Ponte Vecchio
Note: numbers in brackets refer to page numbers in the paperback edition.
Mason Verger, whose name means a caretaker of a church, contracted with a Pazzi to kill the curator of the Capponi library who had a thing for a girl named Clarice.
And the name Medici means "physicians". Hannibal is a doctor.
Joe Cunningham writes, "[Mason's] name is also interesting in the context of his position of authority at his father's Christian youth camp, but his alignment with the figure of Sixtus IV is thought provoking. Sixtus came under enormous criticism (at the time by Infessura and the like) for his violation of church principals. Just as Verger's Christianity is a hypocritical charade. I think the main complaint against Sixtus was nepotism and selling indulgences, but Infessura (and I believe others) included sodomy among the accusations against the pope which would be another connection between Mason and Sixtus." [Thanks Joe]
When the Italians say someone is "toccato" (touched) they mean he is crazy (in italiano, pazzo). This comes from the belief that the mentally ill have been touched by a god. Pazzi is the plural of pazzo. [Grazie Plch]
Here's what that spot looks like today. Click to enlarge.
Botticelli's Primavera. On the right we see Zephyr, the west wind, coming through the trees reaching for Chloris who is running from him. A garland streams from her mouth. Zephyr rapes her and she transforms into Flora all covered with blossoms. Does this foretell the transformation of Clarice? The theme of transformation is common to all three Lecter novels.
Also in the painting is Venus, the goddess of love and marriage. While nobody seems to know exactly what the painting means, it was commissioned for a wedding.
Primavera, of course, means spring.
In the background is an orange grove. Presumably, this grove is meant to represent the Secret Garden of the Hesperides wherein the "golden apples of the sun" were grown. These golden apples were a gift to Zeus and Hera on the occasion of their wedding. The apples were so wonderful that the Hesperides began stealing them so a serpent (or dragon) was set to guard the apples. The eleventh labor of Hercules was to fetch three of these apples. According to The Agony and the Ecstacy Michelangelo carved a statue of Hercules holding the three apples. The statue was meant to represent Lorenzo de Medici. Another reference of these apples from mythology involves Helen of Troy, daughter of Leda and Zeus (the Swan). [Thanks to Rebecca.] At the marriage of Thetis to Peleus, Eris, the goddess of Strife, offended at not being invited, dropped a golden apple on the floor and then left. Inscribed on the apple was "For the Fairest." All the goddesses tried to claim the prize. Eventually it came down to three, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. A shephard, Paris, was appointed to chose the winner. Hera tried to bribe him with power and Athena tried to bribe him with wisdom, but to no avail. Aphrodite bribed him with the love of Helen and thereby won the apple, which may explain the the connection between Venus (Aphrodite) and the garden of the Hesperides in the painting. Paris ran off with Helen and the Trojan War ensued.
Harris says that the "garlanded nymph on the right" has "her left breast exposed." That isn't true. In fact, it seems that Mercury, on the left, is the one with left breast exposed. It turns out that Mercury is a portrait - a very flattering one I understand - of Lorenzo de Medici.
it was an image created five hundred years ago by Sandro Botticelli -- the same artist who had for forty florins painted the hanged Francesco de' Pazzi's image on the wall of the Bargello prison, noose and all.
When I was in Florence at the Bargello, I asked about this alleged painting and was told that no such thing existed there. My Italian simply wasn't good enough to get into an in depth discussion, so I merely filed the missing picture away as another mystery to be solved at a later time. Recently, I received an email from Ed Dittus who was also curious about this painting. He had had a little more success than I in uncovering information about it. Apparently, Botticelli had indeed created a fresco of the Pazzi conspirators but he had done it at the Palazzo Vecchio, not the Bargello. (See La Vita Di Botticelli [in Italian] and Sandro Botticelli) If I understand correctly, the fresco was destroyed in 1494, when Piero de Medici was chased out of Florence. Alas, a description of the fresco is still missing. I wonder if Harris didn't move the painting to the Bargello prison in order to refer back to SOTL and Hannibal's artwork on those prison walls. Ed also noted that Botticelli was the son of a tanner, another reference to SOTL and Jame Gumb? [Thanks Ed]
Ed Dittus also pointed me toward the new book, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici, by Lauro Martines, which I retrieved from the library. Here's what it says about Botticelli's fresco:
So, Harris might have just been going along with conventional wisdom when he said that the fresco was at the Bargello.
The street where Fredericka Bimmel lived was Fell Street in Belvedere, OH. (There is no Fell Street in Belvedere.)
The Judith had come to symbolize Florence during Savonarola's time, a triumph over tyranny, in this case Lorenzo di Medici. After Savonarola's execution, it took on a more sinister tone. Many felt that it was improper to show a woman killing a man and that it had brought bad luck. It was moved from in front of the Palazzo Signoria and replaced by Michelangelo's David.
On page 125 [142], Hannibal says to Pazzi, "And you have a new wedding ring on yours [left hand]: La Vita Nuova?" Petrarch's Canzoniere is often compared to Dante's La Vita Nuova. In the Canzoniere the idolized woman is named Laura, the same as Pazzi's wife. Here's more. [Thanks to lrr3 for pointing out the Laura connection.]
Cavalcanti also had a woman who inspired his poetry. Her name was Giovanna but she was nicknamed "Primavera" (Spring) supposedly because of her beauty. Dante says in Chapter 24 of La Vita Nuova that, after a vision of Love came to him, he saw Giovanna coming toward him and behind her walked the "miraculous Beatrice". Love tells him that the first woman is called Primavera because in fact "prima verra" literally means "she will come first". And her name Giovanna (Joan) comes from John who preceded the True Light. Here Dante is skirting blasphemy by equating Giovanna with John the Baptist and Beatrice with Jesus Christ. As you no doubt know, Hannibal also on many occasions associates Clarice with Christ.
Well, Mr Held is an expert on Arms and Armor (he probably gave the reference to the Devil Armor where Dr. Fell hid his exit papers... Incidentially, that armor was "discovered" and first written up by Lionelo Boccia who was curator of the Stibbert Collection in Florence... Mr. Held wrote up an exhibition of Torture instruments. I would suspect that he also had a hand in creating the exhibition. [Thanks Ed]
Mr. Held's book on the torture instruments exhibition can be found here: Inquisition; Inqusicion.
I got a hold of the Inquisition book recently and indeed Mr. Held was involved in an exhibition which opened in Florence in 1983 and closed in Barcelona in 1986. He mentions wanting to do a second exhibition to include more modern day torture instruments but I've found no information on it.
The book begins with this in three languages:
READER, if you find
something that offends you
in this most modest little book,
don't be surprised. Because DIVINE,
not human,
is that which hath no blemish.
From the pages of several early 17th-c Tuscan books
There are lots of photos of actual torture instruments and their reproductions, plus lots of woodcuts and engravings showing how these instruments were employed. I am skeptical of some of the claims made in the book and I felt that some of Mr. Held's statements smacked of an agenda. For instance, he talks about the "inherent mental and emotionally inferiority of the male." That just doesn't strike me as scholarly.
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The second picture was taken from the Piazzale Michelangelo. That's the Belvedere on the next hilltop.
Atrocious Torture Instruments ran for six months, equaling the draw of the Uffizi Gallery.
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Here's more on Bertillon regarding SOTL.
I recently watched the old Hammer Films production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" on DVD. One of the special features on the DVD was a reading by Christopher Lee of the first chapter of the book. I was amused by this part:
"Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" asked Holmes with some asperity.
"To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly."
"Then had you not better consult him?"
"I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone.
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In Vermeer's The Girl With a Wineglass, there is a fruit (either an orange or a lemon, which has been peeled and the rind is in one long piece.
In Italian, "viola" is not just a musical instrument. The word also refers to the color purple or violet. "Gamba", in Italian, means leg. The viola da gamba is not played under the chin like a standard viola or violin. Instead, it is played on the lap or between the legs depending on its size. It is a "leg viol".
Interestingly, Vermeer included the viola da gamba in 3 of his genre paintings (that I can think of), The Music Lesson, The Concert, and The Lady Seated at the Virginals. Music is associated with love.
Now, Alessandro wrote an opera in 1688 called Il Flavio but not for Teatro Capranica and it is not one of his best known works. In fact, the consensus seems to be that one of Alessandro's finest operas was Mitridate Eupatore which he wrote in Venice. Now as I said above, the Teatro Piccolomini in Florence (which does not exist) is a scaled-down replica of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice. So perhaps, Harris in a roundabout way is referring to Mitridate Eupatore. So what? Well, Mithridates Eupator was the second greatest foreign threat to Rome after Hannibal (the one with the elephants) and he is named for the Persian god Mithras. (For more on Mithras, see Some of our stars are the same. Clarice.)
Mithridates was king of Pontus and as soon as he succeeded his father Mithridates V, he began a career of conquest. There were 3 Mithridatic Wars, all of them instigated by the Romans. In the third war Mithridates' army was soundly defeated by Lucullus, but the Roman soldiers mutinied and left Mithridates to rebuild his army once again and recapture much of his lost territory. Lucullus retired and became known for his lavish, sumptuous banquets from which we get the term "lucullan". (One movie reviewer actually uses that word in his review.) He was replaced by Pompey who finally put an end to Mithridates career. Mithridates tried to kill himself with poison (Hannibal actually did) but Mithridates had deliberately built up an immunity to prevent just such an unnatural death so he ultimately paid a soldier to run him through. Pompey was in turn defeated by Julius Caesar.
Samson's Riddle comes from Judges 14 and says, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
Coincidentally, I read somewhere that Botticelli's Venuses were rather like Virgin Marys.
Click on thumbnail to enlarge.
shoots up to a sapling, and to a savage plant;
the Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves, give
pain, and to the pain an outlet.
Like the others, we shall go for our spoils, [but
not to the end that may be] clothed
with them again : for it is not just that a man
have what he takes from himself.
Hither shall we drag them, and through the
mournful wood our bodies shall be suspended,
each on the thorny tree of its tormented shade.
Further, from the beginning of the Canto (Canto XIII):
Here the unseemly Harpies make their nests,
who chased the Trojans from the Strophades
with dismal note of future woe.
Wide wings they have, and necks and faces human
feet with claws, and their large belly feathered;
they make rueful cries on the strange trees.
Pier della Vigna is in the 7th Circle of Hell in the place reserved for the Violent Against Themselves. Pier was the chancellor to Emperor Frederick II. According to Dante, "so great fidelity [he] bore to the glorious office, that [he] lost thereby both sleep and life." Envy caused others to slander him. He was imprisoned and blinded. He later took his own life.
There is some controversy about Pier della Vigna. According to Anthony Cassell in his Dante's Fearful Art of Justice, DFAOG, historians usually point to contemporary documents and declare Pier della Vigna's guilt whereas the litterati often take della Vigna's words to heart and proclaim his innocence. Hannibal is an historian and he properly takes the historian's view.
Pier was a naughty boy. He abused his power in order to enrich himself and his family. He was guilty of avarice, bribery and embezzlement, and the sale of justice. His crimes often came at the expense of the innocent. He appropriated properties of institutions concerned with the care of the poor and sick to enlarge his personal estate. He stole from the Church.
The Emperor was aware of Pier's abuses. In Frederick's letters to his son-in-law and his lieutenants, it is clear that he believed the crimes were a danger to himself and his empire. Pier had betrayed the Emperor's trust.
Hannibal's lecture on Pier della Vigna follows quite closely the arguments Cassell makes in DFAOJ. It's all in there, from the ivory box carved in Gaul around 400 AD to Pier's "strained hisses and coughing sibilants". Avarice leads to self-destruction and is punished by hanging.
Cassell claims that Dante was aware of della Vigna's guilt beyond the suicide and demonstrates this in the punishment he devised for him. He ties Pier's hanging to Judas and Ahithophel (just as Hannibal does). Ahithophel was an advisor to David but deserted him to side with Absalom during the revolt. He is another example of an ambitious man striving for power and authority. When Absalom chose to follow another man's advice, Ahithophel went home and hanged himself in his house. From Dante, Io fei gibetto a me de le mie case. I made me a gibbet of my own house.
Dante has Pier della Vigna being harassed by Harpies. The Harpies original victim was Phineus, a classical figure of avarice who was blinded by the gods. Recall that Pier della Vigna was also blinded. In Section III of Hannibal, Harris has Dr. Lecter on the airplane in the role of Phineus having his food soiled and stolen.
There are a couple of interesting points in Hannibal's recounting of Pier della Vigna's tale. For one, he says that della Vigna was hanged. In fact, he was not. According to Cassell, he killed himself by bashing his head against a wall or column in San Miniato. He is only hanged in Hell. It is important to note that Dante does not have della Vigna hanging from a rope. The discarded body is suspended from the thorny tree that is now della Vigna's soul (see above). But early illustrations of the Inferno did show della Vigna hanging by a rope.
Speaking of illustrations, the ones Hannibal discusses are provided in Cassell's DFAOJ. (BTW, the movie got two of them right. But the last one is obviously not a drawn illustration of the Inferno. It is carved. Cassell does have such an illustration which I hope to scan someday soon.)
This image, from the movie, is of the doors of the Benevento Cathedral. It differs from the plate in DFAOJ in that it appears to be whole whereas the picture in DFAOJ shows a broken fragment. But the figures being depicted are the same.
Here's what Hannibal says about the image:
I cannot see the Cain-in-the-Moon in the images from the Benevento Cathedral and Cassell does not mention it at all. But I did find this in Pinsky's translation of Canto XX of the Inferno where Dante describes the punishments of those who practiced the occult arts:
Dionysos was born from the thigh of Zeus.
Scott McGrath sent in this observation:
