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Q is for Queen of 1492

Expulsion of Jews from Spain, 1492. Painting by Solomon Hart, from freespeech.org.

Isabella I of Castile was a bad ass monarch, one of the strong queens of history. She and hubby Ferdinand made the ultimate move to propel their newly-formed country into a world power. They did it with conviction, with strength and piety… and by instituting a religious pogrom to eliminate all the unbelievers and launching the Inquisition. Welcome to Spain, 1492.

Young, Catholic, and Virtuous in Intention

When her father died without a male heir, Isabella was the named heir, but she had to fend off others who tried to take the throne. It was Castile at issue at the time, and neighboring states in Afonso and Aragon both vied for her hand in marriage and tried to create dynasties to absorb Castile. Isabella had long been engaged to Ferdinand of Aragon. She kept that promise and united Castile and Aragon together.

Young Isabel, next to Madonna on the Fly, 1520. Photo from wikimedia.
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P is for Polyphony

Jan Van Eyck, madrigals in the Ghent altarpiece. Close-up photo from wikimedia.

The Renaissance brought opportunities for new trade goods, new ideas, new things to look at. Domes! Linear perspective! Oil paintings you could only see through a magnifier! While other arts were exploding in complexity and innovation, music also took a few baby steps.

One Note at a Time in Church

Once upon a time, in the 13th century, there was secular music and liturgical music, and never the twain shall meet. A bard could wander around with a lute, singing in the dim banquet hall of the baron for his supper … see Xena, The Witcher, Galavant… No duets; no big sound.

Meanwhile, in the churches, there were plenty of choruses. But those monks–or nuns–only sang one note at a time. This was plainchant. As wikipedia explains:

Harmony was considered frivolous, impious, lascivious, and an obstruction to the audibility of the words. Instruments, as well tain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites.

“Polyphony”
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O is for Ottoman

The signature of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1512. From wikipedia.

The Renaissance seems to involve a lot of maps.

For some reason, ignorance being the most likely explanation, I always thought the Ottomans were Arabs. They were not; they were Muslims, but mixing up Ottoman and Arab is like mixing up French and German. Just because they share a religion didn’t make them the same. Different language, different customs, different leaders, entirely different culture.

The Ottomans were a major power during the Renaissance, controlling access to trade and threatening the Mediterranean and Western Europe. They held some of the most venerated cities: Constantinople, Athens, Baghdad, and Damascus. They were deadly serious about conquest, and they didn’t particularly have respect for the classics. Unlike the Arabs at their cultural peak, the Ottomans burned libraries. They were the reason Philip the Navigator went looking for trade routes to India going west.

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