Okay, so, I'm just starting to dig into the batshit Medici, but in the interests of sharing the gossipy sensationalism bit by bit so I don't get overwhelmed by having to write everything up when I'm done with a bunch of books, I feel the need to share this bit of hilarity that doesn't require much context.
Context is modern biographer of Giuliano Dami talking about how almost everything we know about Giuliano is probably a lie since it comes from a tabloid equivalent and not the archives. And even archives are iffy. But the one thing we can be sure we know, is this guy was HOT.
Why?
Non è dettato da retorica nazionalistica o campanilistica affermare che l'Italia intera, la Toscana in particolare e Firenze soprattutto, non sono soltanto culla di bellezze artistiche ma anche patria di un incantevole popolo dalle armoniose forme, senza pari al mondo.
It is not dictated by nationalistic or parochial rhetoric to affirm that the whole of Italy, Tuscany in particular and Florence above all, are not only the cradle of artistic beauty but also the home of an enchanting people with harmonious shapes, unparalleled in the world.
Says the Florentine. :D
Fritz: Venetians. Definitely Venetians.
Algarotti: Venetian or Florentine, either way, we're more passionate than you northerners!
Nel tardo Seicento, a Firenze come nel contado, quale che fosse allora il concetto di bellezza fisica, la presenza di un bel giovane non era certamente una rarità degna di essere tramandata ai posteri.
In the late seventeenth century, in Florence as in the countryside, whatever the concept of physical beauty was then, the presence of a handsome young man was certainly not a rarity worthy of being handed down to posterity.
So if contemporaries keep pointing out that Giuliano Dami was so hot that he rose from obscurity to the top of the pecking order in Tuscany, by seducing Grand Duke Gian Gastone de' Medici, the guy who had upward of 300 male prostitutes, we know Giuliano must have been REALLY SOMETHING.
Several things in this preface have made me ROFL and also think, "This might not be the most objective historian ever." But at least he prints hundreds of pages of primary sources, so I'll take what I can get. There aren't exactly a ton of Giuliano Dami bios out there.
Other ways in which the author (Alberto Bruschi) caused my eyebrows to go up:
1. Acknowledge that he's a novelist at heart trying to write history. Fine, so far. Many people are good at both! Some of us in salon, even, to differing degrees. But then he produces pages of what is apparently self-therapy trying to convince himself to stick to the facts. The entire passage reads as though he's inventing the genre of history, and trying to convince a readership that has never read anything but novels that it's okay and possibly even advantageous to write history, and not elaborate it with made up details and dialogues.
As someone who picked up this book expecting history, this felt a little unnecessary. Or like something you write for yourself as self-therapy but then don't print. :P But okay. You do you, Bruschi.
(Horowski gives us the best of both worlds, and that's why I love him.)
2. Open and close the book by interpreting Giuliano's life through the lens of the author's personal devout Catholicism. Well, I guess it doesn't hurt for the reader to know the author feels *that* strongly on the subject before setting out?
I'm only a few pages into the book because I took the opportunity of my interlinear translation to try to beef up my Italian a little. I saw the final sentence only because I was preparing the digitized file. At some point I'll probably start just reading the English.
At any rate, will report back when I have more info!
The tabloid translated into English by Harold Acton, devout believer of tabloids, btw, was hilarious and also OMGWTF D:. Both the tabloid proper and the two prefaces. I'm only holding off on fully reporting on it because I want to have read the 1990s archive-oriented history first, so I can critique it properly.
But for now I'll just report, from the 1930 prefaces, that not only was GG's wife super ugly, anyone who knows how ugly a German widow can be will sympathize with GG and his alcoholism, gambling, and over-the-top sexual profligacy. Just FYI, selenak.
*facepalm*
(See also: why I haven't finished the book on G1 and the GNW. Things like this are super distracting!)
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Italians are the dishiest, no lie
Date: 2021-11-17 08:56 pm (UTC)Okay, so, I'm just starting to dig into the batshit Medici, but in the interests of sharing the gossipy sensationalism bit by bit so I don't get overwhelmed by having to write everything up when I'm done with a bunch of books, I feel the need to share this bit of hilarity that doesn't require much context.
Context is modern biographer of Giuliano Dami talking about how almost everything we know about Giuliano is probably a lie since it comes from a tabloid equivalent and not the archives. And even archives are iffy. But the one thing we can be sure we know, is this guy was HOT.
Why?
Non è dettato da retorica nazionalistica o campanilistica affermare che l'Italia intera, la Toscana in particolare e Firenze soprattutto, non sono soltanto culla di bellezze artistiche ma anche patria di un incantevole popolo dalle armoniose forme, senza pari al mondo.
It is not dictated by nationalistic or parochial rhetoric to affirm that the whole of Italy, Tuscany in particular and Florence above all, are not only the cradle of artistic beauty but also the home of an enchanting people with harmonious shapes, unparalleled in the world.
Says the Florentine. :D
Fritz: Venetians. Definitely Venetians.
Algarotti: Venetian or Florentine, either way, we're more passionate than you northerners!
Nel tardo Seicento, a Firenze come nel contado, quale che fosse allora il concetto di bellezza fisica, la presenza di un bel giovane non era certamente una rarità degna di essere tramandata ai posteri.
In the late seventeenth century, in Florence as in the countryside, whatever the concept of physical beauty was then, the presence of a handsome young man was certainly not a rarity worthy of being handed down to posterity.
So if contemporaries keep pointing out that Giuliano Dami was so hot that he rose from obscurity to the top of the pecking order in Tuscany, by seducing Grand Duke Gian Gastone de' Medici, the guy who had upward of 300 male prostitutes, we know Giuliano must have been REALLY SOMETHING.
Several things in this preface have made me ROFL and also think, "This might not be the most objective historian ever." But at least he prints hundreds of pages of primary sources, so I'll take what I can get. There aren't exactly a ton of Giuliano Dami bios out there.
Other ways in which the author (Alberto Bruschi) caused my eyebrows to go up:
1. Acknowledge that he's a novelist at heart trying to write history. Fine, so far. Many people are good at both! Some of us in salon, even, to differing degrees. But then he produces pages of what is apparently self-therapy trying to convince himself to stick to the facts. The entire passage reads as though he's inventing the genre of history, and trying to convince a readership that has never read anything but novels that it's okay and possibly even advantageous to write history, and not elaborate it with made up details and dialogues.
As someone who picked up this book expecting history, this felt a little unnecessary. Or like something you write for yourself as self-therapy but then don't print. :P But okay. You do you, Bruschi.
(Horowski gives us the best of both worlds, and that's why I love him.)
2. Open and close the book by interpreting Giuliano's life through the lens of the author's personal devout Catholicism. Well, I guess it doesn't hurt for the reader to know the author feels *that* strongly on the subject before setting out?
I'm only a few pages into the book because I took the opportunity of my interlinear translation to try to beef up my Italian a little. I saw the final sentence only because I was preparing the digitized file. At some point I'll probably start just reading the English.
At any rate, will report back when I have more info!
The tabloid translated into English by Harold Acton, devout believer of tabloids, btw, was hilarious and also OMGWTF D:. Both the tabloid proper and the two prefaces. I'm only holding off on fully reporting on it because I want to have read the 1990s archive-oriented history first, so I can critique it properly.
But for now I'll just report, from the 1930 prefaces, that not only was GG's wife super ugly, anyone who knows how ugly a German widow can be will sympathize with GG and his alcoholism, gambling, and over-the-top sexual profligacy. Just FYI,
*facepalm*
(See also: why I haven't finished the book on G1 and the GNW. Things like this are super distracting!)