popolo. His aunt was Guidocchia Della Palude, the daughter of Giacomo, married to Guido IV Da Correggio, who ruled for many years in Parma. Della Palude were mainly members of the Dominican Order, and their rich donations are recorded in a various charters of churches. We read that the Counts Mario Cesare and Battista Della Palude donated, in 1623, to the church San Giorgio di Crovara (page 45) the silver picture of Madonna del Rosario e i Misteri: “Hoc Rosarium SS Illustriss. Comes Mario Paludius = D. Buta – iuticus Rector populusque Santi Giorgi Crovariae Snno Dni 1623, mense Septem Die III.” Francesco Della Palude, from Varembon, built the church and dedicated it to Madonna after he was saved from the hands of the Saracens in Cyprus. He made the altar of silver with image of Madonna with the Divine child. It is said that the Palunco donated to the Dominican monastery, in 1624, the silver icon of Madonna with the child. The picture on this page is copy of the famous icon of “The Madonna from the lake,” of an unknown author from the 15th century. This icon was one of the treasuries of the Benedictine monastery St. Maria, venerated throughout the Balkans, as written by Mauro Orbini (Il Regno degli Slavi, 1601). As we follow the list of Counts and Rectors, we see that the Rector of the church San Giorgio is Conte Feliciano Della Palu (Palude) from 1699-1740. Before him, in the capacity of Rector we find Alfonso Della Palu. Ugo and Gian Francesco Della Palude were the Knights of Savoy, Cavalieri di SS Annunziata, in 1450, according to Muratori. Mario Cesare was the Count of Crovara in 1646; Giuseppe was the Count of Crovara in 1709; Feliciano was the Count in 1739; Giuseppe was Gentil’uomo di camera of the Duke of Parma and commander of forensic police of Reggio; Cesare was Provosto di San 47 Prospero, in 1676; Jaccopo was Maestro della camera of the Princes Matilde d’Este; Antonio, son of Giuseppe, was the podesta of Monechio in 1849, and Guardia Nobile d’Onore of the Duke of Modena. The most famous of this branch of Della Palude was the Count Cesare Della Palude, who florished under Francesco, the Duke of Modena, Reggio and Mirandola. Cesare was appointed on 19th January of 1742 as the general of infantry and Governor of the Army of the Duchy of Modena, Reggio and Mirandola. 49 Conte Cesare della Palude - The certificate of the appointment to the rank of general of infantry. (Courtesy of Mr. Mario Derata) He was remembered in the war for the Secession of Austria in 1740, when the Duke Francesco was ally of Spain, and had formed four infantry regiments, one of them commanded by the Conte Colonello Cesare Della Palude. St. Basilides 49 Documents of the appointments of the Counts of Crovara, Giuseppe and Cesare Della Palude come from the personal archive of Mr. Mario Derata, who is the cousin of the last Count of Crovara and inheritied the Count’s archive. Mr. Derata kindly accepted to give us the documents for publishing in this article. 48 The Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the barbarians, consisted of three elements: philosophical beliefs derived from Plato and Neoplatonists, with the main influence of Philo of Alexandria and Origen; conception of morals and history derived from the Jews, and certain theories as to salvation, which were new in Christianity, but it could be traced to Greek Orphism, or various cults of Near East, adopted for the new Pauline public – Gentile. Most important Jewish elements were: a sacred history beginning with Creation; the existence of a small section of mankind, the chosen people, whom God especially loves; a new concept of “righteousness,” the virtue of almsgiving, baptism which might be derived from oriental pagan mystery religions; the Messiah that would bring prosperity and victory over enemies. For Christians, the Messiah was the historical Jesus, who was also identified with the Logos in Greek philosophy, and it was not on earth, but in heaven, that the Messiah was to enable his followers to triumph over their enemies. This Jewish simplicity, on the whole, still characterizes the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and has already disappeared in St. John, where Christ is identified with the Platonic Stoic Logos. It is less Christ the Man, than Christ the theological figure, that interests the fourth evangelist. This is still more of the Fathers; you will find in their writings many more allusions to St. John, than to the other three gospels put together. The synthesis of Greek philosophy and Hebrew scriptures remained more or less haphazard and fragmentary until the time of Origen (185-254 AD). Origen, like Philo, lived in Alexandria, which owing to commerce and the university was, from its foundation to its fall, the chief center of learned syncretism. Like his contemporary Plotinus, he was a student of Ammonius Saccas, whom many regard as the founder of Neoplatonism. His doctrines, as set forth in his work “De Principiis,” have much affinity to those of Plotinus, more than is compatible with orthodoxy. The metaphysics of Plotinus begins with a Holy Trinity: The One, Spirit and Soul. These three are not equal, like the Persons of the Christian Trinity: the One is supreme, Spirit comes next, and Soul last. Origen taught that the First Person was superior to the Second, and the Second to the Third, agreeing in this with Plotinus, but his view was declared heretical. Origen, in spite of being recognized as one of the Fathers, was, in later times, condemned as having maintained four heresies. St. Jerome who had expressed unguarded admiration of Origen, for his work in establishing the text of the Old Testament, found it prudent, subsequently, to expend much time and vehemence in repudiating his theological errors. Origen’s longest work is the book entitled “Against Celsus.” Celsus was the author of a book, now lost, against Christianity, and Origen set to work to answer him point by point. Celsus begins by objecting to Christians, because they belong to illegal association, and this Origen does not deny, but claims to be a virtue. Some of Origen’s arguments are curious (B. Russell). He says that magicians invoke the “God of Abraham,” often without knowing who He is, but apparently this invocation is especially potent. Names are essential in magic, it is not indifferent whether God is called by His Jewish, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, or Brahman name. Magic formulae lose their efficacy when translated. One is led to suppose that the magicians of the time used formulae from all known religions, but if Origen is right, those derived from Hebrew sources were the most effective. The argument is the more curious as he points out that Moses forbade sorcery. Elements of mystery religions, both Orphic and Asiatic, enter largely into Christian theology, and in all of them the central myth is that of the dying god who rises again. To understand the origin of these beliefs, we must take account of certain facts in Jewish history. The early history of Israelites cannot be confirmed from any source outside of the Old Testament, and it is impossible to know at what point it ceases to be purely legendary. Arnold Toynbee, one of the greatest scholars of XX century, gives an unorthodox view of biblical Moses: “Around 1220 BC, the Libyans and their allies, the Mashwesh, and five “the peoples of the sea,” were defeated by the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah (1224-1214). “The sea peoples” were: Luca, from south west Turkey, Achaeans from continental Greece, and the rest were Sheklesh, Sherden, and Tursha. Five centuries later, they appear in history as Sickles (Sicily), Sards (Sardinia), and Tyresenoi (Etruscans who 49 founded Rome). Meshwesh appear as Maxies who populated Tunis. In 945 BC, they formed together with the Libyans XXII dynasty of Egypt, with name Mashwesh. Rameses III is in war with “the peoples of the sea” in the Delta of Nile in 1191 BC. The Medinet Habu inscription of Rameses III (early 12th century BC) states that “no land could stand before them.” The enemies are identified as: Sheklesh, Danu (Danoi), Tjeker (Theukroi), Peleset (Philistines). Danu were from Eastern Cilicia, Tjeker from Dor, and Peleset were Palestinians.” It is supposed that the Philistines were migrants from the Aegean, supported by the biblical tradition which traces their origins to Crete. The Lukka are known from Hittite texts to have been located in Western Anatolia. The name of the Tjeker recalls the Teucri of Anatolia known from Greek myth. Danu could be connected to the Danaoi, an alternate name used by Homer for the Achaean Greeks. Tursha recalls both the site of Tarsus (Tarsa in Hittite), and the region of Taruisa. Name of the Shekelesh recalls the city of Sagalassos in Pisidia. The Ekwesh have been connected to the Achaean Greeks, although as the Egyptian reliefs depict them as circumcised, this is unlikely. Singer places the origin of the Philistines in Western Anatolia and the islands off the coast, and connects their name to that of the Pelasgians (Pelasgoi) of Greek legend, as in some sources the term Pelasgoi is actually transcribed as Pelastoi50 . The earliest sources, such as the Iliad, place them in the Western Anatolia. The Greek historian, Strabo, affirms that they inhabited the offshore islands. According to the Odyssey, the Pelasgians occupied Crete, so this could account for the biblical connection of the Philistines to the island. It should be noted that the little evidence regarding the language spoken by the Philistines, before they adopted the Semitic dialect of Canaan, points to an Anatolian origin. The evidence is limited to a few Philistine words and personal names which appear in the Bible and inscriptions. Massive movement of the peoples from the Near East was the consequence of the Trojan War. Ulysses (Odyssey) voyage, as described in Homer, could be consequence of war with “the peoples of the sea.” The Roman legend of their Trojan ancestry could be related to the Etruscans in Central Italy, and the appearance of Greek Helena and Trojan Paris in Egypt, as a part of the same legend. Tantalos, the Phrygian Asiatic founder of the House of Pelops, offended the gods by giving them the flesh of his son Pelops to eat. Pelops, having been miraculously restored to life, won his famous chariot race against Oinomaos, the king of Pisa, by the connivance of the latter’s charioteer Myrtilos, and got rid of his confederate by flinging him into the sea. The curse descended to his sons Atreus and Thyestes, in the form of what the Greeks called – ate, irresistible impulse to crime. Thyestes corrupted his brother’s wife, and managed to steal the golden-fleeced ram. Atreus in turn secured his brother’s banishment, and feasted him on the flesh of his own children. The curse was now inherited by Atreus’ son Agamemnon, who offended Artemis by killing a sacred stag, sacrificed his own daughter Iphigenia to appease the goddess and obtain safe passage to Troy for his fleet, and was in turn murdered by the faithless wife Klytaimnestra, and her paramour Aigisthos, a surviving son of Thyestes. Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, in turn avenged his father by killing his mother and Aigisthos. The Egyptians made effort to note the names of the leaders of the invasion on Egypt, while the more famous leader of the Jewish Exodus was unknown to them. However, there were two historical persons in Egypt in 13th century BC with the name Mose, which is an abbreviation of a theophoric name ending in “mose,” or “messe,” such as: Ahmose (Amosis), Tuthmose (Thotmes), Ramesse (Ramses). According to the Israelite tradition, Moses had grown up in Egypt, and he was a monotheist. If there is a truth in this, his full name should have been Aton-mose, because the only monotheism we know of was from God Aton, introduced by the pharaoh Akhenaton. Toynbee, here was of the same premise as Freud, who was bitterly accused after delivering his book “Moses and monotheism.” The Israelite tradition tells us that Moses introduced the unknown God Yahweh. Yahweh means “giving life,” which was the main attribute 50 Itamar Singer: The origin of the Sea Peoples and their Settlement on the coast of Canaan, in M. Heltzer and E. Lepinski, editors, Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1500-1000), Peeters Publishers, Leuven, 1988. 50 of Aton in Akhenaton’s representation of God of Sun with his sun rays. Moses was, according to the legend, saved from the river by a princess, in the same manner as Perseus, Cyrus, and Romulus, and one can hardly find so many caring princesses in the human history, pulling baskets with crying babies from the river. Carol Dougherty (Interpreting Myth) quoted the great ancient historian, Sir Moses Finley, who opened his essay “Myth, Memory, and History” with Aristotle’s famous distinction between poetry and history in Poetics: “Poetry is more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. By a universal statement, I mean one as to what such, or such a kind of man will probably, or necessarily say, or do – which is the aim of poetry, though it affixes proper names to the characters by a singular statement, one as to what, say, Alkibiades did, or had done to him (Poetics 1451).” Finley points out, that Aristotle is not questioning the historicity of epic poetry here, in a way that we sometimes do, but rather he is concerned with the bigger, more general question of the truth about life. And so, the debate is really one between history and myth, for long before anyone invented history, myth was what helped the Greeks to make sense of their past, and without myth the first Greek historians could never have begun their work. For Herodotus of Halicarnassus, known as the Father of History, myths, legends, and chronicles of the past provided the necessary access to former times, and enabled him to accomplish his twofold goal of preserving events of the past and investigating the causes of the Persian Wars. David and Solomon may be accepted as kings, who probably had a real existence, but at the earliest point at which we come to something certainly historical, there are already two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The first person mentioned in the Old Testament, of whom there is an independent record, is Ahab, king of Israel, who is spoken of in an Assyrian letter from 853 BC. The Assyrians, finally, conquered the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, and removed a great part of population. After this time, the kingdom of Judah alone preserved the Israelite religion and tradition. The kingdom of Judah survived the Assyrians, whose power come to an end with capture of Nineveh by the Babylonians and Medes in 606 BC, but in 586, Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and removed the population to Babylon. The Babylonian kingdom fell in 538 BC, when Babylon was taken by Cyrus, the king of Medes and Persians. He issued in 537 an edict, allowing the Jews to return to Palestine. Under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra, the Temple was rebuilt, and Jewish orthodoxy began to be crystallized. Originally, there appears to have been not very much difference, from a religious point of view, between the Israelites and the surrounding tribes. Yahweh was, at first, only a tribal God who favored children of Israel, but it was not denied, that there were other gods, and their worship was habitual. There is a very interesting passage in Jeremiah, in which he denounces the Jews in Egypt for their idolatry. The prophet tells refugees in Egypt that Yahweh will destroy them all, because their wives have burnt incense to other gods. When Ezra and Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem from captivity, they were shocked to find, that mixed marriages had been common, and they dissolved all such marriages. The historical books of the Old Testament, which were mostly compiled after the captivity, give a misleading impression, since they suggest that the idolatrous practices against which the prophets protested were a falling off from earlier strictness, whereas in fact the earlier strictness never existed. Basilides was a Roman soldier in Alexandria in 202 AD. He was impressed by Origen’s teaching, and was probably the one of his followers. Among Origen’s students, the convicted Christians, was Potamiena, famous for her piousness and also for her beauty. In spite of the imminent threat that she would be given to the gladiators, she was firm in her devotion and was punished by death penalty. Basilides was the selected soldier to escort her to the gallows. On their way from the court, he defended her from an angry mob. She was emotional because of the unusual behavior from a Roman guard, and promised that she would have prayed for him. When he was called to give an oath before the pagan idols, he refused, surprising all present, telling them that he had become a Christian. He was thrown to prison, baptized and after a few days his head was cut off. According to the church Father, close to the Emperor 51 Constantine the Great, Eusebius, Basilides was a native of Alexandria, and he was attracted by Origen’s teaching for some time, before he decided to change his faith. The interesting question for our research is how the Palude learned of Basilides’ destiny, if they were not present in Alexandria in III century? Origen’s father was the Greek Leonides, his mother was Egyptian and under her influence comes the name Origen, which means – “born from Horus.” Horus is central god in the Egyptian pantheon, the son of god Osiris and his sister, the goddess Isis. Isis is usually compared with Jesus mother. Horus, as a universal title, was attached to every single pharaoh. Origen’s father had a big library and he gave the books to his son to read. He perished in prison during the time of the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus. Origen was persecuted because he visited Christians in prison and followed them to public executions. The Emperor Decius persecuted him and punished him to be burned at the stake. However, he was miraculously abolished and died in his seventies in Tyre in Phoenicia. He was buried in the church of the Holy Sepulcher, in which was also buried the Emperor Barbarossa, 1000 years later. Together with Basilides, a number of Origen students were canonized as the saints, namely Potamiena and her mother Marcella. Della Palude venerated Basilides as a saint, and had carried his relic from Rome to Reggio early in 800 AD. There is a famous story about two devoted fellows from Torcello, near Venice, who had brought the relics of St. Mark, the saint protector of Venice from Alexandria. In order to escape the Arab check point, they had covered the body of the saint, hidden in a boat, with pigs. We know that the relics of the early saints had to be hidden because of Roman persecution. Some of them had been buried in certain locations in the desert sand, and had been venerated secretly for centuries. Marcion wrote that Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was asked to kneel before the pagan idols in a same manner as Basilides, but he refused and was burned at the stake. Marcion and his followers collected his bones, “the relics were more venerated then gold, or gems,” and buried them at a secret tomb. After the Arab conquest in VII century, most of the relics of the saints were transported to the Eastern Roman Empire. After the Vandals conquered North Africa, an exodus of saint relics from Africa to Sicily increased. It is speculative, but our hypothesis is that the relics of St. Basilides were brought to Sicily between the Vandal and Alan conquest of Africa, and the conquest of Alexandria by the Arabs. It is not impossible that the Palude were originally citizens of Alexandria, who later immigrated to Sicily. A more probable scenario would be that they were already Christians from Sicily who had established connections with Egypt. The Palu were present in Carthage, but the relation of our ancestors with the Palu architects of the Touga monument is dimmed by the mists of time. The architect Palu was most probably from Alexandria during the Ptolemy dynasty. However, we should not neglect the fact that the original meaning of the word palus is derived from the Greek – palos. The famous skilled architects came from the Greek world, as was the case of Apollodoros of Damascus whose vision and talent can still be admired in Trajan’s Forum. Alexander’s general, Soter Ptolemy, used the vision of the architect Kleomenes and commenced the building of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, Pharos, in 297 BC. Ptolemy opened the doors of Alexandria to Jewish artisans and made a quarter for 30 000 inhabitants across the Palace of the pharaoh. He built the Serapeum, Temple for Serapis on an artificial hill with a hundred steps and the portico with the greatest ever collection of art. Ninety years after Christianity became the official religion, the pagan temples were closed, among the first was the Jupiter temple in Syria, with a solid foundation that made the task difficult for the zealots who destroyed it. Some governors of the provinces protected the temples, transforming them into Christian churches, as was the case of the temple of Virgo Coelestis. In 389, the throne of the archbishop of Alexandria belonged to Theophilus, an enemy of peace and virtue, whose hands were soaked in a blood and who enriched himself with stolen gold. He directed his supporters to the temple of Serapis, defended by an inferior group of pagans led by the philosopher Olympius. In the restless capital of Egypt, the smallest provocation could cause a civil war. The Emperor Theodosius supported the Christians who went with great zeal and attacked the defenders and destroyed the temple, in order to build a church. After that Theophilus led a crowd to plunder the great library and to 52 steal its gold and silver, which was afterwards melted. The colossal statue of the god Serapis was made of plates which were connected with all the surrounding walls of the temple. The pagan belief was that if the greatness of the deity was disturbed, heaven and earth would have been thrown in chaos. One of Theophilus’ soldiers brandished a battle axe and destroyed the head of Serapis, while the crowds were waiting to see what would happen. The pieces of the deity were happily dragged through the streets. Those who expected the punishment of the gods and that the Nile inundation might omit, were proved wrong. Amr ibn-al-As conquered ancient Heliopolis, the Egyptian On, or today’s Cairo, in 640. On his way, he destroyed the Byzantine army, which survived in Alexandria, only because the Arabs didn’t have ships to force a surrender of the defendants, who relied on supplies from the sea. In Alexandria was still the famous Chrystal sarcophagus in the tomb of Alexander the Great, and the far less impressive tomb of St. Mark. There are some writers who claim that the relic of St. Mark, brought to Venice, was actually that of Alexander. However, the Chrystal sarcophagus was destroyed and lost, and the body of the saint was hidden in the desert for the next four centuries. The Arabs were patient and waited two years for the surrender of Alexandria, when the rest of defenders fled and were relocated to the Greek island of Rhodes. The Arab leader Omar declared: “If the writings of Greeks are in accordance with the book of God, they are useless. If they are against it, they should be destroyed.” His order was followed, and the books from the famous library were burned in 4000 Alexandrian baths. It took six months to burn them all. When Amr entered the city, he declared: “I conquered the city which has 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 40 000 Jews who pay taxes, and 400 theatres.” St. Augustine was born in Thagaste in the Roman province of Numidia, a Carthage colony, in 354 AD. City was ruled by his father, the Roman senator Patricius, a pagan married to a Christian wife. Augustine studied in Carthage, famous at that time as Carthago Veneris. Apuleius was delightful, writing that Carthage was an inspiration for the Roman citizens. In the city, religions and races were mingled, and it was the goddess Tanit, Roman Virgo Coelestis, that was the most venerated, but also the Egyptian Isis, and the Phrygian Mother goddess. When Augustine was reading Cicero’s “Hortensius,” he was highly impressed with the lofty orator and statesman. After he read the New Testament, he declared that there was nothing in it that Cicero hadn’t already explained better. His early interests were Manichean and heretical. When he was 29 year old, he went to Rome, and then to Milan, to the bishop Ambrose, later St. Ambrose, the protector of Milan. Augustine managed to become the bishop of Hippo Regius, and in that capacity he witnessed the invasion of Africa by the Vandals and Alans. He died in 430 with an army of barbarians in front of his door. The Vandals made their kingdom in the Roman Carthage in 439, and in its rich provinces of Proconsularis (Cape Bon), Byzacena, and Numidia, after they crossed the Gibraltar from Andalusia.51 Genseric threw out the Roman aristocracy, and gave land in Proconsularis to his followers. Proconsularis is the peninsula that geographically resembles a finger pointing to Sicily, and it is the closest point between Africa and Sicily. The scholarly consensus is that the refugees from Carthage went to Sicily. After the Vandals conquered Hippo Regius, they didn’t rush to occupy Carthage. The city was equal to Rome with its rich palaces and could successfully compete with Constantinople, Alexandria, or Antioch. The Vandals built a fleet in 455, and went to conquer Palermo, and from there the whole of Sicily. After they disembarked in Ostia, on their way to Rome, there were no defenders to challenge them. Rome was looted for 14 days. The Jewish gold, which Titus brought to Rome from the plundering of the Temple of Jerusalem, ended up in Carthage in Vandal hands. The Ostrogoths bought Sicily from the Vandals before Odoacer’s death in 493. 51 Umberto Eco in Serendipities, Language and Lunacy, explains the changes in a local vernacular in the Middle Ages and gives the example of Andalusia in Spain, the name derives from the Arab name al-Andalus, as Arabs called the land of Vandals. Another example is the ancient city of Byzantium, later Constantinople, which became in the Turkish language Stambol, present day Istanbul. 53 Fifty years after the Fall of the Western Empire, the Emperor Justinian, allegedly descended from a North Slavic tribe (his original name was Upravda, derived from the Slavic word pravda - justice), reconquered Africa from the Vandals in 535, Sicily in 536, and in 537, Rome. Rome was defended from the Goths in 538, and the following year the Franks invaded Italy. History tells us that his valiant general, Belisarius, liberated the Empire from the barbarians, and that Justinian made it bankrupt, with enormous taxes and expenditure. Sicily was extremely important for the Byzantines, and the Emperor Constance decided to make Syracuse as his capital in 668. The Arabs tried to capture the island in VII century, but they left plans for the conquest until they conquered Spain in 711-12. In 827, ten thousand Arabs and Berbers disembarked in western Sicily near the city of Mazara. The Byzantine Governor of Sicily, admiral Euphemius, at odds with the Emperor Michael II, offered the island to the Arabs, in order to get their support. The Byzantine soldiers killed him for treason afterwards, but the island could not be defended. The Emir from Tunis, from the Aghlabid dynasty, conquered Palermo in 831. Until the end of 903, the whole of Sicily was under their rule. Four men are called the Doctors of the Western Church: St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and Gregory the Great. The first three were contemporaries, and they flourished during the brief period between the victory of Church in the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasion. All three were young during the reign of Julian the Apostate. Jerome lived ten years after the sack of Rome by the Goths under Alaric. Augustine lived till the eruption of the Vandals in Africa. Civilization declined for centuries, and it was not until nearly a thousand years later that Christendom again produced men who were their equals in learning and culture. Throughout the Dark Ages, and the medieval period, their authority was revered. They, more than any other men, fixed the mould into which the Church was shaped. Few men have surpassed these three in influence on the course of history. The capital of the Western Empire at the end of the fourth century was Milan, of which Ambrose was the bishop in 374. His father, Aurelius Ambrosius, was the Roman prefect of Gaul, the administrator of: Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Corsica and Sicily. At the age of thirty, St. Ambrose was made the governor of Liguria and Aemilia. Four years later, he turned his back on secular government, and by popular acclaim became the bishop of Milan. Jerome is notable as the translator who produced the Vulgate, which remains to this day the official version of Bible. Until his day the Western Church relied, as regards the Old Testament, chiefly on translation from the Septuagint, which in important ways differed from the Hebrew original. The Christians were given to maintaining that the Jews, since the rise of Christianity, had falsified the Hebrew text where it seemed to predict the Messiah. This was a view which sound scholarship showed to be untenable, and which Jerome firmly rejected (Russell). The term “apocryphal” (secret, occult) designated at the beginning of the Christian Era non-canonical books kept out of the New Testament, whereas Pseudoepigrapha (pseudo: fictitious, sham) were writings falsely attributed to biblical characters. For Protestants, the Apocrypha are in general the fourteen books of the Septuagint regarded as non-canonical. Since, however, Catholics accept in the Roman canon eleven of these fourteen books, calling them Deuterocanonical, and call apocrypha the remaining three, then for Protestants the Catholic deuterocanonical books are usually called apocrypha, and the Catholic apocrypha are called pseudoepigrapha. 52 Septuagint was so called because it was the work of seventy translators. It was said, that each of the seventy translated the whole independently, and that when the versions were compared, they were found to be identical down to the smallest detail, having all been divinely inspired. Nevertheless, later scholarship showed that it was gravely defective. The early Christians depended upon the Septuagint, or upon translation from it into Latin. A better text was produced by Origen in the third century. Vulgate was at first received with much criticism, because Ambrose had been helped by Jews in establishing the text, and many Christians thought that Jews had deliberately falsified the prophets, in order that they should 52 Umberto Eco: Fakes and Forgeries in Limits of Interpretation, Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, 1990. 54 not seem to foretell Christ. After the foundation of Alexandria, great number of Jews settled in the city, in the special quarter assigned to keep them from danger of pollution by contact with gentiles. They became much more Hellenized then those in Judea, and forgot the Hebrew language. For that reason it became necessary to translate the Old Testament into Greek, and the result was the Septuagint. Gregory the Great was born in Sicily. His father, a Roman senator, had numerous fiefs in Sicily and a palace on the Caelian way in Rome. Gregory was a prefect of Rome in 573, in charge of Latium, Naples, Calabria, and Sicily. His contemporary, St. Benedict, lived in Monte Cassino from its foundation to his death in 543. The monastery was sacked by the Lombards, shortly before Gregory, himself a Benedictine, became pope. The fury of the Lombards made monks flee to Rome. During his time the Lombards were ravaging Italy, Spain and Africa were in a state of anarchy, due to the weakness of the Byzantines and the decadence of Visigoths. In France there were wars between North and South. Britain, which had been Christian under the Romans, had reverted to paganism since the Saxon invasion. Basilides died in Alexandria in 202, and we can safely assume that the relics were safeguarded by the Copts in the Egyptian desert, as Marcion had affirmed, at least until the time of Constantine the Great, when it could be safely transported to Sicily. The Gospels of Mary Magdalen and her brother Philip were found in Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1947, after they had been buried in the sand by the Copts. The conquest of Arabs in 640, made it much more difficult, but not impossible, to transfer the relics, as we have seen in the case of St. Mark. However, we would select the period of transfer before the Saracens became masters of the Western Mediterranean in 712. First, their subsequent raids on the Southern European coast would have made it less probable. Second, Della Palude had already been in Rome in 800, long before the Saracen conquest of Sicily was completed. We can assume that they left the island before the invasion of the entire island became imminent, carrying with them St. Basilides. On their return to Sicily with the Normans, they received their lands back. The Palu surname enigma As we have seen, Della Palude were often referred to as Della Palu, in both of the main branches of the family, equally in France and in Italy, which by itself disqualify explanations that the surname was derived from “terra paludosa,” or marshlands around the river Po. Fra Salimbene de Adam was a contemporary of Della Palude in the 13th century, and lived with some of the most famous of them in Pisa, namely Buonaccorso and Jacopo Della Palude. However, he often used the surname Palu, instead of Palude, in his chronicles. We mentioned that the Senate of Pisa declared all three forms of surname: Palude, Padule, and Paule to be identical. But still, the surname Palu has persisted in many documents, most of the time followed by Palude in brackets. Obviously, that form of the surname was dear to them, but the origin was never explained. Consequently, we are only left to guess, as to why the family used that form. The Latin forms of Paludanus, or Paludibus, often used in certain Latin documents, could be explained as a local vernacular, and as Vulgar Latin, but not Palu. By far, the most famous Palu we know of, were those Palu who had followed Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. Palu was the son of Reuben, who was the first born of Jacob, according to the Israelite tradition, and founder of the first of the twelve tribes. From the son Palu, have spread the tribe called the Paluites. In Numbers (16:1, 12-14), we read that Reuben’s sons rioted against Aaron and Moses, and took the side of Korah, who was from Levi tribe of priests, who accused Moses that he behaved as if he was a prince. In another story, Aaron, Moses’ brother, was making the Golden calf, a symbol of the old Canaan 55 gods, namely Baal, widely venerated in Canaan, and that made Moses angry, and he ordered the slaughter of the Israelites. Apparently, God Yahweh was furious on Mount Sinai seeing his chosen people transgressing with pagan gods, even more famous then himself, and after delivering Moses the Ten Commandments, sent him down from the Mount Sinai to stop the transgressions. Moses melted the Golden calf and forced them to drink it, and then allegedly killed 3000 men. The transgressions of the Rubenites and Korah’s Levi tribe were punished, and 250 of them were cast down into an open pit. After descending to Palestine, Moses was allegedly punished for smothering his own people, and he had died before he could see the Promised Land. Aaron, however, wasn’t punished, as the narrative goes on, in spite of the fact that he was the one responsible for making the Golden calf. Nevertheless, the Rubenites and the Paluites had been forgiven and assigned a big portion of Canaan, east of the Dead Sea, in what was known as the northern kingdom of Israel, as opposed to the Kingdom of Judah. The Northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and they were the first to be resettled around the Caspian Sea. The word “palu” is present in all the Semitic languages, as an import from Sumerian, from the time of the Hammurabi dynasty. According to J. J. Finkelstein, the Sacrificial list was closed with the words: “The palu of the Amorites, the palu of the Gutim, the palu not recorded on the tablet, and the soldiers who fell while on perilous campaigns for their lord, princes, princesses…come ye, eat and drink this, and bless Ammisaduqa, the son of Ammuditana, the king of Babylon.” 53 Then, the tablet opens with 28 individual person names, predecessors of the king. From the genealogy of the Hammurabi dynasty, we learn that the word “palu” means ‘dynasty,’ or ‘holy column’ of the king’s names of the dynasty. Hammurabi was a Babylonian king, the lawgiver in 1800 BC. The Akkadians used word “palu” as dynasty, or ‘dynastic clothes’ for procession. Sumerians used same word “palu” for the ‘holy regal rod’ of the king, probably as part of the procession clothes. V. Rawlinson affirms that during Ashurbanipal’s time (668-626 BC), the word “palu” – signified ‘dynastic period.’54 In the work of Pelio Fronzaroli (Semitic and Assyrological Studies), we find the main king list till the first year of the king TiglathPileser III (744-727 BC), identical to the list from Nimrud (Sargon’s Nimrud prism): “At the beginning of my rule, in my first – palu.” In Studia Orientalia, published by the Finnish oriental society, in Honour of Simo Parpola (Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars, edited by: Luuko, Svard and Mattila), we find that king Sargon II (721-705), in 711 BC, marched “during his 10th palu,” against the city of Melid, that was part of a coalition of the Anatolian and North Syrian states led by Urartu, that was defeated by TiglathPileser III in 743, and mentioned in Annals of Shalmanesser III, as a land of Urartu. In 708 BC, in his 13th palu, according to Khorasabad Annals, Sargon II sent the Assyrians against Mutallu. In Sargon’s fifteenth year, he gave the extent of the king’s realm: “From Iadnana in the middle of the Western sea (Cyprus), to the border of Dilmun (Mesopotamia) – from the beginning of my rein until my fifteenth palu.” Dietz Otto Edzard, in his Sumerian Grammar, defined the word “palu” as “the term of the office.” 55 The Sumerian language was not Semitic, it was unique and of unknown origin. The Sumerians considered the word “palu” as a ‘holy king’s rod’ or ‘a period of ruling.’ A number of the Akkadian words were imports from the far superior Sumerian culture, and we cannot assert the Semitic origin of word “palu,” based on its similar meaning in the Akkadian, or the Babylonian period. Perono Cacciafoco writes of the toponomy of the ancient Liguria: “The Paleo-Ligurian places as – Alba, the Old-European name of the river Albis, and similar forms – Olb, in the Romano-Ligurian, doesn’t derive directly from the Proto-Indo-European adjective – albho, which means – white, but rather they follow the Pre-Indo-European root of – hal-bh, which means – water, cognate with the Sumerian – halbia, or the Akkadian – halpium, which means – well, or water.56 The American Philological Association, in 1904, gave a review of the article of Maurice 53 J. J. Finkelstein: The Genealogy of the Hammurapi dynasty, Journal of cuneiform Studies, Yale University, New Heaven, 1966. 54 V. Rawlinson: The Annals of Ashurbanipal, I-IX, text by Robert B. Jau, Semitic Study Series, Leiden, 1903. 55 Dietz Otto Edzard: Sumerian Grammar, Handbook of Oriental Studies, Brill, Vol. 71, Leiden -Boston, 2003. 56 P. Cacciafoco: Water origins: The Alb Root in the Pre-Latin Toponomy of Ancient Liguria, 2012. 56 Bloomfield from Johns Hopkins, related to the problems in Indo-European languages. A characteristic example for him was a word – palu, identified by Kretshmer as “fodere” in the Cymric (Celtic) language in Liguria. The Carthaginian Palu Carthage was founded in 814 BC by the Phoenician queen Elissa, the sister of Pigmalion, the king of Tyre, who killed her husband. At first, she fled to Cyprus with her loyal supporters and then to North Africa where she founded “The New City” as we translate the name of Carthage from the Phoenician language. Josephus Flavius affirms that according to the Tyre Annals, Pigmalion had already ruled seven years when Elissa founded Carthage. Thucydides writes that Carthage was unsuccessful in an attempt to stop the Greeks from the founding of Marseille, in a famous battle against the Phoceans around 600 BC. While the Phoenician mother city of Tyre suffered from the Assyrians in the VII and VI centuries BC, Carthage went from strength to strength. It became the main power in the western Mediterranean. The Phoenician colonies in the western Sicily were the cities of Motya and Panormus. The indigenous peoples of Sicily were the Sicans and Sicels. The Sicans were dated to 3000 BC in Malta. The first Greeks in Sicily were traders from Crete and Mycenae in 1500 BC. According to legend, Daedalus, the architect of Minos palace in Crete went to the Sican king, Kakalos. In central parts of Sicily lived the Elymi who were not an Indo-European people. The Elymi were the most mysterious of the three indigenous peoples, and the theory is that they had come from Asia Minor. They had built Segesta in western part of the island. The Greeks thought that the Elymi were descendants from Troy. Titus Livius (Livy) was born in Patavium, now Padua, in 57 BC, according to Jerome’s Latin translation of the Chronicon of Eusebius. Of the town Patavium a brief history may be collected from Livy himself. It was one of those towns which ascribed its origin to emigrants from the mysterious Troy. The leader of this emigration is supposed to have been Antenor. It resisted the power of the Etruscans and it repelled an invasion from the Spartan Cleonymus in 301 BC. Strabo wrote that the town was among the most important towns of the Roman world. Pliny wrote that Livy enjoyed great distinction in his lifetime and that he was known to Augustus, and that he extolled Pompey, Brutus and Cassius (Tacitus). The legend of Aeneas is presented by Livy in three aspects: as the founder of a dynasty which ruled in Ida over the remnants of the Trojans after the destruction of Troy; as the founder of several cities in Greece; as the founder of a colony in Latium. Homer regards him as the future Trojan king, and Strabo testifies that the same tradition of him remained in the town of Scepsis in Troas. It is probably true that a family of Aeneadae existed in Troas who regarded Aeneas as their founder. Aeneas is said to have founded Aenus in Thrace (Virgil), Aenea in Chalcidice (Livy), Capyae in Arcadia (Dionysius), Egesta (Segesta) and Eryx in Sicily (Cicero, Thucydides), and there were traces in Cumae (the island of Aenaria) in Italy (Vergil). The legend of Aeneas as a colonizer of Latium is the most celebrated of a vast number of similar legends connecting Italy with the heroes of the Trojan War. As the Greeks explained the origin of their principal cities by Egyptian and Phoenician colonies, so did the Italians imagine colonies from Greece. These correspondences were explained by the assumption of a common Pelasgian stock. Ulysses appears as a colonizer of Latium even in the Hesiodic Theogony (1013), and at later time we find the supposed colonies of Diomedes extending all along the Adriatic coast, and those of Ulysses along the Tyrrhenian. The legend of Ulysses in the island of Mljet still stimulates imagination of its inhabitants that the majestic cave is the actual place of Ulysses disembark in Ogigia, the mythical island. 57 The belief of the Romans that they were of Trojan descent can be traced back to the last years of the first Punic war, when we are told that they helped the Acarnanians on the ground, that of all the Greeks they alone had not joined in the war against their Trojan ancestors. About the same time Timaeus, the Sicilian historian, related the arrival of Aeneas with the Penates in Latium and the foundation of Lavinium. Dionysius wrote that Cephalon described Aeneas as coming with Odysseus into Latium, and there founding the city which he called from a captive Trojan woman Roma. The writer whom Cephalon quoted was Hellanicus, who wrote about the year 400 BC. Dionysius says that Aristotle related how certain Greeks returning from Troy landed in Latium, and that the Trojan captive women that were with them burned their feet and compelled them to settle there. In the Iliad itself Aeneas is the only Trojan hero who appears to have a future. Sophocles represented Aeneas not as leaving the country, but as establishing a colony in Ida. Egesta, or Segesta, in Sicily is believed itself to be a Trojan colony in the fifth century BC, as we know from Thucydides (6.2) and there existed a statement which carries the belief not only of a Trojan colony, but a colony headed by Aeneas, back to the Sicilian poet Stesichorus, who belongs to the first half of the sixth century, and to the Regal Period of Rome. The close connection between the Trojan legend of Latium and that of Segesta is visible throughout the Aeneid, particularly in the Fifth book. It also appears in the mention of Aegestus in Dionysius (1.67), in the account of the founding of Alba. About the time of the first Punic war, when the Trojan descent of the Romans begins to be spoken of, they had more intercourse with the northern Sicilians and perceived their ethnic affinity to be closer than the affinity of either with the Greeks. It rests not upon the imagination of poets, but upon a historical and undeniable connection between the Teucrian country and Italy. Among the colonists of the Campanian Cumae were natives of the Aeolian Cyme (Strabo). If there existed anywhere people who had a right to claim Trojan decent, it would be in Cyme. The connection of the legend of Aeneas with Cumae is plainly visible in the Aeneid, and it passed from Cumae to Rome through the Sibylline books which the Romans got from Cumae. The Sibylline oracles had been a collection of the oracles of the Sibyl of Erythrae, and these oracles came to Cumae and thence to Rome from the Teucrian country, and in this Teucrian country for some ages ruled a house of Aeneadae. The legend in its earliest form made Romulus the son of Ilia, Aeneas’ daughter and described Alba Longa as already existing at the arrival of Trojans. The Latins had already other native traditions about their origin, as they had an eponymous hero Latinus, mentioned even in the Hesiodic Theogony and represented by the Greeks as a son of Odysseus and Circe, by the native tradition as the son of god Faunus and the nymph Marica. He is said to be worshipped under the name of Juppiter Latiaris in the old capital of the Latin league Alba Longa. The Greeks had built the city of Gela in the south-western part of Sicily, which became a cultural center of the whole of Sicily under the tyrant Gelon (491-78 BC). He transferred his court to Syracuse shortly before the Persians under Xerxes attacked Athens. The Greeks under the archon Themistocles, defeated the Persians in the navy Battle of Salamis, in 480 BC. Themistocles once said jokingly to his son, who was spoilt by his mother, that he was the most powerful person in Greece: “For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother.” Carthage coordinated the attack with the Persians, who had employed the Phoenician fleet for an attack on Athens, and descended on the Sicilian shores at the same time in 480. They concentrated their attack at the city of Himera, under whose walls unfolded a battle that the Sicilians celebrated as a victory as great as that of Salamis. Carthage’s army commander, Hamilcar, was throwing the Sicilian prisoners into the fire while celebrating his god Baal, and finally he threw himself after he lost the battle. Six years later Gelon took over the ancient city Cumae, near Naples, and his brother Hieron, the patron of the famous Phoenician poet, Pindar, from Greek Thebes, saved the Greeks in southern Italy from the Etruscans. When Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes, the only house left in the city was that of the venerated poet Pindar. According to legend, Greek Thebes was a replica of the Egyptian capital Thebes, and was allegedly founded by Cadmus, who brought the alphabet to the Greeks. 58 Segesta called Athens to help it in 416, because Syracuse destroyed the neighbouring city Leontini. Athens sent ambassadors who were impressed by the great wealth and luxury of Segesta. In 415, Athens was heavily defeated during its attack on Syracuse, while Sparta was helping Syracuse in that war, as originally Syracuse was founded by Corinthian colonists, thus, neighbours of Sparta from Peloponnesus. Carthage, invited by Segesta, attacked Sicily again and the city of Selinus was totally destroyed, and 3000 prisoners were killed at the same place where Hamilcar had thrown himself into the fire. Himera was the next to be destroyed by Carthage. In 406, Carthage was again in a war with Sicily, and this time the Sicilians decided to confront them. During the occupation of Acragas (now Agrigentum), the Carthaginian commander, Hannibal, was killed and the Sicilians fled as they were afraid of a horrible vendetta. In that decisive moment, Dionysius the demagogue, with skillful rhetoric against the general’s morals was elected the commanding general, and he managed to convince Carthage to take the western and southern parts of Sicily, and leave to Syracuse the eastern part of the island. Duly elected the tyrant of Syracuse, he rebuilt the walls and made a formidable fleet of 300 ships, superior to the Athenian fleet at its zenith. During his reign Syracuse took over Ancona, and generally considered the Adriatic Sea as its own bay. Consequently, Syracuse became the most powerful European state of that time. Rome occupied Tarentum in southern Italy in 282 BC, and the Greeks called Pyrrhus of Epirus, the king of the Molossian Greeks (306-272), to intervene. Pyrrhus had a huge army with 20 elephants, a gift from Ptolemy II of Egypt, and in the battle of Heraclea, in 280, he defeated Rome. Next year P yrrhus conquered Apulia, but in the Battle of Asculum he lost 3500 soldiers. The Romans loss was 6000 soldiers, and Pyrrhus concluded that if he won another battle like that, he would have actually been completely destroyed. His conquest in Sicily confronted him with Carthage, and with a local population who felt a heavy burden from his taxation for building the fleet. Sicily became extremely unsatisfied with his rule, and advised by his own generals of the Roman advance, he decided to leave Sicily for the great contest between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic wars. The first Punic war was between 264 and 241. In the second Punic war Carthage, now under the famous commander, Hannibal, crossed the Alps with the elephants, and the theatre of war was Italy itself, the greatest challenge ever for the Republic. Hannibal was soon left without war material, as Rome attacked his supplies from Africa, and he had to withdraw from Italy. In the third war (149-46), an ally of Rome, Numidia, under their king Massinissa was successful against Carthage. The Roman condition was that Carthage had to surrender 300 children from the leading citizens as Roman hostages, and to destroy their own city, and move it deeper into the African continent. Under such condition Carthage had to fight for its survival and was defeated by the superior Roman war machine. Scipio systematically destroyed the city of Carthage during the siege which lasted 17 days, while 50 000 citizens were sold as slaves. Contrary to popular opinion, Sicily was marginalized under Rome as its status was that of a conquered province, not an integral part of the Empire, and its importance was measured only as a rich grain producer. The city of Thugga (Dougga today) was a flourishing city in the IV century BC. Before Numidia became a province of Rome, Thugga was the Numidian capital. In Thugga there is allegedly a royal mausoleum of Ateban, the son of Iepmatath, the son of Palu. It was believed that the mausoleum was built around the beginning of the second century BC. On the inscription, written in the Punic and Libyan, which was torn from the building in 1842, and now is in the British Museum, one can read the names of the supposed royal’s ancestors: the son Zumar, with Abaris, the son of Abdastart, Mangi, the son of Warsacan, and so on. The mausoleum is 21 m tall, built in the Greco-Roman style, with Hellenistic and Egyptian elements, with Aeolic pilasters at the corners, and decorations with lotus flowers scrolled capitals. The second level has an Egyptian cavetto, and on all sides are embedded Ionian columns. The third level shows the now mutilated figures of horsemen at each corner, and on each side is a bas relief of the four-horse chariot carrying two people. The upper section has lotus flower pilasters at the corners, and above it is another Egyptian moulding and a pyramid to crown the monument. At each corner stood a winged female figure, and at the top is set a lion. The monument was built under the artistic influence of Greek Sicily. The cavetto and lotus flowers show the influence of Alexandria. The sirens, in the IV century BC, are often 59 depicted on the funerary monuments as birds transporting the souls, or as the Muses mourning the dead (Moscati, The World of Phoenicians, 1965). The most obvious place for the North African Phoenicians to come into contact with the images of the Sirens and their other motifs, would be on the island of Sicily. Although a prosperous town from an early date, Dougga appears to have begun in a series of cultural exchanges with Sicily that became characteristic of the Numidian king Massinissa’s time. The city was founded in VI century BC, and historians agree that Dougga is the city of Tokai, which was conquered by Agathockles at the end of IV century BC. Arnold Toynbee set a date of the conquest between 310-305 BC. Diodorus Siculus described the city as the city of beautiful grandeur. Recent excavations have changed the theories of the so called “Numidian walls.” The walls around Dougga are not Numidian, and they are fortifications erected in the Late Antiquity. Octavian Augustus created the colony of Carthage, and the city was included in the territory of the Roman colony. During the time of Marcus Aurelius, the city was granted Roman law, the magistrates received Roman citizenship, and the rights of the inhabitants became similar to those of the Roman citizens. In 205 BC, during the reign of Septimus Severus, the two communities became – municipium. During the reign of Gallienus, Dougga obtained the status of a colony with the title Colonia Licinia Septimia Aurelia Alexandriana Thuggensis. Presence of dolmens (ancient tombs) at Dougga suggested links to Sicily as early as 2000 BC. The mausoleum of Ateban was considered as a rare example of royal Numidian architecture. Some authors link it with the funeral monuments of Anatolia, and the necropolises in Alexandria from III century BC. A bilingual inscription suggested that a presumed tomb was dedicated to Ateban, the son of Iepmatath, the son of Palu. In 1842, Sir Thomas Reade, the British consul in Tunis, damaged the monument while he was incompetently handling the inscription. According to recent research, the names on the inscription are those of its architect, and the monument was built for an unknown Numidian prince, some authors suggested even for Massinissa, but we should point out, without any proof for such a conclusion. The monument in its current state was reconstructed by the archeologist Louis Poinssot, from the pieces left around by the scavenging action of Sir Thomas. Jennifer Marilin Evans affirms that there is no space for the sarcophagus, and the assumption that the monument is a mausoleum should be reconsidered. Most probably the monument was actually built as a cenotaph. Recent research was conducted by Frederic E. Winter, who concluded that the names on the monument belong to the architects. All names in the inscription are Punic, or of Semitic origin, except the name Iepmatath, as that is a corruption of Iepmathoth, where Thoth is the name of the Egyptian god, allegedly the inventor of writing and mathematics, a form that is usual in names such as Tothmose, or Tuthankhamen. Jan den Boeft, in his philological commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus (330-391), wrote that the important Phoenicians in Carthage were wearing a purple cloak called “palu – dumendum,” which is closely related to the Sumerian terminology for dynastic clothes.57 The Phoenicians were the only ancients who knew how to produce the purple colour from sea shells, and that was in great demand in antiquity. The Roman senators took purple as a color of their lofty office, as well as the Christian bishops for their hats and cloaks. The Phoenician cities made solid gold from their exports of the purple colour until the conquest of Alexander, and from then on the Greeks took the trade into their hands. 57 Ammianus Marcellinus: Res Gestae, The Surviving Books of the History of A mmianus Marcellinus, XIV-XIX, translation: John C. Rolfe, William Heinemann Ltd, London, Cambridge Mass. Harvard University Press, 1935. 60 Sicily The Serbian historian, Tibor Živković, gives us an insight into Sicily before the conquest of the Saracens, during the time of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III.58 His primary source is Theophanes.59 When Leo was appointed the Emperor in 717 AD, the Empire became stable, as he was successful against the Arabs who waged a war against Byzantium. 60 The siege of Constantinople (from August 717-August 718) was a turning point, as the capital resisted with the significant help of winter, famine, pestilence, and the Bulgars. During that time the strategos of Sicily, Sergius (the Greek – Sergios) decided that Constantinople would not be able to resist the Arabs, and he proclaimed the Emperor Basil, the son of Gregory the Onomagul, whom he himself renamed Tiberius. Theophanes affirms that Leo III appointed Paul as a strategos of Sicily. According to Theophanes, Paul had an imperial order for “the archontes of westerners,” and the order for the army of Sicily. At the Paul’s arrival, Sergius asked the Lombards of Calabria for refuge. Paul told the army that Leo is the legitimate Emperor and that two fleets were sailing for Sicily. The soldiers captured Tiberius and his officers and Tiberius and his commander were beheaded. In his narrative Theophanes asserts that Paul travelled by land and sea. According to Porphyrogenitus, Slavic tribes participated in the campaign against the Arabs in Bari in 868-9. The order which Paul carried was intended for the ‘westerners’ and he was sailing with only one big ship, “from place to place, by land and sea, for two months,” when two weeks should be enough. The Slavic leaders were the only foreign rulers to be qualified as the archonts, according to Živković. Theophanes speaks of the special corps of the Slavs incorporated in the imperial army in 691. Theophanes writes about foreign archonts, among which were the Franks, the Lombards, the Avars, and the chieftains of Slavs, and that with them the Emperor Constantine IV concluded an imperial peace in 689. If this agreement was still active in 718, it seems logical that Leo III would expect the support of the Slavs against the rebels in Sicily. In Živković’s opinion Paul sailed to Monemvasia where he dispatched the order for the Slavs in the area, and then he continued to Dyrrachium. Two fleets, supposed to be transport ships, were used to convey the Slavs to Sicily. After Dyrrachium, the second city was probably Jadera, the largest city in the Adriatic under Byzantine control. It is also documented that the Balkan Slavs were involved in a war between the Longobards and Byzantines in 640, and that they crossed the Adriatic Sea with a large number of ships and besieged the town of Siponto. The origin of the ships is unknown, but they probably used their traditional vessels – monoxyla, that they used in the siege of Thessaloniki in 616. The dependence of Dalmatia on the Byzantines has been debated, and an argument was that Dalmatia did not depend on the Exarchate of Ravenna, and that its relations with Constantinople were weak. New documents dated from the reign of Theodosius III (715-17) affirm the first hypothesis, that Dalmatia was subordinated to Ravenna, as the documents mention repairs of the church of St. Maria in Trogir, the name of the Emperor on the documents shows the connection between Dalmatia and the imperial authorities. The seal, found near Salona, bears the inscription, Paul, patrikos and exarchos, a type well known in VIII century, and a similar seal was found in Italy, and consequently, Paul, the patrikos could be identified as the exarchos of Ravenna (723-26). The evidence confirms the dependence of Dalmatia on the Byzantine exarchate in Italy, and at least strong connections between Ravenna and Salona. Thus, it seems likely that Paul would have given the orders to the Byzantine officials in Dyrrachium in order to convey them to the Slavs, who could have embarked the ships in Jadera, Salona and Dyrrachium. Živković’s conclusion is that Paul travelled for two months, and he delivered personally the order to the Slavs in vicinity of the Dalmatian coast: to the principalities of Dioclea, Trebunia, Zachlumia, and Kanales. Theophanes’ T. Živković: The Strategos Paul and the Archontes of the Westerners, Byzantina Symmeikta 15, 2008. Theophanes Chronographia, Vol. I, editor: C. De Boor, Berlin, 1883. 60 The term Byzantium is an invention of historians who wanted to distinguish the West and East Roman Empire. The East Roman Empire was Greek speaking, but they called themselves Romans. 58 59 61 expression “the archonts of westerners” indicates the Slavs, more precisely, the Croats and Serbs. The “Vita Basilii” relates that the Slavs approached the Emperor Basil I (867-86), “recalling all the good things they have done for the Romans in the past.” As we have seen Della Palude were feudal rulers in Sicily long before the Saracen conquest and it may be possible that they received knowledge of the Slavs first hand in direct contact. The Palude returned to Sicily with the Normans, after Robert and Roger de Hauteville conquered a big part of the southern Italy, and there is a record that the Normans temporarily ruled Ragusa during the conquest of the Count Nemanja of Serbia, that we will explain in detail in the next chapter. The Normans were a mixture of Norsemen, Franks, and Romans who become Christians after they conquered French territories in the 900s, and received Normandy in 911, from the king Charles III, The Simple. Until 1000 AD, through the mixed marriages with the local Franco-Gaelic population, they became a new ethnic race. They descended into Italy as mercenaries employed by the Lombards and Byzantines. After they captured Messina in 1061, they continued to Palermo and conquered it in 1087. The wealth of Palermo was much more impressive than the treasure they conquered in England under William the Conqueror, according to the writing of Robert Payne. 61 The Norman king, William the Good, tried to conquer Constantinople, and almost succeeded in his effort, as his admiral, Georgius of Antioch, was already throwing the arrows through the windows of the Royal palace. After failing to take Constantinople, they conquered Salonica, and brought back to Palermo the mosaic artisans for the Cathedrale Moreale, built in 1172. The Cathedrale of Cefalu was built when Roger was still the Count of Sicily, and was thrown ashore in a storm near Cefalu. Five years later he was the king of Sicily, in 1130, and he invested a huge sum to build the Cathedrale, as he had duly promised. After a short Norman rule, we are witnessing their cultural success in building the Moreale, the Cefalu Cathedrale and the Capella palatina. That trend continued in “the Swabian” era of the Emperor Frederick II, when Sicily became a successful experiment of a multicultural society, which accepted the laws of different ethnic minorities: the Arabs, the Jews, the Greeks and the Normans. In 1868, Salvatore Cusa published a collection of Greek and Arabic records (I diplomi greci ed arabi di Sicilia), from the years of Norman rule in Sicily. He described the fate of the Arabic documents still buried in provincial archives: “It must be acknowledged that the ignorance itself, which in ancient times caused these pages to be scattered, was the motive that later caused them to be saved from total ruin. Written in a language and in characters more or less unknown, they had value simply for that; they were guarded jealously by archivists, shielded even from the view of the vulgar crowd. The word ‘Greek’ evoked something of deep mysteries; and ‘Saracenic’ reminded in the prejudiced mind of the people something altogether arcane and fabulous, relating to the days when the enemies of God governed this island.”62 In a words of Mallette: “Sicilian Orientalists set themselves the task of tracing a lost history: the two centuries of Muslim domination of the island, and that portion of the years of Norman rule, that could be retrieved only from the Arabic language documents moldering in Sicilian libraries…Sicily’s centuries of participation in Mediterranean Arabic culture, according to Sicilian Orientalists, granted the island a unique historical primacy: in European exposure to the Arab sciences through the conduit of Sicily, and in particular Norman translation of the Arab sciences, European modernity was born.” Another passage is from Malette’s quotation of Amari (Description de Palerme au milieu du X siècle de l ‘ere vulgaire, par Ebn-Haucal) and it is equally highlighting of Sicilian past: “Spain, occupied by the Visigoths, already had the characteristics of a Romano-Germanic society at the epoch of the Muslim conquest. Sicily, on the other hand, pillaged rather than conquered by the barbarians of the North, was still Greek and Roman when the Saracens invaded. The Germanic element penetrated only after the Muslim element, when a handful of the Norman nobility, whom one could regard as already French, came 61 Robert Payne: The Christian Centuries, from Christ to Dante, 1967. Passus was taken from Carla Mallette: I nostri Saracini: Writing the history of the Arabs of Sicily, California Italian Studies, 1(1), 2010, http://escholarship.org.uk. 62 62 to found there a realm of half Christian and half Muslim. That glorious Norman government which soon enough extended throughout southern Italy, took its substance from the Arab civilization that dominated in Sicily…What indeed was this Muslim population of Sicily during its most beautiful days? What did it borrow from Greco-Roman Sicily? What were its resources, its vicissitudes, its deeds? These are the questions to which the Muslim and Christian chronicles that we possess fail to respond; incomplete chronicles, written for the most part during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.” Another Orientalist, Lanza (Degli Arabi e del loro soggiorno in Sicilia), praised Arab civilisation: “Thanks to illumination of our age, and thanks to wholesome critical attitude that now guides every sort of study, not only are the Normans praised – because they are worthy of praise, since they are numbered among the first peoples who with their chivalry brought civility to the Middle Ages, and because among us they created, in the manner of their age, one of the most beautiful kingdoms of that epoch, but the Saracens are not slandered, but rather venerated, because far from being barbarous and ignorant, it was they who gave the world modern civilization.” The Counts of Varembon T he castle Varembon - the left wing is the original Palude family chapel from the 14 th century. The right wing was restored in the 18 th century. 63 Varembon had been the fief of Della Palude since 1000 AD, when the Count of Savoy had given the fief to Pietro Della Palude for the successful defense of Piedmont (The Foot of Mount), the so called area at the foot of the Alps, from successive attacks of the Saracens. He was the Capitaneus of Guillaume, the marchese di Italia, the prince of Savoya, according to the writings of Jean Antoine Hugyetan, whose primary source is Guichenon. The Saracens had strongholds in the coastal areas of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and tried to control traffic in the valleys at the foot of Alps. In the tenth century we have seen that the Palude had moved from Reggio to Pisa, and consequently north to the Savoy County, that was later elevated to the status of a Duchy. In the tenth century the first Count of Savoy was in control of the coastal passages to Provence and the Little St. Bernard Pass through the Alps, as Bernard of Menthon, the Archdeacon of Aosta, founded the hospice in the Alps named after him, as a relief to pilgrims. In XI century the native of Aosta, Anselm (1033-1109), related to the dynasty of bishops who ruled the surrounding country as its secular counts, traveled to Bec Abbey in Normandy and ultimately became the primate over Norman England, as the Archbishop of Canterbury. In XII century Della Palude donated the entire village La Palud to the diocese of Aosta. Its bishop, from 1161-1170, was Guillaume de la Palud, from Gressan. In French literature we usually find the surname in a form of – della Palud, or de la Palud, written in the local vernacular. In the Latin language, however, all names in France were written only as – de Palude. In Provence we find the Occitan language, or Lange d’Oc, form of – de La Palun. Recalling the history of this important branch of the family we relied mainly on writings of the Savoy historian, Samuel Guichenon: Histoire de Bresse at Bugey. 63 We read that the Count of Varembon, Ayme de La Palud, founded the magnificent family chapel at Varembon castle in the 14th century, finished by Francesco and his brother, Ludovico de La Palud, the cardinal. It was consecrated twice, the first time, by pope Nicolas in 1451, and the second time by pope Pius II in 1462. On the sepulcher of Guiges de La Palud and his wife there is the Latin text: “Hic jacent nobile Guigo de Palude, miles, et Aynarda de Balma ejus uxor, qui istam capellam totaliter cedificavit, qui fuit dominus Varembonis et obiit die secunda mensis februarii anno Domini MCCCCXXII.” Guichenon used as his source for the early Della Palude the historian of the Royal house of Burgundy and the bishop of Alby, Alphonse d’Elbene, and the Nostradamus’ history of Provence, who wrote that “Della Palu was the principal Capitaneus of Guillaume-Geraud, ‘Marquis d’Italie,’ from whom descended the Royal House of Savoy.” Pierre Della Palu (Guichenon uses the form Palu) was the Knight and Count of Varembon, mentioned in various church donations in 1150, for the Abby of Chaffagne, and donations for the Order of Templars, after he had participated in the wars in Palestine. His son, Etien, was the next Count of Varembon, but died before he had children. Guy Della Palu became the lord of Varembon, and his brother, Guillaume, was the Canon of the church and the Count of Lyon, Provost of St. Thomas de Forniere, in 1236. Etien and Guillaume were mentioned as the donators for the monastery of Chaffagne in 1202. In the next generation we find Guillaume Della Palu, the Count of Varembon, Chastillon, and St. Mauris de Remens, in 1250. His son, Girard, became the lord of Varembon and of Richemont. His brother Guygues is the Count of Chastillon, and St. Mauris de Remens, and their new fiefs are Varax and Salins. Guy is the Canon, Archideacon, and the Count of Lyon, as we read his epitaph from 1255: “Guido de Palude Archdiaconus, obiit anno Domini MCCLV.” The new generation was led by Girard Della Palu, the Knight, and Count of Varembon, Richemont, and the new fiefs of Bouligneux and Tossia, in 1258. He became a member of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1260. Girard and his brother Guy donated their forest property to the Abby of Chaffagne. Girard’s son, Ayme, was the Knight and Count of Varembon, and other fiefs, while Jean Della Palu was the Canon and the Count of Lyon in 1298. He, and his brother, donated the chapel to the Convent of the 63 Samuel Guichenon: Histoire de Bresse at Bugey, Lyon, 1650. 64 Jacobins of Lyon, as it was memorized on his epitaph: “Hic jacet Dominus Ioannes de Palude, Canonicus Lugdunensis…” Perceval Della Palu was the Canon and the Count of Lyon, and he died in 1332. The Patriarch of Jerusalem Perceval’s brother was Pietro Della Palude (Pierre de la Palu, or Petrus de Palude). He became a member of the Dominican Order in Lyon, and was venerated among the contemporary Dominicans as a saint, same as St. Dominic Guzman, the founder of the Order, and the lofty Christian philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas. He studied at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, where he received his doctorate in theology in 1314. He was also a doctor of medicine and he practiced law, which he studied in Lyon. E. Wickersheimer published an article in the Bulletin de la Societe francaise, and affirmed that Pietro Della Palude invented medicine pills, a statement which implies that he was doing active research in medicine.64 In 2013, Madrid University published a paper on the economic policy during the Middle Ages, and included a famous commentary of Pietro Della Palude, written between 1310 and 1313, where Pietro criticized the French king in connection with his monetary policy: “The king could be excused if his attempt to change the currency is motivated to help his subjects, in a same manner as when the people at the stormy sea throw their belongings overboard to save themselves, but if money is minted only because of his personal gain and profit, on account of his subjects, than he is a tyrant not a king.” 65 Dante described the French king as the biggest falsificator in his “Divine comedy,” but from a safe distance away in Tuscany, while Pietro was in Paris during the turbulent times when the Templars were rounded up. Bertrand Russell described this coup against the Templars in the following words: “The cardinals in 1305 elected the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who took the name of Clement V. He was a Gascon, and consistently represented the French party in the Church. Throughout his pontificate he never went to Italy. He was crowned in Lyons, and in 1309, he settled in Avignon, where the popes remained for about seventy years. Clement V signalized his alliance with the king of France by their joint action against the Templars. Both needed money, the pope because he was addicted to favouritism and nepotism, Philip for the English war, the Flemish revolt, and the costs of increasingly energetic government. After he had plundered the bankers of Lombardy, and persecuted the Jews to the limit of “what the traffic would bear,” it occurred to him that the Templars, in addition to being bankers,66 had immense landed estates in France which, with the pope’s help, he might acquire. It was therefore arranged that the Church should discover that the Templars had fallen into heresy, and that king and pope should share the spoils. On the given day in 1307, all the leading Templars in France were arrested; a list of leading questions, previously drawn up, was put to them all; under torture, they confessed that they had done homage to Satan and committed various other abominations; at last, in 1313, the pope suppressed the order and all its property was confiscated. The best account of this proceeding is in Henry C. Lea’s “History of Inquisition,” where after full investigation, the conclusion is reached that the charges against the Templars were wholly without foundation.” In such an atmosphere, to stand up and speak up was, at least, a brave attitude of Pietro Della Palude. We should say that he had the support of his brothers, important players in the medieval Church of Lyon, and the Counts of Lyon, Ioannes and Percival de Palude, who organized E. Wickersheimer: Receptae medicinae di Petrus de Palude – Les pilules de frère Pierre de la Palud, Bulletin de la Societe francaise, Scientific Writings in Latin, Revised and Augmented Edition, Cambridge, Mass. 1962. 65 Filosofia politica y teoria monetaria en la Europa medieval y su reflejo en Juan de Mariana, Madrid, 2013. 66 Many rich aristocrats gave the Templars their treasuries for safeguarding in the monasteries throughout Europe. 64 65 the crowning of the pope. As their loyalties were on the side of Savoy, not to the French court, they had support of the House of Savoy, and the current Savoy ruler Ayme IV. J. Dunbabin summed it up the best, pointing out that “the Church of the early fourteenth century was not in fact torn apart by the dissensions within it,” and attributes this in part to the work of men like Pietro Della Palude, “who strove to serve two masters (pope and king), to uphold the rights of each and create harmony between them.” 67 Pietro declined the official positions as he intended to do research and writing. He spent the following years in Orleans and Paris, preaching extensively and working with a team of assistants on the history of the crusades and a Bible commentary. However, he was sent to Pamplona as the Vicar of the Dominican Order in 1317, and then in 1318, to Flanders as the papal legate of John XXII. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to the commission established at Avignon to investigate the works of Peter John Olivi. In 1317, John XXII built his own castle in Comtat Venaisin, which was actually territory of the Papal State in Provence. Comtat Venaisin suddenly changed its name into Comtat La Palud in 1565, and then became Vaison. Between 1341 and 1348, the bishop of Venaisin was Pierre de Casa Patriarche (Pierre from the House of Patriarch), the cousin of Pietro Della Palude. John’s castle, Chateauneuf-du-Pape (The pope’s new castle), is still famous for its wine and 3000 hectares of vineyards. According to legend John got sick on one his travels and was offered the wine “Cotes du Rhone” as a remedy. It worked well and the pope bought the village Valreas, where the wine was produced, and decided to make his own brand of wine, which is still one of the most famous French wines, “Chateauneuf.” It was supervised by Pietro, who came from a family of producers of quality Burgundian wine. Until the 20th century the Palunco family in Mljet was still famous for its red and white wines, the Parma ham, and the original goat’s milk Parma cheese in olive oil, produced at our mill from the family’s rich olive orchards. Pietro was also experimenting with herbs at the pope’s nursery in Chateauneuf. Throughout the Middle Ages the monasteries became places where the friars were producing medicine herbs and very good wines. Bouchaud, in his “Antiquites Poetiques” affirms that “the talent and the great qualities of Pierre de la Palu earned him the confidence of the sovereigns. During the reign of the Queen Jeanne de Bourgogne (Burgundy), the wife of the French king Philip de Valois, by his testament of 20th August 1319, the king had chosen him for his executor of the testament, and sent him more than once in the embassy to the sultan of Egypt to urge him to abandon the persecution of Christians. Pietro is the author of a number of books and manuscripts, theological and other. Among these are the “Chronique des rois de Jerusalem,” and the “Livres des guerres du Seigneur,” in which he describes the overseas crusader expeditions and he reports many unknown facts that are not found in the work of the Archbishop William of Tyre,68 nor in other historians of the crusades, as has been stressed by Etienne de Lusignan in his Histoire de Chypre. “It remains to be seen where Palu may have taken what other contemporary historians had not said,” wrote de Lusignan.69 Our comment would be that Pietro was there during the crusade, and that his close relatives, members of the Templars, were his historical sources for his writings. It is speculative, but our opinion is that Pietro had also visited Dubrovnik during his days on Cyprus, between 1329 and 1341, and that he had influenced John XXII to issue the confirmation of the donation of the island Mljet to the Benedictines of Apulia. It is documented that John XXII had tried to influence the Serbian king Stefan Uroš III to return to the Latin church. Konstantin Jireček wrote that John XXII gave to the bishop of Kotor, Sergius, the son of Domanja Bolica, freedom from the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Bari in Apulia in 1328. The bishop was than banned from entering the city of Kotor, and his brother was summoned by king Uroš III. In 1331, when Pietro Della Palude was on his way from Jerusalem to Paris, the city of Kotor appointed a new bishop from the Carmelite order, Raymond Aluti from Claret. It should be stressed that the bulk of Pietro’s work is still unpublished, and that our knowledge about his work is 67 Jean Dunbabin: A hound of God, Pierre de la Palud and the fourteenth – century church, Clarendon press, Oxford, 1991. 68 The most famous chronicler of the Crusades. 69 C. Bouchaud: Antiquites Poetiques, ou Dissertations sur les Poetes Cycliques et sur la Po esie Rhythmique, Paris. 66 still fragmentary. Nevertheless, what we do know about his work makes him a distinguished, lofty and multidisciplinary Renaissance scholar. The pope John XXII, who was much older than Pietro, also studied law and medicine, and he became Pietro’s mentor and friend, and as the Occitan language speakers called him – Palunco. Pietro was recalled to Avignon in 1328, and John convinced the rather reluctant Pietro to accept the high position of Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1329. The position of Patriarch was a splendid title, but a poor bishopric, since nearly all its lands were in the hands of the Saracens. In 1330, Pietro led a mission to Cairo in an attempt to persuade the sultan al-Nazir Muhammed to restore the Latin church in the Holy Land. The mission failed because the sultan was disinterested in Christians and for their struggle in Palestine. Palunco advised the pope to organize the crusade as the last solution for the growing problem of the population of Palestine. John sent him from Avignon to Paris to try to persuade king Philip VI. The king called the War council and the council of church prelates, and Pietro explained to them the difficult situation of the Christians in Palestine. Moved by his emotional speech, they all claimed that they were ready to give their lives to liberate the Holy Sepulcher and the people of Palestine. However, Pietro was aware of the boastful aristocracy and clergy and the general apathy at the court of Philip, and he decided to try a new round of negotiations in Cairo, but again his efforts were thwarted when pope Benedict XII withdrew his support for the proposed expedition. Jean Depery, who wrote about the lives of the saints, described Pietro in his book as a saint, who returned to Paris after serving in Cyprus, where he died in 1341.70 Fra Etienne de Lusignan is quoted by Guichenon, and he affirmed that Pietro died in a monastery in Nicosia, while he was still acting as the bishop of Limassol and Patriarch of Jerusalem. Guichenon also stressed that his Dominican Order considered him as a saint and that his statue is in the Dominican church of the Jacobins of Paris, among the statues of the founder St. Dominic, St. Aquinas, and Humbert Daufin de Viennois. It was recorded in Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, in 1333, that Pietro was selling his property to Aymon of Savoy, the property he had bought from Guglielmo Sasso, who was a very close friend of the Palude family in Reggio. Pietro was also engaged in Bologna in establishing peace between the Ghibelline and Guelf factions. The counts of Varembon after Pietro Pietro’s brother, Ayme Della Palu, the Count of Varembon, enlarged family properties with the fiefs of St. Iulien sus Reyssouse, Tossia, and Escorens, and was prominent at the Savoy court during the time of Ayme IV of Savoy. In 1365, he was the Count of Lyon and in that capacity he accompanied Ayme V of Savoy to the court of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius. His son, also Pierre Della Palu, took over Varembon, Tossia and Escorens, and his brother Hugues was the Count of Bouligneux and St. Iulien. Pierre was highly positioned in the French court as the Governor and Bailif of Amiens and Isle de Dovay, and the Captain of the Flanders frontier. He was appointed as the Master of Requests, in charge of legal, financial and diplomatic affairs of the king. His son, Claude, was the new lord of Varembon, but he died without children, and his brother, Ayme, became the Count of Varembon. The third son was Louis Della Palu, better known in Italy as Ludovico Della Palude, or Della Palu. At first, he was the abbot of Ambronay and Tournus, then in 1431, he became the bishop of Lausanne and Maurienne, and finally the cardinal of Sant’Anastazia al Palatino in Rome, in 1450. He was the only 70 Jean Depery: Historie Hagiologique de Belley ou Recueil des Vies des Saints. 67 member of the family who was a Benedictine, not a Dominican as the rest of them. He participated at the Council of Basle as Vice Chambrier. In the Council of Firenze (1431-38), he was appointed the ambassador to Greece in order to try to reunite the Greek and Latin churches. Obolensky affirms that his mission was successful in the beginning, because the Emperor John VIII and the Greek delegation at the Council accepted the doctrines adopted at the Council and the pope’s overlordship. It was believed that those concessions could help the Byzantines against the Turks who already surrounded the whole land around Constantinople, an assumption that proved to be wrong because the westerners were unmoved by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, as they were in 1389, when the Serbs temporary stopped the Balkan advancement of the Turks, but paid a heavy price as a Turkish vassal. Obolensky writes that the Russian delegation, led by the Mitropolit Isidor, was enthusiastic for the union of the churches, which had split in 1054, because of the doctrine “filioque,” that was at first introduced by the French church and adopted by pope Nicolas I in 863, and confirmed by Hadrian II in 867. The doctrine “filioque” stated that the Holy Spirit transcends from the Father to the Son, changing the church canons founded by the democratic vote at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, under the patronage of Constantine the Great. Isidor’s appointment as a cardinal and an apostolic legate made the Russians angry. After he organized a commemoration of pope Eugenius IV, the Grand prince of Moscow, Basil II, ordered him arrested as a traitor of the Orthodox church. According to a legendary Russian belief, the Byzantine Emperor and Patriarch were heretical and their insatiable love for the money given by Rome made them traitors, and Basil II saved the faith from them. Ludovico Della Palude died in Rome in 1455, and was buried in St. Peters in Vatican, with the following epitaph: “Hic iacet Reverendisimus in Christo Pater Dominus Ludovicus Tit. Sancta Anastasiae S.R.E. Presbyter Cardinalis de Varembone vulgariter nuncipatus Episcopus Maurianensis qui obiyt die…mensis Septembris 1455.” His brothers, Henry and Pierre, were the canons and the Counts of Lyon in 1382, and 1393, respectively, and their brother, Jean, was the Prior of Payerne in 1443, mentioned in the papal bull of pope Felix V. Jean was a lector and a Dominican, and participated in the Council of Constance as a legate of the Duke of Burgundy. In the next generation was Guyges Della Palu, already mentioned for his epitaph with the Latin name Guigo de Palude. He was the Count of Varembon, Tossia, St. Iulien, Escorens and the Bailif of Bresse. He founded, in 1415, the Convent of St. Dominic in Bresse. His son was Francois Della Palu, the Count of Varembon. His brother, Philbert, was the Chamberlain of the Duke of Savoy. Antoine Della Palu was the Count of St. Iulien, Tossia, Virieu le Grand, Escorens, and de Monthous, and the Chamberlain of the Duke of Savoy, Count of Bresse, Bailif and Governor of Bresse. Francois, or Francesco Della Palu, was the Knight of the Savoy Order of SS Anunziata in 1440. Guichenon wrote that he was a most illustrious and generous man. He lists his fiefs around Bresse: Varembon, Bouligneux, Tossia, Villars-Sexel, Orbe, Eschalans, Montaigny, Sainte Hippolite, Maches, Chasteauneuf en Vennes, Abbenans, Noidans, Villeclere, Vielart, Beaumont sur Vigenne, Montaigny la Corbe, Thury en Charrolois, Reuene, Reuenote, Corchans, Mortfort, Ligny en Tonnerrois, Ioye, Toucy & Guery en Champagne, la Roche en Montagne & de Petite Pierre. Francesco was the prosecutor in the case of Bolomier, a cleric who became the secretary of Amadeus VIII, the Duke of Savoy. Amadeus was famous for his equilibrium politics with the Visconti of Milan, who had married Amadeus’ daughter, and was engaged on the side of Florence and Venice against Milan. Bolomier was involved in the collusion between Milan and Geneva, in 1431. He made a financial agreement between Amadeus and Ludovico Della Palude, then the bishop of Lozanne, together with the bishop of Aosta, as a third party. For his effort Bolomier was rewarded with the fief in 1431. The Council of Basle made Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy, new pope, better known as the antipope Felix V. The next Duke of Savoy, Ludovico, aware of the irregularities at the court of the Duchy, formed a committee for reform, led by Francesco. Bolomier ended with the sentence to be strangled in the Geneva Lake and his property was returned to the Duke. The Duke of Savoy was taking his chances when Filipo Visconti died in 1447, and left Milan without a successor. Another contender for the throne of Milan was a mercenary employed by the Visconti, Francesco Sforza, who had burned down some villages around Milan, and the city of Milan asked the 68 Duke of Savoya for help. Sforza defeated Savoy in 1449, and captured a huge number of prisoners, and 1000 horses. Alfonso of Aragon involved himself as he was also a contender in the conquest of Milan. This war was ended at the expense of Savoya who lost his territories and became a vassal of France and the Duke of Burgundy. At the request of the king of France, the Duke of Savoy had to pay Francesco Della Palu 12 000 gold scudi for the damage of the castle of Varembon, in 1455. His brother, Antoine Della Palu, forged an alliance with Burgundy, and married the daughter of the Duke. Francesco was the Squire of Chateauneuf, a title acquired from pope Martin V, and when the pope sent an army for the defense of Cyprus, Francesco was the general of his troops. In July 1426, he was taken prisoner and while he was waiting to be beheaded by the Saracen axe, he prayed to the Madonna. There was a legend in Varembon that one of his villagers was lost in the woods and was allegedly helped by the Madonna when he had seen the image of Madonna on a huge lemon tree. Francesco remembered the legend of ‘the Madonna of the Lemon tree’ and he prayed and his prayer was answered, as he was miraculously liberated from the Saracens. To honour the Madonna, he built a church that was a place of worship for the next 200 years, and he organized the Knight Order of the Lemon tree, that was very popular. Close to the church, the family later built a monastery. In the church itself he made a silver altar with the image of Madonna, and he displayed his prisoner’s tunic which he was wearing when he was led to execution. This kind of the image of Madonna made of silver was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and one of the usual gifts to various churches made by the family, as in case of Francesco and Mario Cesare and Batista mentioned before. It was said that Palunco had brought the image of the Madonna made on silver when they had consecrated the monastery on Mljet in 1624. Francesco was also in possession of the legendary Turin Shroud, allegedly taken from the Holy Sepulcher by the Templars, which was given to the Duke of Savoy, who was obsessed with the alleged forgery. Francesco had three children, the daughters Margeritte and Philberte, and the son Philbert-Philippe who was the Count of Varembon, Richemont, la Roche, and Bouligneux, and the Chamberlain Ordinaire of Philip, the Duke of Burgundy. Philbert had three sons and a daughter Marguerite. Philbert-Philippe’s son, Claude, was the Knight and Count of la Roche. Jean was the abbot of Luxeul and St. Paul de Besancon, the Protonotarius Apostolic and the administrator of the monastery of Lausanne. Henry was the Count of Bouligneux and Beaumont sur Vigenne. He died without children. Claude became the overall lord of the estates listed under the name of Francesco. He was the Knight of St. George Order of Burgundy in 1485. He married the daughter of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, in 1497. Claude died in 1517, and his brother, Jean Della Palu, the abbot, in order to secure the continuation of the family name, selected Jean-Philbert Della Palu, the Count of Varax, to become the ruler of the family fiefs, as per his testament of 12th September 1530. We have covered so far, the main branch of the Palude family that ruled as the Counts of Varembon. Another branch in Bresse was ruling Chastillon, St Maurice-de-Remens, and Vire-Chastel. Girard Della Palu was the Count of Chastillon in 1295, and he had four sons. His son, Guy, was elected the Count of Chastillom and St. Maurice-de-Remens in 1307. He had two sons, Jean and Robert. Robert died without children, and Jean continued as the ruler of the fiefs. His oldest son, Guy, continued as the Count, while the second son became the abbot of Aisnay in 1370. In 1320, Guy donated to Henri Dauphin of Viennois, the bishop of Metz, the entire castle of St. Maurice-de-Remens, in order to forge a powerful alliance with the Dauphins. In 1339, Dauphin gave St. Maurice-de-Remens to France. On the 5th of January 1355, France and Savoy exchanged territories, and Savoy repossessed all territories in Bresse, and consequently St. Maurice-de-Remens was returned to the Palude family. In 1536, Francois, the king of France invaded Italy and Charles III, the Duke of Savoy retained only the citadel of Nice. Emmanuel-Philbert of Savoy recovered the provinces in 1559, and Della Palu became again the Counts of St. Maurice, until the last Count of Varembon, Jean Della Palude, died. Jean had two daughters, but no son to succeed him as the heir and Count. The daughters were without children when they died young, and the property was inherited by their mother Claude de Rye. Most of the Palude fiefs became the property of the family of de Rye, as the main branch of the House of Palude became literally extinguished. Claude left her inheritance 69 to her nephew, Marc de Rye, the son of Gerard, who was the secretary of the Emperor Charles V. Marc was the colonel of the Burgundian army who fought on the side of Spain against France. Marc was elevated to the title of Marquis of Palun (The English title is marquess, between a duke and an earl) by the Duke of Savoy, who gave him all fiefs of the Palude inherited by his aunt. The castle of Varembon and the village of St. Maurice were destroyed by the French Marshal Biron in 1595. It was a sad day, indeed, for the famous castle Varembon that was left in ruins and the village was totally burned down. A numerous population of the village was massacred, and only 14 inhabitants survived. The Treaty signed in Lyon, in 1601, made Bresse a part of France. From 1340 to 1440, we follow three generations of the principal rulers and the Counts of Chastillon and St. Maurice with an identical name – Guy Della Palu. In 1452, Guy donated 200 florins to the Abby of Chaffagne for the family sepulcher and the chapel that was part of the Abby. He had one son, Hugues Della Palu (Ugo Della Palude), who became the Count of Varax, and the Vicount of Salins, Chastillon, St. Maurice, Vire Chastel, Cusance, Vayette, the Gouverner and Marshal of Savoy, the Lieutenant general of the king Charles VIII of Daufine. In his “Histoire en une Chronique des Roys de France,” Albert de Caranee declared Hugues as: “Marchionem Salinarum Virum Illustrem.” His two sons from the first marriage died before they became adults. From the second marriage with Antoinette de Polignac, they had three daughters and one son. Adriane became the Prioress of the monastery of St. Jean d’Authun. Hugues and his wife signed the testament in 1502, donating a huge amount to the Abby of Chafagne, and to the family chapel that was a part of the same monastery. Their son, Jean-Philibert, continued as the Count of Varax and other fiefs: de Iarnosse, de Bernay, de Bernage and de Villereys. His two children died while still young, and Anthoine became the Knight and Count of Iarnose, Meilly and other fiefs. The branch was continued with the first born, Jean (Giovanni). His brother took over the branch of de Bouligneux. Their sisters were Jeanne and Claudine, both married before 1500. Jean Della Palu who was the Count of Iarnosse, Bernay, Bernage & Villereys, had two sons and a daughter. His son, Jean, became the Count of Varax, and Hugues was the Canon of the church, the Count of Lyon, and Doyen of Varembon, until 1545. Their sister, Jeane, married Ianus de Bounens, the Knight and Chamberlain of the Duke of Savoy. Jean Della Palu, the titular Count of Varax, inherited almost all fiefs that belonged to the family around Bresse, as per his cousin Jean-Philbert’s will, in 1527, and that was confirmed by the king of France, Francois I in 1535: Varembon, la Roche, Iarnosse, Bernay, Bernage, Villereys, Richemont, Chastillon, St. Maurice-de-Remens, Vire-Chastel, la Poype, le Plentey, Cuisance, Vayette, La Botte & Beauregard, Villars-Sexel, St. Hyppolite, Maches, Chateauneuf en Vennes, Noydans & Abbenans. He was the Chevalier (Knight) of the Grand Order of Savoy. Also he became the Knight of St. George, order of the Count of Burgundy. He married Claudine de Rye, the daughter of Simon de Rye, the Count of Belancon. His sister, Matie, married Rene, the Count of Chalant, Marshal and Governor of the Duke of Savoy. Another sister, Francoise, married Ferdinand, the Duke of Boiane, son of Charles de Lannoy, the Prince of Sulmone, the Viceroy of Naples for the Emperor Charles V. The second son of Antoine and Agnes, Estienne Della Palu, was the Count of Meilly, in the Duchy of Burgundy. He had two sons, Richard and Jean. Richard commanded a Regiment of infantry in 1542. His son, Charles Della Palu, was the Count of Bouligneux, Meilly, la Poype, le Plantey, Chaudenay, Fontenelle & Leuilly. He had five children. Nicolas, who was a captain in the army of the king of Suede, died early. Ioachim was the Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and the Colonel of the Regiment of Savoy. Anthoine became a monk in St. Benigne of Dijon, the Prior of St. Iulien sur Chasteul & and St. Pierre d’Enac. Claude was the Seigneur of Chaudenay, and his sister also went to the monastery of Remiremont. Jean Della Palu, the Count of Bouligneux, was the Gentil-homme Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy, and also part of the court of the Duke of Burgundy, recognized for his courage successively from 1630-1632. His son was Francois Della Palu, the Knight and Count of Bouligneux, who was killed in the Battle of Matsecen in 1641, while only 23 years old, as the Colonel of the Regiment of Burgundy, together with his uncle. He donated the church of Bouligneux and in the chapel of the 70 Counts of Bouligneux where he was buried (Guichenon quoted his epitaph), and we decided to give the entire text of the epitaph because of its similarity to the Vulgar Latin of the Palunco’s announcement for the building of the Dominican monastery in Mljet, in 1614, the Latin that was different from the contemporary Latin of the 16th century in Dubrovnik: “D. O. M. S. Franciscus a Palude Buligniaci Dynasta, Burgundae Cohortis Tribunus. Hic jacet. Quisnam fuerit, fi a me petas Viator breuiter dicam. Natalibus Illustres, Pietate conspicuus sirenuitate insignis. De Natalibus non est quod dubites, inter maiores enim Varembonios & Varsios in paterna linea, Tiangeos in maternal Regulos, summa apud Sebusianos & Heduos Nobilitatis numerabat. Pietatem eius testantur acta & dicta. Strenuitatem vero pugna Sedanensis, in qua cum diu generose & supra fidem dimicasset vulneribus confossus VI Iulij 1641. Obyit Anno aetatis XXIII.” This epitaph gives us a clue as to why Ludovico Della Palude insisted on the Sibusianum, or the Celtic origin of the family, on the epitaph of Pietro Della Palude, which we have already concluded was historically impossible. The Kingdom of Burgundy had been made on the ruins of the Roman Empire, and had lasted five centuries on the territory that would have later become the Duchy of Savoy, the territory ruled by the Count Umberto I of Savoy, who gave the fief in Bresse to the Count Della Palude, who had defended Piedmont from the Saracens. Umberto was better known by his nickname, “White hand,” and he was the grandson of Louis III of Burgundy, the Count of Aosta. That was the time of Arduino Della Palude in Reggio Emilia, and the Counts of Varembon, after 1000 AD. Part of the territory of Aosta was the village La Palud, which was donated to the Cathedrale of Aosta by the Palude family, during the time of the bishop Guillaume de Palud, in 1161. Aosta was strategically placed close to the St. Bernard Pass, the only road to Near Gaul and Rome for the barbarian horde since time immemorial. The Illyrian tribe of the Salassi, who held the pass through the Alps, were terminated during the Illyrian wars of Octavian Augustus, in an operation that covered the whole Illyricum and Octavian’s conquest of the island of Mljet, which we will describe in detail in the next chapter. In 1006, Rudolf III of Burgundy accepted to become a vassal of the France Emperor, Conrad II, and the Burgundian ruler got the title of king of Arles. After the marriage of Rudolf’s son, Odo, with the daughter of Manfred II of Turin, most of the Piedmont became the territory of Savoy. With Piedmont secured, Savoy continued to enlarge their territory in Italy and temporarily lost interest in the Swiss territories. However, in 1128, Amadeo enlarged the territory east of the river Rhone and formed “The New Chablais” with the capital St. Maurice. 71 The Burgundian tribes had originally come from Scandinavia, and they were not Celts, and consequently asserting that they were the Sibusianum Celts was a false statement, caused by certain nationalistic ideas of that time. Francois’ brother was Jaques-Claude Della Palu, a Knight with the title of Count of Bouligneux, Canon of the church & Count of Lyon. Their sister, Leonor, went to the monastery l’Antiquille in Lyon. The youngest brother, Estienne, was the Knight and Count of Meilly. Their second sister went to the monastery of Bons in Bugey. The branch of the rulers of La Roche had started, according to Guichenon, with Pierre Della Palu in 1350. His two sons, Hilbert and Thomas, continued to rule the fiefs. Thomas had six children. The first born died without posterity and his brother Pierre took over. Pierre was the Knight and Count of la Roche & Chiloup. His son, Jean Della Palu, took over in 1417. His son, Pierre Della Palu, inherited and continued the branch. His son was Francois Della Palu, who received the fief Vidame de Geneve from Philbert, the Duke of Savoy, according to a document from Lyon, signed on 11th of March 1482. From the 15th century we follow the branch of his descendants in Geneva. In the Register of Geneva, between 1478 and 1486, we find Johannes, Petrus and Franciscus de Palude, councilors from Lyon, in various positions.72 It should be stressed that their church titles in the 15th century were Catholic, as they were representatives from the Lyon church. When Calvin introduced the Reformation, Catholics were not allowed to settle in Geneva. The Swiss have never forgotten the massacre of the Huguenots, in 1572, instigated by the Queen From ‘The New Chablais’ in Burgundy we have the white wine “Chablis.” Registres du Conseil de Geneve, tome III 1477-1487, Societe d’Historie & d’Archeologie de Geneve, Librairie Kundig, 1911. 71 72 71 of France, Catherine de Medici (1519-89), from the House of Medici in Florence. The massacre occurred in the same year when the Palude left Pisa, ruled by the Medici, designed as “a dangerous family.” The best example of the general feeling of the contemporary Swiss is the case of the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), born in Geneva and educated as an orthodox Calvinist. At the age of sixteen he fled from Geneva to Savoy, and having no means of subsistence, he went to a Catholic priest and represented himself as wishing to be converted. In 1754, having become famous, he was remembered by his native city, and invited to visit it. He accepted, but as only Calvinists could be citizens of Geneva, he himself reconverted to his original faith. Francois’ son, Anthoine, became the Count, and he had a sister, Anne, who was married to Anthoine de Chastillon. Anthoine Della Palu had to pay tribute to the king of France, when he occupied Bresse, in 1536. His first born son, Philbert, died young, and his second son, Laurent, inherited la Roche, and he paid tribute to Emanuel-Philbert, the Duke of Savoy in 1563. He married Francoise de Montrosat, and they had three children: Eve, Richard and Anthoine. As we have seen almost all the fiefs of Della Palude, including the castle Varembon, went to Rye as he inherited it from the wife of the last Count of Varembon, Jean, and the inheritance was duly confirmed, according to the medieval custom, by the Duke of Savoy. Marc de Rye led an army against France, together with Juan of Austria, the son of Charles V. The theatre of the war was around Denkirk and Antwerpen. The last member of de Rye was Francois, and after he died the king of France gave Varembon with the rest of the fiefs to the Count of Castres, who in an unprecedented chivalrous manner returned the property to the widow of Francois de Rye, Christine Claire, in 1614. Jacques-Claude Della Palu, himself childless, left Bouligneux to his wife Marie-Henriette de Fay. Her nephew, Paul-Francois de Le Hardi, who inherited Bouligneux, sold the property, together with the rest of the family Della Palude, for 150 000 francs, in 1721. In Aix we follow a branch of Palude in the 16th century for three generations, as merchants, prosecutors, and consuls of the province. Their surname had been changed in different documents from Palu to Pallut, Palud, and finally to Palude. The last member of this branch registered in public books was Boniface, the prosecutor and consul, married to Margeritte, the daughter of the king’s councilor in 1678. As suddenly as they had appeared in Aix, they had “vanished,” only “to pop up” as Palunco in various documents. The sudden change of the surname was caused by the French Revolution, in 1789. It is not surprising, after all, to conclude that most of the descendants of Della Palude selected Provence in southern France and Sicily as their shelter in the middle of the 16th century. As we have seen, those that escaped the terror in Pisa in 1572, decided to migrate to the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, to the prosperous city of Ragusa, today Dubrovnik, spreading ‘Good News’ and building monasteries. Melita, Ragusa In spite of the fact that Sicily was declining under the Spaniards, who were more interested in the Atlantic routes then in the Mediterranean trade, declining trade was not a major cause for the Palunco to leave Sicily. They had sufficient properties around Alimena in the Palermo province, and in Catania around Caltagirone, to cultivate the wines and provide for a good living, as they had funds from their selling of the property in Preda in 1594. Their mission was plainly motivated by their Dominican ideas of the noble fight against the spreading of heresy, and the Islamisation of the Balkans, as proclaimed by Pius V as the main duty of Christians. The mission was to build a wall against the spread of the Turks, as the Republic of Dubrovnik was on the frontier between Christianity and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Naturally, it was 72 not unimportant that the Ragusans were an excellent and rich traders, with their colonies throughout Ottoman territory, and that they had one of the most powerful merchant fleets in the Mediterranean in the 15th century, with 200 ships in 1575, the same number of ships as Venice had after the Battle of Lepanto, and a substantial tonnage of ships that was equal to the Venetian as early as in 1470, and that trend continued to follow until 1600, with the Venetian population 20 times larger.73 In 18th century “as the dominance of Venice declined, the shipmasters were no longer the Venetians, but mostly Dalmatians, and the Ragusans became Venice’s most damaging competitor… bidding cargoes away from the Venetians on all seas.”74 Fernand Braudel writes that this “gemstone of the Adriatic” could have taken the transport of goods in front of the nose of the Venetian merchants, and that it had the same number of ships as Venice at its peak of power, in 1575.75 For the sake of argument, it should be said that the Venetian fleet was diminished in the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571, and that the number of its ships surged afterwards. Ragusa was a major player, from 1400, in the trade of silver from Serbian mines, with 1/3 of the total of the European production. The Saxons, employed by the Serbian kings, were miners and lived in their separate quarters in the mine towns of Brskovo, Novo Brdo, Srebrenica and Rudnik. The cargoes of silver were transported by caravans to Ragusa, and shipped to main centers such as Florence, Ancona, and Genoa. Krekić wrote about four Florentine companies in Ragusa in the first half of the 14th century.76 Jireček asserts, that a Catholic priest from Novo Brdo, Ivan (dominus Johannes protovestiarus Rassie), was the minister of finance in the court of the despot of Serbia, Stefan Lazarević, in 1402, when the Republic wanted to accommodate Stefan sending him a ship to Dyrrachium for personal transport after the Battle of Angora, where he had participated as a vassal of the Turk sultan against the Mongols. In 1396, Stefan forced the Ragusan traders out from his country, giving them three days to leave (Pucić). On his return from a Mongol prison, Stefan was married in Constantinople to the niece of the Byzantine Empress, from the House of Francesco Gatiluzzi, who was the ruler of the island of Lesbos. The Ragusans were hoping that the trade privileges could be renegotiated while the Turk sultan was in a Mongol prison, where he died in 1403. Stefan accepted an offer from the Hungarian king in 1404, and received the city of Beograd (Belgrade). The following year, the desired trade privileges for the Ragusans were signed. According to the current measuring of GDP in the Middle Ages, Dubrovnik could have competed with most of the North Italian cities. The Republic’s GDP is listed higher than the GDP of Geneva, Paris, or London in the 16th century. According to the calculation of V. Stipetić, the GDP, per capita, was 930 US dollars in Dubrovnik in 1500 AD, while in France it was 727 US dollars, or in England 714 US dollars. F. W. Carter asserts that Ragusa (Dubrovnik) had commenced producing its fleet in 782, and that Charlemagne had used their fleet for transporting Serbian and Croatian mercenaries for the attack on the Saracens in Apulia. Carter writes of the Saracen attack on Ragusa in 866-67, and according to the Ragusan chronicler Medini, Ragusa continued to fight them in Sicily during the time of Emperor Basil. However, Ragusa had managed to defend itself from the Saracens only with the help of the Byzantine fleet in IX century.77 As we have already mentioned, the confraternities were extremely active in funding of hospitals and monasteries from the 16th century, and the citizens were enthusiastic with their donations. It is not difficult to deduce that the Palunco had substantial support for their projects not only locally, but directly from Rome, as every such project had to be formalized at the seat of the Dominican Order in Rome. Their 73 Some of the historians claimed that the Ragusan fleet was larger than the English, but the data shows that the English fleet was slightly larger, and that the fleet of the Netherlands was much larger, 3-4 times larger. 74 F. C. Lane: Venice: A Maritime Republic, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1973. 75 F. Braudel: La Mediterranee at le monde mediterraneen a l’epoque de Philippe, Paris, 1966. 76 B. Krekić: Four Florentine Commercial Companies in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) in the First Half of the 14th Century. The Medieval City, New Heaven, Yale University Press, 1977. 77 F. W. Carter: Dubrovnik (Ragusa) A Classic City State, Seminar press, London, New York, 1972. 73 activity on the island of Mljet, beginning with the building of the portico in 1616, marked the beginning of a much bigger enterprise, right next to the church of St. Vlaho, and it helped the rulers of the Republic in their intention of embedding the churches of the city patron St. Vlaho into their newly acquired territories. Their fast integration into the Ragusan political establishment tells of their strong connections with Rome, and consequently with the Ragusan ruling elite. The importance of the Dominicans on Mljet is stressed in the work of Ivan Ostojić (The Meetings between the Orders of the Benedictines and the Dominicans in Croatia), who quoted the letter of the Abbot of the monastery St. Kuzma and Damjan at Pasman, and administrator of the Vatican library, Stjepan Gradić, an influential member at the court of pope Alexander VII, in which he suggested that the Benedictine monastery on Mljet, together with the older one (from 1023 AD) on the island of Locrum (partially founded by king Richard the Lion Heart), should have been given to the Dominicans. We should stress that the duties they performed in the capacity of the judges, that lasted until the Habsburgs took over the island in 1815, was not the family’s primary task, but rather a secondary one, as they had started the preparations for building the Dominican monastery immediately after they had arrived on the island of Mljet, between 1594 and 1610. Their established status and devotion made them an ideal choice for judges, who had to provide the rule of law on an island with the long history of insurrection and disobedience towards undesirable authorities (Junije Resti, Chronica Ragusina). At the beginning, the authorities were Benedictine friars from Apulia who had a half of the island granted as their own property, while another half of the island’s inhabitants had to collect the tribute to the monastery and perform various scheduled duties as serfs. From 1410, when the island was taken over by the Ragusan Republic, the tribute to the monastery was cancelled, but the islanders were not too excited towards the Republic rulers. After a catastrophic earthquake in 1667, when the dilemma of the rulers of the city was either to abandon the city which was in ruins and go to Apulia in Italy, or to start rebuilding it, the Palunco continued in the capacity of judges, as the Dominican monastery ended in ruins just as the rest of the buildings. There are no documents left from that period, as all of the books, including the Statute of the island of Mljet was taken from the house of the Palunco and sent to Vienna in 1815. The behaviour of the French troops, who used the churches of Dubrovnik as stables for their horses, made the desperate situation even worse, as reported by a priest from Mljet who had only a thorn accounting book left of two confraternities on the island. Ragusa was entirely unable to maintain any degree of the autonomy under the French. The Senate refused to ally with Russia, and was against the proposal of Count Caboga to “embark our wives and our children and ask the Sultan for an island in the Archipelago.” Only the white marble Coat of arms on the pillar of the portico was left as a silent witness of the family Palunco, and the calix with the identical imprinted Coat of arms, which is currently in the church museum of the city of Ston, the ancient bishopric of the Pelješac peninsula, before the Republic of Ragusa took over the peninsula. The calix (Latin) is a Christian chalice, or a large goblet for holding wine, one from which the consecrated wine is drunk at the Eucharist, the Christian sacrament, in which bread and wine are consecrated. Another venerated object, which was in the possession of the family, was the cross that had been brought by Georgius from Sicily. The bishop’s cross was made of teak wood, inlaid with silver and a figure of Christ made of ebony, the kind of cross that was usually found in Cyprus, and throughout the Levant. Our estimation is that the cross belonged to the bishop as it was affirmed by Georgius, and we believe that the cross actually belonged to the Patriarch Pietro Della Palude, who died in Nicosia in 1342. The cross was inheritied by the bishop of Cefalu, the above mentioned Giovanni de Palude, before 1411. The Coat of Arms of the Palunco family is different from the Coat of Arms of the Pisan branch, or the Varembon branch. Our hypothesis is that the Coat of Arms belonged to the Patriarch Pietro and bishop Giovanni in Cefalu, as it has a distinctive Christian message. Before we describe the Coat of Arms, we should say that according to the medieval rules it is given to a certain person according to the rank and merit of such person by the king. The Coat of Arms is given with a permit that is called Armali, where it is described in detail, with appropriate heraldic colours that were allowed. The Coats of Arms were 74 introduced only in the 12th century with distinctive colors of the crusaders. In Croatia, during the 15th century, there were only five aristocratic families with a diploma for the Coat of Arms – Armali. The majority received a confirmation of status – Donatio Regia, or Literae armales in the 17th century and such a confirmation had to be paid to the king. The Croatian parliament issued only 700 regular Armalis, the last one issued in 1830. The Coat of Arms is made of a shield with a symbol, or a picture, on it. On the top is the helmet, or the hat of the count, sometimes with a crown on top. The necklace is below the helmet, and a cloak is on both sides of the shield, and at the bottom is the pedestal. That is the standard form and the shield could be oval, or in the shape of a heart. The only difference is in the message on the shield, and usually one can see on the Croatian seals Turkish heads rolling on the battlefields in such numbers that one wonders how the Turks managed to hold them in captivity with such bravery of the Croatian feudal rulers. On the Palunco’s Coat of Arms is a clear message of Christianity with appropriate symbols: three doves, the palm tree on an island, and an eight-sided star. The star had been the symbol of Madonna, since it was introduced by St. Bernard, who had been captured by the antipope Cadalus and had been freed by Arduino Della Palude. St. Bernard called Madonna – “The Star from the Sea.” It symbolizes hope and light in the darkness. The Dominicans considered an eight-sided star as the compass that shows their spreading around the world in all directions. The dove is the universal symbol of peace, but in the Christian tradition it is connected with the devotion to Madonna. Noah had sent a dove with an olive branch in its beak, which was considered as the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The olive is a holy fruit for the clergy. Finally, the palm tree is the symbol of Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem (Matthew XXI: 19), while the Jews were spreading palm branches on the road, the Christian custom is celebrated on the Palm Sunday. At first, the people of Palestine spread out their clothes on the prophet’s way to the Temple, and then they cut the palm branches. The palm became a sign of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Dominican order (Ordo Praedicatorum – Latin) took over the intellectual fight against the Reformation, and their activities were strongly supported in the Republic of Dubrovnik. The Grand Council of the Republic issued a decree in 1545, during the Council of Trento (1545-64), as a clear intention to prevent the spread of the Reformation by confiscating books and Protestant pamphlets in the city. It was the time of the Reformation and Contra-Reformation, and the same actions were taken as in Geneva, as we have described. The legends of the foundation of Ragusa It should be said that the beginnings of Ragusa are shrouded in darkness. The earliest record written by Cosmographer of Ravenna, from 700 AD, mentions “Ragusium id est Epidaurum.” As Tibor Živković asserts in his article “On the foundation of Ragusa”, the most complete story of the origin of Ragusa is written by the Byzantine Emperor Porphyrogenitus, who relied on a popular tradition and the official records of the Empire. When the ancient city of Epidaurus was destroyed during the Slavic incursions in Dalmatia, the citizens who survived settled on the top of the cliff called in Greek – lau. The Emperor, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, in his De Administrando Imperio (DAI) from the 10th century, affirmed that the citizens of Ragusa still remembered that the city of Ragusa was founded by refugees from Pitaur (Epidaurus) and he listed their names: Gregorius, Asclepius, Victorinus, Vitalius, Valentian (Archdeacon) and Valentian, father of Protospatharius (high ranking court official) Stephen (DAI). From his list of high ranking persons we could conclude that it was rather an exodus of a smaller group of dignitaries rather 75 than a massive migration of the entire population. The chronicler, Ragusan Anonym, affirms that Epidaurus existed in the 9th century.78 Epidaurus was called the Civitas vetus Ragusina (The Dubrovnik Old City) and the Slavs changed Civitas into the name Cavtat, while the Italians continued to call it Ragusa vecchia. Živković tells of the Emperor’s calculation that Ragusa was founded 500 years before him, which gives us the date around 448/9. Obviously he had some information of the earlier refugees from Salona and Epidaurus on the location of Ragusa. The excavation in 1981 under the Cathedrale of Dubrovnik indicated an earlier basilica, probably from the era of Justinian I (527-65), which suggests that Ragusa had been founded 60 years before the Slavs arrived during the era of Heraclius. The archeological survey shows that Spilan and Gradac had been inhabited in the 2nd century and it had lasted until the 7th century. Anonym wrote in the 14th century that the inhabitants from these two locations had come in 691, and had settled in the location called Pustjerna. The chronicler Ranjina (Niccolo Ragnina) gives the earlier date of settlement in 601, and tells that the citizens of Ragusa had settled 160 years before that date, which is a close estimation to Porphyrogenitus’ date.79 The story of the Ragusan foundation is a multilayered one and started from Mavro Orbini, who used as his source Michel Salonitano, in his Trattato della Dalmatia, where we hear of the Gothic destruction of Epidaurus. Most probably the Emperor relied on the old Ragusan sources and tradition. The settlement from the second century was over the centuries enlarged as a defense post for the trade routes, as it was already established in the era of Justinian’s building of fortifications along the frontier. However, building of the basilica requires an explanation, writes Živković, because it could not be an enterprise of a small group of refugees.80 From the letters of Gregory the Great, in which was mentioned Florentius, the bishop from Epidaurus between 592-97, the historians expressed an opinion that Epidaurus could have been a bishopric in the last decades of VI century. In his first letter to Subdiacon, Antonius, in Constantinople, Florentius, the bishop of Epidaurus was mentioned as an already resigned bishop. In the second letter to the bishop Jadera (Zadar), Sabinianus, Florentius was mentioned as the former bishop of Epidaurus. From the letters it is not obvious that Epidaurus was a bishopric in VI century, and that there was a conflict in connection to the status of the bishopric, as Gregory asks the bishop of Jadera what was his knowledge about the issue, because the citizens wanted Florentius to be re-established as their leader. The bishop of Epidaurus was not present at the Council of Salona in 533, so one could draw a conclusion that Justinian had desired to make changes in Dalmatia, probably founding the new bishopric in Ragusa. It is significant that in 548, a huge number of the Slavs descended to Dyrrachium and the imperial army of 15 000 strong was not sufficient to intervene. Regarding to Porphyrogenitus’ story about the foundation of Ragusa, he was probably relaying on two independent sources from Dalmatia. Chronaca di Salerno was written by an anonymous monk from the southern Italy around 974, but the core of this chronicle was arranged by monks who were expelled from Montecassino around 897 (Živković). The Chronaca was the story about the foundation of the city of Amalfi. According to the story, in the 4th century by the order of Constantine the Great, a number of important families left Rome in order to settle in Constantinople. During the overseas voyage they reached “Sclavorum fines” (the Slavic territory), and a heavy storm wrecked their ships. That tells us that the story was made after the 7th century, because in the fourth century there were no Slavs in the Balkans. However, as the story unfolds, no one was injured, but the property was lost, and local inhabitants allowed them to stay and settle. They called their new founded city – Ragusa. They lived for some time in this city, but the locals oppressed them and after skirmishes with the local population, they returned back to Italy and founded Malfis, which later became Amalfi. It is obvious that the story is a mixture of historical facts with the political situation with the Slavs in Dalmatia and some historical persons, but in a wrong chronological frame. The Chronicle of Salerno indicated that the relics were transported from 79 Annali di Ragusa del magnifico ms. Niccolo di Ragnina, Monumenta spectantia historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, ed S. Nodilo, Zagrabiae, 1883. 80 T. Živković: On the Foundation of Ragusa, Historical Review, Vol. 54, Beograd, 2007. 76 Rome to the new city of Constantinople. The authors from Ragusa, beginning with Miletius, told us that the relics brought from Rome were of the saints: Achilleus, Nerreus, Petronilla and Domitilla. However, Miletius didn’t mention the St. Pancratius relics in the church of St. Stephen, the Protomartyr in Ragusa, as indicated by Porphyrogenitus. It is known that the St. Pancratius relics were sent from Rome to Ragusa in 742/3. The whole story about the origin of Amalfi was reflected in the Ragusan story of Miletius in the 14th century or in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea.81 That indicates that story was brought from Amalfi by the Ragusan sailors. The Ragusan ships were sailing to Italy at least from the 9th century. Amalfi reached its heights in XI century and in 1135, its fleet was destroyed by Pisa. In a trade agreement between Pisa and Ragusa, it was said that the Ragusans were allowed to trade with other towns that were subordinated to Pisa, namely Amalfi. In the works of Ragusan authors,82 and in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, is mentioned the legend of the Serbian king, Radoslav, who was forced into exile by his own son, and about his grandson Belo. Tuberon, who died in 1527, writes that Belo with exiles from Rome decided to build the city of Ragusa. It should be said that ‘the Ragusan Sallustius,’ as Tuberon was called because of his superb mastery of the Latin language, combined at least two sources, the Priest of Dioclea and a version of Chapter 29 of DAI, which Orbini quoted from Arpontaco Burdugalense. 83 Belo’s activities provided for the founding of a bishopric in Serbia, according to the Priest of Dioclea, while Dubrovnik received the most important relics of the saints. According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, Časlav, the son of king Radoslav, had driven away his father from the throne. The king had managed to reach Sipont in Apulia, and then Rome where he married an illustrious Roman wife with whom he had the son Petrislav. When he died, he was buried in the church of St. John Lateran. The historian Ferdo Šišić described this church as the Lateran Palace, the seat of the popes in Rome. His son married a Roman nobleman’s daughter and had the son Pavlimir, who received the nickname Bello (Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, 62-63). At the call from his homeland tribesmen, during the riots in Rome, Belo together with his family and 50 Knights arrived from Apulia to Gruž in Ragusa, and together with the citizens of Epidaurus commenced the building of the city of Ragusa. The riots in Rome were the riots of 800 AD, described as an attack on pope Leo, when Della Palude left Rome with St. Basilides relics and settled in Parma and Reggio. Anonym tells that the king was under papal protection and that he had a title of capitanio.84 The Serbs from neighbouring counties gathered with Belo and he continued to the city of Trebinje where they elected him as king. As the Grand count of Serbia wasn’t subjugated, Bello gathered a huge army and attacked the Grand count on the river Lim. After the Count fled from the battle, his own men killed him. In order to commemorate the subjection of Serbia (Latin Rascia, Slavic Raška), Belo and his Roman friends built the church of St. Peter Apostle, and established a bishopric in Serbia. Near the church he built the tower called Belo. In order to find historical roots for this passage from the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, Živković dates the Chronicle in the time of Grand count Desa, and Emperor Michael I, between 1143 and 1164. Ragusan Anonym was probably a chronicler from the 15th century, and he tells us that king Radoslav had three children with his Roman wife, and that two of them perished in a plaque. Only the third son survived and his name was Stephen Belo, also a capitaneus in Rome, who had the son called Radoslav Belo. Anonym writes that the name of king Radoslav’s son was Berislavo, and we find in the writing of Ranjina, the Ragusan chronicler, that he was “Caslavo, Berislavo cognominato.” Ranjina had, obviously, some other sources than the Priest of Dioclea or Anonym. During the reforms of Emperor Letopis Popa Dukljanina, Ferdo Šišić, Beograd – Zagreb, 1928. V. Mošin, Zagreb, 1950. Lvdovici Tvberonis Dalmatae abbatis Commentarii de temporibvs svis, ed. V. Razar, Zagreb, 2001. 83 His work Trattato delle mutationi de gli Stati is unknown. It is poss ible that Orbini who referred to it twice had it in the library of his monastery in Mljet. 84 Živković asserts that the title “capitanio” is derived from a Greek title, and that such title is given to the commander of a province. Nora Duff confirmed in the case of Arduino Della Palude that “capitaneus” was the equivalent title of the general of army. In our opinion “capitanio” would be the Vulgar Latin of “capitaneus.” However, Žarković assumed that the title was no longer in use after 1100, having in mind o nly Byzantium, but we have confirmed that the title “capitaneus” was in use in Italy as late as the 14 th century. 81 82 77 Basil I, a count with the name of Krajina was mentioned who was elevated to the status of a Byzantine archont of Trebinje. It was argued that his father was actually Radoslav Belo. Anonym confirms that Belo was capitaneus, and that he came to Ragusa from Ancona with 500 men, and that he was met with another 5000 soldiers from Bosnia. Anonym mentioned 50 knights and their duty to protect the relics of the saints that Belo brought from Rome. This information reminds of the writings of Da Erbo, about transferring of the saint relics from Rome at exactly the same time by Della Palude. The relics brought by Belo were the above mentioned saints: Achilleus, Nerreus, Petronille, Domitilla, Pancratius and the head, hand, and foot of St. Sergius and Vakh, with two pieces of the Holy Cross. The relics were placed in castel Lave. The information of transfer of relics gives the story special historical content. Živković asserts that Petronilla was in a Christian tradition from the sixth century considered as the daughter of St. Peter, and that she refused to be married to Duke Flack. Her sarcophagus was transported in the eight century to the church of St. Peter, and her chapel was also the chapel of the French kings, as Carolingian kings were believed to be the adopted sons of St. Peter. Nerreus and Achilleus were martyrs from the second century. Their cult was established around the relics of the family of Domitilla. According to the legend, they were servants of Flavia Domitilla, the cousin of Emperor Domitian. Domitilla was burned at the stake as she refused the pagan gods. Nerreus and Achilleus were killed during the reign of Trajan (98-117). St. Pancratius was a martyr from the fourth century venerated in the church on Via Aurelia in Rome. Pope Vital send his relics around 664 AD to the king of Umbria. It is interesting that all the above mentioned saints were venerated in Rome, according to Živković, during the time of pope Leo III (795-816) when the mob tried to kill him in 800 AD, and when the Palude left Rome. The saints that Belo brought from Rome were richly donated with silver icons (Liber Pontif II), and their respective churches were renovated. Emperor Porphyrogenitus writes of the church of St. Stephen The Protomartyr was in the middle of Ragusa, however, the Ragusan chronicler, Junije Rastić, assumed that Belo had founded an another separate building for the relics, which was next to the church of St. Stephen The Protomartyr. Describing the arrival of Radoslav Belo in Ragusa, Anonym writes that he disembarked in the Porto di Ragusa, while the Priest of Dioclea tells of “Gravosa dicitur et Umbla, in lo porto di Garavosa,” where Gravosa was the Latin name of the Ragusan port which later changed to the Slavic – the Gruž port. Živković asserts that the learned scholar, Nicola Ragnina, made an edition to the original legend of Belo, and affirmed that the church of St. Stephen Protomartyr (Sv. Stjepan) in Ragusa had actually been built by Belo himself. Another Ragusan chronicler, Miletius, gives the earliest layer of the Ragusan history, asserting that the refugees from Epidaurus had built the church for the above mentioned saints, and that “the relics were hidden and secretly brought from Rome,” using almost the same description of the alleged transfer of relics from Rome as was described by Da Erbo in the case of the Palude, who had to hide St. Basilides in a barrel of wine.85 We should stress that the register of early Ragusan families and those that were descendants of king Belo varies in different chronicles, but Anonym says that the families Menze, De Ursi and Viterbi had arrived together with Belo from Rome. Nicola Ragnina tells of the Volcasso who had arrived with king Belo in 1151. Junije Rastić, however, wrote that the families Georgii, Gundulii, and Menzii had arrived with king Pavlimir (Belo) in 930. Ferdo Šišić, in his analysis of the writings of the Priest of Dioclea, also mentioned the legend of Belo as it was recorded in DAI, where Porphyrogenitus speaks of king Belo as the ruler of Trebinje. The cult of St. Pancratius was deeply venerated among the inhabitants of the island of Mljet (the ancient Melita), as late as the 16th century. Živković quoted Tuberon saying that Ragusa gradually grew more populous and rich because of the bareness of its soil (same as the authors refer to in the case of Athens), which forced its people to become industrious, and we should add that their lofty attitude towards the arts and sciences resembles that of the Vinko Foretić: History of Dubrovnik until 1808, Vol. I, Zagreb, 1980, assumed the Miletius was writing in the 11th century, while F. Šišić was of the opinion that he was a chronicler active no later than 1340. 85 78 Athenians.86 Nevertheless, some cynics thought that Tuberon merely repeated what the Ragusan aristocracy liked to hear of themselves. Tuberon continued with the story of the Saracens, who had defeated the Calabrians and Apulians and had captured Gargano. The Ragusans had consulted with the people of Zadar and had secured an alliance with other towns of Dalmatia. After that, they sent emissaries to the Slavs to urge them to attack the Saracens (Živković). The Slavs, who had adopted Christianity in the time of Hadrian III, and whose king ruled Dalmatia with the permission of the Emperor of Byzantium, gathered their ships, monoxilas, and had sailed to Apulia and had forced the Saracens out from Gargano. In his account of the Battle of Gargano, Tuberon relied on Johannes the Deacon and Andria Dandolo. Tuberon have spent about 20 years as a friar in the monastery on the islet of St. Andrew near the port of Ragusa. In 1502, he was appointed the abbot of the monastery of St. Jacob in the suburb of Višnjica. It is known that Tuberon had studied in Paris, where he had been awarded a doctorate degree in, among other disciplines, mathematics. The island of Melita in historical sources Appian of Alexandria wrote a Roman history and while he was describing the conquest of Illyricum made by Octavian Augustus in 35 BC, he mentioned the islands occupied by the Romans and Octavian’s fight against piracy of the Maltese and Corcyreans, who were actually the Illyrians from the islands of Mljet and Korčula. In a short passage Appian stressed that Octavian killed many young men and that older men were taken as prisoners.87 A number of Croatian authors misread this passage where Appian narrates the destruction of the Illyrian town Metulus, convinced that such an important town of Illyricum was allegedly situated on the island of Mljet.88 However, there is nothing in Appian’s writing that warrants such a conclusion, because he wrote that Metulus was a big city, the capital of the Lapides (who had attacked Aquileia, the so called Trans-Alpine Lapides). Attacking the walls of the city, the Romans had to employ war machines, and after the destruction of the second wall and building at least four bridges, the city was captured by the Romans. Many Illyrian defenders were positioned under the bridges killing the Romans with long spears. Romans found themselves in an extremely difficult position while under the barrage of catapults. Appian writes that those catapults were left by Decimus Brutus, who was the commander in the Near Gaul and had been considered as the adopted son of Gaius Caesar. The machines that Appian was describing were left at the foot of Alps where Decimus Brutus had to fight the Gauls, the above mentioned tribe of Selassi, and that has nothing to do with the siege of Mljet pirates. If we read the story as Appian narrates it, it becomes obvious that the capital Metulus was a huge town measured by the contemporary standards, as it was defended by 3000 young warriors, as Appian stressed. If we add the other citizens of Metulus, it was a town of nearly ten thousand inhabitants, and as such it never existed on the Adriatic islands. Thus, it is not a surprise that such kind of writing of distinguished historian Bernard Stulli described in 1960, as an environment of very relaxed individuals where the researchers were selecting casually their 86 T. Živković: Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and the Ragusan authors before 1611, Historical review, Vol. 53, 2006. 87 Appian’s Roman History, Translation: Horace White, Loeb Classical Library, 1912. 88 I. Dabelić: Povjest otoka Mljeta od najstarijeg vremena do XV stoleća, Zbornik otoka Mljeta, I, 1989; M. Kozličić: Historijska geografija istočnog Jadrana, Književni krug Split, 1990; V. Župančić: Otok Mljet u ranokršćanskom razdoblju; Branimir Gušić was the first who misread the story, duly followed by the rest. 79 own topics. That was the era of influential politicians, part-time scientists, with Branimir Gušić, a medical doctor and anthropologist, as the secretary of JAZU (Yugoslavian Academy of the Sciences and Arts, based in Zagreb), and his wife, who was in charge of the Kumrovec memorial complex, allegedly the family house of President Tito, and place of school pilgrimage, and Cvito Fisković, the director of the Historical Institute in Dubrovnik between 1952-60, who made a number of erroneous conclusions regarding the history of Mljet. 89 Historian Vinko Foretić, the director of the Archive of Dubrovnik, insisted that researchers should finally show more interest in Ragusan history. Najbar-Agičić wrote that from the beginning of the Academies, the one based in Zagreb and the other in Belgrade (SANU), they were actually involved in turf wars, disregarding the priorities of historical science and that such behavior led to the impotence of the Historical institute of Dubrovnik, which become downgraded to a mere “Zavod,” or simply an ‘office’ for historical research. 90 The Armenian geographer, Pappus of Alexandria, tells the story of the voyage of Apostle Paul who was ship-wrecked on the island of Meleta (Mljet), while summoned to Emperor Nero in Rome, and he lists the four islands: Stragon, Isa, Koskida and Meleta (Mljet). The bishop of Split and Vicar of the Dominican Order, Vicentius Palunco, was the last family member in a long list of bishops and abbots in the Palunco family. His work included the research on St. Paul’s ship-wreck as described by his companion, the evangelist Luke. Apostle Paul, or Saul from Tarsus, was previously summoned to Jerusalem by James the Just, the apostle (Acts 12:17) who was the supreme leader and bishop of the early church (Ecclessia) in Jerusalem.91 In their earlier meeting in Jerusalem in 38 AD, James had complained to Paul and criticized him because he had included in his preaching non-Jews, the so called Gentiles, as his followers, liberal rules of diet, and that he had actually abandoned the Mosaic Law. This had never been resolved between the two, and we could say that if there was no Pauline church, we would never have Christianity as it is known today. Paul or Saul was highly esteemed in Herod’s court, which existed in Palestine after Herod the Great’s Idumean kingdom was divided between his sons. Paul was a military commander with the task of intimidating early Christians and according to his own recollections, he was involved in the death of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, and insisted (Corinthians 15:1-11) that he was the last of the apostles and that he was an enemy of the Church of God, before he met Christ on the road to Damascus. His follower, the evangelist Luke, however, wrote in the Acts of Apostles that Paul was never an apostle. Paul was in close relationship with some members of Emperor Nero’s household, Nero’s wife and his courtiers (Phil. 4:22), and he was also a friend of Epaphroditus, who was the secretary of Nero, whom Paul called ‘a brother’ and ‘fellow soldier.’ During the war in Judea, Nero was killed and Epaphroditus, described by According to a close friend of B. Gušić, Ž. Poljak (“Dani Cvita Fiskovića, Pomena 2010), Gušić was convinced that he was of noble ancestry and descendant of warriors (undisclosed ) from the Eurasian steppes, from a tribe which had typically monosyllabic surnames, in his case – Guš. However, the only such tribe in the Balkans with monosyllabic surnames (e.g. Jon, Gin, Ljes, Djon) was the tribe of Arbanas, who were nomad shepherds to gether with Vlahs. Historian V. Klaić mentioned the tribe Gusić so called because of the goose (Slavic - guska) on their Coat of Arms. Gušić was the author of the article “The Geneology of the Old Croatian Tribes” in which he concluded that the surname – Kašić was derived from the Near Eastern Kassites. The Kassite origins remain obscure (they were neither an Indo-Europeans nor a Semitic people) and they appeared in history in 1595 BC, when they sacked Babylon, and were assimilated by the Assyrians and Elamites after 1155 BC. Nobody has ever claimed that they might have reached European soil, except Gušić. His wife claimed that she was in possession of an Illyrian wooden cup 2000 years old (Poljak), but she failed to explain how the wooden cup could survive so long in soil. Her unrestrained speculation was published and she was ridiculed by other scientists, namely the historian S. Gunjača. For more information about the speculative work without a question mark of Mariana and Branimir Gušić, and Cvito Fisković, see the Slavic text: “Familija Palunčić, originalno Palunco i njeno učešće u istoriskim dogadjajima od VIII do XX veka,” on the website Academia.edu. 90 M. Najbar-Agičić: Okolnosti osnivanja i počeci rada Historijskog instituta JAZU u Dubrovniku, Anali Dubrovnik, 51/1, 2013. 91 R. Eisennman: James, The Brother of Jesus; Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran. 89 80 Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian, as an individual that was involved in all the developments around the assassination of Nero, and according to Suetonius he was the private secretary of Emperor Nero, who had managed to survive and appeared later as the secretary of another Emperor – Domitian. Domitian was killed in 96, and he was the third Emperor of the Flavian dynasty, after Vespasian and Titus, who personally ordered the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Josephus Flavius was a priest and commander of the Jews during the resurrection of 67 AD, and he was later adopted by Vespasian, when he foretold the story of the general Vespasian who would become the next Emperor, which proved correct.92 Emperor Vespasian is credited to have declared on his deathbed: “Oh dear, I think I’m becoming a God,” according to Suetonius. Bishop Vicentius Palunco (1842-1921) studied theology in Rome, and he was fluent in Italian, German and French. He is author of many school books and works in theology, with a special interest in preserving the epic folk poems from Hercegovina. He was known to his relatives and friends as Vinko Palunko, or by his nickname Vice. Those who had known him said that he was tall and handsome, eager to speak with the ordinary folk about their life and future prospects. With his younger cousin, our grandfather Pavo Palunčić, Vice shared an undivided love for the island of Mljet, as described in his work “The Answer to the Critic of ‘The Malta or Mljet,’- about my Melita.” Both of them were highly esteemed by their contemporary islanders who showed a great respect for them, and we could still hear the stories among the islanders of how grandfather Pavo had managed to find fish and feed the exhausted villagers during the second World War, despite the insensitive bombardment of the German and English pilots, who ‘bravely’ dumped remaining bombs after unsuccessful raids in the Adriatic Sea on their way to their respective home bases. The virtues such as: righteousness, sagacity, truthfulness, generosity, and sincerity are not inherited characteristics such as being happy or shy. Those virtues are learned and are a sign of what a certain person has become in the process of the development of his character. They express the moral standing and fundamental moral outlook, and they don’t come by mere accident. Vice described in detail how St. Paul was sailing during his voyage from Caesarea to Rome in 61 AD, as he was summoned to the court of Nero, as being a Roman citizen, to answer the accusations against him, and how a storm forced the crew to abandon the wrecked ship ashore on the island of Melita. Palunco was attacked by a number of contemporary ‘scholars,’ as they simply followed ‘the official line’ that Paul disembarked in Malta. A journalist, who followed this discussion, wrote in his newspaper about such critics: “If there was no barbed wire, the book of Dr. Vimer would be as lethal.” Palunco answered the critic, Dr. Rudolf Vimer: “Such writing could only come from someone who doesn’t even know that the sea water is actually salty.” As one of the apostolic miracles, it was described that the saint was bitten by a poisonous snake, and he killed the serpent throwing it into a fire. Originally, the ship was supposed to sail to Puteoli, near Naples, but a storm sent in northwards into the Adriatic Sea. The Roman commander, Julius, and his crew couldn’t recognize the unknown island, as it was written by Luke in the Acts. The unknown island was Melita, as described in the second century work of the geographer Claudius Ptolemy from Alexandria, but from the 15th century Malta’s Order of St. John highjacked the evangelist story, claiming that Malta was the place of Paul’s shipwreck. However, Malta never had poisonous snakes and the island was well known to Roman sailors, and it would be easily recognized. Palunco supplied Porphyrogenitus’ writing in DAI about Mljet in the Adriatic Sea and the Emperor’s comment that it was the island where the viper had bitten the saint. As both islands belonged to the Byzantine Emperor in the tenth century, when he was writing DAI, it was only logical that Palunco was quoting the Emperor: “Ubi et vipera D. Pauli digitum mordens, ab eo excusa igne conflagravit.” It was a historical fact that Paul had previously travelled to Sicily (Eisennman), and probably to Malta at the same time, having in mind his enormous missionary work, and consequently, he himself would have been well aware of his whereabouts. 92 Josephus Flavius: The Jewish war, 67 AD; Antiquites, 93 AD. 81 It was unfortunate for Mljet that in the Middle Ages the island was known as Melita, and that the more famous island of Malta was also called Melita. Malta desperately needed a powerful saint and it simply adopted the story of Melita in the Adriatic Sea. In his professional analysis of the ship route in 62, professor and sea captain, Antun Ničetić, from The Nautical School of the University of Dubrovnik, has reconstructed the only logical route from Caesarea towards Asia Minor, across the Aegean Sea to Peloponnesus, and from there towards Korkyra (Corfu), and across the Otranto to Messina. 93 Otranto is famous for its storms and a strong southern wind, and Palunco followed the known pattern of sea currents while explaining the northwestern movement of the ship in the storm. 94 In his first article about St. Paul’s unplanned disembarkment at Mljet, Palunco wrote that the local people accepted the apostle and gave him the needed shelter, and in the second article, he said that his friend, a learned abbot of the Benedictine monastery showed him the ruins of the St. Paul church at the place called “Crkvine” (church place), the church built by the local Illyrians to commemorate the saint, in the fifth or sixth century.95 Palunco’s investigation was confirmed by the archeologist, I. Žile, who claimed that the ruins were actually the church of St. Peter and Paul from the sixth century, which was later renamed to the church of St. Nerreus and St. Achilleus. However, churches with the joint name of saints Peter and Paul were dated in Europe only from the 15th century, and we would rather accept the opinion of the learned abbot Baldo Glavić, as mentioned in Palunco’s work, that the church was built in the memory of St. Paul. Palunco wrote that the memory of the inhabitants was so strong that they were still in the 20th century giving their children the name Paul, or Paula. It is ten times more common name than any other, affirms Palunco, and he compared it with Split, where he served as bishop, that the name of St. Dujam, (the city patron, allegedly a follower of St. Peter) and stated that the name of the saint was tenfold more common in Split than any other name. The Slavic name of the island of Mljet derived its name from the Greek name Melita, which means “the honey island,” the usual Greek expression for extra beautiful places. Petar Skok argues that the Greeks called many places in Greece and Asia Minor with the same name – Melita, with typical accent on – i.96 He concluded that the name must have been Pre-Indo-European. Skok affirmed that Porphyrogenitus called the island – Meleta, with the accent on the first – e, which was the Latin accentuation. From this linguistic fact we could conclude that in the tenth century there were still Romans living on the island. Skok stressed that Porphyrogenitus also called the island – Malozeatai, with the Greek suffix -atai, used to give the name for the citizens of a particular place. Skok thought that it was the proof that the island was inhabited by Romans, living together with the Narentani. Investigating the toponyms, Skok concluded that most of the Roman names could have been found in the western part, in the word for the lake around the monastery – Lago; in the name of Polače, derived from palatium; the hill Montokuc, derived from the Latin – montem acutium, meaning – sharp hill; the non-Slavic name of the place Prozura, derived from the Roman-Latin Proxuri; the tops of hills combined with the Latin adjective – sanctus: Sutmiho, Sutilije, Sutivan (Sv. Miho, Sv. Ilija, Sv. Ivan). From these names Skok made the conclusion that the Narentani had met the late Roman citizens. Skok’s opinion was that the Narentani had arrived between the 7th and 10th centuries. The first Narentani place on the island was Vrhmljeće, adjective of Vrh Mljeta – the Top of Mljet. The second inhabited place was the main village, Babino Polje, in Ragusan Latin from 1151 – Babina Palla. According to Skok, Sotnica was a monastery building near the church of St. Pancratius. Its name was confirmed in 1388, and 1453: “domus dicta sochgniza,” or sothnica. The meaning of the word is unknown. The Narentani had kept the old name of the island, as they had heard it from the Romans – Mljet (at Korčula and Pelješac – Mlit), with specific Old Slavic phonetics, with the so called “Slavic liquid metathesis”, same as in the 93 A. Ničetić: O nekim navigacijskim aspektima plovidbe svetoga Pavla od Krete do Melite, Anali Dubrovnik, 38, 2000. 94 Vinko Palunko: Melita nel Naufragio di S. Paolo e l’Isola Meleda in Dalmazia, 1910; Odgovor na kritiku “Malta ili Mljet” o mojoj Meliti. 95 I. Žile: Starohrvatska crkva Sv. Petra i Pavla na lokalitetu Crkvine – otok Mljet, Obavjesti HAD, 2, 1996. 96 Petar Skok: Slovenstvo i Romanstvo na Jadranskim otocima, Toponomastička ispitivanja, Zagreb, 1950. 82 name of the city Split. “Therefore, it should be concluded, that the Slavs knew this island early,” wrote Skok. An interesting conclusion is about the name of the Bay Saplunara, derived from the Latin noun – sabulum, meaning sand. Everywhere else in Dalmatia, it is pronounced – salbun, only in Mljet it is pronounced – saplun, where the consonants -p- and -b- have changed places, the same as in Palude/Padule, as a consequence of the Latin dialects, as we stressed in the etymology of our surname. Mljet became a National Park in 1960, and it is listed by the Times magazine as one of ten most beautiful islands in the world. Its charm is in the two sea water lakes in the western corner of the island, where the Romans made their royal orchards with the palace for the governor of the island. Pliny the Elder wrote about the island of Melita in his Naturalis Historia, and mentioned a special sort of dog breaded by the Illyrians. Apollonius in his Agronautica, from the third century BC, lists the islands situated in the Sinus Hidriaticus, then considered as the bay of the Hidriaticum mare, as was the name of the entire Ionian Sea from Peloponnesus together with the Adriatic Sea. We have mentioned Odoacer, the Ostrogothic ruler, who bought Sicily from the Vandals before his death in 493. Odoacer conquered Illyricum and the royal palace in Mljet became his property, which he donated to one of his governors, comes Pierius, as it was noted in the donation in 489, which was later found in Naples. 97 There is no scholarly consensus in dating of the Roman palace, which is the second biggest Roman building in Dalmatia after the Diocletian palace in Split, in spite of a number of attempts which have dated the palace from II to VI century AD. Tin Turković made a commended effort to date the palace in the third century, or early fourth century, based on the comparison with similar villas in York.98 The Slavic invasion At the time of the Slavic invasion of the Balkans many Byzantines were able to hold out behind their walls, being provided with goods by the sea. The sea connections with the Italian cities were the main contribution towards the Italian character of the Dalmatian cities. The Roman Empire became Christian, and Athens continued as a pagan center, until Emperor Justinian finally closed the Academy in 529 (J. V. A. Fine). Yet although Christianity nominally triumphed, paganism remained side by side with it. Old pagan customs received a Christian veneer. Holidays were set on pagan feast days and many of the old pagan rites were retained under a Christian cover. Attributes of the pagan gods became features of Christian saints. The establishment of the capital in Constantinople brought the Balkans nearer to the center, as more Roman influences penetrated the peninsula. In the fifth century the Slavs descended to the north shore of Danube that figured as the imperial frontier. The sources speak of many disunited tribes in the fifth and sixth centuries – the Slaveni and Antes. Some linguists have argued that the word Antes is not Slavic but Iranian, however, Procopius, the Byzantine historian from the sixth century, says that these two groups spoke the same language and did not differ.99 The military manual from the Strategicon, 97 Mirza Hebib: The Position and Importance of the island of Mljet in the Roman period, Acta Illyrica, 2, Sarajevo, 2018. 98 Tin Turković: Kasnoantička “palaca” u Polačama – nove spoznaje, Pomena, 2010. 99 Procopius: De Bellis, editor Haury, History of Wars, Procopius: Works, editor and translation Dewing, 19141940; Procopius: Historia Arcana, translation: R. Atwater, Ann Arbor, 1966. 83 attributed to the Emperor Maurice from late sixth century, confirms that the two groups had the same customs.100 The name Antes suggests that this people were intermixed with Iranians, and linguists point to a large number of Iranian loanwords, which would not be surprising as the Slavs came from Ukraine, because there they would have had contacts with the Scythians and Sarmatians. The presence of the Avars who asserted their authority over many Slavs was an impetus for large scale Slavic settlements to the south of Danube. John V. A. Fine (The Early Medieval Balkans) writes: “The second of the two Slavic groups settling in the Balkans were the Serbo-Croatian Slavs, and these came to be dominated by two different but similar tribal peoples called Serbs and Croats, in the second quarter of the seventh century. But though subjected by a smaller military elite of true Serbs and Croats, who gave to the larger number of Slavs these new names, the masses who made up these peoples go back to a single group of Slavs who settled in the Balkans in the sixth and early seventh centuries. Though in the twentieth century increasing numbers of their descendants have come to feel otherwise, they were a single people.” Peter Heather writes that Europe was divided between the Germanic and Slavic tribes on the ruins of the Roman Empire, with small pockets of other peoples in the south. According to Heather the first wave of the Huns in 370, and later the conquest of Pannonia in 405, forced the Germanic tribes to come across the imperial frontier. Two hundred years later, the arrival of the Turkic tribe of Avars from the Asian Steppes pushed the Lombards into Italy, and forced the Slavs to disperse west to the Elbe, north to the Baltic, and south to the Balkans. The fact that the Slavs were not mentioned as subjugated by the Huns later gave the argument to nationalistic speculations.101 However, Procopius writes that the Sclavini and Antes were tribes of the Venedi. Tacitus (Germania, 46.2) located the Venedi east of Vistula, between the Finn tribes and Carpates. Pliny the Elder affirms that he had heard of the Venedae. Ptolemy wrote that there were different groups of the Venedi. Jordanes, the secretary of the Roman commander of the Danube frontier, wrote at the same time as Procopius, in the sixth century, that “north of Vistula were the huge tribe of the Venethi and that they called themselves Sclavini and Antae.” 102 Porphyrogenitus’ DAI is the only historical source that gives us a clue of the settlement of Croats and Serbs (J. V. A. Fine). Fine writes: “In chapter 30, the Emperor writes that Croats were the White Croats who “came to Dalmatia and found the Avars in possession of the land. After they had fought one another for some time, the Croats prevailed… The rest of the Croats stayed over against Francia and are called the White Croats… they are subject to Otto, the great king of Francia, or Saxony, and are unbaptized and intermarry with the Turks (actually Hungarians whom the Emperor called Turks)… From the Croats who came to Dalmatia, a part split off and possessed themselves of Illyricum and Pannonia… For a number of years they were subject to the Franks… the Franks treated them with such brutality… that the Croats revolted from them and slew those of them whom they had for princes… A large army from Francia marched against them and after they had fought for seven years, the Croats managed to prevail and destroyed all the Franks with their leader… From that time they remained independent and autonomous, and they requested the holy baptism from the bishop of Rome.” In chapter 31 of DAI, the Emperor continues: “The Croats who live in the region of Dalmatia are descended from the unbaptized Croats also called “white” who live next to Francia, and have for Slav neighbours the unbaptized Serbs. “Croats” in the Slav tongue means “those who occupy much territory.” Those same Croats arrived to claim the protection of the Emperor of the Romans, Heraclius, before the Serbs claimed the protection of the same Emperor…” In chapter 32 of DAI, Constantine discusses the Serbs. He also makes them originate from some unbaptized peoples called “White.” Two unnamed brothers (in case of the Croats it was five brothers and two sisters), took half of the Serbian folk and claimed the protection of Heraclius. The Emperor gave 100 Strategicon of Maurice, editor: Dennis, 1981, translation: Dennis, 1984; Theophylact Simocatta: History, editor: De Boor and Wirth, translation: Whitby and Whitby, 1986. 101 P. Heather: Empires and Barbarians, Pan Macmilan Books, London, 2010. 102 Jordanes: Romana and Getica, editor: Mommsen, 1882, Getica transaltion: Mierow, 1915. 84 them land in the province of Thessaloniki, at the place called ‘Serbia.’ Porphyrogenitus gave us a folk etymology, deriving the word Serb from the Latin ‘servus.’ After some time they decided to depart home and the Emperor sent them off, but having crossed the Danube river sought permission to return from the Byzantine military governor at Belgrade. They were given land to settle on in what is now Serbia, Pagania, Zahumlje, Trebinje, and Konavli, concluded Fine, adding that Bosnia seems to have been a territory between Serb and Croatian rule. J. V. A. Fine stresses that Constantine gives no data as to Serb settlement in Duklja (Dioclea), and since the Serbs settled in regions along its borders, presumably this would have been a Serb region. “However,” Fine writes, “this may be an artificial issue.” Fine continues: “The mass of Slavs (Slaveni) who had settled in Balkans (Fine uses the name of Yugoslavia) during the preceding decades were one people. The Serbs and Croats were a second migration of a different people who do not seem to have been particularly numerous… The most controversial chapters are two on the Croatians, chapters 30 and 31. In them there is considerable overlap, with certain items repeated… Constantine never tried to reconcile the two accounts… Scholars have correctly noted that chapter 30 must be the Croatian account and chapter 31 the Byzantine account… The constant reference to Heraclius and the claim that Croatia was always under Byzantine overlordship clearly was aimed at furthering Byzantium’s claims of suzerainty… The early seventh century was a period of chaos, empire was involved in wars with Persians, and thus, if the Croatians wanted to move into Balkan, there was nothing the empire could have done to stop them… It would have been logical for Heraclius to have sought an alliance against the Avars. One argument used against the Byzantine account is the story of the baptism of the Croats. Constantine could not deny the role of Rome, but he still tried to give the empire credit for it by having Heraclius invite the pope to send the priests.” Fine, discussing the arguments of scholars, says that they found the name of one of the brothers from the Croatian legend to be non-Slavic – Chrobatos, and that most linguists linked it to the Iranian personal name on the lower Don – Choroathos. Filip Palunčić affirms that “this metathesis may be attested in the Sarmatian name Choroathos (Corpus Inscriptionum Regni Bosporani, Struve V. V. (ed.), 1965, MoscowLeningrad, Nauka), if it is derived from *hu-wraθa- meaning ‘good ally’.”103 Linguists have arrived at a similar conclusion for the Serbs, not to be Slavic, as around the time of Jesus there was an Iranian tribe on the Don, known to the Greeks as – Serbi-Serboi. Fine’s conclusion is if they were not Slavic, they arrived, expelled the Avars, and then as a tightly knit group of warriors were able to dominate over the rest of Slavs, and they were able to provide the ruling class, and as the Slavs were the vast majority, as the Serbs and Croats intermarried with them, the conquerors came to speak Slavic too. This is an almost identical process to that exhibited by the Turkic Bulgars who conquered the Slavs. Fine writes that the Croats were actually cherry-picking: “What must be understood is that in dealing with Porphyrogenitus one must accept his account for both Serbs and Croats or reject both. It is beyond belief that one of these stories could be correct and the other false, particularly when verification exists for both a White Serbia and a White Croatia beyond the Carpathians. Yet in this century (the 20th century), as nationalistic squabbles and hatred developed between Serbs and Croats in pre-war Yugoslavia, various chauvinists (in this case particularly Croatians) have wanted to prove the Croatians have nothing in common with the Serbs and have taken as accurate only the Croatian material from Constantine. In general these Croatians have felt that Slavs were inferior to Iranians and have tried to assert that Constantine was correct in providing evidence for the Iranian origin of the Croats, but incorrect in regard to the Serbs, who were Slavs. However, one cannot pick and choose what is desirable in Constantine and reject less satisfying statements with no further evidence to back this up. Thus, the general view now is to accept in general terms Porphyrogenitus’ two migration account, first a large migration of Slavs driven into the Balkans by the Avars, and a second migration by the Serbs and the Croats, who drove out the Avars and subjected the Slavs, and in time were assimilated by them.” Filip Palunčić: On Ossetic Metathesis, Studia Iranica, tome 42, Publie par l’Association pour l’Avancement des Etudes Iraniennes, Revue Soutenue par L’Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales du CNRS, 2013. 103 85 The process that cultural anthropologists call cultural spreading is complex. While confronted with the available proofs, the historian only hopes that he would be able to understand and to elucidate them entirely. The documents at hand are seldom unambiguous. The communities are entangled in their traditions, and see the differences between themselves and their neighbours rather than similarities. They tend to diminish and then to forget the real influence in their culture, and it is not surprising then, that they simply forget “cultural borrowing.” It is evident, too often, that in cultural spreading, as stressed by Fernand Braudel: “We lack the address and label and sometimes the content and packaging.” Ivo Banac from Yale in an interview with Karabeg says: “There is a stereotype in Croatia, where we look at Byzantium in a negative context. However, when you elaborate all that is linked to Byzantium, people faint. Let us take the fact that name Isus (Greek form of Jesus) is part of the Byzantine heritage that comes from the Greek version of the Holy Name, which is used in neighbouring Slovenia in its Latin version – Jesus. When one links Jesus with Byzantium, it becomes clear the essential relationship in this part of the world. There is no saint cult in the Adriatic, except some local cults, that didn’t come from Byzantium, including my St. Vlaho in Dubrovnik.” It is obvious that Croatia is in process of distancing itself from the Byzantine heritage and that it desperately needs to belong, at least to Central Europe, the region which was ironically described by the novelist as only “a climate terminology, without the substance.” Obolensky asserts that the differences in the Slavic languages were far less in the 9th century then today, and that it made the work of Constantine and Methodius possible in translating the Bible, at the request of the ruler of the first Slavic state – Moravia, using the Slavic Macedonian language as common. Constantine and Methodius were called by pope Nicolas I to come to Rome. When they arrived they were received by the new pope Hadrian II, as Nicolas had already passed away. Hadrian gave them all the support and with the special bull he authorized the Slavic liturgy written in the Glagolitic alphabet, praised by all linguists as the work of an extraordinary linguist. It is assumed that the source for this alphabet is miniscule script, and that some of the letters are Coptic or Semitic. After a short illness, Constantine died in Rome in 869, and he was buried in the church San Clemente in Rome. Only a few weeks before he died he had become a monk with the adopted name Cyril (the Slavic – Kiril). Methodius was appointed the Pannonian archbishop and Slavic papal legate. His work with the Bulgarian students provided the widely used Cyrillic alphabet, based on Greek alphabet. J. Herrmann, J. Poulik, B. Rybakov, V. Sedov, and W. Hensel accepted that the process of differentiation into the East, West and South Slavic took place between the 6th and 8th centuries. This process did not occur, however, at the same pace through the whole Slavic area, there was cohabitation with other peoples, e.g. in the Balkans where the Slavs lived alongside post-Byzantine populations. The close relationship and word-loaning between the Slavic and Germanic languages has great meaning for the identification of the Slavic homeland, as about Slavic-Iranian, Slavic-Celtic, or Slavic-Thracian/Dacian linguistic relationships. For Hensel the most important source, as has previously been pointed out by a number of other authors, is “The History of the Wars,” (De Bellis) of Procopius from Caesarea who died after 562. Procopius says: “The Heruli after being beaten in the war by the Lombards left their homelands (in the lower Danube) and part of them moved to Illyria, while the others did not cross Istra (Danube) but settled on the far edge of the inhabited world (Scandinavia). They were led by many people of royal blood through all the tribes of the Slavs (Sklavinoi) and then passed through a large area of empty territory, before they come to the people called the “Varns”. They next passed quickly through all the tribes of the Danes, who did not oppose them. After they came to the Ocean they boarded the ships and landed on the island of Thula where they settled…” In this passage the events of 512 AD are being described and on its basis one can reconstruct the route of the Heruli. J. Nerrmann believes that the Heruli crossed the Carpathians through Slav lands along the Oder valley, they passed through Silesia, turning to the northwest by Frankfurt-onOder. The earlier presence of Slavs in this area is confirmed by a verse composed in honor of St. Martin of Tours (died 397) by Martin of Pannonia (c. 580). Here we find Slavs between the Pannonians, 86 Noricans and Rugilandi. Some ancient sources, already mentioned, such as Pliny (about 24-29 AD), Tacitus (c. 55-120), and Ptolemy (c.100-178) tell about the Venedi. Procopius speaks of the religious beliefs of Slavs, and he presents the God of the sky or lighting and the demons. The God of lighting is Perun, the mythological personification of the natural phenomenon that strikes the earth from heaven. 104 A cult object was also the oak, symbol of Perun on earth. Kardaras thinks that Perun seems not to have held the position of the highest god in Slavic pantheon similar to the Greek one. The early Slavs had a polytheistic religious system and their religion is considered as animistic – worship of natural forces, nymphai, and demons. Mostly they worshiped the sun which they considered the creator of life. The name of Perun was not identical among all Slavs, but differed from region to region. In the Baltic it was – Svetovid, and Dabog for the Southern Slavs. God identified with the sky was – Svarog, god of war was Jarovit, or Rigevit, the spring god was – Vesna, and the health god was – Živa. The early Slavs believed in fortune-telling (nevertheless, the contemporary do as well) and performed sacrifices. Herbordus (book II, 32), during his mission in Pomerania, described the Slavic god with three heads – Triglav, as representing the earth, heaven and underground. The existing literature on the medieval Croatia J. V. A. Fine describes the sources on medieval Croatia: “Early medieval Croatian history the concluding line to the old jingle: the more you study the less you know. Most of the existing literature in western languages on medieval Croatia is extremely poor; and frequently it is marred by nationalistic bias. There is existing problem of the authenticity of the few sources that are available.” J. V. A. Fine writes: “The authors of most of the sources for early medieval Croatia were distant from the events they described, as they lived several centuries later… Much of the information comes from later (17th and 18th century) narrative histories. These were written by enthusiastic people, but contain a mixture of fact and legend. Typical is a massive history of South Slavic bishoprics… published between 1751 and 1819. The work is attributed to the Jesuit of the second generation – who brought out the first and next several volumes (Daniele Farlati: Illyricum Sacrum, Venezia 1765).” Actually, the idea was first expressed by the learned Jesuit, Filippo Riceputi (1677-1742), who wanted to write a church history, and Farlati continued his work with five books together with Jacobo Coleti (1734-1827), who wrote three books. Coleti was also the author of the church history of the island of Korčula “Storia ecclesiastica di Curzola.” J. V. A. Fine says: “The project was far too ambitious… and many of their results must be treated with skepticism. Their method was to rapidly visit all the archives and monasteries they knew of and to hire monks to copy documents from them while they rushed off to the next archive. Eventually, their volumes were compiled chiefly from these copies. By now many of the original documents, from which their copies came, are lost so modern scholars cannot properly evaluate much of their information. Some of their documents can now be shown to have been forgeries… Thus, one must rely on Byzantine contemporary writing, papal letters, Hungarian letters, and diplomatic reports from Dubrovnik, and the existing charters. However, one must also beware of the charters, for many of them are later fabrications; some are clearly so (though even these are still used from time to time by various historians), while the authenticity of others is in dispute among the scholars.” George Kardaras: A re-approach of Procopius’ ethnographic account on the early Slavs, Byzantina Symeikta, vol. 27, 2017. 104 87 Thomas the Archdeacon wrote the History of Split, and he died in 1268. His work survives in a short and a long version. Fine asserts: “The long version – known as Historia Salonitana maior – is a 16th century expansion of Thomas by an unknown author. Both authors, in particular Thomas, had contempt for the Slavonic liturgy… Thomas reports that the 1060 Council condemned Methodius as a heretic. Could the Council really have stated this? Methodius had had papal support and had even been appointed bishop of Sirmium. Or was Thomas inserting his own views and claiming they were the views of the council?” Fine goes on questioning sources for other major issues too, the so-called pact between the Hungarian king and the Croatian nobility of 1102, which set up a dual monarchy under the king of Hungary survives only in a 14th century manuscript. Fine says: “Many scholars feel this text reflects the 14th century situation and the 12th .” Ivo Goldstein gives us a good commentary on Thomas’ witting about the fall of Salona: “In the Chapter about Salona there are many incorrect and illogical statements. The Goths and Slavs are mixed, and the Slavs are called Arians. It is a mixture of the events from 5th and 7th century, and his description is full of historical guilt for the fall, because of a sins made in the city. In other words as they (the citizens of Salona) had sinned they had been punished.”105 Nada Klaić (The History of Trogir), the distinguished Croatian historian, asserts that Porphyrogenitus’ description of the fall of Salona is more correct than Thomas’. We have already described, from the Italian sources, the conquest of southern Italy by the Normans. After the Normans had completed their conquest in 1060s, they occupied, in 1071, Bari, an important port in Apulia and the last Byzantine possession in Italy. They turned now to Byzantium itself, and the first step was Balkan territory, namely the province Dioclea. During this period Dioclea, or Duklja as was its Slavic name, was the leading Balkan power under its ruler Michael. Describing Dioclea Porphyrogenitus didn’t say that it was Serb territory, and that gave a false argument to some authors to pursue the myth of “Red Croatia.” Michael made an alliance with Rome, then under the mighty pope Gregory VII, consequently earning himself the crown from the pope in 1077. His embassies were sent to the Normans in Apulia, by that time the Duchy of the most powerful figure in Italy, the Norman Robert Guiscard. In 1081, a marriage was arranged between Michael’s son, Bodin, and the Norman princess of Bari, Iaquinta. The Normans first attacked northern Dalmatia in 1074 and conquered Zadar, Trogir, Split and Nin. After three years, the Venetians sent a powerful fleet and forced them out. Venice used an earlier grant from Emperor Basil II, and the doge of Venice took the title of dux of Dalmatia. During that time, Venice became a major independent player in the Adriatic. The Byzantine dux of Dyrrachium (Italian - Durazzo, Slavic Drač) having received reinforcement, tried to relieve the siege of Bari in 1071, while Roger and Robert de Hauteville (Guiscard) were busy conquering Palermo. The Normans sent an army against Dyrrachium in 1081, after they had conquered the island of Corfu in 1079. Dubrovnik was engaged in the transport of troops. Rački (the documents) affirmed that the Ragusans were actually involved in the attack “sending their arrows which had covered the whole sea,” (Goldstein, 1995). Constantin Bodin was involved in affairs in Bulgaria, writes Obolensky, and was appointed the Emperor of Bulgaria, and he was described in Rome as: “Filius noster… Rex Scalavorum glorisimus.”106 Zvonimir of Croatia succeeded the mighty ruler, Kresimir IV, and turned to the pope and received the papal blessing to be crowned the king of Croatia. He is the first Croatian king who received his crown from pope Gregory VII, in late 1075, or early 1076, according to J. V. A. Fine. Zvonimir supported the reformist pope and his policy against the Slavonic language in church. According to legend, he was killed in a brawl during the council in 1089, or 1090. He had been married to the sister of the Hungarian king and their only son died immediately after 1090. As Fine asserts, the last of Trpimirović dynasty passed on and a “Time of Troubles” began. The nobles reasserted their inheritied rights in their counties, and were unenthusiastic to follow his widow, who took over the throne. When Koloman (1095-1116) became the king of Hungary, he occupied Pannonian Croatia and continued on to Dalmatia. Peter (1093-97), the last I. Goldstein: Hrvatski rani srednji vijek, Novi Liber, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilista u Zagre bu, 1995. P. Kehr: Papsturkunden in Rom, Nachrichten von der Kunigl, Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, philog.-histor. Klasse, page 148, 1900. 105 106 88 independent king of Croatia was killed, and the Hungarians conquered the port of Biograd in 1097. Other Dalmatian cities immediately turned to Venice for protection. In 1102, as a late source reports, Koloman was met at the Drava river, while preparing new conquest, by twelve leading Croatian nobles. Allegedly, the result of this meeting was the so-called Pacta Conventa, and consequently, he obtained Croatia by agreement. This kind of agreement was made between the Kingdom of France and the kings of Burgundy, and it should not be difficult to understand it in historical relations. Koloman is said, as Fines’ narrative goes, “to have met with the Croatian nobles and obtained their acquiescence in his taking the Croatian crown, by promising to respect their ancestral privileges. Having received these promises, they elected him the king of Croatia and Dalmatia. The assembly was retained, with representatives of each of the twelve Croatian tribes.” The source for Koloman’s relations with the nobles, as Fine affirms, is no older than the 14th century, and in addition, the document is not even a copy of a lost 12th century original. Evidence of these twelve families as class representatives exist only from the middle of the 14th century. The earliest reference to them as an “institution” is in 1350, and the earliest text of the 1102 pact, known as the Trogir Manuscript, dates from 1387/88. Fine writes that “Nada Klaić thinks that probably some sort of surrender had occurred in 1102, by which the Croatians were given light terms.” But, what the Trogir Manuscript contains in not the text of that surrender, but a 14th century legend, which described contemporary relations between the king and nobility, and then traced that current 14th century reality back to an initial agreement. The items, such as diet (assembly) could have been later developments which were then attributed to 1102, to give them an aura of tradition, concludes Fine. N. Klaić thinks that the event of 1102 did not consist of a loss of Croatian independence, since the Croatians continued to rule in the counties. Thus, Klaić concludes, “there was a change of dynasty, but not the end of the Croatian nation.” One should not, as many historians have, see 1102 as a national collapse, or the end of the state. However, one should be aware that the number 12 was often used to assert the importance of the statement. The importance of the number 12 is evident in the Old Testament Exodus, where 12 tribes allegedly fled from Egypt, or in the New Testament with 12 apostles, inspite of a late ‘addition’ to the twelve, that of St. Paul. Charlemagne dreamed of making a replica of the Kingdom of God on earth, with 12 gates made of gold and gems. It was an accepted custom in the Middle Ages to give an oath on the gospels to verify a statement. According to DAI, however, it was only eleven tribes and consequently eleven counties that were established by the Croats. Koloman, in order to guarantee a succession of his son to the throne, blinded his own brother and his son Bela, who fled to Byzantium. When Koloman died in 1116, his son took over as king Stephen II. Stephen was left without a son successor to the throne and he recognized as his heir Bela “the Blind.” Bela married Jelena, the daughter of Uroš I, the Grand count of Raška (Serbia). As he was blind Bela II (113141) had to rule with the help of his wife Jelena and her brother Beloš who came to the court, so it is not surprising that strong ties between Raška and Hungary developed in the following years. The Serbs and Hungarians negotiated with the Normans and marriages were arranged between the Norman and Hungarian rulers. In 1141, Bela was succeeded by his son, still a child, Geza, and Beloš was the official regent, and he became “comes palatinus,” the highest court position in Hungary, while his brother became the ruler of Serbia, Uroš II. The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnenus (1143-80), desired to reconquer Italy, but the Norman king, Roger II, seized the island of Corfu, Corinth and Thebes in 1147. Under Roger, Della Palude received their lands back in Sicily in the province Catania and near Cefalu, as the ‘milites’ of Roger’s cousin, Count Sanseverino. Manuel made an alliance with the Germans, and with Venetian help he recovered Corfu, as important strategic place. Many years later Napoleon declared that Corfu was strategically more important than the entire Italy. Conquering Thebes, Roger II brought to Sicily weavers of silk and established the silk industry in Palermo. The Normans, Serbs and Hungarians were establishing an alliance against the Emperor. At first, Serbs had taken an offensive against the loyal Byzantine vassal, Dukljan ruler Radoslav, and forced him to take refuge in Kotor. Uroš II, and his brother Desa, the ruler of 89 Zahumlje, occupied Trebinje near Dubrovnik and much of the territories of Duklja. Fine asserts, that “the two Serb brothers Uroš and Desa sought aid from the third brother Beloš in Hungary.” However, Manuel was too strong for the Serbs and he captured the main Serbian fortress Ras, while Uroš fled to the mountains. In 1150, Manuel won the important battle against the armies of Hungary and Serbia. Defeated, Uroš was briefly replaced by Desa, but after asking for mercy, Uroš regained his position as Grand count of Serbia. In 1151, Manuel declared war against Hungary and sent troops to Sirmium and Zemun, making great destruction and many prisoners were taken. In 1155, Uroš was challenged by the pro-Hungarian faction at the Serbian court, and was replaced by Desa on the throne of Serbia. Shortly before, in 1151, Desa made the donation of Mljet to the Benedictines of Apulia, the stronghold and the Duchy of the Normans, in order to forge an alliance with them. Manuel intervened and restored Uroš on the throne, and gave Desa the region of Dandera, near the city of Niš today. When king Geza of Hungary died, he was succeeded by Stephen IV, supported by the Byzantines. Beloš, the regent, imprisoned Stephen IV but after an agreement with the Emperor, he sent him to Constantinople. In 1163, Stephen IV and the Byzantines started preparations for regaining the throne. In Serbia, Desa again took over from his brother Uroš. Chronicler Cinnamos’ account is not clear as to what happened, but sometime before 1163, the Grand count of Serbia, Primislav, was removed and replaced with his brother Beloš, who was then replaced by younger brother of the two, Desa. The identity of Primislav is not clear, but most of the scholars have concluded that he was actually Uroš II. To support this claim we should note that the Serbian dynastic name Uroš is derived from the Hungarian – ur, meaning – princeps, or dominus. The Latin name is Urosius, and it is translated as Prvoslav in the Slavic version, or Prim-islav, in Latin. Thus, Uroš II and Primislav should be considered as the same person. R. Browing thinks that Manuel marched on Hungary in 1164 to restore Stephen IV to the throne, accompanied by Desa, who probably played a role in causing the Emperor to change his mind regarding the position of Stephen IV.107 The new treaty recognized Stephen III as the ruler of Hungary, and if he had no son, Bela would became the king. Bela was living in Constantinople, and took the name Alexius. He was officially engaged with the Emperor’s daughter, Maria, and they were declared the heirs to the throne. Manuel, accusing Stephen III of violating the treaty, attacked Dalmatia and captured: Trogir, Šibenik, Skradin, Ostrovica, Salona, and Pagania. Manuel finally got a son heir also named Alexius, and the earlier plans that Bela would take over the throne of Byzantium and Hungary were radically changed. However, when Stephen III died in 1172, Bela was elected the king of Hungary. The new dynasty in Serbia Up to this point Dioclea was not in the hands of the Serbs, who often revolted with the help of the Hungarians. Fine affirms that between 1166 and 1168, a major change occurred in Raška, as Serbia was then called. The old dynasty was replaced by a new one headed by Tihomir, who was soon replaced by his brother, Stefan Nemanja, and this dynasty was to rule Serbia until 1371. Fine thinks that it is unfortunately unknown where the founders of this new dynasty came from, and if they had any connections with the previous dynasty. Fine implies that Desa did something to displease Manuel. In any case, the territory was divided between the four brothers. Tihomir fled to Byzantium when Nemanja took over, and returned with Byzantine troops and possibly with his own supporters, but in the ensuing battle 107 R. Browing: A new Source on Byzantine – Hungarian Relations in the 12th century, Balkan studies 2, 1961. 90 he was killed, and the Byzantine army was defeated. Manuel was busy dealing with Venice who captured Dubrovnik in 1172, and after Venice retreated, Manuel led an army to punish Nemanja, who like Vukan before him saw that it was pointless to resist, so he went forth to surrender and to submit to the Emperor. Nemanja was in possession of a golden spear, allegedly the spear of the Roman soldier who had pierced Jesus on the Cross. The spear was a symbol of the king’s power in the 11th century in Hungary, before Henri III took it over from the Hungarians in the battle of 1044, and sent it as a present to Rome (Huber, Geschichte Osterreichs I). Nemanja’s son, Stephen, wrote that “the spear was a gift from God.” Nemanja went through a humiliating ceremony at the imperial camp, and then Manuel took him to Constantinople for another humiliating ceremony there, featuring long orations while celebrating his submission. Kinnam and Nicetas Choniates report that the defeated Grand count had to come before the Emperor hatless and bare foot, with a rope around his neck (in the similar medieval choreography as Henri had to go through Cannosa while begging Gregory VII, but sans the rope, which provoked Bismarck to declare that the Germans “will not repeat Canossa”). In Nemanja’s left arm was the sword which was symbolically surrendered to the Emperor and finally he had to throw himself to the floor. As we have already mentioned, after Manuel died in 1180, Stefan Nemanja was the host for the crusaders led by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and he tried to get his support for a conquest of Byzantium. Emperor Isaak II Angelus marched in 1190 to punish Serbia, after Nemanja had conquered the best part of Macedonia, and defeated him in battle on the river Morava. Nevertheless, Angelus needed a powerful ally, and he left the country with the promise of substantial autonomy for Serbia. A royal wedding was announced and Nemanja’s son, Stefan, married the Emperor’s niece, Eudoxia, and received the title of the Sebastokrator. Obolensky reports that Nemanja was, at first, baptized by a Latin priest in Dioclea, and then baptized for the second time, by the orthodox bishop in Ras. He abdicated and his son Stephen took over the throne and promised to pope Innocent III that he would have subjugated the Serbian church under the jurisdiction of Rome, if he would have been crowned the king. According to historian Arnold Toynbee, Innocent III made all reforms of Gregory VII void, helping Venice in conquering Byzantium during the 4th Crusade in 1204. Stefan married the granddaughter of doge Dandolo, Ana Dandolo. Jireček (History of Serbs) writes that Ana was his third wife, who influenced the doge to convince Innocent III to make a deal with Stefan and give him the king’s crown, and consequently she was crowned together with her husband in 1217. King Stefan was the first Serbian king and became known as Prvovenčani (the First-crowned). In 1220, he gave the entire island of Mljet to the Benedictine monks from Pulsano in Apulia. Jireček writes that according to the Archivio Storico Italiano (book VIII, page 754, Florence, 1845), a close connections of the Serbian rulers with Rome began with Desa, and were stable in later periods. The second wife of doge Tiepolo (1268-75) was the daughter of the king of Serbia – “figliuola del re di Rascia.” The famous queen Jelena was married to king Uroš I around 1250. Her sons were the future kings, Stefan Dragutin, and Uroš II Milutin. Archbishop Danilo wrote that she was the cousin of Charles I Anjou. Dragutin married Catherine, the daughter of Hungarian king Stephen V, and her sister, Elisabeth, was married to king Milutin. Constanca, from the Venice House of Morosini, was married to Dragutin’s son, Vladislav, in 1293. Uroš III planned to marry Blanka, the daughter of titular Latin Emperor Philip, in 1331. The Serbian Emperor Dušan, while he was restlessly waiting for a son during his marriage with queen Jelena, planned to marry Elisabeth, the daughter of king Fridrich, in 1336. 91 The Narentani Historian Lj. Maksimović (The Baptism of the Serbs and Croats, 1996) expressed the opinion that the tribes in DAI were described according to their political being, not ethnical. The term – Origo gentis, or Origines gentium, was intended to separate the barbarians from civilized peoples. The majority of ancient authors think that the barbarians don’t have a human nature and that every attempt to civilize them is fruitless. Nevertheless, we should stress that the term – ethnic is used to identify those who have not yet developed a national consciousness. Folklore, language, religion was used to determine ethnic identity, while it is also true that one being born in certain place, doesn’t make one automatically part of an ethnic group. J. V. A. Fine asserts in his new work from 2006: “It was never inevitable that the term Croat would be used as a point of identity, but all national awakenings highlight the differences between – us and – them, and any regional and administrative variations among the Slavs paled in comparison with the growing threat of Hungarian cultural domination.”108 Adrian Mandzy in his book review of Fine’s new work says that “perhaps the greatest issue with this book is that it does not address the question of religious identity. In pre-modern Eastern Europe, religion was the cornerstone of how people saw themselves… Some may argue that by cutting ties between the Middle Ages and the 19th century national awakening, the Croatian nation is shown to be merely a modern construct with little historical precedent. Yet there is a significant body of literature that explores the relationship between growing national awareness and the need to create a national past. Indeed, one could argue that all nations create mythical pasts.” The County of Arentani was made of the littoral between the rivers Cetina and Neretva (Arenta) and the islands: Mljet, Korčula, Hvar and Brač. Korčula was called Korkyra, same as the Greek Corfu, with the Greek adjective – black (melaina), because of its black forests. The forests were the Mediterranean – macchia, which is from the distance black. It is actually made of the Mediterranean česvina – quercus ilex and pine – pinus halepensis. The historians Pseudo-Skymnos, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder had asserted that it was a colony of the Dorians from Knidos in Asia Minor, who had founded their colonies in 390 BC. The island Vis (Issa) had been founded by Dorian Syracuse, the colony of Corinth in Sicily. The Arentani have derived their name from the river Arenta (Neretva). Porphyrogenitus wrote in chapter 30 – the river Oronto, and asserted that their territory was between the rivers Oronto and Cetina, but as they were not baptized, the second name more often used was – Pagania. T. Živković says that the geography of Arentani south of Cetina usually made them ‘Croats,’ and it was used as the negation that they might be ‘Serbs’ as well.109 Porphyrogenitus affirms that they are Serbs, but in the Early Middle Ages we cannot distinguish Croat or Serb identity outside of the political framework of the respective counties. The ethnic identity is subject of political identity, and consequently development of the South Slavic states is based on their political development and not on the ethnical or tribal identity. Jireček and Šišić expressed the opinion that the islands of Pagania were inhabited by Slavs only from the 9th century. Our opinion is that such statements are unwarranted, and based on the incorrect reading of the early sources, namely DAI, and Thomas Archdeacon. Porphyrogenitus wrote that the islands were uninhabited, but a proper reading should have considered what was the real meaning of the Emperor’s – kastra oikoumena in the case of the Slavs. Živković writes: “The term kastra oikoumena, by which Constantine Porphyrogenitus designated the cities in Southern Slavs principalities, was usually understood as the inhabited cities. Since this term is going alongside the term baptized Serbia/Croatia, it 108 J. V. A. Fine: When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre -Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2006. 109 T. Živković: Arentani – An Example of Identity Examination in the Early Middle Ages, Historical review, Vol. 61, Beograd, 2012. 92 appears that this term is related to the ecclesiastical terminology, and therefore, most probably has another meaning… The names of the cities in the Early Medieval Croatia, Serbia, Zachlumi, Terbounia, Pagania, and Diocleia were first mentioned by the Emperor in the chapters 3i – 36 of DAI. Only a few of these cities are known to us from the Latin sources, majority of them never appeared in history again… It is important to note that Zachlumi and Terbounia are classified as ‘horion’, a small land, but Diocleia is called ‘hora’, a country. Also, only the list of Diocleians’ cities had the adjective – megala. It primarily means big, but also old. It would be very odd that Constantine… used this adjective megalos only in the case of the Diocleians’ cities to underline how large they were… Oikoumena means inhabited world, civilized world, but in the language of the Christian theological doctrine, it means above all, the Christian world. The opposite of kastra oioukumena must be – civitas deserta/civitas destitute. There is some evidence in the Old Testament which actually perfectly explained the true meaning of deserted or symmetrically opposite, populated place… The inhabited places for the Bible are those in which the spirit of God dwells…” When pope John VIII wrote a letter to Charles, the Frankish emperor, in 876, he said that all inhabitants left their cities, and that should be considered as an exaggeration, but the fleeing of bishops was probably true. For the pope, the desolated city was above all the city abandoned by its ecclesiastical authorities. William of Tyre wrote that a desolated city was considered as being inhabited (repopulated) only after the ruler rebuilt it and installed the monks of the Temple in it. Foretić quoted Thomas Archdeacon’s statement that in the attack of the Slavs and Avars, the majority of the citizens of Salona died and only a small number fled to the islands. According to Thomas “many young Romans were sailing against the Slavs and were successful because the Slavs didn’t have a fleet yet.” It was agreed by the majority of historians that the attack on Salona was around 614 AD. However, it is known that by that time the Slavs had a fleet and were able to sail to the Aegean islands as far as Crete and consequently, Thomas’ statement must be considered as incorrect. Nevertheless, such statements were accepted by historians (Šišić) who claimed that the islands were unpopulated, and that the Slavs conquered the islands only in the 9th century.110 Jadran Ferluga asserts that the land of Arentani, called Pagania, was ruled by the archon of Serbs, Peter, around 900 until 917.111 John the Deacon calls them the Narentani – de insula Narrentis.112 Živković affirms the important fact that “the only ruler, beside the Bosnian, that is missing from the list of peoples under the rule of Constantinople (“Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris De ceremonies”) was the archon of Narentani, because they were not baptized. In early 820s, Venetian sources wrote about an envoy from the island of Narentani – missus Sclavorum de insula Narrentis. After being baptized by the doge, they signed a treaty that didn’t last. John the Deacon wrote that some Slavs from the islands of Narentani, in 836, killed the Venetian envoys from Benvenuto. In 839, the doge sailed in a punitive expedition to the place called the court of St. Martin, and made peace with the local count (principem), but it also didn’t last long. From St. Martin the doge went to an island and made peace with Družak, the judge of the Mariani – Drosiaco Marionorum iudice. Returning to Venice the doge assembled a new army and went against Ljudevit Slav – Liuditum Sclavum, but had to return without the triumph as he had lost more than 100 men. From this dramatic sequence of the doge’s conquests, Živković concluded that the doge was dealing with, at least, three rulers of the Slavs: the Dalmatian Croat ruler – principem Mislav; next was a count of the island, or the judge of the Mariani; and finally, Ljudevit Slav, or the 110 How far imagination could go unrestrained is best expressed in the Mljet legend, which was tirelessly repeated (the last time by the fabulous imagination of Živan Fillipi (in “Dani Cvita Fiskovića”, 2010) about the Roman commander Remin and the Narentani king Desin, no less, who were allegedly fighting for the island as late as the 12th century. In order to forge the legend, Fillipi asserted, that the big battle had been won by the Nerentani/Croats who had consequently become the masters of the island. The only historical person that could resemble such a nonexistent Narentani/Croat king Desin is the Serbian Count Desa of Zahumlje from the 12th century, the historical person and donator of the island to the Benedictine monks a few centuries after the last Romans had been assimilated by the Slavs. 111 J. Ferluga: Vizantija i postanak najranijih južnoslovenskih država, ZRVI, 11, 1968. 112 Giovanni Diacono: Chronache Veneziane antichissime, editor: D. Monicolo, Roma, 1890. 93 Count of the Narentani. In 887, the doge was killed while on an expedition against the Narentani, as John the Deacon reported “contra Narrentanos Sclavos.” Vinko Foretić tells of an expedition of the doge, Pietro II Orseolo, against the Croats and Narentani in 1000 AD. The Nerentani sent their envoys to the Venetian doge in Split to negotiate a peace. The peace treaty was signed under the condition that the Count of Narentani with his entire court had to promise that they would have not attacked any Venetian ship and would not extort a toll from the merchants who were sailing along the eastern Adriatic coast, in order to use favorable currents and shelter from the islands. John the Deacon wrote that the doge continued his campaign against the Narentani, as they were not excited with the peace conditions. Coming to the island of Korčula, the Venetians called upon the islanders to surrender, and after they refused, they were conquered. The following island was Lastovo, and its citizens gave a very strong resistance, but finally they had to surrender. The citizens of Dubrovnik led by the bishop came to give tribute to the doge. A number of Croatian historians (Rački, Šišić, N. Klaić) asserted that the Narentani were under Croat rule in the 11th century. However, the historian M. Barada affirms that they were not a dependent of any foreign rule in that century. 113 Nada Klaić, in her History of Croats, asserted that the names of the Slavs between the rivers Neretva and Cetina were Mariani, Arentani, and Pagani, and that it was a clear indication that they were not Croats or Serbs. Klaić shared the opinion of Mavro Orbini that they were inhabitants of the islands as early as the 7th century. She stressed that they were not part of the agreement in 1102, when Dalmatia was conquered by the Hungarians, as they continued as the independent county of Nerentani, and the new rulers of Croats, the dynasty of Arpadović, never had them listed in their titular possession. The historian Šišić, in his History of Croats, affirmed that the southern frontier was the island of Hvar in the 11th century, thus, implying that the Narentani were holding the rest of the islands. In his commentary on the writing of the Priest of Dioclea, Šišić asserts that Mljet was part of Zahumlje until Dubrovnik took it over in the beginning of the 15th century. Foretić (History of Dubrovnik) wrote that in the 11th century Mljet was under the control of the Zachlumi (Zahumlje). According to the writings of Orbini, Gundulić and Resti, the islands of Korčula and Vis were also part of Zahumlje, beginning of the 12th century, and Foretić assumed that Lastovo was also part of Zahumlje. Zahumlje had expanded over the two counties of Narentani in the coastal region. After Emperor Michael died in 1180, Stefan Nemanja repelled Byzantine subjection, and organized the conquest of the islands of Mljet and Korčula in 1184 together with his brothers Miroslav and Stracimir. There was an attempt to occupy Dubrovnik after a number of skirmishes in Astarea between the Serbs and Ragusans, as recorded by Orbini and Resti. The co-ruler brother of Nemanja, Miroslav, was defeated in the Battle of Poljice by the superior Dubrovnik fleet on 10th August 1184. Stracimir Konstantin, the third brother, attempted a siege of the islands Vis and Korčula. The islands asked for help from Dubrovnik and the entire Serbian fleet was captured. Stracimir was surrounded at Korčula, and after surrendering he promised that the islands Vis and Korčula would be set free, if he would be allowed to sail free. According to Gundulić and Junije (Jono) Resti, in 1185 Stefan Nemanja succeeded in entering Dubrovnik and snatching the papal bulls. It was a sudden attack that forced the Ragusans to seek help elsewhere. The Norman king, William II “the Good,” was good enough to help the Ragusans after their confrontation with Nemanja and his brothers.114 The Peace Treaty was designed by the curia (meaning the Court of Justice) in Sicily. The Ragusan representatives were Rector Kravas, archbishop Tribun, and chancellor Tesaligarda. Nemanja and his brothers were represented by count Nevdal, and Družina Samica, the son of Vidoš. At the end of the Treaty it was said that “it was everlasting,” and it expressed the “loyalty of the Ragusans to the illustrious king of the Normans.” John V. A. Fine affirms that the Treaty was signed in Dubrovnik on 27 September 1186, and was written “in the land of the king William.” The Treaty was signed by Nemanja and Miroslav, and Fine asserts that it was proof that they had both jointly ruled Serbia. Dubrovnik was a vassal state of the Normans until 1192. M. Barada: Dinastičko pitanje u Hrvatskoj XI stoljeća, Vjesnik za arheologiju i historiju Dalmatinski, L. V. Foretić: Ugovor Dubrovnika sa srpskim županom Stefanom Nemanjom i stara dubrovačka djedina, Studije i rasprave iz hrvatske povjesti, editor: Miljenko Foretić, Književni krug Split, 2001. 113 114 94 According to the agreement, all damages to the vineyards and ships would bear no claims. The Ragusans were free to go to the land of Nemanja and his brothers for trade, and they were allowed to use the port of Drijevi on the Neretva. The Ragusans could not claim the islands of Korčula and Vis, and Nemanja recognized Dubrovnik’s rights of ownership of Astarea, Zaton with Poljice, Rijeka, Šumet and the county Žrnovica with Cavtat (Epidaurus). The city of Dubrovnik previously had to pay communal tax, the so called – mogoris, to the Serbian counties of Zahumlje and Trebinje from the 9th century. For the first time these areas were designed as an inheritance – hereditas. Nemanja had conquered Kotor in 1185, and three years later, in 1179, the city of Bar as the last stronghold of Dioclea. The last ruler of Dioclea, Desislava, became a refugee in Dubrovnik and she gave to the city her two ships. In her entourage was the archbishop of Bar, Gregorius, who continued his travel to Zadar. The unknown person of the Priest of Dioclea could have been identified as Gregorius. According to Foretić (The History of Korčula) the island of Lastovo was part of the Hungarian kingdom from 1221. In 1240, Brač and Hvar were under the Narentani rulers of the city Omiš. Mljet was part of the County of Zahumlje ruled by the Serbian king, Stefan Prvovenčani, who donated the entire island of Mljet to the Benedictine friars, together with the church and land properties on the peninsula Pelješac. Consequently, Foretić thought that king Stefan had donated to the Benedictines also the church of St. Vid on the island of Korčula. Dubrovnik a Venetian vassal from 1204 The Byzantine Empire was conquered in 1204 during the Fourth crusade. The following year the Venetians became new rulers of the Ragusan Republic. The Venetian Latin patriarch of Constantinople, Thomas Morosini, occupied Dubrovnik without a fight. According to legend the ruler of Dubrovnik, Damjan Juda, was summoned to Morosini’s ship, swiftly made a prisoner and tied to the ship’s mast. Juda committed suicide by hitting his head against the mast (Foretić). Dubrovnik was a vassal of Venetia and the city’s rulers were Venetian Rectors until 1358. The third Rector, Giovanni Dandolo, intended to conquer the islands Mljet, Korčula and Lastovo, but according to a document from 1215, he was unsuccessful. The Venetians forced Dubrovnik merchants to limit their trade with the Egyptian port of Alexandria in 1224. The Venetian doge demanded Ragusan hostages in 1226, twenty men from the most distinguished families, as their traders were regularly disturbed and attacked by the powerful Nerentani rulers, the family of Kačići, and the Ragusans duly promised to intervene with the Narentani who could hardly be restrained. The historian Nada Klaić praised the Kačići family as brave freedom fighters, in their rebellion against Venetian tyranny. In 1235, the Dubrovnik Republic made trade agreements with Ravenna and Rimini in Emilia, during the time of Bonaccorso Della Palude, who was podesta of Ravenna. Bonaccorso founded the most powerful fleet in Pisa, and there is no doubt that his ships were often present in Dubrovnik. Ferrara issued a charter to Ragusa in 1231. The trade agreement with Bari was signed in 1201, and with the Sicilian cities even earlier. In 1249, in the charter with Monte St. Angelo Dubrovnik was allowed to trade without any custom tax. In the 13th chapter of the Statute of Dubrovnik, from 1272, we read that the Dubrovnik port is tax free for: Ortona, Termoli, Peschici, Siponto (later day Manfredonia), Molfeto, and Giovinazzo. Based on king Manfred’s charter from 1259, Dubrovnik, Syracuse, and Messina were tax free. In 1396, the Sicilian king, Martin, issued a charter to the Ragusans: “Guidaticum sive salve conductus,” which gave Dubrovnik traders the opportunity to stay in Sicily and trade as long as they wished. 95 The queen of the Kingdom of Naples, Jeana II, allowed Dubrovnik to open their consular offices in 1429. Dubrovnik was importing quality dress materials from Florence. The Florentines delivered the textiles to Ancona and from there the Ragusans transported it together with the grain. It is recorded that the Venetians tried to stop Ragusan trade with Florence in 1340. Thus, Bonaccorso’s descendants in Pisa and Florence, who emigrated to Sicily in 1572, had firsthand knowledge of Dubrovnik and its development as a major trade power in the Mediterranean Sea in the second half of 16th century, so it shouldn’t be at all surprising that we see them arriving in Dubrovnik by the end of that century. The Dubrovnik government sent its envoy, the Dominican Bartul Bogišić, in 1518, to Emperor Charles V and the French king, Francois I. The Emperor issued a charter of trade to Dubrovnik in Sragosa, giving them all privileges they had in Sicily under king Ferdinand. The French king confirmed the charter of former kings Charles VIII and Louis XII, when a Dubrovnik consular office was established in Marseille in 1499. The king of England, Henry VIII, allowed the Ragusan traders, Federick Menčetić and Nikola Sorkočević, to export wool from England in 1512. Henry was furious because of the pope’s refusal to terminate his first marriage, and he decided to sell all the relics from Catholic churches. According to Vojnović, Sorkočević bought the magnificent wood statues and brought them to the church St. Mary of Aksuna, on the island Lopud, that was previously built by the Visconti. Malatesta was the ruler of Rimini and, in order to increase trade with Dubrovnik, he cancelled taxes for Ragusan traders in 1426. The Hungarian king, Ludovico, had recommended Ragusan traders to the Duke of Ferrrara, Niccolo d’Este, already mentioned in connection with Andriolo Della Palude, in previous chapters. Ludovico had also advised Barnabo Visconti of Milan to accommodate Ragusan traders. Visconti was sailing across the Adriatic Sea on his way to Dubrovnik, and a storm forced him to disembark to the island of Lopud, near Gruž which was the port of Dubrovnik. He had promised to donate a church dedicated to Madonna before he was saved from a storm and the small church he built was called Del Bissone, because the Coat of Arms of the Visconti had the viper (Ital. bissone) on the shield. Florence sent her consul to Dubrovnik in 1495. Florence was ruled by ‘gonfaloniere’ Pietro Soderini (1502-12), before the Medici seized power. Soderini was designated as a papal enemy, and he fled from Ancona in a Ragusan ship in 1512, disguised as a merchant from Lucca. Arriving in Dubrovnik he asked for asylum. He was recognized by the Florentine merchants, and the entire government was aware of his identity, so after a few days he left the city. Soderini fled to Herceg Novi, then under the occupation of the Turks, and after seven months in exile, Giovanni II Medici, the new pope Leo X, appointed his brother, Francesco Soderini, as the Sabine bishop, because he helped Medici to become the pope. Pietro Soderini told the government of Dubrovnik that the pope had called him to Rome and that he decided to leave his imposed exile. When Lorenzzino de Medici travelled to Constantinople in 1537, the Ragusans refused to give him asylum, because he was considered as a murderer.115 All the changes on the throne of Serbia were important for Dubrovnik, and when in 1243, the third son of the King Stefan, Stefan Uroš I, forced his brother Stefan Vladislav to step down and his wife fled to Dubrovnik, tensions started to build up. In 1252, commenced the war between Serbia and Dubrovnik, and the Republic called her citizens from Bari to help in the defense of the city. The treaty from 1254 confirmed to the Ragusans all earlier privileges regarding the territories. Foretić wrote that Andria Dandolo reported that Venice had stolen Korčula from the Serbian king, Stefan Uroš I, in 1254. Junije (Jono) Resti in his “Chronica Ragusina,” wrote about the wars with the Serbian king because the king was against the enlargement of the city on account of his territories. In 1252, Venetia banned Dubrovnik from trading with Sicily and Apulia during the reign of King Manfred, the son of Emperor Frederick II. It seems that the trade agreement made with Ravenna in 1235 was wider and allowed the Ragusans free trade in the lands of Emperor Frederick II, and Venice was committed to limiting it in 1252. We see that Manfred issued a charter of free trade to Zadar and Dubrovnik in 1259, which was directly against Venetian interests. However, those trade agreements were continued with the Anjou rule of Sicily, who Ilija Mitić: Imigracijska politika Dubrovačke Republike s posebnim obzirom na ustanovu svetskog azila, Anali JAZU u Dubrovniku. 115 96 intended to rule the entire Mediterranean as their own Empire. Foretić (Korčula) affirms that Mljet was the property of king Stefan Uroš I. Kretschmayer, in his History of Venice (II, p. 58), wrote that Marsilio Zorzi, the Rector of Dubrovnik, was successful in stopping Stefan Uroš I (1243-76) in using the title as a ruler of Dubrovnik and in 1255, Zorzi seized Korčula and Mljet. Foretić asserts that Zorzi captured Mljet from the Benedictines. Zorzi finished his mandate as a Rector of Dubrovnik and in 1254 he became the Count of Korčula. The Venetian sources refer to Zorzi until 1272 as the Count of Korčula and Mljet. After that period the Ragusan documents (Monumenta Raguzina) assert that he was ruling only Korčula. Jireček doesn’t know about Zorzi’s ruling of Mljet, and it seems, according to Foretić, that we can only speak of his aspirations towards Mljet. From 1265 until 1268 there was a new war between Dubrovnik and Uroš I after the Republic refused to take his suzerainty instead of Venetian. The war was excelled by the political situation in Italy where Genoa and Venice were fighting for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea. The Byzantine Emperor, Paleologus, was supporting Genoa, and his ally, Uroš I, attacked Venetian merchants. Mavro Orbini, who was the abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Mljet, and a contemporary of the Palunco brothers, asserted that Dubrovnik actually purchased the island of Lastovo from Uroš. Uroš I’s son, Dragutin, casted down his father from the throne in 1276, and relations with Dubrovnik were peaceful. After Dragutin, his brother Stefan Uroš II Milutin ascended the throne in 1282, while their mother, queen Jelena, was ruling the territories of the Serbian littoral. In 1301, a war between king Milutin and Dubrovnik started again, and the Republic attempted to grab the island of Mljet from the Serbs. In 1302, a peace treaty was signed, and we see that the Republic lost the city Epidaurus, and that they had to surrender Mljet to the Benedictines. However, in 1305, Dubrovnik sent three procurators to the Benedictine monastery St. Mary with the clear intention to snatch the island from Apulian monks (Foretić). Pope Clement V left Rome and settled in Avignon under the wing of the French, a move which was declared as “The Babylonian captivity.” The Venetians were in dispute with the pope and the French, and tried to encourage king Milutin to conquer part of Albania, against the interests of the Anjou king. They sent a cunning letter to the king of Serbia on 10th May 1309, flatteringly calling him “the king of Serbia, Zaclumi, Dioclea, and Albania.” Milutin wasn’t hooked to their flattery and as king Charles was focused on the German territories, after the death of the German king, Albert I, in 1308, the Venetian provocative design failed. The Dominican and friend of Pietro Della Palude, Paulinus Venetus, described this historical event in his book Vitae Paparu I. The Ragusan desire to have Mljet was constrained by the interests of the Zorzi family and the Venetians, rather than the Serbian king’s wish to hold onto the island, writes Foretić. In 1318, to the island Mljet was sent the vicecomes (vicecount), as the Republic was taking chances again during a new war (1317-18) with king Milutin. The Treaty was signed on the intervention of Venice this time, and forced Dubrovnik to give up the island of Mljet, at least for the time being. Finally, they managed to assert their rule over the island in 1345, and formally to appropriate it in 1410. In 1321, the new Serbian king was Stefan Uroš III Decani, and Dubrovnik sent envoys in 1323 to try to renegotiate the purchase of the territories around their city. The current political situation was that Dubrovnik’s ally and the ban of Bosnia, Malden II Šubić, made a war with king Milutin in order to take Zahumlje, but had to give up and leave Zahumlje to the much stronger Milutin. According to Foretić, in 1322, he actually lost the whole of Bosnia, and the new ruler became ban Stephen Kotromanić. Ban Stephen and king Uroš III were the contenders for Zahumlje and the peninsula Pelješac, which was the territory of the Serbian king. As the king intended to keep the frontier between Serbia and Bosnia while holding the entire peninsula, Dubrovnik made a cunning attempt to conquer the territory of the peninsula using its only strength – diplomacy, and in it they were supreme. The price they offered for the peninsula was not attractive for the king, and we read that a new round of war erupted in 1331-1332 between Serbia and Bosnia, which ended in a status quo between the warring sides. Dubrovnik pursued its diplomacy with both sides, offering a generous amount of money and a tribute to be paid every year, in order to contrive the desired peninsula. In the Peace Treaty between the king and ban, Dubrovnik finally profited. 97 The Serbian king, Stefan Dušan, signed the charter in 1333, duly accepted by the Bosnian ban, and requested 500 ducats (Venetian golden coins), per year, in order to sell the peninsula to Dubrovnik. In 1346, when Dušan was crowned the Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, the Republic sent an appropriate delegation to Macedonia. In 1350, Stefan Dušan attacked Zahumlje, and Dubrovnik was afraid that he may reconquer the peninsula Pelješac. It is not clear what was his intention, but as the Geeks revolted he had to go south with his army. However, the Emperor accepted the call from the Dubrovnik government and visited the city on his way to Greece. As the Venetians were plotting in Korčula and had clear aspirations against the Benedictines from Mljet, the friars were forced to ask the Serbian king Milutin for the charter of donation and received the confirmation from him in 1320, and consequently from pope John XXII, in 1324. This intervention of the pope was designed by Patriarch Pietro Della Palude who was involved in diplomatic affairs of the curia together with John XXII, as his closest confidant, and that led to the issuing of the papal bull regarding the ownership of the island. There are a number of circumstances and indirect involvements of some members of the Palude family in the diplomatic affairs linked to Dubrovnik, that give us assurances that the project of building the Dominican monastery on Mljet must have been discussed earlier by the Dominicans, the pope John XXII (himself Dominican) and Patriarch Pietro, which were finally executed during the pontificate of Pius V. We should be aware that during the Middle Ages realization of an idea was not as accelerated as it is today, as we could see from the monumental projects of Cathedrales in Europe, built over the centuries from generation to generation of dedicated donators. The clear and present danger from the Ottoman Empire had been in Eastern Europe from the 14th century, and efforts were made at a painfully slow pace for those on the frontline, to make sure that they did not conquer the heart of Europe, or succeed in transforming St. Peters in Rome into a mosque, as they did to Hagia Sophia in 1453, and this year again. A new chapter in Dubrovnik’s history was the Treaty between the Hungarian king Ludovic and Venice, in 1358, as the Venetians were defeated, and had to surrender Dalmatia to the Hungarians. According to the Venetian established diplomacy to try to profit even when defeated, they wanted Dubrovnik with the islands Mljet and Korčula separated from the Treaty, but the Hungarians had the upper hand, and the entire Dalmatia became a vassal of the Hungarians. The major change was that Dubrovnik was allowed to select from their noblemen the future Rector (Latin – rectorum), on a monthly basis. It was an unusual democratic decision that the Rector was elected for only one month at a time, and consequently he was constrained to live for the whole month in the Rector’s palace. Above the entrance to the Palace it is written in Latin: “Obliti privatorum publica curate,” or translated: “Forget private affairs and care about public affairs.” Some of the rulers of the counties had the title capitaneus, and later it became the Latin – comes, and finally, the Italian – conte. Dubrovnik was officially an autonomous Commune, part of the Hungarian kingdom, under the wing of the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia, as Foretić and many other historians stressed. In reality, the Dubrovnik documents (Foretić, the History of Dubrovnik, p. 139) called their ruler the king of Hungary, and only sometimes they called him the king of Hungaria, Croatia and Dalmatia. King Sigmund (1410-36), who was the Emperor of the Romans and Germans, was called only the Emperor. The ban of Croatia and Dalmatia was not involved in internal affairs of Dubrovnik. The Hungarian Coat of Arms was adopted until the fall of Republic. Mljet was under the Benedictine Abbot from 1345 until 1410, when the Count from Šipan became the Count of the island Mljet as well. In 1499, Mljet had its own appointed Count and judges. The Judges were called – judices, or consules (Latin). The new Hungarian king, Mathew Corvinus, issued a charter in 1459 confirming the status of the Republic of Dubrovnik. Corvinus was his nickname because of the raven (Lat. - corvus) on his Coat of Arms. At the Hungarian court during the king’s wedding in 1457 was present Francesco Della Palude, from the Duchy of Savoya, Ippolito d’Este, the ruler of Ferrara and grandson of Niccolo III, who helped Andriolo Della Palude in the confrontation with the Visconti, and the third person mentioned at the wedding party was a certain Stephen “Dubrovnik.” Such a person was unknown, and it was probably a 98 mistake of the scribe. However, it could have been Stephen (Stjepan) Vukčić Kosača, the nephew of Sandalj, who was the ruler of Zahumlje, and who lived in Dubrovnik. He was famous for his arrogance while in Dubrovnik, and as the story goes, by the time when he received the status of a nobleman in Ragusa, he also asked the Ragusans to elect him the Rector of the city. His official title was the Herceg of St. Sava, and the land he ruled was called Hercegovina. Temporarily he was the vassal of Aragon. The king of Aragon, Alfonso V, gave Kosača the title of Knight of Madonna. The powerful king Alfonso V was ruling the Kingdom of Naples from 1442-1458, and Apulia was also his fief.116 In his letters, king Corvinus called Francesco as – Francisi de Palude. Kosača was at odds with Dubrovnik because of its commercial power. Dubrovnik, the City Gate. (Courtesy N. Srzentić) 116 As we have already mentioned, the Aragons were ruling Sicily from 1282, and in 1409, Sicily became part of the Aragon kingdom. Anjous were ruling the Kingdom of Naples, but they were challenged by the French Anjou in 1382, at first Ludovic I Anjou, and in 1384, his son, Ludovic II. Alfonso V became the king of Naples in 1442. Alfonso’s brother, John II, became ruler of Aragon and Sicily in 1458, and his bastard son, Ferdinand I, became the king of Naples. In 1479, the Aragon king, Ferdinand, and the Castilian queen, Isabela, merged into the Kingdom of Spain. In 1504, the Kingdom of Naples became part of the Spanish Kingdom. In the Kingdom of Aragon, the most important part was Catalonia (Catalunya). The Catalonians were present in Dubrovnik from the beginning of the 14th century. 99 T he Rector’s Palace, Dubrovnik. (Courtesy N. Srzentić) Kosača was dependent on Dubrovnik and Kotor for trade with Florence and Venice. The Turks encouraged their vassal Kosača in 1450 to attack Dubrovnik and to conquer the county of Konavle. The 100 next step was to attack the city itself with cannons, but he only managed to destroy the bell tower of the Dominican monastery. In 1452, the Turkish sultan issued an order to his vassal, herceg Stephen, to return the property he conquered from Dubrovnik. A new treaty in 1454 made peace between herceg Stephen and Dubrovnik, and the Republic again became the ruler of the ancient mother city Epidaurus. The Turkish sultan, Murat II, who was married to Mara, the daughter of despot Djuradj Branković of Serbia was a relatively tolerant and he accepted to cease collecting the tribute of 1000 ducats from Dubrovnik, but when he died, his son, the new sultan Mehmed II, decided to finally make himself the ruler of the entire Balkans and to put a heavy price for the freedom of Dubrovnik. The swift attack on Constantinople, in 1453, brought the end of the Eastern Roman Empire. The next attack was against the Serbian capital city, Smederevo, which he conquered in 1459. The Turks demanded tribute in gold, a total of 1500 ducats per year, and Dubrovnik continued to pay the price until its fall in 1808. In 1469, the amount was increased to 5000 gold ducats, and in 1472, the Turks demanded 10 000 ducats. Bosnia was conquered by the Turks in 1463, and herceg Stephen was aware that the Turks had become a danger for his country and the Republic as well. He was ready to ask for refugee on one of the islands of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik made hasty measures for its defense: they made a second defensive wall, all citizens were to be kept ready inside the city walls, all churches outside the walls and some houses were destroyed in order to prevent the Turks from using them during the siege, the water cisterns were disabled, and a number of mercenaries were employed. From Dyrrachium, in Venetian territory, they bought sufficient quantities of grain while expecting a long siege of the city. Pope Pius II was supportive and come to Ancona to direct the new crusade to save Dubrovnik, but there was no excessive enthusiasm in the West for such an undertaking. However, the Venetians were ready to take chances and they conquered the area of the Nerentani that was part of Hercegovina in 1464, and the Hungarian king Corvinus decided to get involved in Dalmatia. The economic pressure from the Turks became unbearable and, in 1480, their demand for tribute was increased to 12 500 gold ducats. Mehmed II issued an order to his count of Bosnia to plunder the counties around Dubrovnik, in order to put extra pressure on the Republic, and consequently, Dubrovnik was forced to increase its tribute to 15 000 gold ducats. That was the price that had to be paid to save their freedom. Europe in the 16th century Emperor Charles V was born in the Netherlands in 1506. His father was Philip of Burgundy and his mother was Joanne of Castilla. He inherited his father’s crown of Burgundy, and after his grandfather Ferdinand died, he inherited the crowns of Spain and Sicily. In 1519, he became the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Archduke of Austria. As he was still young his mother became co-ruler. His involvement in the Italian wars forced France to seek help from the Turks, as was a habit of Venice many times before, which was disgusting behaviour for European rulers. The Ottoman Turks were supreme in the Balkans and they won the decisive Battle of Mohács against the Hungarians and Croats, killing the Hungarian king, Ludovic II, in 1526. Sultan Suleiman conquered a big chunk of Hungary and attempted a siege of Vienna in 1529. We have already described the dire situation in Rome when the capital of the Christianity was sacked by the troops of Charles V in 1527, led by cardinal Colona. Nevertheless, for the Catholics Charles V was a symbol of Christianity, the defender and patron of the Inquisition. He was personally involved in an attack on the Reformists in the Battle of Mühlberg, in 1547, but he allowed the Protestants of Luther and made a treaty with them in Augsburg. Charles’ friendship with the controversial king, Henry VIII of England, was considered as a compromise to the Reformists on account of Rome. 101 The Knights of St. John received Malta from Charles V in 1530 as defenders of Christianity. Sultan Suleiman desired to diminish the influence of Venice in the Mediterranean and to conquer Sicily, and from there to achieve his dream of conquering St. Peters in Rome. Malta was defended with only 700 hundred knights with auxiliary troops, against 40 000 Turks, among them 5000 elite troops – the Janissaries (Serb. Janičari), consisting of Balkan children (mainly Serbian) whom the Turks violently seized from their parents during their teenage years, and then trained militarily in Anatolia. As on many occasions before, European countries were on the sidelines waiting for the epilogue of the battle. Three quarters of the Turkish army were killed in front of the walls of Malta. In 1536, Charles V had his troops in the Duchy of Savoya, when the French king, Francois I, occupied the capital of the Duchy, Turin, and the duke fled to Varcelli. Duke Emmanuel Philbert offered to help France against Spain when he came to the throne in 1553, as the major part of his duchy was occupied by the French. He decided to change sides, and he was appointed by the Spaniards as the governor of the Netherlands (1555-59), during the reign of Philip II Aragon. He led the troops into Northern France, in 1557, in the Battle of St. Quentin, while Marc de Rye, who inherited the Varembon from the Palude, was commanding the troops of Burgundy. The new sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Salim II, attacked Cyprus, which was a colony of Venice, and the “Serenissima,” as Venice liked to call itself, was passive and could not defend the island. The Dominican pope, Pius V, defender of the Ragusan Republic, called for a Holy League in 1570, led by Spain, Genoa, the Papal State and Venice. The commander of the army was Don Juan of Austria, the son of Charles V, and the king of Spain, Philip II. From the island of Corfu they received the news of the death of the Venetian governor of Cyprus who was mutilated by the Turks, with their standard atrocities of cutting off the ears and nose, before his skin was peeled off while he was still alive. The battle with the Turkish fleet was near the island of Lepanto in 1571, and the Turks lost 300 ships and 30 000 soldiers. In their vendetta, the Christians killed all the captains of the ships and most of the elite troops, and consequently the Ottomans lost their prestige in the Mediterranean. The pope venerated the Holy Rosary in this success against the Turks, and new Dominican confraternities were established in Dubrovnik, while the Venetian Senate declared “Madonna of the Victory,” and claimed that Venice had help from the Marian Rosary. Venice became the dominant maritime power again, but only temporarily, because the shift was towards the Atlantic Ocean and the New Territories of the Americas. The Ragusans were reluctant to participate in the Battle of Lepanto and complained to the pope that the Venetians desired that the Turks punish Dubrovnik if they participated, and that the Venetians used every opportunity to blame them at the sultan’s court. L. Kunčević quoted letters of the ambassadors and the pope’s furious response to the Venetians: “You mistreat the Ragusans and you want them destroyed. You desire the things that belong to others and the God will punish you.” 117 While taking chances between the warring countries of Europe, the duke of Savoy, Emmanuel Philbert, managed to reconquer his territories and settle in Turin. He received back his important port of Nice, and made a road through the Alps. During the civil war, and the massacre of the Huguenots in 1572, which was organized by the French queen, Catherine de Medici, against the Reformists of Calvin, the duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I, occupied the French territory of Saluzzo in 1588. King Henri IV demanded the return of the territories, but in the end he agreed to get the territories in Bresse as a compensation, the fiefs which had belonged for five centuries to the Palude family. Charles Emmanuel I was offered the crown of Serbia by the Serbian Patriarch, Jovan Kantul, and the Count Grdan, the descendant of Nikša, nephew of king Vukašin. Nikša became the ruler of the Dioclean county of Nikšić, when he had won the contest of throwing the javelin defeating his uncle, the king. The envoys of the Patriarch were sent to the courts of Europe in 1594 to seek help for the war against the Turks in the aftermath of Lepanto. A document from Dubrovnik in 1596 asserts the correspondence L. Kunčević: Dubrovačka slika Venecije i venecijanska slika Dubrovnika u ranom Novom vjeku, Anali Dubrovnik, 2012. 117 102 between the leaders from Hercegovina and the pope, as pope issued a number of papal bulls encouraging a holy war against the Turks. The Dominicans proclaimed that their main task was to liberate the Christians from the suzerainty of the Turks, and Dubrovnik was considered a safe haven on the front line with the Ottomans. The Dominican, Augustin Quintius, the bishop of Korčula during the time when the family Palunco arrived in Dubrovnik, tried to ferment rebellion in Albania, a colony of Venice, but the Venetians were not satisfied with his actions which would have made their trade with the Ottomans difficult. Augustin was involved in an attempt to liberate the ancient town of Klis, near Split, a stronghold of the Turks in Bosnia. After the defeat of the Turkish ruler of Klis, Mustafa pasha, in the battle near the town of Sisak in 1593, the sultan made an offensive against Emperor Rudolf II, and pope Clement VIII tried to form a Holy League of European rulers, who were reluctant to stand against the Turks. Emperor Rudolf gave an order to his viceroy of Naples to organize an alliance and Clement VIII’s envoy met the Dominican Augustin in 1595. The town of Klis was conquered in 1596 by the Croatian Uskoks, famous rebels and part-time pirates, ready to fight against any conqueror of their littoral. The Venetians insisted that Klis had to be returned to the Turks, while protecting their trade interests, and asked their governor of Dalmatia to arrest the Dominican. The papal nunicio (envoy) wrote that the Venetians didn’t kill him only because they had to show some respect to Rome. Serbian rebels were assembled by Kantul and were defeated in their first battle in Gacko in 1597. Patriarch Kantul negotiated with the duke of Savoya to send troops and received the crown of Macedonia from the Patriarch, and he insisted that he would have been able to raise an army of 20 000 strong. The plans were allegedly delayed because they had to organize the fleet from Spain, and the Patriarch and Grdan continued to send envoys to Pius V. The rebels called on the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily for help. After a meeting in Kosjerevo, Kantul and Grdan sent a letter to Emmanuel I and, in 1608, they begged the pope to intervene with the Spaniards. On the 13th December 1608, the leader of Montenegro, Brda, and Old Montenegro declared in the monastery Morača, the duke of Savoy, Emmanuel I, their king. In 1610, and 1612, the duke of Mantua, Vicenco Gonzaga, sent envoys to Dubrovnik and they met clandestinely, outside the city walls, with the representatives of Kantul rebels. However, Emmanuel I was totally uncommitted and disinterested to fight the Turks, and he pursued a different agenda, he decided to change sides and with the French troops he attacked Spain and conquered Alba. Count Grdan died in 1612, and Patriarch Kantul was captured and thrown into a Constantinople prison and his unsuccessful attempt to make allies with the Europeans and fight the Turks was ended. Nevertheless, the stage for the Palunco brothers was set when they left Sicilian soil and dedicated themselves, as their ancestors had done following the Crusaders, Templars and Knights of St. John, in the holy war to liberate the Holy Sepulcher from the Saracens, and afterwards the whole of Christianity from the Turks. The Palude family had two ancestors that distinguished themselves, one in a holy war of the Knights of St. John, and the other in his missionary work in the Far East, and we should use the opportunity to mention them. Antoine de Paule was born in Provence in 1551, and died in Malta in 1636, while he was the Grand Master of St. John (1623-36), a title that was in rank equal of an archbishop. He was at odds with the pope because of his lifestyle that the pope didn’t approve of, but he was highly respected among the ordinary folk and his contemporaries. His subjects decided to name a city in Malta in his honour and they called it – Paola. The story that appalled the pope was his alleged duels with swords, by Antoine and his brother, which took place in Marseille, and during a duel one of his opponents was killed, and the brothers had to flee the city. However, Antoine became a famous knight and his peers elected him the Grand Master of the Order. The second member of the family was more pious and dedicated to the church as a bishop. Francois Palu (1626-84), was the founder of the Association of the missionaries in Paris, and was appointed the bishop of Helopolis and Apostolic vicar of Tonkin in Laos, Indo-China, and also five Chinese provinces, in 1628. Accompanied by his two fellow bishops he spent 24 months traveling to his destination. They had to walk throughout India, starting from the area of today’s Pakistan, because the Portuguese refused to transport them, and the Netherlands and England were disinterested in Catholic missionaries. They 103 arrived in the capital of Siam – Ayutthaya, where they founded the Seminar of St. Joseph in 1666. Palu returned to France in 1673, to publish his notes of the missionary work, and on the return to Tonkin the following year a huge Pacific storm forced him to disembark in Manila, where he was arrested and sent to Acapulco, in Mexico, and from there to Spain, in order to be persecuted. He was set free only after the pope Innocent and the French king Louis XIV intervened. After he unintentionally travelled around the world, he returned to China in 1684, in the diocese of Fuzhou, and the same year he died in Muyang, Jiangsu. Dubrovnik from the 15th century until the collapse of Republic As we have seen, effort to unite the Greek and Latin Church failed and the cardinal Ludovico Della Palude was unsuccessful even with the support of the Byzantine Emperor and Patriarch. A Dominican from Dubrovnik and a professor in Paris, Ivan Stojković, was convinced that only a united Europe could stop the invasion of Islam. 118 He was the envoy from the Council of Basle, most probably together with Ludovico, and he was sent to Constantinople to negotiate with the Emperor, John VIII Paleologus, in 1435. However, Stojković affirmed that pope Eugen IV was the main obstacle. According to JanekovićRömer the pope sent a false declaration from the Council and that created conflict between the two delegations. The Dominican Stojković’s handwriting was used for Erasmus of Rotterdam’s work on the New Testament. Based on Stojković’s work in Constantinople and the translation of the Greek Doukas, Ptolemy’s “Geography” was printed. Ludovic Crijević Tuberon, scholar from Paris and monk, wrote: “The Catholics and the Orthodox, from their madness, or God’s fury against the Christians, consider each other the infidels and heretics who should be excommunicated, even though both churches, if we neglect the fatal mockery, contemplate about the God equally, differing only in the church rites not in their faith.” However, Dubrovnik didn’t allow the Orthodox or Muslims an overnight stay in their city, because of a fear towards them, rather than of intolerance, having in mind that they allowed a synagogue within the city walls when Jews were persecuted and only allowed to settle in the ghettos in the rest of the Europe. According to Ragusan119 legend, while in Dubrovnik in the 13th century, Francis of Assisi said that Ragusa would have independence so long as it distanced itself from other faiths, especially from the Orthodox. That was changed only after the fall of the Republic when Napoleon ordered all faiths equal. The Orthodox were supported by Peter the Great of Russia, and despite of opposition, the first church was built at the Orthodox cemetery in Boninovo, outside the city walls. In 1877, with the license from the Austro-Hungarians, the church of St. Annunciation was built, replacing the old dilapidated family house of the famous poet Gundulić. The Czech historian, K. Jireček, asserts that John of Ravenna (1384-87) wrote that the Ragusans slept on the floor (solo passim cubant) covered with animal skins and dressed (dormitant ac vestiti quidem). At the same time even the Byzantine Emperor slept on the floor, reports Jireček. However, in the Ragusan houses of the noblemen we read of wooden beds (lictum de lingo) from 1283. Jireček mentioned the bad habit of Ragusan maids to spill a night pot through the window in Dubrovnik’s narrow streets on the Z. Janeković-Römer: O utjecaju bizantske kulture u renesansnom Dubrovniku i Dalmaciji, Anali Dubrovnik, 2006. 119 The citizens considered themselves as Ragusans, and the citizens of the Sicilian city of Ragusa thought of the Balkan Ragusa as older than their city. The name Dubrovnik, derived from the Slavic – dubrava “forest,” was used for the first time in the charter of the ban Kulin in the late 12th century. 118 104 heads of late nocturnal pedestrians. Consequently, one priest and a cooper accused the maid who moistened their clothes from above, by “urceus plenus pisaco.” Information of the colour of hair and tan is scarce, but numerous Ragusan poets wrote about “blond hair”, “golden plaits” and “the whitest hands.” According to anthropologist N. Župančić, the Illyrians were blond, and the Byzantine authors wrote of the Slavs as tall and with reddish hair. The noble wives in Dubrovnik had a few hermelin coats as from the 14th century. The Ragusan government bought in Venice (in 1446) as present for the wife of the despot Branković, Jelena, 10 meters of fine corduroy and a fur “pelle de armelini” for 300 ducats (as per Consilum Regatorum I). The Ragusans always exchanged presents with their visiting dignitaries, usually rare materials for clothes, rare fruits and spices. In 1442, they sent to the Bosnian ruler, Tvrtko II, the salted fish, lemons, sugar and spices. The king was happy with the gifts, and soon enough, he requested more. According to the archive, the Ragusans refused this request as unhonorable (gran manchamento de honre). The most popular was a silver button on the clothes (lambreta, bottoni), and the most distinguished part of the clothes was a belt, for the ladies one made of corduroy, and for men made of a leather with a silver buckle, together with a scabbard for the knife (cultellum feritorium). Within the city walls swords were forbidden. All arms were left at the city gate with the sentries. The peasants outside the city walls were seldom seen without a bow and arrows. Philip de Diveris says that the noble Ragusan women had hats padded with silk. Slaves were present in the city, as we read from the court records in the 13th century, there were certain women for entertainment called “amica” (friend) or “ancilla” (slave). Every port of the cities had a bordello and a woman was called – puttana, and a bordello house was called euphemistically the castelletum, writes Jireček. A manager in such bordello was called “a sinful nun.” Jireček was a famous researcher who spent many years in the Archive of Dubrovnik, and he tells that the main clients were the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, according to the court books for the year 1400 – called “batessa di bordello.” The Ragusan monasteries for the nuns (monasterium pulcellarum) were unpopular in Dubrovnik, and the monastery St. Clara, which was reserved for the daughters of the local patricians, was notorious for the disobedience of the nuns. So, the Senate, in 1518, had to put a sentry at the door. It was obviously insufficient, and the government had to advise them that they would have destroyed the staircase if necessary in order to keep them inside. In Kotor, Montenegro, the monastery of St. Clare was famous for the disobedience of the nuns and finally Rome had to ban entry of new sisters. Some of the friars were not much more pious than the sisters, and according to legend, a young lady from a wealthy Lopud family was visiting a Benedictine monk from the monastery St. Andria at the small island off the port of Ragusa. The monk would have light on the sea shore and she would follow the light in order to rich the shore. Her brothers fixed the fisherman light at the vessel and dragged her to the open sea where she was drowned. This story was first recorded by the Czech nobleman, John Lopkovic, who wrote it on his way to Palestine. The second writer who mentioned the story was Straoarola di Carvaggio in his poem “Piacevoli notti,” from 1550. The historical basis was the story about the nobleman Jacob Crijević, who was the prior of the monastery St. Andria, and who was clandestinely visiting the neighbouring island of Lopud while meeting a certain lady. The citizens reported him and the monk was punished in 1483, to spend years under house arrest on the islet of St. Andria. In Dubrovnik literature we find this episode in the poem “Remeta,” written by Mavro Vetranić. The Palunco were judges and it would be interesting to see what kind of persecution and indictments were delivered in contemporary Dubrovnik. In the court books we find that ordinary people sued each other for public insults such as: liar, traitor, leprose, slave, “filius meretricus”, “maritus meretricus”, or “asine mortue,” which means “a dead donkey,” among the male population; the women called each other: “rufiana”, “metrix vetus”, “putana puzolenta,” etc. Every insult (maleficia) had a proper tariff that had to be paid to the court. More dangerous were the armed robbers who would steal cattle in front of the city walls. The most important were the disputes between counties and kingdoms. In that case, the ruler was present and, as Baltazar Bogišić wrote, such a meeting was called – parlamentum, stanicum (Lat.), conventus 105 (Lat.) or colegia (Greek).120 The meetings took place at the frontier on neutral ground and the number of representatives could be up to 12. They were elected by both sides (electi de voluntate partium), in capacity of the “advocatus” or “auditor.” It was agreed that one party had to wait for the arrival of other party at the frontier for seven days, or in the case of neighbouring counties, until the stars appear in twilight. The template for this kind of medieval court we find in the 8th century contracts between the Lombards and the city of Naples. The Lombard count (domnus Arichis, glorius princeps) in a court case with Naples, in 774, was obligated to show the proof of purchase of the land (cartula empfionis). The meetings at the frontier, between Dubrovnik and Zahumlje, were held in front of the church St. Stephen, in the bay of Zaton near Dubrovnik. In 1332, during the above mentioned efforts of the Republic to purchase the peninsula Pelješac from the Serbian king, a court meeting was called regarding the dispute about the tax (margarisium) that had to be paid to the king. The Ragusans had two attorneys (advocati), and six noblemen as members of the jury (nobiles iuratores). They were waiting for the representatives from the king, from the county of Zahumlje (de terra Chelmi) for three days. In medieval Serbia, the Ragusans had to present their case in front of the king himself, who would have appointed two magistrates, one from Dubrovnik, and another from Serbia. From the 15th century we follow the ceremony of reconciliation called – accordium “finis de homicidiis et sanguine,” in a presence of the jury – “arbitri arbitratores amicabiles.” To pursue revenge for a murder (vendetta per sangue) was considered a medieval right, and one had to announce publicly one’s wish to pursue the vendetta (cridare sanguinem). In the 15th century, the vendetta was still present in Belgium,121 and the duke, Philippe of Burgundy, wrote 58 letters regarding the vendetta in 1467. The Swiss still pursued the vendetta in the 17th century, but the Corsicans and Sicilians never stopped with it. Jireček reports that a trader from Dubrovnik, di Basso, died in Serbia in 1428, but before he passed away he wrote a testament, and according to the ancient Bavarian law (Lex Baiuvariorum) he touched the ears of his witnesses, and they confirmed the validity of the last will as he touched their ears (“e tocha mi la orechia, assegnadomi per guarente”). Robbers in Serbia had to prove their innocence by taking hot iron from the fire in front of the church, and to bring it to the altar (iudicum candentis ferri manualis). If there was no injury, the robber would be set free. This custom was adopted in Hungary and in Dalmatia, and it was a part of court procedure in the island of Rab, used in the persecution of robbers, or murderers by poison. In Dubrovnik courts torture of a prisoner was allowed (poni facere ad tormentum) if he was a pirate and a major robber. Italians who visited Serbia were surprised to find out that there was no capital punishment, but only financial punishment, even for murder. The price for murder was established between Dubrovnik and Serbia, and the amount of 500 perpers was enough to set one free. When the Ragusan nobleman, Marko Lukarević, killed a Serb in 1306, the Rector of Dubrovnik insisted that the punishment should have been the capital one, as per the Statute of Dubrovnik, and the Venetian doge was engaged to ask the king of Serbia to introduce capital punishment (punire mortem pro morte). When the Ragusan envoys arrived to the king’s court, he advised them that “they could have done in their own city whatever it pleased them, but he would have not spilled the blood of his subjects (nolebat spargere sanguinem suorum), and he would have continued to rule according to his oath.” After that event, the Rector of Ragusa, Andriolo Dauro, announced that the citizen who would have murdered a Serb would have been punished only to pay 500 perpers. Capital punishment was taken from the Byzantine law, for a patricide or killing of children, and such a murderer would have been burned at the stake. A widespread punishment in Dubrovnik was burning of the one’s beard, or hair (comburere barbam et caput). The sentries of the Ragusan city wall, who left their post, were punished by burning of the beard, as it was considered an appropriate punishment. The same punishment was given if one would have dared B. Bogišić: Stanak (stanicum) nach dem Rechtsstatut der Republik Ragusa vom Jahre 1272, Arch. Slav. Phill. II, 1877. 121 Ch. Petit-Dutaillis, Documents nouveaux sur les moeurs populaires et le droit de vengeance dans les Pays-Bas au XVe siècle. Lettres de Remission de Philippe le Bon, Bibliotheque du XVe sicle, t. IX, Paris, 1908. 120 106 to scold a judge. A public reprimand was given to a lesser offender who would be tied to the stake, in the case of Dubrovnik it was the stone pillar called – berlina (Ital.), which is still standing at the main city street also known as the Orlando pillar. The brothers Zamagno, allegedly plotting with the ruler of Serbia, Stefan Lazarević, in 1400, received the death penalty, and their bodies were hung in front of the notorious Orlando pillar and they were buried under the marble pavement blocks, next to the Franciscan monastery of the Minor friars in the busiest city street Stradun. The harshest punishment was for an offender to be send to a galley as a rower, while literally being nailed to the oar, or the bench. In 1606, the islanders of Lastovo rioted against the Republic, and the Senate sent them a warning that “the punishment could have been four months, or even more of rowing on a galley.” The islanders were often punished with the rope around the neck tied down around a rock, or with a heavy rock roped around the neck. F. W. Carter wrote that “the governors (counts) were ruling as despots, and that the ideas of liberty were not only restricted to a limited class, but did not extend a yard beyond the (city) walls… on the whole the citizens - “cittadini” were ruled with wisdom and without oppression,” contrary to the popular view of the extraordinary freedom (Sisak, 2011) in the Republic (F.W. Carter, 1972). The insurrection of the Lastovo noblemen was defeated brutally, and any indication of the spreading of the Reformation would have been confronted without mercy. It was said, that even pirates had the ‘democratic’ right to lodge a complaint against a sentence, but only until a candle, on the table of the judge, would have burned out. Piracy was the main problem for trade in the Mediterranean Sea since time immemorial. Bernard the Monk, in his famous “Itiner Hierosolymitana,” a travel record of his journey to Jerusalem, reported the industrial level of piracy and slavery in Taranto, Apulia. The pirates gathered 12 000 slaves for the markets in Africa, and Italians, in order to gain profit, rather than became slaves themselves, participated in gathering and safekeeping slaves, putting the chains, and escorting them. Luitprand of Cremona wrote in the 9th century that the Slavs who were hunted by the Saxons were sold to the Franks, and then resold to the Jews, who were escorting the “Saqaliba” in the chains through Provence and Catalonia, to the caliphate of Anadalusia, in front of the ‘shocked’ bishops.122 All social layers were included, even the high profile of the Italian clergy participated in hunting their neighbours, Christians, for slavery. Naples was notorious for its dealings with the Saracens. Amalfi made a fortune for the logistical support and transport of slaves from the 9th century. The markets in Naples were crowded and looked as rich as the markets of Africa. Amalfi became the international capital for the slave trade. While Italians were hiding in the mountains and forests, traders from Amalfi could be seen in ports from Tunisia to Constantinople, decorated with Saracen gold. Catalonians were hunting slaves in the Adriatic, and the government of Dubrovnik issued a strict order in 1418 that the slavery was prohibited and punishable. Alfonso V of Aragon issued a charter in 1428, in order to protect the Ragusan ships from Sicilian and Catalan pirates. The island of Mljet was under constant threat from pirates and the citizens organized sentries on high mountain points. Dj. Bašić wrote that pirates attacked Venetian ships with Jews and shipment of silk in the port of the monastery St. Maria in 1542.123 The Uskoks from Senj were notorious pirates and in 1588 they robbed Mljet and killed number of peasants and kidnapped the count himself. According to a city report from 1605, around the island of Mljet pirates were waiting in ambush with at least eight ships, lurking for unprotected merchant ships. The Senate of Dubrovnik ordered patrols with three armed ships between Mljet and Vratnik. In 1808, the piracy was recorded even by the Royal English navy, and HMS ship loaded with stolen grain was escorted to the port of Dubrovnik, by the Ragusan navy captain Vicenco Vilenik. The English were accustomed to piracy with war ships from 1811, using the temporary weakness of the French fleet. They have regularly used the port of Polače in Mljet, and their base was on the island of Vis, and from there they organized attacks on the islands Mljet, Lastovo and Korčula, in 1813. According to the writing of J. Mastrović, they left those islands to Austria in 1815. 124 The pirates from 122 Luitprand of Cremona: Antapodosis, translation: F. A. Wright, London, 1930. Dj. Bašić: Otok Mljet u svetlu (hidro) arheoloskih nalaza i povjesti (pomorstva) na plovnom putu istočnojadranske obale, Mljet-Pomena, 2010. 124 J. Mastrović: The Last Pirates in the Adriatic Sea, 1983. 123 107 Budva were taken prisoners in 1359, and they were blinded publicly at the main square. In 1416, some arrested pirates were tortured, and the bail was set at eightfold the value of the stolen goods, that had to be paid before the candle would have burned down (infra tempus combustionis unius candele ab uno folaro), and the puzzled pirates were complaining that the time given for bail was too short, but they were, nevertheless, escorted to the hangman, according to Jireček (Liber maleficiorum, the Ragusan Archive, 1416). Before the island Mljet was taken over by the Republic, the monastery building was used as the carantine for sailors in 1397, the first such carantine in Europe, and at the beginning of the 16th century as a hospital for the sick of the plague (Bašić). That was the basis of many island’s legends about the leprosy sailors returning from the crusades, that were left on the island and then after recovering, allegedly they brought their wives. The writer known as Ragusan Anonym is the source for the early legend of St. Vlaho, the saint patron of the Republic, who was introduced by archbishop Vitalis, early in the 11th century. Vitalis had called the Benedictines from the Abbey of St. Mary in Tremiti in Apulia, in 1023, to build the monastery on the island of Locrum, strategically placed in front of the city port. At the same time, the Norman, William of Hauteville, was the self-proclaimed count of Apulia. Vitalis was the most important member of the medieval Ragusan church, and the second in rank was the abbot of the monastery in Locrum (Lučić). According to the narrative of Anonym in the 10th century the Venetian fleet had arrived in Ragusa, in order to clandestinely conquer the city. Every night they tried to scale the city walls, which had been defended by an old man dressed in white clothes. After two weeks of unsuccessful attempts of the Venetians, the old man had introduced himself as the saint that was sent to defend the city. Dubrovnik was a peripheral zone where the Roman and Constantinopolitan ecclesiastical influences met, often containing evidence of the intermingling of cults that were characteristic of both Churches.125 The case of St. Pancratius (St. Pancras) is testimony of the efforts of Rome to assert its ecclesiastical policy in the Ragusan territory. Porphyrogenitus tells of the St. Stephen Protomartyr church in the middle of ancient Ragusa which was the resting place of the relics of St. Pancratius. According to “The Golden legend” of Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1260), St. Stephen’s relics were found by the cleric Lucian, near Jerusalem in 417, and the body was later transferred to Constantinople by Julia, the wife of the senator Alexander, and it was removed to Rome by the time of Emperor Theodosius (408-450). According to Živković, the emergence of the relics of the saints Achillius, Nereus, Domitilla and Petronilla in Ragusa before 948, indicated Rome’s interest in Ragusa long before that of Byzantium. St. Pancratius, St. Stephen Protomartyr, St. Sergius and Bacchus were particularly venerated in Rome (Lives of the Popes). The cult of St. Sergius and Bacchus is of Byzantine origin (Liber Pontificalis). The hill which dominates the city of Ragusa was called St. Sergius because of the church St. Sergius (Ecclesia sancti Sergii, today the Slavic name is Srdj). Honorius (625-38) rebuilt the basilica of St. Pancratius on Via Aurelia. St. Pancratius relics were sent to king Oswiu in Northumbria, and the cult spread rapidly in England. In the time of pope Hadrian (772-795), the Palude family members were in Rome guarding the relics of St. Basilides. The churches of St. Pancratius, St. Stephen the Protomartyr and St. Petronilla were richly endowed and Hadrian’s successor, Leo III (795-816), presented a number of silver icons and embroidered vestments to the church of St. Pancratius. He produced the gold crown for the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, in 800, when the riots in Rome erupted against Leo III, and the Palude left Rome with the relics of St. Basilides. Anonym wrote his Annals of Ragusa, and Niccolo di Ragnina, used it as the basis of his Annals of Ragusa (T. Živković). Anonym wrote that a group of refugees who came from Rome were the descendants of Radoslav, the Slavonic king, led by Pavlimir Belo, and that they brought with them relics: St. Petronilla, St. Domitilla, two pieces of the Holy Cross, St. Sergius, St. Nereus, St. Achilleus and St. Pancratius. Živković asserts that the pope Zaharias exploited the internal discords in Byzantium T. Živković: The Earliest Cults of The Saints in Ragusa, Recueil des travaux de l’Institut d’etudes byzantines, XLIV, 2007. 125 108 supporting the count Artabazd against the legitimate Constantine V, in his effort to extend the influence of Rome in Ragusa. Introducing the cult of St. Vlaho (St. Blaise, the Armenian bishop, perished in 320) by the Ragusan bishop, Vitalis, should be seen as the opposite, extending the influence of Constantinople over Dubrovnik, when Dioclea openly revolted against the Byzantine Emperor, and when its ruler Michael convinced the pope to elevate Antibari (Bar) to the status of archbishopric. Michael’s anti-Byzantine policy was widespread and resulted, in 1077, in his independence and he became the vassal of pope Gregorius VII, and received his king’s crown, at the time when the Tuscan province was ruled by the contesse Matilde of Canossa and her military commander was Arduino Della Palude. The cult of St. Pancratius was strong in Mljet after the Republic took it over officially in 1410, and introduced the new cult of St. Vlaho, neglecting the church of St. Pancratius, and building churches of its patron in new conquered or purchased territories of the Republic. Ana Marinković affirms that the building of six new churches of St. Vlaho explains the importance of the patron in the territorial policy of the expansion of medieval Dubrovnik (A. Marinković, 2007). The church of St. Vlaho was built between 1420 and 1430, near the church of St. Pancratius, as Marinković stresses, “because of the painless transfer of authority and tradition.” However, after 1430, the church of St. Pancratius was still operational, according to the donations of the local population, until 1457. The seal of the Community of Mljet had the image of St. Pancratius in 1571. It is recorded that the meetings continued to be held in front of the old patron’s church of St. Pancratius (sancto Pangratio, protector de nostra isula de Meleda) as late as in 1549, and that in 1581, the villagers refused to maintain the road that led from the count’s court to the church of St. Vlaho, thus showing a kind of displeasure towards the new patron. By building the portico next to the church of St. Vlaho, the Palunco brothers strengthened the importance of the cult of St. Vlaho, and firmly established the meeting place for the community, while showing their allegiance to the Republic. The Ragusan investment in churches and monasteries contributed significantly to social stability. The good governance of the ruling class was based on the rule of law, codified in the Statute from 1272. The nobility paid attention to the well-being of lower classes employed in shipyards, trade, and services to a degree that most historians would describe it as unusual for the medieval period. Sisak argued (2011) that “the loyalty of the population to the social order and the structure of governance was atypical compared to other cities in Adriatic,” and we should add, also compared to the plutocratic cities of northern Italy – Florence and Venice. However, De Diversis wrote, in 1440, that “many noblemen and traders have a great wealth, while the majority live in the sheer poverty.” 126 Some authors asserted that the Ragusan “lack of location” was a vehicle towards success, but in the process of asserting it, they forgot that all other Dalmatian cities had an equal ‘lack’ as Dubrovnik, living on the edge – at the frontier with the Turks. The absurd assumption of those historians is the product of repetitions of the Venetian statement that Ragusa is “la citta felice” (the happy city), under the “la serenissima’s” wing and guidance. The Venetians liked to say that Ragusa was not a free community, but a helpless city dependent on the mighty Ottoman Empire and themselves. Stavrinos made a treatise on the Balkans in 1958, and he was the first author to stress the anti-Westernism of the Balkan culture in the medieval period, with the only exception of Ragusa (quoted in Havrylyshyn, Srzentić, 2014). A good example is despot Djuradj Branković’s answer to the Byzantine Emperor, as to why he was reluctant to accept the unification of the Latin and Greek churches: “I am the neighbour of the Latins and have a relationship with them. I know well their speech, temper and customs. Thus, as I know them well, I don’t think it is necessary to send even one representative (to the Council of Florence).”127 In Ragusa one find a 126 Philippi de Diversis de Quartigianis Lucensis atrium doctoris eximii et oratoris situs aedificiorum, politiae et laudabilium consuetudinum inclitae civitatis Ragusii, (1440), V. Brunelli, Programma del Ginnasio di Zara (18791882). 127 Despot Branković was a pious Orthodox Christian, who transferred the relic of St. Luke from Epirus to his Serbian capital Smederevo in 1453, according to Omont, Bibliotheque de l’ecole des chartes LIII, 1892. “Theodoreti sermo de s. Lucae, evangel. Translationibus, Constantinopolis, Rogi, Semendria 1453.”; Ruvarac, 1868. 109 totally different approach: secular, open-minded, business orientated, closely related to the West, good governance, rule of law, open society, minimal expenditure for troops (mercenaries), and the use of diplomatic skills instead of arms. Carter was wondering “how a small republic with few natural advantages could grow and develop mainly through her function as a trade and political intermediator between the underdeveloped regions of the Balkans and Levant, and the more developed regions of western Europe.” Carter wrote: “Thus, by her successful diplomacy Dubrovnik was under the aegis of seven different powers: Spain, the Papal State, the Kingdom of Naples, Venice, Hungary, the Ottoman empire, and the Barbary Beys, and although they were often at odds with some of their protectors, they could always play one off against the other…” Ragusa was a cosmopolitan society, as Philip de Diversis described it: “The Ragusans, the commoners and patricians, the sumptuous appearance of their wives,128 friars, government office-holders, domestics and servants, peasants from surrounding villages and their livestock, merchants from afar, the Turks, Morlacs, pilgrims unroll before us… the kings, archbishops, famous people… but also desperate individuals in search of their loved ones, enslaved by the Turks.” By the end of the 16th century, the Republic of Dubrovnik experienced gradual decline, like the rest of the Mediterranean states, as the trade focus shifted towards the Atlantic, as a result of Vasco de Gama’s rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. It is commonly agreed that the peak of Ragusa’s importance was in the second half of the 16th century, and that the causes of the decline was a shift of the economic advance to western powers: Portugal, Spain, at first, and then England and the Netherlands, and at last France. Lane described this change as “the collapse of Venice,” which is in our opinion an exaggeration, as if one would claim today that USA collapsed as a result of the economic growth of China (F.C. Lane, 1973). That is rather a gradual process that lasts at least one century. As we know, Vasco de Gama established a colony in India in 1503, and brought back the long awaited spices in 1506. From the work of O. Havrulyshyn and N. Srzentić we can see that the Ragusan shipping capacity continued to grow until the end of that century.129 As in the case of Sicily, the ships going out to the Atlantic, bringing spices and goods from India and China were not as cost effective as those from Portugal or Spain. The Ragusan efforts to compensate by renting ships to major powers failed, and attempts to engage in the Atlantic trade with England and Spain were limited. The Ragusans and Venetians established a trading colony in Goa, and the Turks tried to maintain a monopoly on the spice trade relaying via the port of Alexandria. The Ragusans were famous for their merchant ships – Argosies, mentioned in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” Srzentić explains: “Argosy: A large merchant ship especially one with a rich cargo (1570-80), earlier Ragusy, Italian – Ragusea, a ship of Ragusa (Webster’s dictionary, NY, 2003).” Encyclopedia Britannica 1963 gives more detail: “Argosy is the term originally used for a carrack or merchant ship from Ragusa or other Adriatic port, later used poetically of any vessel carrying rich merchandise. In English writings of the sixteenth century, the sea port is variously spelled (Ragusa, Aragouse, or Aragosa). The incorrect derivation from Jason’s ship the ‘Argo,’ is of modern origin.” A great earthquake destroyed Dubrovnik on 24th December 1667. The tremor lasted only seconds, but the huge rocks rolling down from the hill Srdj leveled the houses in the city, and the sea rushed inland crushing the ships in the port. The stormy wind added to the disaster by blowing the fires around the city His profits from the silver mines in Novo Brdo and Srebrenica were, according to Knight Bertrandon’s writing, 230 000 ducats, per year. The mines were run by the Saxons, and traders were the Ragusans and Venetians. Alfonso V Aragon wrote Branković in 1455 that he had found gold and silver in Sicily, but he didn’t have specialized workers. The Ragusans wrote of “salnitrum” used for separating gold from silver. 128 De Diversis was shocked by the appearance of the silver diadem in a shape of a horn, popular in the 15 th century in Konavli, near Ragusa (cornua slavica argenti). This custom was banned in 1315, as Jireček reports, and it was a custom that the bride had to carry a horn (portare corna). The Florentine poet, Sacetti, wrote the poem “Sciavona,” and said that their women were not nice, because they looked like the devil with horns. Truhelk (Die phrygische Mutze in Bosnien, Wiss. Mitt. IV, 1896) wrote that the women of Srebrenica, in Bosnia, wore the Phrygian hat made of dry linen plait shaped as a horn. 129 O. Havrylyshyn, N. Srzentić: Economy of Ragusa, 1300-1800, The Tiger of the Medieval Mediterranean, The Twentieth Dubrovnik Economic Conference, Zagreb, 2014. 110 for four days. The only church that was left standing was the Dominican church. After the first attempt to save the injured and the property, the citizens fled in front of a wall of fire onto the ships and disembarked on the neighbouring islands or islets. The Ragusans kept the number of casualties undisclosed, in order to hide it from the Turkish observers and Venetian ships, as the citizens were afraid that they would became easy prey, and be captured. The Rector was dead, as well as many of the citizens, and among the few key members of the council still alive, it was decided to stay and rebuild the city, not to leave the city and go to Apulia, as was the first reaction among the population - to flee from the disaster. The brave initiative of the nobleman, Luca Zemagna, pushed the unenthusiastic patricians from their lethargy and swift decisions were made at the meeting held in the Rivelin fortress. Consequently, the citizens were banned from abandoning the territory of the city, and ordered to sweep the streets of the rubble. The Dalmatian governor, Conaro, who was a Venetian official, arrived with three ships to survey the city, and the remaining Ragusans in charge asked him to leave the town and not to provoke the Turks who were assessing the situation in Ragusa from the hills above the city. The only reason they didn’t attack the city was that there was nothing left and nothing to gain from the rubble. Research from the University of Arizona, Tucson, discovered recently that the tectonic split in the seabed is 200 km long in the south-western direction towards the island of Mljet, which was significantly damaged in the earthquake. The Dominican monastery built by the Palunco sometime between 1624 and 1640 was destroyed in the earthquake. The following year, the Turks demanded a huge tribute from the Republic, and threatened Ragusa if they refused to pay. The traditional friends from Naples and Rome helped them to pay the tribute, but only a quarter of the amount requested. The Turks were defeated at the siege of Vienna and Ragusa paid tribute to Austria from 1684. The demographic situation worsened, and from 48 000 inhabitants in 1610, the number decreased to 25 000 at the end of the 17th century. The Republic made unsuccessful efforts to make good diplomatic relations with Louis XIV, as the French king accused them of siding with Austria, and in 1705, the Ragusan ships were confiscated. The Austrian period from 1684 brought a long decline, as the glory days of economic prosperity were long over. Dubrovnik signed an unfavourable trade agreement with the French, which led to the further decline of its economy. After the Ragusans confiscated a Russian ship in Genoa, they were equally treated in the entire Mediterranean Sea, and the Russians confiscated Ragusan ships. The confrontation with the Russians cost the Republic 20 000 ducats, which they had to pay at the Treaty in Pisa. When the Ragusan nobleman Ranjina duly paid the money to Orlov, he was also obliged to allow a Russian consul in Dubrovnik. The Republic never recovered from the blows of the catastrophic earthquake, and during the era of Napoleon wars, between the French and Austrians, the first great casualty was Venice in 1797, the second was Dubrovnik. Napoleon became the king of Italy after coronation in Milan, and his older brother Joseph was crowned the king of Naples and Sicily. The French ended the independence of the Republic in 1806. The Treaty of Pozun, between the French and Austria, in 1805, gave Napoleon the territory of Dalmatia, and Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, and the Republic opened its gates to the French the following year. The Senate was abolished in 1808, and the city was totally ruined by the French confiscation of its entire fleet. The proud Republic became insignificant overnight and was embedded in the French Kingdom of Illyria. However, the contemporary rulers of Dubrovnik were still evoking the suzerainty of their city, calling the French officials to the fortress Srdj on the day of their surrender, the fortress which was built by the French, using local cheap labour, after occupation in order to secure their captured city. No nation celebrates its suzerainty and the proud people commemorated its victims. The historical estimate is that there were a hundred thousand forgotten victims of the Napoleonic wars in the Balkans, the stagnation and plaque. Historians call it “argumentum ex silentio,” as there is no written record of those atrocities, and the politicians are making the ‘commendable’ effort to forget the past, because, hey, we are all members of the EU now. 111 The last days of the prosperous Republic were described by the nephew of bishop Vice Palunco. Marko Murat was the son of Marko Murat and Kate Palunco, the sister of the bishop.130 He was writing the stories he heard from his grandmother, Maria Palunco. According to his book “The Reminiscences and reflections,” the population was exasperate and disillusioned, and blamed the rulers for the current state of anarchy. Everywhere they outcried in joy that “there were no more masters,” and with some impossible psychological transformation they believed that they became new masters. They spoke of liberty, but they didn’t understand the real meaning of liberty. Nobody wanted to work anymore and they started discussions of party organizing. French linguists decided that the official language of Dalmatia would be Italian. The governor of Dalmatia (Proveditore generale), Dandolo, made an effort to teach peasants how to plant “the miraculous” vegetable, potato, while the French considered him a charlatan, dressed in a funny clothes with a wig, and a hand fan. Napoleon wanted to conquer the Ottoman Empire, and he ordered a survey of the land between Zadar and Dubrovnik, and considered building of a road towards Belgrade, and from there he thought he could use the medieval “highway” (in parlance of J. V. A. Fine), the valleys of the rivers Morava and Vardar to Constantinople. As he was credited that his mind was constantly in ‘overdrive,’ he contemplated in 1809, that it would have been more useful for him to give the entire Dalmatia to the Austrians in exchange for the Polish Galitia, as the territory could serve as a defense wall to repel the Russians. For the previously conquered seven Greek islands, Napoleon affirmed, that they were strategically more important than Italy. The Russians, together with the Turks, reconquered those islands and made an autonomous republic. The Russian engagement in the Bay of Boka, with Montenegrin troops, sent Dubrovnik into France’s embrace, as they believed that it was more advantageous to be conquered by the French Catholics, than the Russian Orthodox. They didn’t wait too long for a disappointment, as the French military barbarously used the Ragusan churches as stables for their horses. The French attitude towards the churches and clergy overall was shown during The Reign of Terror, but the Ragusan diplomats missed that chapter in history, and thought that the French “Liberte” was the same as their “Libertas.” In 1804, the Russian foreign minister, Czartoryski, contemplated the viability of an agreement with the European powers regarding the division of the Balkans, and his scenario was that Austria should have: Bosnia, part of Serbia with Belgrade, and Dalmatia with Dubrovnik. The Russians would have: The Bay of Boka, island of Corfu, and Constantinople. Greece would be independent, and the French and English would divide amongst themselves the Greek islands and Turkish territories.131 To achieve this ambitious plan, the Russians brought the Baltic fleet of 30 warships, and calculated with the Montenegro ‘navy’ from the Bay of Boka, allegedly 5000 strong. Responding to the call of Russian admiral Senjavin in 1806, the Montenegro ruler, bishop Petar I Petrović Njegoš, organised an army of 12 000 soldiers “for the fight against the French.” He initiated the plan for the unification of “the Slavic-Serbian Empire,” with Dubrovnik as the capital city of the Empire, and the Russian emperor as ruler of the Empire. For himself he modestly proposed to become the governor of such a Slavic state.132 After the combined troops of Montenegro and Russia tried to capture Dubrovnik, the French repelled them and on 27th May 1806, they entered Dubrovnik. The Russian fleet was defeated and surrendered to Austria in Trieste. The French victories against Austria were concluded in the Treaty in 1809, and Dubrovnik became part of the French Illyrian province. The enthusiasm of the ordinary folk towards the French was sometimes high and they 130 Marko Murat (The Reminiscences and Reflections) was one of the best Yugoslavian Impressionist painters. He studied in Munich, and spent some time in Paris. During the Second World War he was a teacher in the Second Belgrade Gymnasium. He was an honorable member of the Serbian Academy of the Sciences and Arts. Because of his diligent efforts, the Rector’s palace in Dubrovnik was proclaimed a public monument in 1919. He was credited, with Lukša Baretić, when the city walls were proclaimed a public cultural monument in 1921. He was for 13 years the Head of the Institution for conservation of the art and monuments of Dubrovnik. 131 M. Kukiel: Czartoryski and European Unity 1770-1861, Princeton, 1995. 132 D. Lekić: The Foreign Policy of Petar I Petrović Njegoš (1784-1830), Cetinje, 1950. 112 were welcomed as liberators with an outcry: “Galli summus, liberi summus.” However, more often the people ran away from them into the woods. Marshal Marmon, the governor of province, forced work on the infrastructure, and built the road between Knin and Dubrovnik along the Dalmatian coast. He employed 12 000 men on this project and his comment was that “the Dalmatians were not lazy, but they were hungry.” After the French collapse, Austria slowly occupied Dalmatia and entered the city of Zadar in 1813, while the English occupied Split and the island of Hvar, making the unwarranted hopes for Dubrovnik’s independence. Following pragmatic philosophy that “the events that could not be prevented should be stirred,” the chancellor Meternih made the plan, in 1816, for a unified Illyrian Kingdom as part of the Habsburg Empire. The Dalmatian aristocracy, which descended mainly from the Italian, was divided between the ‘Francophiles’ and ‘Austrophiles.’ The Austrian Emperor gave them permission, as he gave to the Venetians, to use their traditional titles of the counts. Every significant place in Dalmatia had a count, who was poorer than the average trader. From that time the common folk coined a saying: “Il conte chi non contam conta niente.” In his memoirs, the marshal Marmont described the enormous poverty of an average citizen of Dalmatia, who survived on goat’s milk, and he witnessed how hungry people had to eat the grass in a coastal region. In Bosnia in 1830, under the Turks flourished the trade of slaves, and Marmont gave a description of a market where some unfortunate enslaved people were examined like horses, compared with other slaves, and then a price for them was negotiated, while they were chained to posts. In 1814, the British governor of the Dalmatian islands, together with the Austrian governor of Dalmatia, Jere Natali, appointed three administrators for the monastery St. Maria on Mljet. An armed group of the villagers, in 1815, forced out the administrators, and confiscated the goods and money. Natali demanded that the judges from the Palunco family take over the treasury and transfer it to the ‘safety’ of the county church. The judges refused, saying that they didn’t have the power to stop the insurrection, but in reality they refused to obey the conquerors against their own people. Temporarily, the islanders were merry and relaxed, enjoying as they were “the Republic.” This kind of insurrection was long expected as the villagers were forced to work for free for the monastery, giving the monks a percentage of their livestock, and collected taxes amongst themselves, to the amount of 300 perpers per year, in order to pay the monastery tax, as the abbots were in reality the medieval landlords of half of the island. The judges were the keepers of the Statute of Mljet. The judges were continuously elected from the Palunco family since they had arrived to the island towards the end of the 16th century. The Statute of Mljet which they had for daily use was a copy from the 15th century, as the original Statute of Mljet from 1345 was lost. Zlatko Karač affirms that the Statute was compiled at the time when the Benedictine monastery had discharged the islanders of their feudal duties, who had organized themselves into the free commune (Comuna Uniuersitade da Melida).133 The Statute has been preserved in five manuscripts, the earliest is the “Wienna copy” from the 15th century written on the parchment in archaic Italian and Gothic script: “Liber de ordinamenti e delle usance della universitade del comun de Melida.” In the library of the Franciscan monastery of the Minor friars in Dubrovnik there is the copy from the 18th century: “Statuto o sia le leggi dell’ universitta dell’ Isola di Meleda.” The original text was amended by the Ragusan Council between 1417 and 1803. It provides the provisions for acquisition of real estate. The sale of properties was forbidden to those who were not inhabitants of Mljet. There were penalties for using fields and vineyards for pasture, and cutting down of trees, such as oak or pine, were also forbidden. The Statute obliged the islanders to maintain the roads, especially the road from the count’s court to the meeting place of the community. There were chapters that regulated the use of the various communal buildings: the court of law (at first, an open space, from 1616, the portico), prison (only mentioned as a euphemism “the shackles”), count’s court, communal meeting place, churches, and monasteries. 133 Z. Karač: Graditeljske regule, zgrade i prostori u srednjovekovnome Mljetskom Statutu, Pomena, 2010. 113 In 1815, as a part of an elaborate policy of the Austrian governor of Dalmatia, Jere Natali, the Statute of Mljet, together with a various codicils and books, were taken from the Palunco house and sent to the Supreme Court in Vienna. In 1978, the Statute was returned to the Croatian capital, and from 1995, it is lodged in the State archive of Dubrovnik. Thus, after destruction of the Dominican monastery and monastery’s library in 1667, our family lost, for the second time, the significant documents that had witnessed of their rich history from the earliest days in Sicily, Naples, Rome, Reggio, Pisa, Genoa, Milan and some other places in the Mediterranean they had inhabited, most probably Alexandria in Egypt and Thougga in Carthage. There is no doubt that the Palunco had brought those records with them when they had arrived in the last decades of the 16th century on the island of Mljet. We have stressed that the Palude were always extremely careful to preserve their history in the course of the centuries, and that many early historians had known them personally, from Fra Salimbene de Adam, Da Erbo, Samuel Guichenon, Fra Girolamo Tiraboschi, Tronci and many others. The oral tradition from our ancestors, dimmed by the mist of time, with a few artefacts was only what was left to many generations of the family living in Mljet and the island of Šipan. Nevertheless, what characterizes the medieval in contrast to modern society is its lack of individual freedom, altogether a person was not free in the modern sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need for doubt. There was comparatively little competition. One was born into a certain economic position which guaranteed a livelihood determined by tradition, just as it carried economic obligations to those higher in the social hierarchy. 134 Fromm thinks that we had a chance to become a better society between the 13th and 16th century if we had followed a different path, but we had missed it. Fromm is convinced that inspite of the conversion of Europe to Christianity, it is only an illusion. According to Frederick B. Ariz, the medieval scholars thought that all men were equal, and that even those who were the poorest were worthy. In economy they were teaching that work was a source of dignity, not of degradation, and that no man should be used against his wellbeing. The medieval ideal was the belief that all the peoples were part of one great community as Goethe suggested: “Above all of the Nations is the Humanity.” If European history continued in the spirit of the 13th century we would have been in a better position today, but reason commenced to corrupt into manipulative intelligence, and individualism into selfishness. Thus, a short period of Christianity in Europe was finished and it returned into the original paganism. Inspite of the fact that the concept of faith varies in different branches of Christianity, the fundamental belief is that Jesus was the Saviour who gave his life because of his love towards humanity. He was the hero of love, without using power or force, and he didn’t want to rule or to possess anything. Those virtues deeply impressed the Roman poor and a few rich. The Christian hero was a martyr diametrically opposite the pagan hero personified in the Greek or German hero whose goal is to conquer, to possess, to destroy, to plunder, and in the fulfillment of his life he sees his pride, power, glory, and superiority in killing the enemy. The pagan hero desires to hold onto power and he is thrilled to die on the battlefield. If we turn around and consider the behavior of the people and the political leaders, it is obvious that the role model and notion about what is good and worthy for us is – the pagan hero. The European and North American history were, inspite of conversion, a history of conquest, pride, greed and the biggest values are: that you are stronger than the rest, that you are victorious, that you conquer others and exploit them. It is not necessary to prove that the history of Europe is: conquest, exploitation, force and surrender. With this book we hope that we have uncovered some of the forgotten layers of the Palu/Palude/Palunco history, and that we might have initiated some future efforts towards its full disclosure. 134 Erich Fromm: Escape from Freedom, Rinehart & Co., New York, 1941. 114 Bibliography Affo, Fra Irraneo: Storia della Cita di Parma, I – IV, 1785-87. Alberzoni, M. P: La chiesa cittadina i monasteri e gli ordini medicanti in Storia di Parma, Vol. III, Parma, 2010. Annali di Ragusa del magnifico ms. Noccolo di Ragnina, Monumenta spectantia historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, editor: S. Nodilo, Zagabriae, 1883. 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