Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:51:15.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Renaissance Fragment in Iceland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Tryggvi J. Oleson*
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba
Get access

Extract

In 1413 King Ladislaus of Naples captured Rome, forcing Antipope John xxiii (1410-15) to flee to Florence. Gregorovius describes the sack of the Eternal City on this occasion as follows:

Ladislaus meanwhile treated Rome with the arrogance of the conqueror. His troops sacked and set fire to houses; archives were destroyed; churches pillaged; sanctuaries insolently desecrated; drunken soldiers and their courtesans drank out of consecrated golden chalices; the Cardinal of Bari was dragged to prison; the sacristy of S. Peter's was emptied of its contents; horses were stabled in the sacred basilica.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1956

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gregorovius, F., History of the City of Rome (London, 1906), vi, 628629.Google Scholar

2 Creighton, M., A History of the Papacy (London, 1907), 1, 284285.Google Scholar

3 Words of John xxiii in a letter of July 24, 1413. Diplomatarium Islandicum (Reykjavík, 1906-13), viii, 23.

4 Printed in Islenzkir annálar 1400-1800 (Reykjavík, 1922-27), 1,8-27.

5 Ibid., p. 4.

6 Ibid, p. 19: Thetta ár for bródir Ami Olafsson ad curiam og farm páfann í miklu Flórenz, thví hann var útdrifinn af Róm af konunginum af Neapoli, og hertekinn mörg hundrud af Rómverjum; og thad var til marks um thennan mikla hernad, ad kongsins hoffólk tóku sjálfar klaustrafrúrnar og allra handa kvinnur og meyjar, og lögdust med theim inn í sjálfri Peturskirkju og stölludu thar hesta sína; hér med drukku their af kaleikum í ölbúdum. Var thá svo mikill sólarhíti, er páfinn var út rymdur, ad margt fólk deydi af thorsta í flóttanum, ádur their komu til Florenz. Thar í stadnum vard biskup einn galinn af víni, svo xij menn gátu varla bundid. Var Ami bródir thar í stadnum frá Pérursmessu til Mariumessu fyrri.’

7 Dipl. Isl., viii, 22-24. He is called in this letter ‘canonicus regularis bead Augustini’.

8 Ibid., iii, 751.

9 Isl. annálar, 1, 20.

10 Ibid., p. 22; Dipl. Isl., viii, 26.

11 Olafur Larusson, ‘Arni biskup Olafsson’, Skímir, cxxii (1948), 67-99.

12 Isl. annálar, 1, 21; Skímir, cxxii, 67, 93.

13 Words of Pope Martin v (1417-31) in a letter March 6, 1426, appointing Jón Gerreksson to ‘ecclesie Schallocensi uacanti per obitum Arnerij vltimi episcopi’ (Dipl. Isl., viii, 26).