Castle / Imola / Sforza...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

An additional observation: when Niccolo Machiavelli was sent (by the Medici 
rulers of Florence) to visit Caterina Sforza (not long before the assault 
by Cesare Borgia), he was received in the newly constructed upper floor 
apartments of the castle called "paradiso", that looked out over the 
battlements onto the mountains.

So: when we look at the castle in the VMS, it would seem that we are 
looking down from those same mountains outside Imola directly into Caterina 
Sforza's personal "paradiso".

This suggests two main readings: (1) that this picture is purely 
representational of Imola and its environs - supporting this are all the 
additional minutiae (additional castles, the sea not too far away, etc) 
present there: or (2) that this is somehow an allegorical representation of 
"paradise".

My belief is that, for the most part, the author(s) of the VMS had a modern 
empiricist mindset, and didn't indulge in such luxuries as metaphor - when 
we see things in the VMS, for the most part I believe that they are 
strictly representational (if not particularly well-drawn). For me, I'm 
firmly on the side of reading #1 - if it looks like a map, it probably *is* 
a map. :-)

*sigh* The more I look at the 3x3 foldout in the CopyFlo, the more detail I 
notice that is barely perceiptible (never mind all the details cropped in 
the top right corner, etc) - so I can't bear it any longer, I'm going to 
have to order a photographic copy of this page from the Beinecke and get 
busy with my magnifying glass...

Finally: just before the siege, Caterina sent all her children (bar her 
youngest son Giovanni, who was disguised as a girl and sent to a convent!) 
and her remaining fine jewels, clothes and furniture to Tuscany... who's to 
say that her recipe book etc (perhaps encoded in the form of the VMS) 
didn't travel with them? This area seems a little murkily documented, I'm 
going to have to investigate more deeply...

Not forgetting also that she sent a brass canister containing letters and 
supposedly some poison (derived from a recipe her ricettaria) to Pope 
Alexander VI at the time - he was behind the Borgia assault on Imola and 
Forli. She never denied doing this - however, Ernst Breisach quotes her as 
having said (at a different time) "One cannot defend a state with words 
alone" (I didn't note the exact quotation, sorry).

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....