A Portolan Chart
1 2019-04-26T20:42:33-07:00 Nicholas Brown 0eb570939c30a9ffeae6c6f9c61c0bfbe0279672 32749 2 A detail of a 14th-century portolan chart, probably Genoese, used by sailors to navigate plain published 2019-04-28T17:07:27-07:00 Library of Congress, G5672.M4P5 13-- .P6 Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g5672m.ct000821 Public domain 1320-1350 .jpeg Genoa (?) Hannah Jones 9fd3692ef3b42eef9cf0438b5c2a4855c2acfd56This page is referenced by:
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2019-05-02T17:34:22-07:00
Sacred Time and the Commune: Mixed Memories in Episode 8
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2019-05-07T00:33:54-07:00
The eighth episode of the chronicle contains one of the highest concentrations of temporal markers in the text – its thirty-four (34) lines contain twelve (12) of them. The episode shows a special concern for quantities, opening with a description of a Pisan armada of sixty-five galleys and eleven galleons (fece fare la grande armata echon galee LXV e XI galeoni, [f. 9v, ll. 32-33]), and referring to thirty Genovese ships (Li Gienovese essendo tornate le XXX lor galee [f. 10r, ll. 5-6]). The author presents this episode in as much detail as possible, and it contains one of the widest varieties of temporal markers in the text – years (anno Domini MCCLXXXV [f. 10r, ll. 16-17]), months, both caledrical (del mese d’Ogosto [f. 10r, ll. 17-18]) and self-referential (lo stesso mese [f. 9v, l. 31]), days of the week (e.g. la domenicha chel sabbato [f. 10r, ll. 10-11]), and saints’ feasts (lo die de la festa di Sancto Sisto [f. 10r, ll. 18-19], al di de la festa di Sancto Luca [f. 10r, ll. 24-25]). The end of the episode underscores the specificity of his account: “and the armada, remaining in the Arno at St. Rossore for eighteen days in which it could not get out of the mouth [of the river]” (e l’armata in stette in Arno a Sancto Rossore die XVIII che non potette uscire di foce [f. 10r, ll. 29-31]).
Writing with this level of detail suggests a level of recollection, as does the use of sacred time. Sanctoral feasts are fairly rare temporal markers in the chronicle, compared with caledrical ones, and thus their appearance here invites investigation. Saints' feast days were religious events which Pisans would have remembered, and connect the event to readers' memories. They may also represent that the author is relying on a different, perhaps oral, source for this episode - Pisans recalling the event as they remembered it rather than according to formulaic representations of time. More importantly for our analysis is the possibility that sacred temporal markers reflect popular concern. The following two sections will explore that possibility.
