Gemini 3 Pro: | **Context** | The embassy was commissioned following Philip's succession to the Crown of Castile in 1504. The report was read after Philip's death, making his personal qualities a secondary focus. The primary goal was to understand the governance, power, and disposition of European princes and their peoples. |
| **Philip the Handsome** | Described as 28 years old, handsome, vigorous, skilled in jousting, and a lover of justice. However, he was **slow in responding** and executing, always deferring to his council. |
| **Queen Joanna** | Philip's wife and heir to Castile. Described as beautiful and noble, but **consumed by extreme jealousy**, shunning feasts and company, and remaining confined to her chamber. |
| **Duchy of Burgundy** | Comprises ten provinces including **Flanders, Brabant, and Holland**. The land is populous, rich, and full of merchants and artisans, particularly in weaving cloth and tapestries (e.g., Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent). The Duke’s annual income is low (100,000 ducats) because the people previously ransomed the country from the French, but he receives a large, almost-ordinary, aid of 350,000 ducats annually. The people are good-natured, but prone to uprisings. |
| **England** | Ruled by **King Henry VII** (54 years old), who is wise and prudent, but not widely loved. He is judged the richest Christian king, with a total annual revenue of about 1.3 million ducats, spending less than two-thirds of it. The English people are generally given to commerce, though the Welsh are more pro-war. |
| **Castile (Spain)** | The peoples are described as prone to uprisings, **ugly, full of jealousy**, intelligent but not scholarly, and living miserably to save money, only to spend lavishly in public to appear great. The great lords (like the Constable, Duke of Medina Sidonia) are wealthy but constantly divided into factions. A significant extraordinary revenue comes from the assets of **Marranos** (converted Jews living secretly as Jews), against whom the Inquisition is conducting "rigorous proceedings." |
### Historical Context
The report offers a rare, first-hand account of the political and social landscape of Western Europe in the early 16th century, a time of immense change:
* **The Rise of Philip I of Castile:** Philip the Handsome was the first Habsburg ruler of Castile (a union with Aragon later formed modern Spain). The report highlights the fragility of his control and the potential for instability—a prediction fulfilled as he died shortly after the report was drafted.
* **Venetian Diplomacy:** The report exemplifies the sophistication of Venetian diplomacy. Venice, a major maritime republic, relied on detailed intelligence about the courts, resources, and temperaments of foreign powers (like the Habsburgs, England, and Spain) to protect its own commercial and political interests.
* **Economic Realities:** The ambassador meticulously recorded the revenues and expenses of the rulers and the economic activities of their subjects, especially in the commercially vital Burgundian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium and Netherlands), underscoring the wealth generated by trade and industry.
* **The Spanish Inquisition:** The report's explicit mention of the revenue generated by the seizure of wealth from Marranos during the Spanish Inquisition shows how this religious and political tool was a significant source of funding for the Crown of Castile.
We hope you continue this series of translations. You're doing a great service to Venetian history and literature.
thank you! 🙏
Gemini 3 Pro: | **Context** | The embassy was commissioned following Philip's succession to the Crown of Castile in 1504. The report was read after Philip's death, making his personal qualities a secondary focus. The primary goal was to understand the governance, power, and disposition of European princes and their peoples. |
| **Philip the Handsome** | Described as 28 years old, handsome, vigorous, skilled in jousting, and a lover of justice. However, he was **slow in responding** and executing, always deferring to his council. |
| **Queen Joanna** | Philip's wife and heir to Castile. Described as beautiful and noble, but **consumed by extreme jealousy**, shunning feasts and company, and remaining confined to her chamber. |
| **Duchy of Burgundy** | Comprises ten provinces including **Flanders, Brabant, and Holland**. The land is populous, rich, and full of merchants and artisans, particularly in weaving cloth and tapestries (e.g., Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent). The Duke’s annual income is low (100,000 ducats) because the people previously ransomed the country from the French, but he receives a large, almost-ordinary, aid of 350,000 ducats annually. The people are good-natured, but prone to uprisings. |
| **England** | Ruled by **King Henry VII** (54 years old), who is wise and prudent, but not widely loved. He is judged the richest Christian king, with a total annual revenue of about 1.3 million ducats, spending less than two-thirds of it. The English people are generally given to commerce, though the Welsh are more pro-war. |
| **Castile (Spain)** | The peoples are described as prone to uprisings, **ugly, full of jealousy**, intelligent but not scholarly, and living miserably to save money, only to spend lavishly in public to appear great. The great lords (like the Constable, Duke of Medina Sidonia) are wealthy but constantly divided into factions. A significant extraordinary revenue comes from the assets of **Marranos** (converted Jews living secretly as Jews), against whom the Inquisition is conducting "rigorous proceedings." |
### Historical Context
The report offers a rare, first-hand account of the political and social landscape of Western Europe in the early 16th century, a time of immense change:
* **The Rise of Philip I of Castile:** Philip the Handsome was the first Habsburg ruler of Castile (a union with Aragon later formed modern Spain). The report highlights the fragility of his control and the potential for instability—a prediction fulfilled as he died shortly after the report was drafted.
* **Venetian Diplomacy:** The report exemplifies the sophistication of Venetian diplomacy. Venice, a major maritime republic, relied on detailed intelligence about the courts, resources, and temperaments of foreign powers (like the Habsburgs, England, and Spain) to protect its own commercial and political interests.
* **Economic Realities:** The ambassador meticulously recorded the revenues and expenses of the rulers and the economic activities of their subjects, especially in the commercially vital Burgundian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium and Netherlands), underscoring the wealth generated by trade and industry.
* **The Spanish Inquisition:** The report's explicit mention of the revenue generated by the seizure of wealth from Marranos during the Spanish Inquisition shows how this religious and political tool was a significant source of funding for the Crown of Castile.
These are really terrific.
For a single Order of Rhodes to have 10k vassals sounds insane. I doubt many monarchs at the time had so many.
"...also because the women and men of this country are frigid, and very distant from lust, and much more so than any other nation I have seen..."
😄
Thanks for these translations, they are great!
This probably really means that he had no success with them.
Or maybe he just wasn't as good a lover as he thought he was! 😄
Are you doing the translations yourself or did someone else do them? Apologies if you've stated this elsewhere and I've overlooked this.