The Apulian Persons Project

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When the Spanish troops entered Granada on 4 January 1492, the sad destiny of all non-Christians – Jews included – living in the last spot of Muslim Iberia was already certain. Torquemada's [the guy above] influence over the conscience of "los Reyes Catholicos" Isabel and Fernando imposed them the proclamation of the edict of expulsion. The rule was clear in its simplicity: all the Jews living under the Spanish Crown (consequently, also those inhabiting Sicily, Sardinia and the small archipelago of Malta) had to pay all their debts and go away from the kingdom. They couldn't depart secretly or sell their properties, which were to be confiscated by the state. By mid-1492 they were forbidden to carry weapons. It was not surprising that in such circumstances many Jews left Sicily as soon as possible. Not Baruch Levi … Being forbidden to carry gold with him, he spent all his money buying time from the corrupt officials appointed to oversee the departure of a hundred Jews families of Messina. But on 12 January 1493, roughly nine months after the issuance of the royal edict, his time had finally expired. Baruch gathered his family living in the suburb of Saint Philip and left the island of his ancestors, moving north to Calabria and then Apulia. After eleven days the Levis reached Taranto, where Baruch's cousin Aaron settled decades before.

The relation between King Ferrante and his Hebrew subjects had always been idiosyncratic. Sometimes he had to surrender to the evilest impulse of the plebs, ready to blame Abraham's sons of any natural disaster, war or famine that afflicted Naples. Yet, differently from the master line of the dynasty, the Aragonese of Naples had always a desperate need of gold to fund their wars against other Italian potentates: thus, the king could not abandon to the will of the masses some of his best financiers. Like other circumstances, in 1492 Ferrante was able to say "No", displeasing both his Spanish peers and his most fanatic subjects: the Jews were allowed to pass the Straits of Messina and settle in the Kingdom, including the Duchy of Apulia.

The district already had a significant Hebrew minority, particularly active in commerce and small artisanship. For example, Aaron traded massive amounts of grain with Venice and – loyal to the rule of the Deuteronomy "Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury" – didn't reject the opportunity of lending capital to Christians charging an interest as compensation. In such way, he had become one of the most prominent figures in the Jewish community living in Taranto and Duke Raimondo's most favourite counsellor in matter of trading.

Aaron took into service Baruch's twenty years old son, Benjamin. A clever boy, he would one day inherit his employer's business, establishing one of the most profitable trading companies around the Duchy. Benjamin moved his first steps during the mission sent by Duke Raimondo to Venice. Actually, Raimondo had tried in every way to keep preferential trading contacts despite the cold diplomatic phase. By spring 1494 he realised that a closer agreement was needed to achieve a stronger position in such a competitive centre of trade. Raimondo would leverage the Levis' links with the Jewish community of Venice, one of the most prosperous and influential across whole Europe, and thus he chose to appoint Aaron and Baruch as mission leaders. In April they reached Venice, accompanied by their young boy Benjamin and a group of other Apulian merchants. Their meetings with the Venetian authorities were particularly valuable: the visit to the great arsenal revealed the significant advances made by Venice in shipbuilding, whereas the trade agreement contracted on 1st May 1494 with the Most Serene Republic allowed Apulian mercantile companies to trade free of port tolls. The agreement was mutually beneficial, because it gave to the agricultural commodities produced in the Duchy a full access to the greatest Italian marketplace and to Venice a continuous supply of vital resources for the sustenance of its growing population.

The Levis' mercantile company was among the most active traders between Venice and Apulian ports. Agreed exemptions slashed trading costs down to a meagre one thousand ducats per shipment, favouring a massive influx of agents and traders from Apulia into Venice, also helped by the encouraging mercantilist approach of Raimondo's counsellors and the relatively high stability of the Duchy in the middle of a troubled Italian diplomatic scenario – a detail which is notoriously appreciated by dealers. One of the very first decrees passed by Raimondo after the end of the war against Naples, imposing a unified set of measures and coins in the whole Duchy, gave further momentum to the interchange of goods among the various districts of his demesne and to the overall supply of foodstuff for trading purposes. By 1495 at least two Apulian trading companies attended Venetian marketplaces, grown to five by January 1504. By that time commercial turnover started being absolutely attractive: the port of Venice, the biggest in Europe at the dawn of the century, recorded over 200 thousands ducats of shipments, of which 17 thousands ducats represented the gross profits for Apulian trading companies.


Despite the tough competition of both Middle-European and Mediterranean traders, the Levis' and their "followers" managed to become one of the most prominent enterprises in Venice, moving roughly 1/4 of physical goods delivered in the city. Even if negligible with respect to other Jewish merchant bankers' assets, just like the contemporaneous Jacob Fugger, the Levis' fortune commenced at that time, in those nervous but promising first years of what we now name as the Modern Age…

Stnylan, first of all I must tell you I'm really appreciating your continuous encouragement to my project. Even if I write for myself, it's always a pleasure finding people interested in the tale.

As I'm progressing in the game, I can assure you that I'm steadily keeping alive my mercantile activities in Venice (not in other CoTs, just there... it costs only 1d, whereas Genoa and other European CoTs are quite expensive, 5d!). Just to give you an idea, my Duchy in the last decade of '400 still earns barely 3-4 ducats per year! I cannot afford trade in other CoTs.

As you could imagine, I'm engaged in a careful micromanagement and austerity prevails in the court of Taranto!

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Lorenzo de' Medici died near Florence in April 1492 and with his departure the needle of the Italian compass was definitely broken. Actually, he was the needle: for decades his diplomatic skills had ensured peaceful connections among the most powerful states of the peninsula. Giving periodically his support to one or other of them, he had prevented the prevalence of any big fish or the intervention of foreign powers. Raimondo knew Lorenzo's subtle talent when the Medici gave his interested assistance in resolving the troubled conflict with King Ferrante. Actually, in his bright view weakening Naples was the worst service offered to the aggressiveness of the Popes. Thus, Florence acted as a mediator between the positions of the king and his vassal Raimondo. On the day of his premature funeral, attended by the entire population of Florence, the Duke of Apulia recalled the pleasure he got from reading Lorenzo's cunning and polished epistles committed to conciliate the dispute. Unfortunately, Lorenzo didn't leave behind a good successor. Piero II de' Medici was an arrogant and undisciplined man, full of ambition but gifted with none of his father's arts. After the death of the immoderate Innocentius VIII in July 1492, when one of the shadiest conclaves in the history of the Church elected as Pope Alexander VI a Spaniard landlord, Rodrigo Borgia, whose relatives quickly occupied all the prominent positions in the Roman Curia, the mixture of greed, corruption and violence in the peninsula reached its peak: everyone could understand that Lorenzo's superb architecture wouldn't survive his builder.

An early sign of the upcoming storm was clearly identifiable with the overall apathy surrounding the Venetian aggression against Francesco II, Marquis of Mantua. Constrained between Milan and Venice, the Marquisate had traditionally kept an ambivalent policy flipping between the Doges and the Sforzas. But Francesco's situation deteriorated in front of the continuous Venetian claim over his lands, culminating in the attack of early 1492, when Lorenzo the Magnificent was already ailing, yet alive. None could stand up in favour of the ill-fated Marquis: Florence, Naples, Rome all had too weakened sovereigns, whereas Milan and Genoa were too disarranged by the shifty manoeuvres of Ludovico the Moor against his own nephew Duke Giangaleazzo to intervene in such crucial point. Thus, the numerous Venetian troops had an easy task with the non-existent army of Mantua; when they advanced towards the town, the Marquis withdrew into the stronghold, where he put in place an enduring resistance, ended only in April 1493. Finally, after fifteen months of war a triumphant Agostino Barbarigo entered Mantua and received the homage of Francesco Gonzaga, just before assuming upon himself the title of Doge of Venice and Mantua. The Gonzagas had their honour spared with the acknowledgement of their lordship on some country towns and the admittance to the Senate of the maritime republic. Anyway, the history of one of the brightest dynasties of the peninsula came to an end on that day…

The disposal of the Marquisate of Mantua, nominally a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, upset everyone against Venice and destabilised even more the frail equilibrium among the Italian powers. Even Raimondo reacted in a severe way to – using his own words – "this dirty aggression against the peaceful and lawful authority of the Marquis of Mantua" and the once friendly relations among Venice and Taranto cooled in haste. By then, the peninsula was already in flames: the fire had definitively started in June 1492, when a complex system of crossed alliances put in a state of war France, Savoy and the Pope, coming in defence of the Duchy of Gelre, assailed by a coalition of German powers headed by Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria. Feeling the weakness of the Papal States, ruled by an expiring Innocentius VIII, Ercole I d'Este and Piero II Medici – linked in alliance together with Genoa and the Knights of St. John – moved respectively from Modena and Florence into Romagna, targeting the town of Bologna and its rich surroundings. Actually, the Pope was not able to see the beginning of the hostilities, because he died in July. As already written, Rodrigo Borgia managed to be elected Pope by means of corruption and named himself Alexander VI. Upset with this election, King Ferrante launched an attack against Rome from South, aiming at sponsoring his own candidate and breaking the friendship between the Holy See and Paris.


Bounded by allegiance to both the King as vassal and the Pope as Christian, Raimondo decided to take a cautious position, a quite reasonable consequence of his prudent character. Even more, having known from his sources of certain secret agreements about the proposed partition of Naples and Apulia between (respectively) the Pope and his ally Charles VIII of France, Raimondo agreed to give military access to the Papal troops in order to avoid any diplomatic issue with them. This sign of apparent weakness (in any case, how to deplore him considering the dim situation of Apulian armies?) would save the Duchy from a dangerous secret pact and put the basis of its future foreign affairs. Yet, the destiny of Alexander VI, surrounded on both sides by ruthless enemies (well, see the picture below), seemed nasty; but a figure – his son Cesare Borgia – was emerging as commander of papal armies to revitalize the standard of Saint Peter.

What's happening around: Balkans​

Dear readers, welcome to the first "what's happening around" section, which has the aim of updating you with the most important facts around the known world. The guidelines of this section will be two: first of all, priority. Imagine you are one of the characters of my project, living in Early Modern Italy: would you really care anything about a peace treaty signed between, let's say, Ireland and Scotland? Probably not, and I won't. Second: distinguish among events and trends, trying to comment rather then simply enunciate facts. Saying "Luther's Reformation has happened in Germany" or "Three caravels, commanded by an obscure Genoese admiral landed in an uncharted island west of Azores" is quite different from describing the conditions bringing to those (or other similar) epochal changes. Thus, let's start with the WHA section for the first years of the campaign examining major trends affecting a quite nearby area, the Balkan peninsula.

During those years, the parable of the contiguous Polish and Hungarian Houses of Jagello reached its maximum, together with the struggle among the three powers dominating the lands just on the other side of the Adriatic Sea: Hungary, Venice and the Ottoman infidels under Sultan Bayezid II. Tensions among them had never really ceased: their appetites over the weakest buffer states of the area stepped up from time to time and brought a constant state of war. The episodes concerning Ragusa and Wallachia were a quite accurate paradigm of such development.

Marcovic, a rector chosen by the King of Hungary governed Ragusa, the rocky city-state enclosed by the domains of the Most Serene Republic and the Sublime Porte. Its thriving thalassocracy captured the interest of the Sultan, who in January 1492 sent his janissaries to seize the town. The weak defendant army had no chance in open field and moved into the strong citadel, soon besieged by the Turks. Its walls proved to be a stronger enemy for the invaders, because the siege went on for over a year and then Bayezid had to move away troops to defend its northern lands against likely raids of the Hungarian. At that point, Doge Barbarigo and the Senate of Venice, concerned about situation of the stronghold, had decided to move in, not just to rescue Ragusa but to grab it from the hands of Bayezid. The Ragusans heroically resisted one year more against the overwhelming forces coming from land and sea, but finally gave up to a Venetian company landed in August 1494, putting an end to their independence.

Changing destinies for the allied Jagello dynasties of Poland and Hungary: despite his father's cruel end (Kazimierz IV, King of Poland, died in Krakow by hands of the insurgent nobles in June 1492), Ulaszlo II of Hungary reacted with energy to the suppression of its privileges over Ragusa. As vengeance against Sultan Bayezid, he commanded a stunning offensive against his satellites of Wallachia and Moldavia. The well-trained Hungarian forces had no difficulties against the regular troops, even if a stiff resistance to the invaders started to grow among the inhabitants. In any case, the campaign was very successful: within July 1493 both Wallachia and Moldavia were annexed to the Kingdom of Hungary. But finally the Venetians – not the Ottomans – managed to capture Ragusa and thus Ulaszlo II turned his eyes to West, intended to take back a "door" to the Adriatic Sea. However, his neighbours had learnt the lesson: before he could plan further aggressions, one after the other Venetians and Turks launched a swift attack. Venetian ambassadors reached the King of Hungary II in his royal palace in June 1495 handing him the declaration of war signed by Doge Barbarigo. A similar scene occurred again in just fifteen months, when also Bayezid’s envoys reached Ulaszlo II in his countryside manor in the province of Magyar. Thus, after three minor conflicts around pawns, Balkans were in definitely in flames!

Stnylan, Kevusher and others: just wait a couple of minutes and you will see important changes in the sorroundings, involving also the Pope. I find always peculiar the fact that Papal States are among the most aggressive countries in EU2...

Duke Raimondo has been really careful today, but be sure he will try to take advantage from future developments!

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A fading dynasty​

Ferrante died suddenly on 24 January 1495, leaving an unresolved war and a weak throne in Naples to Alfonso II. Pope Alexander VI and the French King had finally agreed their pact against the Kingdom of Naples just few days before. Among the various clauses, one claimed the unlawfulness of the royal status of the House of Aragon, a dreadful threat against all Ferrante's descendants. Two weeks after the royal funerals held in Naples, that obviously saw the attendance of Raimondo as the biggest vassal of the Kingdom, Charles VIII of France made another dangerous step settling its conflict with newly elected Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I Habsburg. More than the acquisition of new territories in direction of the Rhine, was the huge amount of war indemnities (125,000 ducats) received by the French Crown that alarmed Alfonso II. With his long career as military commander he knew that only gold could win the wars, and his own was quickly dropping. But in that winter, none could still foresee the events of the following year. Papal troops were still fighting also against the Estes (Modena), the Medicis (Tuscany) and the militancy of Genoa in the same alliance prevented any easy access for French invasion plans. Moreover, a pincer movement directed by Modena militias managed to capture in June (1494) Bologna, the key of the Via Emilia (the most secure corridor along central Italy).

The loss of Bologna represented the worst moment for the Pope; since then on, diplomacy and warfare started to smile again to the Vicar of Christ. Pressed by its "protector" Ludovico the Moor (still not formally Duke of Milan – only later that year he would get the title from Maximilian I – but actually jailer of his nephew Giangaleazzo Visconti, the legitimate Duke) Genoa gave up in August, paying over 100.000 ducats of tribute to the rival alliance headed by Pope Alexander VI. With his swift action, Ludovico the Moor, the most ambitious and sly son of the famous condottiere Francesco Sforza – and condottiere himself – enters the stage of history. His purpose: expanding Milanese possessions into Northern Italy, crushing both the maritime republics (Genoa, Venice) and the duchies in central peninsula (Modena, Tuscany). At the outset of his plan, he had to break up their common front against the Pope. Troubled with the consequences of war, the Florentine people rose up against Piero II and forced him to flee. The Medici's palaces were sacked by a furious mob and a frail and chaotic Republic was established, where soon the fanaticism of Fra' Girolamo Savonarola and his followers would prevail, producing a cruel and gloomy regime of austerity.

With the Genoese defection, the coalition lost almost completely its naval superiority, whereas the troubles of Florence weakened allied troops. Still, war went on: Papal armies, reinvigorated by the fresh funds coming from Genoa, were reorganised and repositioned southward. In August an army of 6.000 mercenaries and regular Papal soldiers marched against the Kingdom of Naples. Alfonso was stunned by the news about the progress of the Papal forces. During the first half of the year, he spent a great part of his time on the Adriatic coastline, trying to advance along the provinces of Marche as far as Ancona. The situation soon evolved in a stalemate, because of the king's irresoluteness, the poor morale of the Neapolitan troops (mainly due to the lack of payments) and the stiff resistance of few Papal battalions headed by a young but valiant commander, Cesare Borgia, son of the Pope.


Raimondo, who (on the basis of the agreements sanctioned in 1491 at the end of the civil war) in time of war was required to go on paying his usual tribute as king’s vassal, but not to send him troops, determined to hang on and wait the evolution of events. He felt his bond of loyalty to Alfonso II even more feeble than the one with his father Ferrante, who at least was the one who defeated his grandfather and his own infancy king: feelings of respect Raimondo never had experienced toward Alfonso. Furthermore, against Alfonso played a role also Duchess Antonia Colonna, member of the most prominent peer family in Rome, and Antonello Sanseverino, always in contact with French agents in Italy and unyielding enemy of the Aragonese. Consequently, Antonello was the natural candidate for establishing the first contacts with Roman and French representatives to get acknowledgment in those two essential courts. But these events would take place later; let’s go back to Naples, August 1494.

While is father was engaged in the deadlock of Marche, the Crown Prince Ferrante moved to the stronghold of Capua, halfway between Naples and Rome, with the rest of the royal troops. When the Papal army reached the frontline, discouraged about his prospects of resistance, the Crown Prince sent embassies to agree a retreat to Naples, leaving to the enemy the control over the surrounding area. King Alfonso's last months were painful: blocked with his army near Ancona, while Papal armies ravaged the region around Naples and trapped Prince Ferrante in his capital, he started to consider abdication. Knowing how much he was hatred by the Pope, King of France and now also by his people and armies for that hopeless war, he thought that leaving the crown to the young prince could be the only chance for his family to keep the throne. But he decided to depart in glory: after a long siege to the city of Ancona, carried out with the help of some Florentine forces coming from the other side of the Apennines, on 18th January 1495 he breached the defences of the town and captured it. Five days later the news of his abdication reached Naples, where Ferrante II had a sad crowning ceremony in a besieged capital. Alfonso, without greeting his son, left Ancona by sea and went in exile in Sicily, where he would die ten months later at age 47, for God’s grace before he could see the end of his own Kingdom. Hostilities cooled down for a while, while Ferrante II desperately tried to reorganise his forces to throw Papal armies out of Naples surroundings.

Unfortunately for him, another help came to Alexander VI from north. Tired about that lonely war (Genoa was out and the Florentine Republic was no more enthusiastic about the conflict), Ercole d’Este decided to give up and sent an envoy to Papal representatives in Marche, where in the meantime Cesare Borgia had reported bright successes functionally to his quick career (as if being the son of the Pope was not sufficient!). A peace agreement was reached in May (it established a substantial tribute to be paid to the Pope, 129.000 ducats) and Cesare Borgia reluctantly accepted the order to stop fighting the troops of both Modena and Tuscany. Still, war against Naples went on. With more soldiers and siege machines available after the surrender of the northern enemies, the disposal of the light Neapolitan garrison in Ancona, “orphan” of Alfonso II, was just a matter of time. In a drive of heroism, the besieged fortress ventured to defy the Papal troops and resisted 11 months. Finally, in June 1496 the citadel was taken by assault and sacked: few of the Neapolitan defenders were spared. In a tragic climax King Ferrante II had little time to reflect about this episode of bravery: after few days of illness, suddenly he died at age 23. On his death 8 October 1496, his uncle Fredrigo I succeeded, fourth King of Naples in less than three years.

If you can't beat them, ally them​

Antonello Sanseverino left Taranto in October, few weeks after the crowning of the last King of Naples. Raimondo's mandate to his negotiator was clear: trying in every way to gain Cesare Borgia's sympathy to the Duchy of Apulia and at the same time prevent an aggression to his own domains, threatened from North (Papal armies remained at few days of walk from the borders) and South (the Spaniards could always decide to move in from Sicily to take their fraction in the Neapolitan banquet). During his trip to Capua (before moving to Rome and Lyon), Antonello saw the cruel effects of the offensive. In Capua he met Cesare Borgia, by then military and diplomatic arm of Pope Alexander VI. Their meeting was friendly and beneficial for the Apulian prospects, even if Antonello could not remove a suspicion he kept inside: Borgia's titanic ambition was leading him to dream about his own ruling over a vast portion of the peninsula, when Naples, Florence and other towns would had succumbed to Papal armies. What he got in Capua was simply Borgia's pledge to respect Apulian lands; notwithstanding the man's notorious treachery, it represented already a progress. After having obtained a precious sign of benevolence by Cesare, Antonello Sanseverino's embassy to Rome was just a formal homage to his father Alexander VI, accompanied by a vague reassurance about Apulian intentions to defend Christianity against the ubiquitous Turkish presence in the Mediterranean.

But the most important and difficult passage was the last one: Lyon, where the Apulian envoy had to approach the King of France in the town, elected as temporary seat to drive Italian operations. Despite Papal hyperactivity, it was Charles VIII to guide actually the alliance, and the only allowed to admit other countries under the alliance pact. Furthermore, the King's claims over the Angevin inheritance made things even harder, because none could assure that Charles' will was simply seizing "his own" lands. Sanseverino tried in every way to capture Charles' courtiers by presents and finally managed to get a private talk with the King. Nobody knew the topics they discussed, but for sure the diplomatic mission was a success: the agreement was kept secret for months in order to avoid discredit for Raimondo's open disloyalty (hitherto Fredrigo I was still his master, even if only nominally). [In any case, don't be so severe with Antonello's manoeuvres: that kind of behaviour was quite common in the wicked and shady scenario of Renaissance Italy].

No words went out of that meeting chamber. Thus, when on January 1st Papal armies entered the capital and the day after – deposed King Fredrigo and designated Cesare Borgia as Duke of Naples (actually, the whole northern part of the former Kingdom was annexed to the Papal States) – the secret agreement started up, nobody could suspect that Raimondo had already settled his future with the winners. To inexpert eyes the new friendship among Apulia and Papal States, France and their minor allies (lots, in order of proximity Savoy, Navarra, Lorraine and Brittany) seemed just a recompense for Raimondo's benevolent inactivity during the war over Naples. Actually, it was a swift protection to ensure the Duchy's survival after the end of the Aragonese dynasty. Due to the agreement clauses, Raimondo was bound to join the alliance in its future and outstanding wars (after the elimination of Naples, only a remote dispute with the Duke of Cleves was open) in exchange of an endowment of 50.000 ducats by the new allies, which was paid 40 days after the accession of Apulia to the coalition. With the unexpected gold, a precious gift to a State still surviving with few thousand ducats of annual earnings, Raimondo decided to improve both the financial system and the military organisation. Great part of the Treasury, adding up to 65.000 ducats in early 1497 was spent to reorder the fiscal authority: Pietro Pendinelli, bailiff and manager of the ducal estates prior to independence, was promoted general tax collector. Moreover, the admission of Apulia to the alliance with France and its allies urged the re-establishment of an army, even a small one: Malo, the castellan of Taranto, was appointed colonel of the Ducal Guard the original embryo of the Apulian army, a unit of just 1.000 infantrymen located in the capital. Even if negligible, the Duchy was just stepping among modern sovereign nations…

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Antonello (Sanseverino) sat in front of Malo. The robustness of the ageing castellan was always a surprise for him, in any case a clear sign of all those years under the arms. Compared with the rough soldier, the bony Pietro “the bailiff” – folks never left his former nickname, notwithstanding his promotion to tax collector – looked like a small bird. Waiting for Raimondo in the fading sunlight of a strangely torrid September afternoon, none of them could have any doubts about the reason of the meeting: as Duke’s counsellors about diplomatic affairs (Sanseverino’s contacts in France has always proved very useful during the years of the fall of Naples), defence and economy, they constituted a sort of governing council for the Duchy, even if the unexpected absence of Mino Scudiero, supervisor of the ports, undermined the completeness of the “committee”. For sure, their calling meant … problems in the air.

Each of them knew the increasing concerns about the public health situation in Taranto. The recent death of Baruch Levi – the Jewish merchant died at 64 years just four days before, leaving his business to the young and gifted Benjamin – had raised new suspects over the infection. The trader was old, but not wrecked: apart his frequent business voyages, someone had still seen him escorting home nice women, a clear sign of excellent vitality… Actually, these frequentations were the real problem, because in the last months the infection was hurting in particular those people committing carnal sins.

Antonello – "Friends, all those priests outside are already presuming what’s happening is the right punishment sent by the common Lord of Jews and Christians and are consequently instructing the masses. Oh my God, that is the last pleasure left here on earth, they cannot deprive us of a hot body under the sheets!"

Malo – "Oh, my fellow, I generally disagree with you, but this time you are damned right…"

Pietro – "Oh, stop with these gags… casualties are growing at an higher pace now. We cannot tolerate another disease in the city or the treasury will suffer terribly. Foreign merchant ships are already leaving the port…"

Malo – "Good news: you know, all those disgusting seamen – and in particular Spaniards, and Sicilians - are our walking girls’ best customers. If they go away, none cannot blame it!"

Malo could not be more truthful. The source of infection was actually Spain, the country that seven years before saw Columbus’ three caravels leaving the familiar coasts of Europe towards the uncharted ocean sea. The Genoese admiral was guided by a peculiar theory: differently from the commanders sent down the African coast by the Portuguese kings (who would manage to cross over the Cape of Good Hope – African southernmost point – only in 1499), Columbus believed that Asia was accessible sailing West. Funded by the Catholic Kings, in November 1492 the visionary explorer reached after more than three months of navigation the shores of a small island, which he called Antigua. In his following voyages, he discovered further lands that, apparently scattered, started to gather together into the shape of a continent. But he was wrong. Three years later another Italic voyager, Vespucci, baptised Americus, realized that those vast territories were not Asia, but a new continent, since then named after his given name, America.

The riches the first Spaniards found over there attracted an increasing number of adventurers, bandits and ordinary people towards the coasts – and slowly also the interior – of the “New World”. Whereas increasingly skilled crews sailed around the southernmost cape of the continent and then northward on the waters of an unpredicted ocean, soldiers and settlers started their terrifying struggle against jungle, native peoples and mysterious illnesses. The first military expedition that Isabel and Fernando sent against the Mayan lands was inconclusive despite the poor quality of the enemies armies. In addition, soldiers and seamen came back to the mainland with strange skin rashes on the trunk and the genitals, fevers and headaches. They managed to live months, even years, only to transmit their infection to others and finally die among horrendous pains. From Iberian towns, the extremely contagious disease soon propagated to other European countries carried by soldiers involved in the various conflicts triggered by Spanish allies: before the end of the century, with the joint Hispanic/Portuguese expedition sent to help Henry VII of England to contain the ruthless rebellions in Ireland and the recruitment of Iberian mercenaries by the ambitious Duke of Milan Ludovico the Moor in his war against Venice, British isles and Italian peninsula were contaminated. But in 1499 it wasn’t so important understanding whether the Spanish disease had reached Apulia either in the blood of refugees coming from the ravaged provinces around the Po river or in the breathing of some Spaniard merchants landed in Taranto. It was crucial that physicians found a remedy …


Let’s move back to the “council”. Antonello, Pietro and Malo remained surprised when saw their Duke approaching. Despite his forties, he still used to be a robust and vital man … but that day it didn’t seem so. Coming onto the terrace, the Duke pronounced words or regret:

Raimondo – "My counsellors and friends, I’m really sorry for my delay. Unfortunately the disease is taking away more and more people. Just now I have been reading and answering to a letter from Brindisi of my old companion Mino. His old father Anselmo, that served my family as squire for decades, has contracted fevers and his skin now shows the signs of illness. Mino is very concerned: weaker and elder people are very vulnerable, see also what happened to Baruch"

Malo – "I see, that’s the reason why Mino is not here"

Raimondo – "You are right. Anyway, in my letter I asked him to increase surveillance over incoming ships. I don’t want to record hundreds of victims in my lands"

Pietro confirmed his usual pragmatism, almost on the verge of cynicism.

Pietro – "Duke, I suppose at this point the disease can nourish herself alone. I hope a stricter surveillance won’t translate only in lower commerce. Our treasury may not afford…”
Raimondo – "Don’t bother me with such things: lost gold will come back, it’s lost people that never return from Hell! If what they say about the channels of contagion is true, do you imagine how many young men we can lose in months?"

Malo – "Yeah, Pietro. And at that point who will defend you and your dear treasury?!”

Antonello, silent until then because of a nasty headache, prompted his agreement with Malo but also his vague irritation against the inadequate measures taken until that day.

Antonello – "Oh, you’re right Malo. My Duke, looking inside the ships will help us. But I start to be annoyed with these developments. During my voyages in Rome and Savoy, territories less contaminated than Apulia, I saw few sick men and, moreover, all healed with mercury. It seemed to be a good remedy. Why don’t our physicians try the same stuff?”

Pietro – "I knew mercury is venomous when taken in large quantities”

Antonello – "Large quantities, you said it. I don’t know how does it work. I never saw physicians curing anyone there, but many cases were reported. Raimondo, let me send an envoy to Rome. One of the Pope’s personal doctors is one of my old friends. For sure, he will help me, perhaps he might even come here”

The remainder of the meeting slipped away among the men’s memories about Baruch Levi and few other preventive instructions to Malo for his soldiers’ health. When they saluted, Antonello felt sorrow: in that situation, he knew every gathering could be the last. He reached home, took paper and pen and start writing to his Roman friend. When he finished, oppressed by the heat, decided to go around the town and spend some time in his favourite tavern. Oh, some glasses of wine could work against heat and grief. The day after soon after the waking up he closed the envelope and brought the letter to the postal courier leaving in few days to Naples and Rome: hopefully, in a week the message would reach his friend. Antonello felt a terrible headache and decided to shorten his usual trip around the marketplace in the centre of the town and over the bridge of Porta Napoli.

(For the benefit of curious people and map lovers, the picture below shows the old citadel: the bridge of Porta Napoli is the one on the left. I love the "strategic" place where those bastard Spartans found their colony. "Bastard" is not an insult: actually, Taranto was built by the illegitimate sons of the Spartiati, the aristocratic class of the Greek city-states)

On that particular day, when Antonello left the letter for Rome, a couple of people added to the longer list of casualties. When daily losses reached – in the middle weeks of September – the significant figure of six (out of an estimated population of less than 8.500 inhabitants), a mist of sorrow and suspicion covered Taranto, with people just waiting for the next death knell. In the predominant ignorance of the causes, many started hunting and beating foreigners, believed to be the vehicle of the disease. Alleged untori (besmirches) were lynched and horribly exposed in Piazza Grande, where hundreds of people gathered and commenced a procession consecrated to Saint Cataldo.

The reply from Rome arrived to Antonello in the last week of September. His wait for it had become spasmodic, for the benefit of his country and his own: in effect, his health had quickly declined since the meeting with Raimondo, Malo and Pietro. When the first marks appeared on his skin, he didn't tell anything to his lovely daughter Lavinia, the fruit of a clandestine passion of youth and the only whom Antonello really cared of together with her brother Roberto. But the young woman – still in her teens and ready to be married to someone still to be found (but a rising sympathy toward Gabriele, Duke Raimondo's son, promised well for the future) – soon understood her father's real conditions. Despite her medications, the spots soon extended over the body and when finally mercury treatments were viable, they proved ineffective, exactly as for the populace. On the day Antonello lost consciousness, an angry mob assaulted both Benjamin Levi's company stores and palazzo del catapano ("catapano" was the civil governor of Italian cities under Byzantine control during the Dark Ages) where Pietro the "baillif" worked. The day after the situation calmed down, but Antonello wouldn't see it. He died during the night, surrounded by Lavinia, Roberto, Raimondo and his son Gabriele. During the month of October the outburst of Spanish disease reached its climax and took away around 1.000 people in the Duchy. Anselmo Scudiero (father of Mino, administrator of the port of Brindisi), Baruch Levi (the co-founder of the trading company) and Antonello Sanseverino (Raimondo's diplomatic counsellor) were among the casualties… those months would remain in popular memory as the "Terrible Autumn" of year 1499.

And for sure more and more dangerous than nowadays bird flu... I know, bird flu's quite threatening, but here in Italy caution is developing in a sort of panic about it.

It's really curious the fact that each nationality gave syphilis the name of its worst enemy: it was English disease for French, Polish disease for Russian and Spanish disease for Italians (source: Wikipedia)

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The residue of the firewood was still crackling and – as almost every night since his promotion, more than two years before – Pietro was aware and conscious. “It must be at least three hours after the sunset”, he thought, trying to come out of the bed without awakening also his wife Carmela and their child.

In the kitchen, he lit a candle and sat down at the worktable, a rough bench of cherry wood with four legs “not so equal”, as his brother in law – the author of the masterpiece – said. The table was full of papers, inkbottles and pens; in the middle, the book with the accounts of the last year, 1500. Carmela, daughter of a simple woodworker, was going mad about his obsession for numbers, thus he smiled towards her bed when considering the “roundness” of that year. And felt a special self-esteem: he was not only the tax collector of the Duchy but also the only Raimondo trusted to keep the house books.

When he got the charge and was admitted for the first time to the prior years books, he was astonished about their state of confusion. Not only items were grouped without sense or not correctly specified, but even entire years were missing. Initially he thought books had gone lost, but then his assistant Vituccio – a good guy, but without any consideration for accuracy, probably the only attitude God should had given him for that job – told him that balances were not closed each year, just when the Duke asked for them…

Pietro still recalled his very first words to Vituccio “Now we must change. The Duke wants them for each future year” and the boy soon realised he was the only needing changes, actually. Since then on, accounting books were reported yearly to the Duke and then kept by Pietro, on that table. Just the book for 1499 was missing because all the records vanished during the Terrible Autumn, when disorders occurred during the outbreak of Spanish disease. A paper on the left side captured Pietro's eyes. During his spare time, the precious Vituccio had put together data for all the years before and compared with the current one. He brought the paper near to the candle and started analysing the data, written in his helper’s peculiar calligraphy:


Despite his assistant’s efforts, Pietro could not avoid to remark the intellectual disorder of the guy. Data were collected with scarce attention to promotion expenses and extraordinary investments. As one of the closest associates to Duke Raimondo, he could recall easily all the extraordinary cash outflows incurred after the independence: twice he recruited troops for the Ducal Guard, once he supported the construction of a transport ship for a total expense of 15.000 ducats. But in addition to those actual costs, Raimondo (“oh! yes, inspired by the bully Malo”) was fond of the latest developments in firearms, and had never restrained himself from buying them – think about the artillery projects of a Spanish ballistics expert or the collection of harquebus. At least the harquebus had proven very useful and a satisfactory number of Ducal Guards were skilled in using them; but artillery projects were completely useless, considered the high cost of a single cannon! Anyway, with all those capable Jewish artisans crossing the Straits of Messina to escape from Spanish persecutors and spreading north all the way through the peninsula, it wouldn’t had taken so much before the arrival of some low-priced piece of artillery also in Apulia…

Thus, he would put in writing a scheme… but taking apart extraordinary expenses. When the work ended, he looked at the second paper. The graph showed the ducal revenues plus the income deriving from trade, which had not suffered any decrease since years. Ducal revenues, instead, had been a dramatic decline three years before, when the famine following the war of Naples affected all the surroundings. But then they recovered soon, allowing increased investments in technological advancements, in particular in the infrastructure sector, which had become the most appreciated by Raimondo for its positive impact on the economy… even the Terrible Autumn shattered by disorders and Spanish disease didn’t stop the growth in such fields. "Who knows, perhaps part of the merit is mine" thought Pietro, finally a little bit tired. He set aside the paper, and went to bed.


Simply, a real mess. The House of Habsburg had definitely risen as the only master of the Empire, with a plethora of satellite principalities rotating around them. The sharp Emperors left to their friends – and in that period particularly to the nasty Duke of Cleves Johann II – the task of expanding the alliance’s borders without taking directly possession of further lands and thus setting fire to European diplomacy. From time to time some sporadic coalitions of countries reluctant to accept Austrian predominance materialised in the northern part of the Empire, headed by Brandenburg or any other power interested in the area. In the North, the remnants of the once glorious Hanseatic League confronted for a while the expansionism of the Danish Kings, before ending overwhelmed by them. On the West, the Kings of France emerged as protectors of the French-speaking duchies still part of the Empire. Principalities that didn’t find their room within any sphere of influence were predestined to enrich the domains of bigger leaders, such as Johann II of Cleves.

His Duchy had no particular importance among the myriads of German principalities, apart his connivance with the House of Habsburg. When hostilities against the Dutch states opened, the Emperors appointed Johann II general lieutenant; under both Friedrick V and Maximilian I he would direct the operations with almost absolute authority and soon Dutch and Northern German lands would know his brutality. One after the other Gelre, Oldenburg and Friesen were captured and annexed to the Ducal demesne. The Duchy of Munster would try to follow Cleves' paradigm, seizing in a violent way the provinces of Hessen and Palatinate, respectively in 1497 and 1499. In the same period, also Denmark tried to counter-weigh the dynamism of the German component in the Holy Roman Empire, absorbing the neighbouring Duchy of Holstein and the wealthy city-state of Mecklenburg. For a while also the region around Hanover came under direct control of King Hans of Denmark.

As first consequence of Cleves' and Danish fierce aggressions, many entities tried to strengthen even more their bonds with the biggest powerhouses, France and Austria. The first one was Bavaria, where the timorous Albrecht IV wasn't waiting for nothing better to run in the arms of his solid neighbour: in February 1494 he left his capital to reach Wien, where he bowed to Emperor Maximilian I pledging him unconditional allegiance. In subsequent years, a similar path would have been followed by other countries in the area, like Savoy and Lorraine, which in 1500 will accept their vassalage to the King of France to be covered against the risks of any aggression. The second effect was a steady state of war in Germany lasting for more than a decade, fired by a series of coalitions shaped to hold back the aggressiveness of such mavericks. In addition to the hopeless remnants of the Hanseatic League and other trivial federations of indigenous states, other (more dreadful) alliances waged war against them: in1496 a bizarre association among the King of Scotland, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Dukes of Pommern and Wurttemberg revealed the Austrian ploy attacking Cleves. Among the many components of the alliance previously supporting the brutal Duke Johann II, only the Habsburg and their Bavarian puppets continued to help him, sign of a general dissatisfaction against the unremitting predominance of Wien and associates. In a little time span, also Poland and Lithuania joined the anti-Habsburg field and declared war upon their evil alliance.

I know, it's quite difficult swimming in this ocean of wars and coalitions. Let's move directly to the most important outcomes for the alliance, which Apulia belonged to, and Italian peninsula in general. In a general context disturbed with the Habsburg policy of predominance in Germany, Ludovico the Moor's first steps toward Wien were considered a further sign of intromission by Emperor Maximilian I in Italian affairs. Ludovico's loyalty was not disputable: it was the Habsburg that gave him the title of Duke of Milan in 1494 after Giangaleazzo's death and then fervently welcomed his attack on Venice. Thus, in order to prevent the inevitable submission of Milan to the Habsburg's wills, in April 1497 the Duke of Modena Ercole I, supported by Genoa, Florence and St. John Knights, moved against Cleves, Austria and Bavaria. As the previous war against Pope Alexander VI, this second attempt would substantiate in another complete failure: while Milanese mercenary troops were rapidly moving forwards from Mantua (the former citadel of the Gonzagas was taken in Winter 1498) into Veneto, the emergent disagreement among the federated duchies prevented them any significant advancement across the Po river.

In autumn 1499, in the same period Apulia was struggling with the outbreak of Spanish disease, Ludovico's troops entered the "lagoon city". In a swift action, Austrian plot over Northern Italy became unambiguous in few weeks. Maximilian I reached Milan in the first days of 1500 to get the vassalage undertaking of Ludovico the Moor. As a first consequence of such deeds, Ludovico broke the agreements of safeguard that Milan had with Genoa – a relic of the old Viscontean hegemony over the maritime republic – and joined the war against the federation of principalities in Central Italy (again, Modena, Tuscany and Genoa). The Habsburg-led coalition was helped by two additional events: Emperor's envoys succeeded to convince Friedrich von Meissen, grandmaster of the monastic duchy of Prussia, to join the alliance; on that same day the Duke of Cleves arranged the end of hostilities with the French ambassador with the payment of an indemnity of 64.000 ducats (as already agreed Apulian treasury benefited of a portion – exactly 1/7 – of such amount), removing a dangerous frontline for himself and his friends.


Accompanied by such good news, Maximilian and the Moor travelled eastward to Venice for their "diplomatic honeymoon". The city hosted the Imperial spectacle while still occupied by the dire horde of Ludovico's mercenaries, in a paradoxical culmination of magnificence and brutality. After weeks in such grandguignolesque situation, the Senate of the (former) Most Serene Republic met and chose to ask for a armistice, admitting all Venetian faults in connection with the forcefully annexations of Mantua and Ragusa. The peace treaty, signed in the Dogal Palace next to St. Mark's, established the cessation of Mantua to the Duchy of Milan and the Ionian Islands to England (which entered the war in concomitance with Milan in 1497). The levy was very limited, just 9.000 ducats, because the coffers had nothing more. But that treaty wasn't just a defeat, it represented the end of Venetian ambitions in the Mediterranean. Still, Turks were to harvest their prey…

Once defeated Venice, Ludovico the Moor had just to resolve the Este concern. After the Venetian bacchanals, he pushed south across the Po and reached Modena. A first attempt to assault Ercole's capital proved ineffective, but in October 1500 he laid siege to the citadel. Strengthened by German and Hungarian reinforcements, the Milanese army endured a year siege but finally violated Modena. Skirmishes went on for three seasons in the countryside, but in June 1502 Ercole d'Este and his allies agreed to pay a really huge tribute (over 460.000 ducats!) to get Modena free. Ludovico the Moor had surrendered his liberty to the Habsburg, but Mantua and gold were recompensing him!

[anchor=stats1]Facts & Stats 1500[/anchor]​

Unfortunately, I've been quite busy at work and I'm not able to post a standard chapter. Anyway, I'd like to leave you for the week end a tool already utilised in my previous Portuguese AAR: the national power graph! (and relative spreadsheet).


As you can notice, my small delicate Apulia (the brownish dot on the northern edge of the Lithuanian ball) is still a super-minor, when compared with the 8 great powers. But I'm optimistic, under the wise leadership of Duke Raimondo it will grow ... and - I can anticipate this, being some years ahed with the game - one of the 8 great powers will soon test the iron of Apulian swords.

Which one? A little help: neither Incas, Aztecs or China