I
Fatti e le Prodezze di Manoli Blessi, Strathioto
by Antonio Molino,
1561.
Having
seen two blogs in the past month that went on at some length about
Manoli Blessi, stratiote and poet/song-writer, I find it
necessary to say that Manoli Blessi never existed.
This
Manoli Blessi is a character invented by Antonio "Burchiella"
da Molino who wrote a very long account in verse of Blessi's life and
writings (Sathas 8: 78 pages of 8-line stanzas in double columns, and
who also created an extremely long marching-song by him (Sathas 9: 82
pages of 6-line stanzas in double columns.)
These
are written in greghesco, a 16th-century stage
impression of the Greek-Venetian dialect. We cannot know how closely
this represents the normal expression of second- or third- or
fourth-generation Greek-Venetians, but it is great fun.
Unde
è thora el gran Clemende,
capettagno
del Strathia,
e
chel Gerbessi valende
chie
tremar feva ’l Turchia,
con
chel Gigni del Fraschia
pien
de inzegno, e del secretti?
O
Strathiotti puveretti.
Dovè
e1 Stigni, e chel Canacchi,
Mexsa,
Lopossi, et Berbatti,
con
Andruzzo dal mustacchi,
Petro
Bua, com Stamatti,
chie
andama como ’l gatti
al
buscade andavan stretti?
O
Strathiotti puveretti.
What
is particularly striking to me here, is that these are all names of
individuals (and villages) from the Nauplion area (and mostly from
the period of Bartolomeo
Minio), and it is fascinating to find a work by a Venetian in
1561 that remembers Petro
Bua who died about 70 years earlier. These names certainly suggest something about Molino's informants.
What
is also striking is that Sathas (8: 471-2) prints the dedication of
Molino’s book which makes it very clear that Manoli Blessi is his
creation. Very few have noticed that. Sathas didn't notice it (4: lvii-lix; 7: liv-lxiii, which includes the image above). The
Ελληνική Βιβλιογραφία(Athens, Grafeio dimosievmato tis
akadimias Athenon, 1984-86) didn’t notice it.
The dedication of Molino's book seems to have been written by a Lodovico Dolce. It assures the Magnifico e Valorosissimo Signore Giacomo Contarino, who probably paid for the printing, that Molino is a most honored citizen of Venice, ornamented with many virtures, and that since boyhood he has endeavored to master all the abilities of a civilized man. Molino has spent much of his life as a merchant, and while in Corfu and Candia he became interested in comedy. On his return to Venice, he started an academy of music, and to finance the academy, he took up writing comedies. There is more, about art purifying the soul, and the importance of Petrarch, Virgil, and Homer, and such, but that really has nothing to do with the life and works of Manoli Blessi.
This
entry has made use of Marc D. Lauxtermann,
"Linguistic Encounters: The Presence of Spoken Greek in
Sixteenth-Century Venice," in Renaissance Encounters: Greek
East and Latin West, edited by Marina S. Brownlee & Dimitri
H. Gondicas.
What Albanian word would the French have heard as Chesepritri?
In January I wrote an entry about how the number 6000 became the definitive number whenever the troop strength of the Morea was estimated. This works very well, if you take some simplistic calculations. Sphrantzes said that there were 30,000 Albanians. Assume half were males, 15,000. Evidence from various population groups in medieval and pre-modern Greece suggests that from 37-54% were under the age of 14, or 5550-8100. That is a very wide range, from 9850 down to 6900 adult males, and if you consider the ones too old or too injured to fight, or those needed to keep an eye on the settlements and herds, 6000 is quite reasonable.
There is one other estimate of stratioti numbers in the Morea to consider.
Chesepritri is the green island, farther down the coast than this suggests.
The blue is Ropolı/Romvi, the red Daskalo in the bay off Tolo.
Nauplion upside-down. Piri Re'is, 1574 edition of 1520s map.
Piri Re'is's islands should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise.
In 1465, Jacopo Barbarigo (in charge of Venetian forces in the Venetian-Ottoman war in the Morea) said that the territories of Methoni and Koroni could only support about 150 horses each -- he was having a difficult time getting feed for the stratioti's horses, and many had starved to death. Although he was stationed in upper Mani, he had to keep most of his forces up in Nauplion territory.
He said he had a total of 1500 stratioti, in addition to the Italian troops. He estimated that there were between 2000 and 3000 stratioti fighting with the Ottoman troops. This would be a total count of 3500-4500 stratioti in the Morea. What happened to the other 1500-2500?
Στὸ βουνὸ would be my guess, assuming there had been about 6000 earlier. The Ottomans are only recorded as having one battle in the field with stratioti, and that was in 1423. Barbarigo gives accounts of one side coming upon the other en route, or an occasional ambush, but all other accounts concern sieges and raiding the countryside. Stratioti, with horses, did not think much of sieges, from either side.
Chesepritri more accurately located by GoogleMaps,
triangular plain of Canda right, Nauplion upper left.
In the Nauplion area, the stratioti had been given the land at Aria and Candia, in the flat triangular plain south-east of the coastal mountains and the narrow road past the bay of Drepanon. (The area produces artichokes today.) In theory, and following the Byzantine system, stratioti had land on which to support themselves and their families, and otherwise they were paid in loot. In practice, as Minio found in the summer of 1480, stratioti could not collect their harvest and then pay their harvest taxes, if they had to be armed and on full alert for an Ottoman attack just at harvest time. Or, as Barbarigo kept trying to explain to Venice, stratioti could not feed themselves if they had been away from home for three years and were always on the move. (For more on stratioti pay, here.)
This gets us to Chesepritri, the large island in the bay between Tolo and Candia. The French map emphasizes pastures which are difficult to have confidence in looking at the aerial map of the island. I do not know how many farm plots and how many horses the plain of Candia could maintain. This site on horses suggests 1 1/2 acres of good pasture land -- 6 stremmata -- dung-free, per horse. So I suspect that Chesepritri's pastures provided a home for some of the stratioti's horses, probably the mares and foals, as the others would at times be needed immediately.
Chesepritri itself, showing that the 16th-C map was not too far off.
Modern houses in just about the same locations, some pasture areas.
* Thanks for the Chesepritri map to Pavlos Plessas, himself from a stratioti family known at the time the original map was made, the Blessi.
Soldiers in the Panagia, at Skafi-Prodromi, Crete. John Pagomenos, 1347.
When Piero Brunoro of San Vidal died in Negroponte in 1461, his company of 42 chavalli and 500 fanti had to be dispersed. Some were merged into other companies, some were discharged. The records of the fanti and stratioti discharged -- 176 of them, a few noted as morto or fuzì -- give a remarkable sense of the international quality of these military companies and, more important, an impression of what these men looked like. They come from all over Italy, Greece and the islands, the Balkans, and across Europe. The injuries and scars are striking, and the descriptions, overall, reflect difficult lives.
- Batista da Padoa, de Antonio; short, black eyes, pale, broken nose, scar on right temple. - Rugier de Burgos, de Diego; ruddy complexion, tall, smallpox scars, 38. - Zuan de Petra Santa, de Nicollo; young, pale grey eyes, scar between eyebrows. - Piero del’Arta, de Nicollo; 34, short, mole under the ear; caporal. - Stefano de Bosnia, de Zorzi; 32; black eyes; wart under right eye. - Zuan de Belgrado, de Mirislan; blond, pale grey eyes; scar under left eye; 30. - Zan da Modon, condan * Zorzi; young; short; thin; little beard; scar on right side under lower lip. - Cazavillan da Zara, condam Lucha; 34; thin; red; scar on right forehead. - Andrea dele Spezie, di Bertino; scars around eyebrows over nose; servant of Piero Venier. - Stefano de Narenta, de Zorzi; pale; thin; short; black eyes; servant of Marioto. - Nicollo da Corfù, de Piero; young, smallpox scars; brown hair; scar on forehead; servant of Greguol da Padua. - Anton da Rodi, de Marcho; young; brown hair; black eyes; scar on right hand; servant of Zan da Chiarenza - Zuan de Salonikchi, condan Xeno; 18; brown hair; pale grey eyes; hand covered with scars; servant of Piero da Vinexia. - Piero Frezer de Napoli di Romania, condan Marco; 36; thin; scar in middle of forehead.
Two entries in the original spelling from the list above: - Piero del'Arta, de Nicollo; anni 34; basso; ja. mora soto l'arechia; caporal. - Rugier de Burgos, di Diego; rosso, longo, varoloso; anni 38.
The condotta for a band of 31 Albanians included with these does not give descriptions, and is much less carefully detailed, but it lets us know that the band under a capo of stratioti implied the men of the catuna under his authority. A condotta was written for a certain number of men, and if some were hired, others had to be discharged, as this shows:
- Gini Canessi, capo
- Musachi Canessi, his son
- Georgi Canessi, his son
- Dimitri Canessi, enrolled in place of Martino Marcho (discharged).
- Georgi Zanrandino, entolled in place of Laxaro Marcho (discharged).
- Dimitri Marcho (dead)
- Gini Marcho (dead)
Thirty-one men are listed in Gini Canessi's company. They remained in Negroponte for nearly nine years. Twenty-six of Gini Canessi's relatives were killed in Negroponte's defense. The next year he was at Nauplion, leading a band of 25, continuing the war. He was to have a provision of 5 ducats a month (which meant 50 a year, quite decent if actually paid) and was given a present of 25 lire, about 10 ducats.
* condam = quondam = "son of the late" . . ..
This material is taken from C. Capizzi, "Un documento ineditor sulla guarnigione veneziana di Negroponte," Rivista di Studi Byzantini e Neoellenici 12-13 (1975-1976) 35-108.
The
Palaiologos cross between four firesteels (πυρέκβολα)
each resembling a B which are also said to have originally been Bs that were later turned into firesteels. These have been interpreted as
the initials of the imperial motto: Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων
Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων or Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων
Βασιλεύων Βασιλεῦσι ), "King of Kings, Ruling
over Rulers."*
My
colleague Ersie Burke and I both work on stratioti but we share them out. I get the Morea stratioti, and she gets the stratioti who ended up in Venice, but we overlap on the occasional family relationships and then we work together with scans, Skype and Dropbox. Just after Christmas we were reading together a petition Ersie found from a Demetrio-2 Paleologo** recorded in Venetian records with a date of 27 January 1584. (I have given the names in this petition numbers to help keep them straight -- this family was most loyal to the Greek naming tradition.)
Demetrio-2 Paleologo, the petitioner, had held land on Cyprus, inherited from his father Zuanne-2, worth 5,000 scudi, and commanded 60 stratioti for Venice. During the Ottoman assault on Cyprus that began in 1570, he lost his land, saw his father and brother killed, his house destroyed, and the women of the household raped. He himself was chained at the oars on Turkish galleys for six years. At the time of writing, he was asking to be assigned to Kefalonia or Crete as captain of stratioti, with a position appropriate to a member of his family which had lost so much in the service of Venice.
Before he tells of the Cypriot disaster, he recounts this family service going back over four generations and more than a hundred years.
*Andronico-1 Paleologo, because of his command and valor at the Hexamilion and Corinth in 1463, was given Kastri (Hermione) in the Argolid in 1469. He fortified it himself and brought settlers there.
* Zuanne-1 Paleologo (remember this one) did no less. He had been given Stalimene (Lemnos) by his cousin, the Despot of the Morea, and was confirmed in possession by the Venetian captain-general, Alvise Loredan in the Venetian-Ottoman War (1464-1478). After that, he fought in Valachia for his brother-in-law, the Voivode Stefano, to drive out the Ottomans. In 1482 he led Greek troops in the Ferrara War, and just after that fought at Padua.
* Demetrio-1 Paleologo , Zuanne's son and grandfather of Demetrio 2, our petitioner, was with the Venetians at the attacks at Metilene (Lesbos) in 1501, Santa Maura, and Kefalonia.
* Andronico-2 Palaeologo, Demetrio-1's son, had been instrumental at the Ottoman siege of Nauplion in 1500 in getting food into the city which was on the verge of surrender from starvation. He and two of his cousins were killed in an ambush near Argos.
* Zuanne-2 Palaeologo, also a son of Demetrio-1 and father of our petitioner, was mentioned in the second paragraph He had better fortune than his brother, and fought so well for Venice that he was knighted and given the fief on Cyprus. He was killed in the Ottoman takeover.
There are a great many Palaiologos names scattered through the Venetian records, and sometimes they say they are "da Costantinople" and sometimes "da Napoli di Romania" but mostly there is no identification. So go back to Zuanne-1.
Zuanne-1 held Lemnos from his cousin, the Despot of the Morea. Lemnos was an island given as appanage to members of the imperial family. Manuel II had Lemnos at one time. Demetrios Palaiologos had Lemnos for many years, until he was created Despot of Mistra.*** But despots do not grant islands, but emperors do, and the only Despot of the Morea to become emperor was Constantine. So it looks like Constantine gave his cousin Zuanne-Ioannis-John, Lemnos when he became emperor, in 1449 or so.
Now, when Cyriaco of Ancona was in the Morea in 1447, he visited with a
John Palaiologos who was Constantine's governor of Mani. ( Cyriaco wrote the name Iωannum
Palaeologum with an omega.)**** John took Cyriaco to look at an inscription on ancient walls in a field near Oitylo where there were also cisterns and sarcophagi. This John is not found in the PLP, which is the sacred book of Byzantine names from 1261 on, but there are a great many names not found in it, and it is a starting-point, not a definitive conclusion. I am quite sure that this John Palaiologos of Mani is Zuanne-1 Palaiologos whose cousin gave him Lemnos.
Constantine's cousin. Now Constantine's uncle, Theodoros I who died in 1407, is known to have had children, though not by his wife. The only reasonably-identified, and nameless, child was a daughter, known later as Fatma
chatún, who was married to Sulayman, son of sultan Murad.
Sulayman, briefly sultan of Edirne , was overthrown in 1411. She disappeared.
There appear to have been at least two sons. I am suggesting that this John-Zuanne-1-Iωannum
Palaiologos was one of the sons of Theodoros I Palaiologos, and that is why he had status adequate to receive the island of Lemnos. John was the name of Theodoros' father.
The petitioner says that Zuanne's brother-in-law Stefano was ruler of Valachia. A Stephen III ruled Moldavia from 1457-1504, and in 1471, he invaded Ottoman-ruled
Vallachia in and was able to push them back. John-Zuanne-1
apparently participated in this effort, and it is somewhat confirmation of his status that he married a daughter and sister of rulers. She apparently did not have a name either.
Because of the way names entwine in this family, I am also suggesting that Andronico-1 was another a son of Theodoros. Andronikos was the name of Theodoros' grandfather. I have no evidence beyond a sense of tidyness and you now have all the evidence I have.
I also have a Michali Paleologo who was governor of Vassilicata (Sicyon) in 1430. Someone was selling silver jewelry for him in Venice. I don't know what to do with him. I don't know how many sons we can give Theodoros credit for but he was a governor in the territory Constantine controlled at that date.
This is as far as I can go with these names, other than to recall that Constantine is the only Palaiologos we know of whom there is recorded some concern for family.
* This comes from Wikipedia. I like the description but I cannot vouch for the accuracy. I would be grateful for more information and sources.
** Sathas 5: 217-219 can be downloaded here. *** Mehmed gave the income of Lemnos back to Demetrios for a while. **** Cyriaco, Diary V: 23.
Stratiote (detail from 15thC icon, Byzantine Museum of Thessalonike)
wearing the red fabric that appears so often in Venetian documents on stratioti pay.
Stratioti, in the ideal Venetian system, pretty much paid for themselves. They worked their own land -- land otherwise unused, provided their own food, and earned the rest from wartime loot. The ideal Venetian system never actually worked. Stratioti who are farming cannot fight. A man ordinarily can only carry about three days worth of food with him for him and his horse. Stratioti who are not fighting do not get loot. And so on and so forth. So it became a delicate balance to keep stratioti fed and reasonably accepting of authority until their services were needed for the next time. You can read all about it in detail in Bartolomeo Minio's letters here. (And bear in mind that he tends to call them "stratioti" when his nerves are good, and "Albanians" when they are not, though the majority were Albanian.)
Stratioti come in several categories. One is those for whom there was a short-term contract: they appeared, served their time, and left. Another category is for those who had land allotments and were considered residents of the territory. A third category is the provisionati, usually the kapetanioi, who received larger amounts of money, payments of red and black cloth, and sometimes large land allotments, maybe with fortifications. They were guaranteed payment for a certain number of stratioti, and their servants were usually provided with extra gifts. This is a very interesting system because, while ostensibly imported from Italy, it actually represents the monetization of the pronoia system. It is claimed that there is no evidence for the pronoia system in the Morea but we have former landholders becoming provisionati, and I have now found documents that specify land grants by the despots for men we later see as kapetanioi. It takes a lot of reading back and forth.
Taking into consideration the vicissitudes of weather and the lack of loot in peacetime, Venice provided a certain number paghe, payments, in cash and grain in a year. That is, they provided them on paper, and some years it was 3 and some years it was 6, and sometimes it was four of cash and three of grain. Minio's letters say otherwise: "In 19 months they have had only two pays of cash and two of grain." "For a year they have had no payments of cash or grain." "You promised the stratioti 3 pays of grain a year, and the soldiers 5 of cash."
This is where it gets dicey. Stratioti had to appear at the regularly-scheduled mostra with arms and horses in order to get those payments, if the payments had actually arrived. No governor could have been sanguine in the face of 500 armed stratioti when telling them they would, again, not be paid, and during the war a commander was decapitated when he gave that news once too often. If payments had actually arrived, a stratiote without a horse or weapons would not be paid. But if the period of hunger had been going on long enough -- and most of the stratioti had families to feed -- they might have to sell the horse, or the weapons for the metal in them, to get food. During the war Barbarigo reported men selling off their bollete (promises of pay) for a quarter of the value in order to buy food now. Minio reported his Cretan ballestrieri, bowmen, selling their bollette for half the value.
There was never a budget item "food for soldiers." Fanti were paid on one schedule, stratioti on another, and the ballestrieri were to be paid from the administration Candia which rarely happened. When Minio was captain in Candia twenty years later, the payments to the Nauplion ballestrieri were absolutely conscientiously made on schedule. So through Minio's letters you see one group or another hungry. More than once in Nauplion, Minio took loans from the better-off corporali (fanti commanders) so he could buy food for the ballestrieri and stratioti.
One of the things you see in the Minio letters is that you can predict when the peacetime food is simply going to be inadequate. In the winters of 1479-80 and 1480-81, Minio reports that the rains and the early grain look good for the year, and they are. In the winter of 1481-82, he predicts a poor crop, and that summer the stratioti, and Nauplion, are on the edge of famine. Each year, from March on until early June, Minio is desperate for grain to feed the stratioti. It is no coincidence that the Lenten fast coincides with the depletion of food stores and before the new growth.
There was a problem in the summer of 1480. Fearing an Ottoman attack -- and there were massive assaults on Rhodes and Otranto -- Minio called up everyone from the farms, Greek landworkers and stratioti, and provided them with spears from the Nauplion armory. Shipping for food and cash from Venice was blocked. While there was a fine harvest, within another month the Italian fanti were hungry, and because of their weakened physical condition, many of them were dying from the summer malaria. Fanti did not have land (although Antonio Marinato and his troop may have been pirates on the side, and interestingly, none of them died) and were dependent on what was provided from Venice. Minio had been asking for money for grain for 6 months, and finally was sent old grain from Venice, half of what he could have bought locally for the same price. Would you believe that Venice had financial interests whose pacification was regarded as more important than hungry soldiers?
Now, when the pay actually arrived, there were still roadblocks. A stratiote received 28 soldi or 112 torneselli in a payment. Of this, he had to pay 4 soldi to the Paymaster-General, and 2 to the paymaster at Nauplion. A fante, an Italian soldier, should his pay have arrived, would receive 300 torneselli, and he was not likely to have a legal family.
So right there you can see a problem and why stratioti needed land, and loot -- and why many of the unpaid stratioti who joined the Kladas revolt took the opportunity to continue as professional looters. One way around on occasion this was for stratioti companies to be written up with allowance for a certain number of paghe morte, dead pays, and at mostre, the number of live pays were reported.
Here are some numbers to suggest what was involved with pay and food that show how fragile the system was. (Much of the Venetian financial calculations for the stato da mar involved hyperpera which did not actually exist as coins.)
28 soldi = 1 2/5 hpp. [one payment] 1 stero wheat = 1 3/4 hpp. [weight varies from 70-100 kg. Ideally, an individual would have 200 k. of wheat. This assumes access to fruit, beans, olives, fish, oil, cheese, etc.] 1 kg. wheat = 1.52 liters, as bread, has 2500 calories. Cooked as porridge, it produces about 6 servings. In other words, 1 kg. of wheat is basic nutrition for a man for 2 days, though without other sources of food, malnutrition will soon set in.
Cloth was always nice, though not edible. During the 1484-1478 war, Yanni Volassi and Piero Boziki were given robes, and one of Micheli Rallis' aides was given a scarlet robe. Giorgio Pagomeno and Giorio Paniperi were given, respectively, robes of black velvet and cloth-of-gold. (This was probably an indication of knighthood: Kladas and two men with him whowere knighted by the Doge were given cloth-of-gold robes.) Early in the war, provveditor Andrea Dandolo was sent 63 lengths of cloth to distribute to the kapetanioi according to status and loyalty. Nicolo Gritzas, Petro Bua, Nicolo and Micheli Rallis, and Count Comnino were given fine scarlet. Like service ribbons of the last century, cuts and colors were calibrated to honor and status.
But what comes clear, over and over, reading between the lines in the Venetian documents, is that after mid-century Venice was always too stressed to be able to organize the necessary funds for the necessary shipments at the right time: this assumes the will, good shipping weather, and seas safe from piracy -- none of which could be taken for granted.
I was reading my favorite writer's -- Sir Thomas Browne's -- Musaeum Clausum (1684+) in which he creates a museum of pictures and antiquities he would like to have. One item was:
34. A noble Picture of the famous Duel between Paul Manessi and Caragusa the Turk in the time of Amurath the Second; the Turkish Army and that of Scanderbeg looking on; wherein Manessi slew the Turk, cut off his Head and carried away the Spoils of his Body.
He was thinking of a painting on the order of this, or this. I sent this item to the Byzantine list and a couple of correspondents, and asked for help with the incident. One of my correspondents, Pavlos from London, immediately sent back a link to this passage from Knolles' History of the Turkes (1638). I have added some paragraphing.
* * * * *
Mustapha [general of the Turks] having many times in vain sought to draw the garrison souldiers out of their trenches, by offering them many opportunities of advantage, and now out of hope that way to circumvent them, began to spoil and burn the country round about: but when he understood by his scouts of Scanderbegs comming, he speedily called together his army, and incamped within two miles of Scanderbegs camp, at a place called Oronoche, in the upper country of Dibra. Scanderbeg had there in his Camp, of the garrison soldiers and those he brought with him, 4000 horsmen and 2000 foot, all old expert souldiers, where after he had made his trenches strong, he left therein 300 of them, and brought the rest into the field in order of battell. Mustapha likewise on the other side likewise brought on in good order his army also. But whilst both armies thus stood ranged one within view of an other, expecting nothing but the signall of battell, suddenly a man at arms in gallant & rich furniture, issued out of the Turks army, into the midst of the plain betwixt both armies, and from thence with a loud voice challenged to fight hand to hand with any one of the Christian army: this Turk was called Caragusa.
At the first Scanderbegs souldiers upon this challenge stood still, one looking upon another; for as they were all ashamed to refuse so brave an offer, so the danger so suddenly offered staid every mans forwardnes for a while: until that one Paul Manessi, accounted the best man at arms in Scanderbegs army (upon whom every mans eye was now cast, as if hee had beene by name called out by the proud Challenger) not able longer to endure the Turks pride, with great courage and cheerful countenance came to Scanderbeg, requesting him that he might be the man to accept that challenge. Who greatly commended him, and willed him on Gods name to set forward, first to win honor to himself, and then to give example of his valor for all the rest of the army to follow. Paul staying a while, untill he had for that purpose most bravely armed himself, presently mounted to horse, and riding forth into the plain, called aloud unto the Turk, that he should make himselfe ready to fight. Whom Caragusa required to stay a while, that he might speak unto him a few words, indifferently concerning them both.
“The victory (said he) our force and fortune shall determin; but the conditions of the victory we are now to appoint our selves. If the Destinies have aßigned unto thee the honor of this day, I refuse not but that thou maist by law of arms, when I am overcome, carry away with thee my rich spoiles, and at thy pleasure dispose of my dead body. But if thou shalt fal under my hand, I require that I may have the same right and power over thy captive body; and that the Generals will grant, that no man shall move out of either army, to better the fortune of either of us in the time of the combat, or after.”
Whereunto Maneßi answered; “That he agreed to those conditions of the combat, which hee upon a needlesse feare had so required to be kept: saying, That where the fierce soul had yeelded, there of good right all the rest ought to be the Conquerors. And that therfore he should fight without fear of any more Enemies than himself, whom so soon as he had deprived of life, he should have free power to doe with his dead body what he would. Which if thou wouldst give (said he) to the tears of my fellow souldiers, yet would not worthy Scanderbeg suffer the carkasse of a vanquished coward to be brought backe againe into his Campe.”
Caragusa marvelled to heare his so brave resolution, and as it was thought repented him of his challenge. But after both the Generals had upon their honors confirmed the lawes of the combat before rehearsed, both the champions were left alone in the middest of the plain betwixt both armies, with all mens eies fixed upon them. Now both the Armies betwixt fear and hope, stood in great expectation of the event of the combat, presaging their own fortune in the fortune of their Champions. In which time they both having withdrawn themselves one from another a convenient distance, for the making of their course, and after with great violence running together, Caragusa was by Manessi at the first incounter struck through the head and slain. Maneßi alighting, disarmed the dead body & struck off his head; and so loded with the armor and head of the proud challenger, returned Victor of the Army, where he was joyfully received and brought to Scanderbeg, of whom he was there presently honorably both commended and rewarded.
Scanderbeg seeing his men by this good fortune of Maneßi, greatly encouraged, and the Turks as men dismaied with the death of their Champion, hanging their heads, like an invincible Captaine, himselfe set first forward toward the enemy, as it were in contempt of their multitude: and had charged them as they stood, before they had set one foot forward, had not Mustapha to incourage his soldiers, with certain disordred troups opposed himselfe against him; which the whole army seeing, faintly followed: but as they set forward with small courage, so were they at the first incounter easily driven to retire. Which when Mustapha say, he called earnestly upon them to follow him, and the more to encourage them by his own example, put spurs to his horse, and fiercely charged the front of Scanderbegs army, as one resolved either to gaine the victory, or there to die: after whom followed most of his principall captains of his army, which would not for shame forsake their Generall: thus by his valor the battell was for a while renewed. But Moses prevailing with great slaughter in one part of the Army, the Turks began to fly: in which flight Mustapha the Generall, with twelve others of the chiefe men in that army, were taken prisoners, but of the common souldiers few were saved.
There was slaine of the Turks army ten thousand, and fifteene ensignes taken; whereas of the Christians were slaine but three hundred. The Turks tents and campe, with all the wealth thereof, became a prey to Scanderbegs soldiers: wherewith although he had satisfied the desires of them all, yet to keep his old custom, he entred into the confines of Macedonia, and there burnt and spoiled all that he could. And afterward leaving a garrison of two thousand horsemen and a thousand foot for defence of his frontiers, returned again with the rest of his army to the siege of Dayna.
One of the galleries at Tiryns, Minio's Castellazo.
On 9 October 1480, the Greek kapetanios Krokondelos Kladas led a company of stratioti out of Koroni in a private war against the Turks in Mani. He carried a Venetian banner, to give the impression that he had serious backing, and he acquired Greek, Albanian, and Italian supporters as he went. Mehmed II wrote Venice that he knew they had nothing to do with it and sent two different military expeditions to bring Kladas down and punish his accomplices.
On 15 December, Captain-General Morosini of the Venetian fleet reviewed the troops in Nauplion -- he had already done this in Methoni and Koroni -- and fired most of the Greek and Albanian stratioti or reduced their ranks, without their back pay. In peacetime Venice had no need for so many troops. When they protested, he demoted some and had others beaten. One of the leading Albanian kapetanioi, Thodaros Bua, stormed out with some 60 followers. They attacked Turks farming outside Argos, killed three, and went south to join Kladas. (See Letter 23.)
Ottoman reprisals were terrific, towns were burned, hostages taken, a few prisoners sent to Constantinople where they were cut to pieces. The impression from the documents is that it was not those responsible who received the brunt of the punishment. Kladas and Bua fought over control, Bua pulled out. Avoiding the dragnets across the Mani, many of the rebels made their way toward the borders of Koroni and Nauplion territory and started operating as bandits. Nauplion's provveditore, Bartolomeo Minio, banned the bandits from entering Nauplion territory and prohibited the sale of their goods. Nicolò Navagero, did the same for Koroni territory. This was their only defense when they could not lay hands on the guilty.
In early March, Bua got in touch with his cousin, Ismail Pasha, voivode of Karitena (who had taken troops across Mani) and asked for pardon. On the 12th Ismail wrote Navagero, provveditore of Koroni, proposing that both sides grant mutual amnesty -- he knew Navagero well after spending three weeks with him the previous fall in negotiating the territorial boundaries, but Navagero replied that he was unable to take such an action. Bua, taking pardon for granted, went into Monemvasia where he was immediately recognized and jailed.
In April, Kladas abandoned his followers, perhaps a day before certain capture near Porto Quaglio, sailing away on a ship belonging to the King of Naples on which there was someone he knew. For nearly a year, what was left of the revolt remained in a limbo, with some of the rebels hiding in the mountains, some looting and attacking Turks.
In January of 1481/82, Ahmed Beg, the new Ottoman governor or sancakbeg, arrived in the Morea. On 13 February, he -- with 300 horsemen and his personal staff -- met Bartolomeo Minio -- with 500 horsemen, 200 foot, and half of Nauplion -- at Castellazo. Then the two of them, each with five attendants, withdrew to talk. After issues of mutual interest had been discussed, and much good will exchanged, Ahmed Beg took one of the voivodes as a translator, Minio took his secretary and his translator, and the five of them talked privately.
I chose the picture above of one of the galleries at Tiryns, as it seems a most likely place for them to have talked. It offers shelter from the February chill, and privacy.
Ahmed Beg said that he wanted to put the matter of the revolt to rest. One of his voivodes who was related to the Busichi clan, and Ismail Pasha, had been working on it (or maybe the voivode and Ismail were the same person), and he asked Minio if he would share in a joint pardon.
Minio said that he himself did not have the authority to pardon rebels against the Signoria, people who had violated their peace agreement with the Ottomans. Ahmed urged him again, saying that if he -- the offended party -- was willing to forgive them and Venice was not, it could be taken that they were willing for the rebels to continue. Minio saw his point and said that he would write to the Signoria.
It was agreed that, until they had the Signoria’s response, the rebels were to withdraw and remain quiet. The voivodes and some of the kapetanioi said they would speak with their rebel relatives and asked for three days to get an answer. By the end of the three days, the kapetanioi brought word that Mexa Busichi, Elia Sagan, and Canessi Climendi, the rebel leaders, were willing to accept that.
So Minio sent his secretary with two Nauplion citizens with the kapetanioi to meet the rebels and record their oaths to remain at peace. Minio wrote the sancakbegabout this, and received from him a pardon and safe-conduct for the rebels.
Minio urged the pardon on the Signoria, pointing out all over again that the offended side had already given a pardon. Further, this was a matter of 77 men, all of them first-rate men with good horses that the Signoria could ill-afford to lose. He was taking a great risk: had his proposal been resented in Venice, he could have lost any future position and could have been hit with enormous fines. Then Minio wrote something else, something he had not written the Signoria before because loyalty to a senior officer was such a supreme Venetian value. Minio explained what had happened to prompt the Nauplion revolt:
The Magnificent Captain General, held a review . . . through the bad information given for their advantage by those who were close to his Magnificence, . . . many of the old and competent stratioti have been rejected and their appointments annulled, and other useless ones taken on.Mexa Busichi, a competent man, and personally more valuable than his other Busichi brethren . . . was downgraded and listed as a simple stratioto. . . . Elia Sagan, who was a kapetanios of the stratioti, a provisionato, and one of the old stratioti of this territory . . . and his brother who was also a kapetanios and provisionato and others of his family have died in Your Lordship's service . . . was not only discharged . . . by the aforesaid Misier Hieronimo, but was also beaten.
He said a great deal more than this. (See Letter 72) Minio’s sense of unfairness and his strong loyalty to ’his’ stratioti won him enormous loyalty in return. His arguments convinced the Signoria, and within six weeks the first pardons -- seventeen -- were issued. It took several months to get it all settled, and the Busichi had to be pardoned for assorted homicides as well, but it was done, and then Venice offered them all jobs fighting in the Ferrara war. How they were seen in Italy is described here .
In fact, the stratioti were so contemptuous of the leadership they got in Italy that they refused to fight if not assigned a leader of their own choice. They were given Minio. The sequel to this story, and the Ferrara war, will be told in a few weeks.
In 1470, after Nicolò da Canale helped lose Negroponte to Mehmed II, Venice replaced him as Captain General of the Fleet with Pietro Mocenigo. In 1474, after a series of military and diplomatic successes along the coast of Asia Minio and Cyprus, Venice elected Mocenigo doge. One of the sopracomiti -- ship commanders -- Coriolano Cippico, a Dalmatian in his 50s, wrote an account of these ventures for Marcantonio Morosini, Venetian ambassador to Burgundy,. Burgundy was theoretically an ally of Venice in this war that Pius II had got going -- he called it a crusade against the infidel but he died before the ships sailed -- and this document was most likely intended to encourage Burgundian participation and financing by reassuring them about the Venetian leader.
The document is printed in the 7th volume of Konstantine Sathas' invaluable collection of Venetian documents for 15th-century Greece which you can download here. Cippico's description of the stratioti seems to be the basis of the famous description Sanudo gave later. Cippico writes:
The Venetians, in all the cities of the Morea that are under their dominion, have hired many Albanians on horseback, who are called by the Greek name stratioti. These with their swift raiding have so wasted the part of the Morea that is under the Turks that is is almost a desert and a solitude. These people are by nature intensely rapacious, and more apt to raid than to give battle. They use a shield, sword, and lance; few have breastplates; the others wear a bombazine cuirass as protection against the blows of an enemy. The most valorous of all are those from Nauplion.
Mocenigo's tactics were exceptional for that time: he took took the stratioti with the fleet, and not in roundships and towed hulks, but on the war galleys, carrying ten horses on each galley. Depending on how many allies were sailing with him, this allowed him 400 mounted stratioti. Without heavy, slower ships, he was able to attack with exceptional speed, which was increased by his having the fleet sail to its target by night so the attack could begin dawn. Cippico describes that over and over in this account. Mocenigo had certain principles: he would not attack Greek islands held by the Turks, because the residents were Christians, but only sites on the Turkish mainland.
After a brief description of an attack on the mainland opposite Lesbos. Cippico describes the division of the spoils, a few comments in parentheses:
The stratioti brought the General the heads of their dead enemies, to have a ducat each, as the General had promised them: this has always been their custom. The General loaded the galleys with the spoils, and came to a deserted island with good landings, between Chios and the mainland, which is now called Panagia. Here were put all the spoils. Three arbitrators were selected from the sopracomiti, two Venetians and the third a Dalmatian, which is the custom always used in such circumstances. The arbitrators, according to ancient Venetian custom, gave one tenth of all the spoils to the Captain General. (1/10) The stratioti for their part kept two-thirds (6/10), and the arbitrators one-third (3/10). The General had promised them this. All the prisoners were consigned to the arbitrators: these were sold at auction. (It appears from various reports in Cippico that slave dealers followed the fleet.) The money was divided in this way. First, all the soldiers who had brought in an enemy prisoner were given three ducats. Then, the sopracomiti were paid for the expense of the stratioti's horses. The rest was divided equally among the galleys. The galley of the provveditori was given double what was given to the other galleys. The sopracomiti kept one third, and distributed the rest among the soldiers and oarsmen, according to rank.
The next division of the spoils was made on Delos, where Cippico noted columns, statues, remains of temples, an amphitheater, and a colossus of 15 cubits with the inscription
ΝΑΞΙΟΙ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙ
The people of Naxos to Apollo
The next island episode was on Samos, :
Samos at present is a deserted island and has always been celebrated for its fertility. Now it is full only of all sorts of animals, an abundance of woodland honey which one can find all around in the forests, and springs of sweet and living water that rise in all parts. The horsemen and soldiers were disembarked to drill and refresh themselves. The soldiers and others went hunting and while they were taking various prey, a youth of the Dalmatian nation and language encountered a bear of marvelous size. The bear avoided his blow, went behind the boy and knocked him to the ground. The boy, without losing spirit, jammed his fingers into both the bear's eyes and held its head so that it would not lacerate him, long enough for another youth of the same nation to kill the bear from behind with a sword. On all sides there was a great killing of animals, and the whole army was employed in the hunt. Several days were spent in festival, with a great deal to eat and drink. More than anyone else, the Schiavoni, of whom there were a great many among the oarsmen, sang drinking songs. After everyone was sated, they boasted about the great deeds they had done, and how they had prospered so successfully against such vile men.
The top image is a detail from a Genoese tapestry of the Battle of Lepanto; the bear is from a medieval bestiary, and is actually licking her cub into shape rather than eating something.
Manessis icon, 1546 S. Giorgio dei Greci, Venice,
(probably) Comin Manessis, d. 1565
There are very few pictures of named kapetanioi to be found. I have identified, with help from a friend, a total of five -- all of them painted in Italy in Italian style -- and only one is a real portrait, though one other shows a recognizable face. All five of them, in Italy, considered Nauplion as their home town and that is mostly because of the accident of history that let Methoni and Koroni be taken by the Turks in 1500, and let Nauplion stay Venetian for another 40 years.
Manessis icon, S. Giorgio dei Greci, Venice,
Ioannis Manessis, son of Comin.
Manessis icon, S. Giorgio dei Greci, Venice,
Giorgios Manessis, son of Comin.
They never dressed that way in Greece. In this icon the Greek-Albanian Manessis men have become Italian soldiers. These three shown here as donors of one icon were all capi of stratioti. Comin may just possibly have been Nicolò or Todoro (d. 1545): the records are confusing. Members of the family were prominent in the Venetian-Ottoman War (1463-1478), and in those years owned land in Mani, in the mountains above Kardamyle.
During the war, five Manessis capi whom the Venetian command considered homini da conte had to beg for food for their families because they were near starvation, and men in one of the Manessis villages finally made a private peace with the Turks to avoid starvation. Later they went back to fighting for the Venetians and one of them, Marino, was captured and flayed by the Turks for his treason. The Venetians felt a strong obligation to families who had risked so much for them, and after the war, made sure they had positions as capi and land for their families near Nauplion.
Stratioto Demetrios Palaiologos, in Venetian dress
Theodoros Palaiologos, father of the man in this picture, was given a fief with a castle at Thermissi, in Nauplion territory, in 1479 (he was aged about 30) in return for leading troops in the Venetian-Ottoman war of 1464-1478. For the next thirty or so years, Theodoros, and Demetrios in turn, when they weren't off fighting somewhere else, were difficult tenants for the Nauplion administration: they ignored the tax requirements, and used their men for private raids into Turkish territory, and their Greek tenants complained to the Venetians about their violence.
After the peace treaty was signed, Theodoros was rehired to lead a small band of horsemen in Friuli. He was made military governor of Zakynthos in 1485, and married Maria Kantakouzene of Corfù in 1486. He fought for Venice in the terrafirma in 1489-95. After that, Venice found Theodoros useful as a spy, an interpreter, and a minor diplomat. His name is remembered in Venice now as one of the men who persuaded the Senato to establish aGreek rite church in Venice. He died in 1532.
The position of capi passed from father to son. Demetrios eventually moved to Venice and became a member of the Greek confraternity there. He probably died in 1570, shortly after making his will He identified himself as "da Costantinopoli," probably figuring that with his name, Constantinople would be more advantageous than Nauplion or Zakynthos. Some of the family had escaped from Constantinople in 1453.
The picture of Demetrios appears at the end of the Gospel of John in a gospel book of the mid-14th century, made in Constantinople. The text behind his head readsX(ριστο)ῦ τοῦ Θ(εο)ῦ Δημήτριος Παλαιολόγος: the servant of Christ the Lord, Demetrios Palaiologos. The book is now in the National Library of Russia. The artist, probably Markos Vathas or a member of his workshop,painted a number of Italian-style images in the book. There are also several imperial-type images added to the book by a Greek-style painter, which Demetrios probably commissioned.
Mercurio Bua, by Lorenzo Lotto 1527-1530
Mercurio Bua (1478-1452?) was a son nephew of one of the leading archons and capi of the Morea, Petro Bua, who fought outside the Morea for the Venetians once the peace treaty had been signed. Members of his family led the Bua revolt at Nauplion in December 1480 in support of the Kladas revolt when he was an infant. After Petro Bua died, in 1489, Mercurio (formerly Maurikios) moved to Venice and changed his name to something Italians could manage Although the family had originally moved from Albania to Ioannina to the Morea over several generations, Mercurio identified himself as coming from Nauplion.
Sanudo said he was a small man, but this did not seem to affect the regard in which he was held. Beginning with a small band of men, twenty-five or so, he acquired a tremendous record during his career as condottiero, rather than a capo or kapetanios, and eventually was awarded the title of Count of Aquino and Roccasecca from the Holy Roman Empire. He was twice widowed: this portrait shows a small skull and fallen rose petals beside his hand, and is thought to have been painted in commemoration of one of those losses.
This painting shows something else. This is not the face of a proud man, which he certainly was, or of a comfortable man, which he had achieved along with the knowledge of a very good and fashionable portrait painter, or of a man who has won an extraordinary number of battles. He poses as a duty. He seems to be bracing his weight with his right hand and leaning against the wall. For years, various people had been commenting that he had gout, and once that he had had to miss a festival because he was in bed with gout. Shortly before this portrait was painted, Sanudo wrote that his body was full of gout. As gout advances it affects not just the feet, but joints over the whole body. The crystal deposits can be felt in many places under the skin and even break through. Bua was in excruciating pain, as well as grief, for this portrait.
When Mercurio Bua died in Treviso, in 1542, he was given a magnificent tomb in S.ta Maria Maggiore.
One of the interesting things in the stories of these men is that four, whom outsiders might identify as Albanian, identified themselves as coming from Nauplion -- originally a Greek city but by 1500 Frankish and then Venetian for nearly 300 years. The fifth man had the name to enable him to claim Constantinople. The modern insistence on nationalism comes from immature egos, and is an advantage only to suppliers of armaments. To insist on these men as Albanians is to completely ignore the culture in which they lived. They spoke and wrote Greek and Venetian, and worshiped as Greek Orthodox. They lived by choice in Venice and the terrafirma. They were professional military, even though sometimes their bands were as small as 15. We have no idea what they would claim for themselves, beyond Nauplion.
Venetian documents in the 15th century consider Albanians either [1] people living in that geographical area; or [2] migrant herders in the stato da mar territories. Stratioti were military who lived on land assignments, an inheritance from the Byzantine tradition, whether they were Greek or Albanian or of some other origin. Albanians were migratory; they moved about with their flocks and had no fixed address. They may have been soldiers with capi, but they were not identified as stratioti in the documents and when there was no war they paid no attention to Venetian authority. The matter of stability was key for Venetians, and the Venetians saw that Albanian loyalty was first of all to the clan, not to Venice. So one of the things you see with these four men is that, though their families of origin were Albanian, they have become urbanized and ultimately Venetian.
My great appreciation to Ersie Burke for her identifications in the Manessis icon, and her information on all of these men. Her book, Coming to Venice, about stato da mar Greeks in Venice, should be out in a year. It will have much more substantive information to offer about all these capi and their families.
NOTE: While I have put links here to an Italian site on condottieri , the information should be used with great caution. We have found a considerable number of errors in family names and places of origin.
