ANNOTATION FOR CANON PIETRO CASOLA’S
PILGRIMAGE IN 1494
YOJI KIUCHI
HIST493, SENIOR SEMINAR
SPRING, 1997
Jerusalem has been a holy place for not only Christians but also for Muslims and Jews for a long time. Many people have visited the city since ancient time. Still now, people are visiting or dreaming of it. Like many other Japanese, I am a Buddhist, though not serious, so I do not have a great desire to visit the holy place. It is just amazing to me that many people visit Jerusalem from all over the world. They need to consume lots of time, energy and money to accomplish their religious purpose.
There have been many people who were not satisfied with only visiting Jerusalem. They tried to occupy the place itself. As a result, many wars have broken out in Jerusalem, and the city has been destroyed many times.
As a topic for senior seminar, I got to work on a diary of one of these pilgrims. When I first started this paper, it was just boring to me. As I said before, I did not have any interest in pilgrimage or any religious activities because I had only read the material. Since I started to collect information for annotation, the work got interesting. I can see many historical aspects from the diary. Especially, my pilgrim, Casola, seemed to enjoy his journey to the holy place as he enjoyed his stay in Jerusalem. He left a detailed description in his diary of the cities he stayed during his journey. I hope that, you can get clearer idea of what it was like to go on a pilgrimage in fifteenth century as I did with this paper.
Pietro Casola, the author of Canon Pietro Casola’s Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the year 1494, was born in 1427 and died on November 6 in 1507 at age eighty. He was sixty-six when he traveled to Jerusalem as Canon.
He was born in one of the prominent families in Italy. Before Casola, one of his family members was Canon of the Metropolitan Church in fifteenth century. It was the time when the church admitted only nobility to hold such a position. There was a name "Cazolis" or "Casola" in a list of noble families in Milan, which was written as early as 1277. (Newett 13)
Mary Margaret Newett, the translator of this diary, found a record of Casola’s death in a series of "Registri Mortuari," preserved in the State Archives at Milan. The record calls Casola "the Reverend Lord." Despite his high position in the church, there are not many records left about Casola. (Newett14)
The name "Casola" appeared on a record of the church the first time in August 13 in 1467, when the Papal See nominated Casola to the benefice of St. Victor at Corbetta. In the next record, he addressed a petition to the Lord of Milan to get his right in the Canonries to St. Stephen, at Milan and St. Victor, at Corbetta.
In 1478, Casola was among the ordinary Canons of the Metropolitan Church at Milan. In 1502, he became a senior of the cardinal deacons of the Duomo. Newett says that Casola enjoyed support, emoluments of a benefice, and three Canonries in addition to his income as secretary attached for many years to the Milanese Embassy at Rome during the later years of his life.(Newett 17) From this fact, I can guess that the Church and people received Casola favorably. Casola spent much of his time on his writing that required much knowledge and study. Sometime he spent his own money to publish his books. (Newett 18)
According to all of this information, Casola was faithful to Christianity through his whole life, and maintained close relationship with the Church. Newett describe Casola as:
not only priest, but also a man of the world widely read and
largely traveled with much experience of men things, and
possessed of a practical philosophy of life, and a saving sense
of humor which carried him successfully all difficulties.
(Newett 20)
The book, Canon Pietro Casola’s Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year 1494, was originally published in Italy in 1855. In 1907, Mary Margaret Newett translated the book to English with introduction and notes. Casola kept the diary on both the outward and the homeward journey of his pilgrimage. He was sixty-six years old in 1494 so he thought this would be his last chance to go on the long and hard journey to Jerusalem. He had chances to go on pilgrimage before that year but could not go because of financial reasons . (Newett 115)
He left Milan, Italy on May 15 after receiving the benediction from Archbishop Arcimboldi in the Cathedral at Milan. (Newett 117) Casola took a sea route on Adriatic Sea and Mediterranean Sea ‘till Jaffa. From Jaffa to Jerusalem, he rode a mule. Casola and his fellow pilgrims reached Jerusalem on August 5, and they left Jerusalem on August 18. They stayed there only 13 days. Some of the pilgrims in his group died before reaching Jerusalem. On his homeward journey, his galley did not make stops as frequently in the outward journey.
In this paper, I focus mostly on the economic and social conditions of three places where he made a stop on the outward journey. They are Ragusa, Modone, and Crete. Every place Casola visited, he discussed the churches there, but there are not many other books that tell about them. Instead of focusing on the churches, I found some books about the economical and social life in Casola’s time period. The funny thing here is that Casola didn’t mention these things although he visited many places which were important for the Ottoman Empire, who occupied the area at that time.
To annotate the diary, I used three books. First is The Great Island: a Study of Crete written by Michael Liewellyn Smith. As the title shows, this book is about the history of the island of Crete. The next book is The Ottoman Empire: the Classical Age 1300-1600. The author of the book is Halil Inalcik. This book gives chronological history and describes the social condition of people in the empire. The last one is An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1914. The authors are Donald Quataert and Inalcik, who wrote second book. This book’s main topic is the social condition of the Ottoman Empire from its beginning to the end. Both of Inalcik’s books give me a lot of information for this paper since I picked the section of Ragusa, Modone, and Crete from the diary. All of them were important places of European trading in this period.
Casola and his fellow pilgrims arrived at Ragusa on June 14th, about a month after they left Milan. (Newett 172)
"Salt is made there, and they said that Ragusans gain every year over forty thousand ducats from the salt, besides the salt they use themselves; it is beautiful and white."( Newett 172)
The Ottoman enjoyed a monopoly power in salt trade in the European market during this time period. Especially, for the city of Ragusa, the trade was an important source of their revenue. One time, the Porte, the Ottoman’s imperial administration, tried to restrict Ragusa’s salt trade, which was not favored by Ragusans. To oppose this move, they stopped the trade to the land of the Ottomans until they reached agreement in 1485. This abandonment of salt trade had a direct effect of Ottoman’s finances. (1)
The reason why the people of Ragusa got into salt business had to do with a policy of the Ottoman Empire. Even though salt mines and beds were considered as a property of the state, the state encouraged private firms to produce salt with the stipulation that the government receive one-fifth of the produce from them.(2)
"Many Ragusans flocked on to the quay of the port, and many boats came to the galley to take off the pilgrims and also the galeotti, who carried away their merchandise to do their business as they desired in the market of Ragusa." ( Newett 172)
In the galley, other than pilgrims, there were people called galeotti, who did business at every port they stopped on the journey. Most of the places Casola stopped were very important trade centers of European economy so these traders or galeotti traveled with pilgrims to do their business at market of these cities.
After annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1463 and concluding a treaty with Florence, Mehmed "the conqueror" opened a new trade route from Florence to Asian Minor through Ragusa. After that, the city of Ragusa gained an importance in Ottoman economy rapidly. At the same time, the city lost its independence to the empire. Florence merchants carried merchandise from Italy to Ragusa. Then, Ottoman merchants took land routes from Ragusa to other cities such as Pera and Bursa. (3) Ragusan expanded their trade area in Europe; products they exported were wheat, beeswax, hides, raw silk and salt. Just like Venice did when they occupied the city, the Ottomans imported mainly woolens. (4) Ragusa was on the trade route of another important international trade in this period, the spice trade. Spices from India were delivered to central Italy through Ragusa.
There was another reason why Ragusans could enjoy international trade. They decided to be a part of the Ottoman network in 1458. At this time, Ragusans and Mehmed the second agreed on one thing. Ragusans paid a tribute of 1500 ducats every year for the empire and as a return for the tribute, Mehmed allowed them to keep privileges and immunities they had under the King of Hungary. (6)
After Casola’s galley left Ragusa, the ship stopped at the island of Corfu and then, came to Modone of Morea on June 25. Mehmed the second had conquered the island in 1459.
"There is a large suburb, also walled. It seems to me that the greater part of silk industry is carried on in the said suburb; certainly many Jews, both men and women, live there, who work in silk." (Newett 192)
The Ottoman always welcomed and protected immigration of Jews from Spain, Portugal and Italy in exchange for a part of revenue of their economic activities. (7) In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, many of those Jews got into tax farming activity, which helped the empire to form its capital system. They got profit from providing provisions to Istanbul. Some of tax farmers had important roles not only in finance but also in politics of the empire later. (8)
Like some of the Jews in Modone, some people worked exclusively in the silk industry during the Ottoman period; however, in this period, cheaper and better raw silk from Iran was available on the Ottoman market so silk industry could never be a big part of finance of the empire. (9)
On July 1, Casola arrived at Candia on the island of Crete. (Newett 198)
"The Cathedral Church, dedicated to St. Titus, is very beautiful. He is the Titus to whom St. Paul wrote, and who was ordained bishop by Timotheus, a disciple of St. Paul." (Newett 201)
St. Paul arrived at the island of Crete about A.D. 47, while he was on the way from Jerusalem to Rome. He appointed Titus as first bishop of Crete. Some legends of the island say that either St. Paul or St. Titus banished poisonous snakes and noxious creatures from Crete. (10)
"There are many other small churches served by ignorant Greek priests." (Newett 201)
When the Venetian occupied the island, many churches and monasteries were built. There were only a few Cretan nobility when the Venetians took the island and many Venetian there became Hellenized at the same time. Intermarriage often took place between Cretan nobility and Venetian nobility. These nobles became patrons and pillars of the Church. They built their own churches, and many of them were small. Sometimes, they hired painters and carpenters from abroad to make their churches more beautiful. One of the most famous among them was Gerola. He worked on more than eight hundred frescoed churches in Crete in fourteenth and fifteenth century. The island’s area is about 8300 square kilometers. That means there is a painted church in every ten square kilometers in Crete. (11)
"There is an abundance of most excellent wine-malmseys and muscatels in the said city, and not only in the city but also in the whole island, especially in a city called Rethemo. (Newett 202)"
Wine from the island of Crete was known as the most excellent wine at that time. Wine was sold not only in the Ottoman world but also to far places in Europe such as England. (12) Ships that brought wine to England returned with woolen cloth, tin and lead for raw silk. (13) Cretan also sold wine to Poland and Moscow through Killa. (14)
Later in sixteenth century, there was a man, whose name was Don Joseph. He got in his hand monopoly power in exporting Cretan wine, and received revenue estimated at 15000 ducats a year with the wine trade. (15) According to Casola, the city of Ragusa paid 500 ducats every year to the King of Hungary to protect the city from enemies. Joseph got revenue of three times as much as that amount from the trade of Cretan wine. (16)
We can get certain information about what it was like to go on pilgrimage in the fifteenth century by reading his diary. He seemed to record everything he saw in his long journey. Still some people may not find any interest in reading this book. It is shame, but I was one of them when I started this paper. This, annotation, was one new way to explore the world of history for me. In this paper, I mostly worked on economical issues. It was very interesting to work on both history and economics on one thing at the same time since economics is my minor. In addition, this was my very first time to examine history from an economical point of view. Writing this paper gave me a new idea about studying history. Now I know that even one book will lead us to many directions if we see the things in the book from different angles. This is something I will keep in my mind as I study history.
FOOTNOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Source:
Casola, Pietro. Canon Pietro Casola’s Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year 1494. Trans.
Mary Margaret Newett. Manchester: The University Press, 1907.
(English translation with introduction and notes. Italian original first published at
Milan, 1855.)
Secondary Studies:
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: the Classical Age 1300-1914. New York: Praeger
Publishers, 1973.
Inalcik, Halil and Donald Quataert. An Economical and Social History of the Ottoman
Empire, 1300-1914. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Smith, Michael L. The Great Island: a Study of Crete. London: Longmans, 1965.