HKB
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Often appears with: custom and the manners of a people · the city and urban life · species breeding analogy · sparta · roman tribunes · rights and liberties · return to florence via chioggia · rank, class, and social order · political legitimacy and consent · padua · naval warfare and sea power · mobilization and recruitment
Usually: narrative (3) · argument (2) · curiosity (2) · reunion (1) · rivalry (1) · the stranger's arrival (1) · the test or trial (1) · detachment (1) · exhortation (1) · nostalgia (1)
“Variations, whether they be deviations (into the higher, finer, and rarer), or deteriorations and monstrosities, appear suddenly on the scene in the greatest exuberance and splendour; the individual dares to be individual and detach himself.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil · observation
“So I was determined to seek better fortune in a foreign land” Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini · insight
Crusader envoys reach Venice in early Lent 1201, are received by Doge Henry Dandolo, and request ships and transport; the Doge delays until his council decides terms.
to find a greater number of vessels than in any other port. So they journeyed day by day, till they came thither in the first week of Lent (February 1201). THE ENVOYS ARRIVE IN VENICE, AND PROFFER THEIR REQUEST The Doge of Venice, whose name was Henry Dandolo* and who was very wise and very valiant, did them great honour, both he and the other folk, and entertained them right willingly, marvelling, however, when th…
He compares aristocratic states like ancient Greek city-states and Venice to selective breeding: constant hardship yields a stable warrior type, but when conditions improve, variations and “mediocre” survival ethics spread.
it is the slave, too, who immediately afterwards falls prostrate himself before these opinions, as though he had not called them forth.--And to repeat it again: vanity is an atavism. 262. A SPECIES originates, and a type becomes established and strong in the long struggle with essentially constant UNFAVOURABLE conditions. On the other hand, it is known by the experience of breeders that species which receive super-a…
He argues that republics need a guardianship of liberty and compares putting it in nobles’ hands (Sparta, Venice) versus commons’ hands (Rome), balancing reasons and claiming, from results, that Sparta/Venice’s liberty lasted longer.
Commotions._ Of the provisions made by wise founders of republics, one of the most necessary is for the creation of a guardianship of liberty; for according as this is placed in good or bad hands, the freedom of the State will be more or less lasting. And because in every republic we find the two parties of nobles and commons, the question arises, to which of these two this guardianship can most safely be entrusted.…
In Venice Cellini visits Jacopo del Sansovino, defends Tribolino during an insulting bragging dinner, avoids another quarrel in an apothecary shop, then describes returning toward Florence via Chioggia with hostility and revenge on the inn.
LXXVII AFTER we had supped, a barge-man appeared, and offered to take us to Venice. I asked if he would let us have the boat to ourselves; he was willing, and so we made our bargain. In the morning we rose early, and mounted our horses for the port, which is a few miles distant from Ferrara. On arriving there, we found Niccolò Benintendi’s brother, with three comrades, waiting for me. They had among them two lances,…
On his journey via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Padua, Cellini stays with Albertaccio del Bene and receives hospitality from Pietro Bembo, modelling a portrait and medal design.
who spoke for him, he said it was his father; to whom, after many entreaties, I replied: “Because you are his father, for your sake I will take him back.” Note 1. Sforza Sforza, son of Bosio, Count of Santa Fiore, and of Costanza Farnese, the Pope’s natural daughter. He was a youth of sixteen at this epoch. XCIV I HAD formed the resolution, as I said a short while back, to go toward France; partly because I saw th…