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September 2010: What Are You Reading?

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annis
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Post by annis » Fri September 10th, 2010, 9:32 pm

Posted by SonjaMarie
I've finished "The Cardinal's Hat: Money, Ambition, and Everyday Life In the Court of A Borgia Prince" by Mary Hollingsworth (267pgs, 2004). An interesting look at the life of Ippolito d'Este, 2nd son of Lucretia Borgia, most derived from account books kept during his quest for his Cardinal's Hat.
Interesting- he's the one who had his half-brother Giulio's eyes put out when a woman they both desired (Angela Borgia, cousin of Lucrezia) admired them.

He features in Shellabarger's wonderful novel, The Prince of Foxes

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri September 10th, 2010, 11:29 pm

[quote=""annis""]Posted by SonjaMarie


Interesting- he's the one who had his half-brother Giulio's eyes put out when a woman they both desired (Angela Borgia, cousin of Lucrezia) admired them.

He features in Shellabarger's wonderful novel, The Prince of Foxes[/quote]

Was that incident real? I thought it was just something Shellabarger threw in for effect. Nasty piece of work, Ippolito.

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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Sat September 11th, 2010, 1:07 am

[quote=""annis""]Posted by SonjaMarie


Interesting- he's the one who had his half-brother Giulio's eyes put out when a woman they both desired (Angela Borgia, cousin of Lucrezia) admired them.

He features in Shellabarger's wonderful novel, The Prince of Foxes[/quote]

Wrong Ippolito, that was his uncle. The uncle was the illegitimate son of Ercole I. The Ippolito this book is about is the son of Alfonso I and Lucretia.

From the book: "Luckily he did not inherit his uncle's vicious character: the elder Ippolito had once ordered his servant to stab his brother Guilio in the eye simply because he was jealous of Giulio's success with a lady whom he also favoured."

SM
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annis
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Post by annis » Sat September 11th, 2010, 2:48 am

Oh dear, all those recycled family names do cause confusion sometimes. I was recently reading Eleanor Fairburn's novel, Green Popinjays, about Lucia de Thwng, and the de Thweng family genealogy is a nightmare due to constant reuse of Christian names. Lucia not only had a cousin also called Lucia de Thweng, but a grandfather, uncle and cousin all called Marmaduke- and her father was the fifth Robert de Thweng!

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sat September 11th, 2010, 3:04 am

[quote=""annis""]Oh dear, all those recycled family names do cause confusion sometimes. I was recently reading Eleanor Fairburn's novel, Green Popinjays, about Lucia de Thwng, and the de Thweng family genealogy is a nightmare due to constant reuse of Christian names. Lucia not only had a cousin also called Lucia de Thweng, but a grandfather, uncle and cousin all called Marmaduke- and her father was the fifth Robert de Thweng![/quote]

I'm sure all of the men in that family thought they were quite de Thweng. :p
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annis
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Post by annis » Sat September 11th, 2010, 4:31 am

Lol. BB! I'm sure they did - the noblemen of North Yorkshire in the 13th and 14th centuries were to a large extent a law unto themselves :)

Just realised why I got my Ippolitos confused. The first Ippolito (the one with vengeful tendencies) was also a cardinal. It seems that in 1519 he left his archbishopric of Milan to his nephew Ippolito II d'Este, the subject of SonjaMarie's book. It was the unfortunate Giulio who was the illegitimate one though, I think, not Ippolito I.
Last edited by annis on Sat September 11th, 2010, 6:08 am, edited 3 times in total.

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sat September 11th, 2010, 5:31 am

Can you pass on an archbishopric? I know the church was pretty rotten at the time (though the medieval 'pornocracy' as Luther called it, was even worse) but I didn't think that clerical offices could actually be handed down in a family.

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Post by annis » Sat September 11th, 2010, 6:07 am

Posted by MLE
Can you pass on an archbishopric? I know the church was pretty rotten at the time (though the medieval 'pornocracy' as Luther called it, was even worse) but I didn't think that clerical offices could actually be handed down in a family.
This startled me as well, but several sources say that Ippolito II inherited the Archbishopric of Milan from his uncle Ippolito I in 1519- the younger Ippolito being only about 10 at the time! I can only assume that the d'Este family had such control of the Archbishopric of Milan at that time that they could do what they wanted with it.

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rockygirl
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Post by rockygirl » Sun September 12th, 2010, 1:05 am

Reading The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. Has anyone read it?

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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Sun September 12th, 2010, 4:59 am

I've finished "The Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman (403pgs, 2006ed, 2002orig). A good page turning mystery type-ish book.

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