The Bonfire of the Vanities

Statue of Girolamo Savonarola in his birthplace of Ferrare, Italy.
Photo courtesy of ho visto nina volare/Wikipedia.

Yes, Tom Wolfe wrote a book of that title in 1987 about ambition, greed, politics, racism, and social class in 1980s New York.  Influenced by an event in 1497, the vanities of New York society as characterized by Wolfe sound vaguely like those of 15th century Florence.  William Makepeace Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair in 1847, which takes place in a town called Vanity, representing the sinful attachment to worldly things.  The term is from Ecclesiastes, which has the phrase "vanity of vanities, all is vanity".

A "bonfire of the vanities" was a common occurrence to outdoor sermons in the first half of the 14th century - San Bernardino di Siena, a Franciscan missionary, encouraged people to burn their objects of temptation.  These tempting objects included books, artworks, gambling tables, cards, manuscripts of secular music, fine clothing, cosmetics, mirrors, and fancy furnishings.

Bernardino di Siena organizing a bonfire of the vanities.
Relief by Agostino di Duccio for the Oratorio di San Bernardio in Perugia.
Photo courtesy of Givanni Dall'Orto/Wikipedia.

But the most famous "bonfire of the vanities" was that held by Girolamo Savonarola in Florence, Italy, in 1498.  He was a Dominican friar who preached against the wealth of the Renaissance and its patrons, such as the Medici family. His apocalyptic sermons were hugely popular.  He lambasted the institutions of the Church, but not its basic tenents.

Savonarola wrote a poem at the age of 20 he called De Ruina Mundi (on the Downfall of the World), revealing his preoccupation with living a chaste and pure life.  Three years later he wrote another poem, De Ruina Ecclesiae (on the Downfall of the Church) which showed his contempt for the Roman Curia (the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the Catholic Church) and claimed it was "a false, proud, archaic wench".

Bronze medal of Savonarola of Florentine workmanship.
The hand with dagger emerging from the clouds refers to
one of his prophesies.  Image courtesy of artfund.org.

He preached against the wealth of the Renaissance, and of the ruling upper classes, particularly the Medici family.  In 1494 the Medicis were overthrown, and Savonarola emerged as a leader of Florence.  He urged the Florentines to rid themselves of the sins that their luxuries signified, and many people did so voluntarily.  He persuaded artists to burn their own works, and some poets decided that they would no longer write in verse as their lines were impure.  On February 7, 1497 he held THE bonfire of the vanities.  Afterwards there was rioting, and Pope Alexander VI (aka Rodrigo Borgia, who was closely tied to the Medicis) excommunicated Savonarola.

From Beze's Les vrais portraits des homes illustres,
published in Geneva in 1481.  Image courtesy www.sciencephoto.com.

In the meantime, the people of Florence followed this charismatic crusader, who was said to have fallen in rapturous, ecstatic trances when preaching, bringing his audience to passionate tears.  He had a gang of young followers who roamed the streets, attempting to enforce a dress code, stoning and beating prostitutes, and trashing bars and clubs.

Savonarola's cell in San Marco, Florence.
Image courtesy TheBoxagon/Wikipedia.

He made many predictions, some which came true.  There were bad decisions made, and though it was through no fault of his, the city came to starvation.  Pope Alexander VI threatened to cut off all religious functions.  The Pope had bided his time, correctly guessing that the people would soon turn against Savonarola. Almost a year after he was excommunicated, Savonarola was charged with heresy, sedition, uttering prophecies, and "religious errors" by the Pope.  He and two of his closest associates were tortured to no avail.

Image from Giovo's Elogia vivorum literis published in Basel in 1577.
Image courtesy www.sciencephoto.com.

On May 23, 1498, the three were executed on the Piazza della Signoria, at the same place where he had held his bonfire, and in the same way he had ordered executions during his short rule.  They were hung, and then burned.  Their remains were stirred and burned again and again to insure that there would be no relics for followers.  The final ashes were thrown into the Arno.

Painting by an anonymous artist from 1498 of the executions.
Image courtesy of the Museo di San Marco.

Savonarola was not against books and arts per se; he saw them as symptoms of sin, and the way to deal with these symptoms was to destroy them.  His religious fervor and call to a purer life left him with many admirers.  Erasmus, the Dutch humanist, theologian, and Catholic priest, refused to become a Protestant after reading Savonarola's works, so the story goes.  Ironically, he is considered to be a forefather of the Reformation because of his anti-papacy stance.  Martin Luther was said to be inspired by him.

Plaque commemorating the spot of the execution in the Piazza della Signoria.
Image courtesy of Greg O'Beirne/Wikipedia.

Those of us who are book lovers view the destruction of books as a heinous crime, and this alone brings his reputation disfavor.  Not to mention the works of art that were destroyed that the world will never know.  Yet he was responding to a time when the balance of power was with the wealthy ruling classes and the unrest was already simmering among the common people.  He was in the right place at the right time, yet ultimately the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Bizarro Pizarro

Who's buried in Pizarro's tomb?  Unlike the one about Grant's tomb, this riddle is tricky.  Or was.  No one knows definitively who WAS buried there, but Pizarro is in there at last.

It's hard to think that someone who was as cruel and deceptive as Pizarro would be so honored.  Perhaps it's the fact that he is dead that is celebratory.  But history buffs and devout Catholics have venerated his ornate sarcophagus in the Lima Cathedral in Peru for centuries.  Unfortunately, he wasn't in it.

Close-up of the mosaic behind the sarcophagus.

Pizarro not only dealt the Incas a low blow, but also screwed one of his partners out of his rightful share of the booty and then garroted him, just like the Inca leader Atahualpa.  His partner's son, and some other enemies, attacked him in 1541, stabbing Pizarro in the throat, face, and skull even after he was dead.

The Lima Cathedral

His paternal half-brother, Francisco Alcántara, was also killed in the scuffle. Alcántara's wife initially buried her husband and Pizarro behind the cathedral. Pizarro was later reburied under the main altar in 1545, then moved to a special chapel within the cathedral in 1606.  There are church documents from 1661 that state that there was a wooden box with a lead box inside inscribed in Spanish: Here is the skull of Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro who discovered and won Peru and placed it under the crown of Castile.

Pizarro in Lima.
Image courtesy of Opentopia.

On the 350th anniversary of his death in 1891, a "scientific" committee examined the remains said to be Pizarro.  Their conclusion was that the skull conformed to the cranial morphology that "science" attributed to criminals, hence confirming the identification.

Pizarro's signature mark, or rubrica, written twice with his name in between.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

In 1977 some workers were cleaning out a crypt underneath the altar.  They found two wooden boxes containing human bones.  One held the remains of two children, an elderly female, an elderly male, a second elderly male without a head, and fragments of a sword.  The other wooden box contained the aforementioned lead box with a skull.  The skull matched the bones of the headless skeleton in the first box.

A portrait of Pizzaro, circa 1540, artist unknown.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

A Peruvian historian, anthropologist, and two radiologists, and two U.S. anthropologists examined all the remains.  The headless skeleton was determined to be a while male, at least 60 years of age when he died, and 5'5" to 5'9" in height.  Most of his upper molars and much of his lower incisors and molars were missing.  He had arthritic lipping, a broken nose, as had apparently fractured his right ulna when he was a child.

Pizarro's house and statue in Trujillo, Spain.

There were injuries consistent with four sword thrusts to the neck, and his 6th and 12th thoracic vertebrae had been nicked.  The hands and arms had been wounded from warding off sword thrusts (a cut on his left first metacarpal, his right fifth metacarpal was missing, a cut through the right zygomatic arch, a penetration to the left eye socket, and dagger marks through the neck into the base of the skull). This suggests savage overkill, rather than death in battle or a simple assassination.

The Inca ruler Atahualpa begs Pizarro for mercy.
Image courtesy Getty Images.

This group concluded that the skull and headless skeleton not only went together, but they were once Pizarro.  The other skeletal remains were presumed to be Alcántara and his wife, the children either their sons or Pizarro's.

Map of Pizarro's conquest of Peru, in The Historical Atlas
by William R. Shepherd, 1923, courtesy University of Texas.

The desiccated body that had been thought to be Pizarro's all these centuries showed no signs of trauma. It was decided that perhaps it was the remains of a church official.  The real Pizarro's bones were put into a coffin and placed in the sarcophagus.

Pizarro's 16th century home in Trujillo, Spain.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

It's interesting that he has been honored as "discovering" Peru, since I'm sure the native people of Peru did not realize that they were lost.  Pizarro is touted for defeating the Incas when he was vastly outnumbered.  However there was much infighting at the time within the Incas, and Atahualpa's downfall caused some rejoicing.  Little did they know what was to come.  Pizarro, through his father, was a second cousin once removed to Hernán Cortés, another cruel conquistador. Pizarro was illegitimate and illiterate, and gave up pig herding for a chance for fame and fortune in the New World.  He got both.

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By the way, the correct answer to the famous riddle, "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" is no one.  Technically speaking.  Both Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are entombed, not buried in the Manhattan tomb.  The question was made popular by Groucho Marx, who asked it on his show You Bet Your Life so that a contestant who couldn't get anything right would win something.  He accepted the answer "Grant".

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Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of flickr.

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When Art Irritates

Entropa exhibit.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Two years ago a controversial art piece was unveiled that still has tongues wagging.  Entropa: Stereotypes are barriers to be demolished was created by artist David Černý for a commission by the European Union to commemorate the Czech Republic's presidency of the Council of the EU.

Romania depicted as a Dracula theme park.  Image courtesy of the BBC.

Every six months a different country covers the presidency of the Council.  Prior to the Czech Republic, France held the position.  It is customary for the presiding country to erect an exhibit in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels.  France offered a large balloon in the national colors of France.

Belgium as a half-eaten box of praline chocolates that have been bitten into.
Image courtesy of Tomáš Pirkl.

Černý chose to create a work that displayed negative stereotypes of all 27 EU member countries.  Each country is shaped like its real borders.  The depictions of each country range from harmless fun to rather risque innuendos.  

Poland with priests erecting a rainbow flag of the gay rights movement
on a field of potatoes, ala U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

The entire work measures 54' x 54', and weighs 8 tons.  Made of glass-reinforced plastic with joints made of steel, the entire work resembles an unassembled model kit with snap-out parts.  Černý claims that the Monty Python brand of humor influenced him.

Slovakia depicted as a wrapped Hungarian sausage.  Image courtesy of CT24.

The work was unveiled on January 12, 2009.  The next day Bulgaria's ambassador to the EU registered a protest on behalf of his country with the European Commission, and sent a formal protest to the Czech government demanding that the sculpture be taken down immediately.  The Bulgarian part of the piece was covered with black fabric on January 20th.

Bulgaria is shown to be composed of Turkish toilets.

The Bulgarian sculpture after it was covered up.
Both images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Czech officials defended the exhibit and stated that they wanted to avoid censorship as an expression of freedom.  Given the controversy they expected complaints from other countries, but few were forthcoming.

Malta with a dwarf elephant and a magnifying glass.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

The Czech officials had a change of heart, however, when the evening of the unveiling Černý announced that he and two friends created the entire piece.  When the proposal was made to the Czech government, Černý had said that an artist from each country would create the piece for their respective countries.  They had even published a booklet listing each country's artist with résumés for the artists.  These ended up to be fake.  Černý stated that they had originally planned to contact artists but limited time and financing prevented it.  Once that fact was revealed, the Czech prime minister remarked that had they known that it would not have been authorized.

Portugal as a wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat shaped
like former colonies Angola, Brazil, and Mozambique.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

Černý was accused of misappropriation of funds.  He claimed that since they knew they would be deviating from the proposal, the funds would be returned.  He also stated that the deception was part of the art.  In the end, it was decided to let the piece remain on exhibit, as it was "art, nothing more and nothing else".

Hungary as the Atomium, a monument in Brussels built for the 1958 World's Fair,
made of watermelons and sausages on a floor of peppers.  Image courtesy of antaldaniel.

No one seems to have denied that the stereotypes were true.  Blaming the art for the stereotypes doesn't cut it.  Since art reflects life, it is the way people think that is offensive, not an inanimate object.  Bravo for artists who dare to reflect shame and ugliness!

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For more of Černý's work click on his website.

Since last September, Entopa is part of the Pilsner

Science Center, Techmania.

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The Cairo Genizah

The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

A genizah (plural genizot) is a storeroom or depository in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery specifically meant to hold worn-out books and documents in Hebrew before they are properly buried.  Jewish law forbids throwing anything away that contains the name of God.  Personal letters and legal contracts often opened with an invocation of God.  A genizah may also contain secular writings in other languages that use the Hebrew alphabet.  Many documents were written in Aramaic using the Hebrew alphabet.

A modern genizah on a street in Nahlaot, Jersualem.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Normal practice is to remove the contents of the genizah on a periodic basis and bury them in a cemetery.  The most famous for both its size and contents is the Cairo Genizah.  Almost 180,000 Jewish manuscript fragments were found in the genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo.  More fragments were found in the Basatin Cemetery east of Old Cairo, and some old documents were bought in Cairo in the late 19th century.

An original letter from Maimonides's son Abraham.
Image courtesy of the New World Encyclopedia. 

The first European to "discover" them was Simon van Geldern (an ancestor of Heinrich Heine, the 19th century poet) who visited the synagogue about 1752. Later European travelers explored the genizah, but not until they were brought to the attention of Solomon Schechter at Cambridge University did they receive proper scholarly attention.  Schechter acquired many of the documents.

Solomon Schechter studying some of the fragments.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The whole body of documents, which includes books, letters, and legal documents, was written from circa 870 CE to as late as 1800.  These writings are important in the reconstruction of the economic and social history of the area between 950 CE and 1250.  The Judaic scholar Shelomo Dov Goitein, a famous ethnographer known for his research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages, made an index of the time period that the documents cover, and it included 35,000 everyday people, as well as prominent ones such as Maimonides (the 12th century Jewish scholar, philosopher, and physician) and his son Abraham.  The documents mention professions, goods, and cities of trade and contact from Kiev to India.

This 12th Century dowry list is from a very rich girl.
The dowry of a Jewish wife was entrusted to her husband, but its full
 value had to be restored to her in the event of his death or a divorce.
This image and the ones below courtesy of the Cambridge University Library.

Most primary documents extant are of momentous events and important people. These are related to ordinary people, which make them unique.  Linguistically they also have great importance, as they illustrate the history and changes within various Arabic dialects.

A child's 11th century primer.

Many unique Arab manuscripts were found, such as a pharmacological text of an 11th century doctor.  A 10th century letter provided the earliest evidence of a Jewish community that existed in the Ukraine.  There are also Yiddish letters and poems from the 13th to 15th centuries.

Ovadiah Ha-Ger, a priest who converted to Judaism,
wrote the first written musical settings to Jewish
liturgical poetry in the 12th century.

The collection is today dispersed among several universities.  The Taylor-Schechter collection at Cambridge has almost 193,000 fragments.  There are 31,000 pieces at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  The John Rylands University Library in Manchester has a collection of over 11,000 fragments that are being digitized for an online archive.

A 12th century letter from a teacher
complaining about a naughty child.

The continuing study of the documents offers rare opportunities to see life in those times in that area of the world.  A window into the past, what new discoveries will be made from these promises to take the guesswork out of history?

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The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit has an excellent site.

The Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image has many of these fragments available online.

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Margate's Shell Grotto is No Folly(?)

Inside shots of the Shell Grotto, courtesy of Colin Bowling.

Mr. James Newlove was digging on his property to make a duck pond in Margate, England in 1835.  When a hole appeared, he lowered his young son into it.  His son described tunnels lined with shells.  Turns out there was 70 feet of winding underground passages - all decorated with shell mosaics - that led to an oblong chamber, known as the altar chamber, which is 15 x 20 feet.

The modern entry.

The initial passage which has no shells.
All three photos above courtesy of Mick Crowhurst.

Architecturally speaking, a folly is a building that is constructed for decorative purposes but so extravagant it exceeds its role as an ornament.  Follies were once important features in English gardens in the 18th century, as well as France, Ireland, and even the U.S., to name a few countries.  At first they took the form of Egyptian pyramids, Roman temples, or ruins of Gothic abbeys.  But later they took on more exotic features.  Whether the Shell Grotto is a folly is debatable.

The Temple of Modern Philosophy in Oise, France, is part of a park begun
by Marquis René Louis de Girardin in 1765.  It was purposefully left unfinished,
since knowledge will never be complete and philosophy will continue to progress.
Photo courtesy of Parisette/Wikipedia.

Follies by definition have no purpose other than ornamental.  The Shell Grotto may have functioned as a sun temple.  The sun enters the Dome, which is halfway down the tunnels, just before Spring Equinox, and stops just after the Autumn Equinox.  At midday on the Summer Solstice the sun aligns precisely at midday. This would indicate when the fertile season was in the area.

The Dome, image courtesy of Colin Bowling.

Inside the Dome room.  Image courtesy of Mick Crowhurst.

There are many theories about who made have built it, including that it was constructed by the Knights Templar.  It is impossible to carbon date, because it was initially lit by gas lamps and the soot from them accumulated making any dating attempts invalid.  The shells are local, and the glue is fish-based.  The glue also contained volcanic elements, but many ingredients are unidentified.

Both images courtesy of Colin Bowling.

It is listed as a Grade 1 structure, so English Heritage protects its preservation. Because of dampness, English Heritage entered it onto the Buildings at Risk register in the 90s.  It is open to visitors, as it has been since 1837.

Map courtesy of Wikipedia.

Another unusual aspect is while shell structures were popular in 1700s, and there are many of them in England, they are all on the grounds of estates.  This grotto lies under farmland, and the land was never part of an estate.

Image courtesy of Colin Bowling.

Since it cannot be successfully dated, theories have it going back any time before the 1800s for about a thousand years.  The designs suggest patterns from Indian and Egyptian folk art - trees of life, phalluses, gods, and goddesses, among other motifs.

Image courtesy of Colin Bowling.

Perhaps one day some kind of documentation will be found that will enlighten us about who built it and why.  Or maybe dating techniques will become more sophisticated and will at least point us to the correct time of its origin.  Until then the Margate Shell Grotto will retain its mystery.

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The official site.

More photos can be seen on Colin Bowling's site.

For more info and to see more of Mick Crowhurst photos click here.

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