The lazaretto, a living hell, whose name is taken from the Venetian island of Santa Maria di Nazareth, which in antiquity was called “Nazarethum.” A cure worse than the disease it sought to contain.
“No one should be surprised by the spike and predominance of the death rate in that enclosure, which took on the appearance and, for many, the name of plague.”
As we shall see, the authorities were reluctant to admit the existence of plague in the early stages, a phenomenon with which we are sadly, tragically, familiar.
The Spanish occupiers had moved to keep the French out of northern Italy without prior authorization from Emperor Ferdinand (remember that both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire were ruled in that period by the Hapsburgs). Now the imperial troops are arriving, bringing with them looting, destruction, and the plague.
“Finally, they would start to leave, and be gone. In the distance, you could hear the sound of the trumpet and drums dying down, followed by hours of terrified silence. And then, an accursed new beating of drums, a new blaring of trumpets, would announce the arrival of another contingent. Finding nothing more to plunder, the newcomers laid waste to whatever remained with even greater fury, burning the empty casks and doorways to rooms where nothing was left, then setting fire to houses themselves. And with even greater rage, of course, they mistreated the people, and so from bad to worse, for twenty days, as many days as there were contingents in the army.”
A side note: Manzoni relies on the accounts of two chroniclers of the era, Tadino and Ripamonti. Ripamonti was reportedly the ghostwriter for Cardinal Borromeo, who had him locked up so that his secret would not get out.
Join us on April 10 for a virtual discussion of The Betrothed with Michael F. Moore.
Manzoni shows how in the maelstrom of famine, plague and war everything becomes completely confused. Non-sense, common sense and good sense become conflated and meaning lost. The savagery and rapine of war during this period is well brought out in Ermanno Olmi's film "Il Mestiere delle armi". It's set about one hundred years prior to the events of the novel, but it graphically depicts the German landsknechts sent by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to march on Rome. More importantly, it shows the absolute stupidity of war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FoIhPCLxxE
I felt echoes of other historical novels here, Les Miserables, Grapes of Wrath, even Moby Dick and how it toggles between story and whale facts. And it is so true that as much as things change, they are the same. No time.of scarcity that public money can't be abused.