[lit-ideas] Re: The Crusades
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 May 2014 00:50:30 +0200
Ferguson in The Ascent of Money suggests that one of the crucial causes of
the Crusades was the scarcity of precious metals in Western Europe at the
time, and their relative abundance in the Middle East. In other word,
looting was largely the motive. This agrees with the fact that the
Christian land conquests in the Middle East were short-lived, and that the
Crusades were discontinued after better opportunities for plunder of silver
and gold were discovered in the Americas.
O.K.
On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 3:51 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In a message dated 5/15/2014 8:59:03 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> O’Callaghan tells us French knights were promised land in Spain if they
> would drive the Muslims from it – not land the Spanish were engaged in
> fighting for but other land, land the Muslims held and was not being
> immediately
> contested by the Spanish. I read a couple of books 10 or 15 years ago on
> the Crusades and recall the comment that one of the Popes encouraged the
> Franks to go off and free Jerusalem in order to get them out of Europe
> where
> they kept stirring things up. O’Callaghan doesn’t give us quite that
> picture of them during Urban’s time.
>
> It would then, perhaps, be good to revise, 'nation by nation', as it were,
> how different places 'conceived' of the 'idea', however, false -- all
> ultimately springing from the 'decrees' or 'promises' by Popes Alexander
> I and
> Urban II (mentioned elsewhere by L. Helm). This below about the "Italian"
> --
> or rather "Lombard" version -- (first sung by Tasso), which will
> eventually turn out to be the main topic of an opera by Verdi years later!
>
> Oh Signore, dal tetto natìo,
> ci chiamasti con santa promessa;
> noi siam corsi all'invito di un pio (1)
> giubilando per, l'aspro sentier.
>
> Ma la fronte avvilita e dimessa
> hanno i servi già baldi e valenti
> deh! non far che ludibrio alle genti
> siano Cristo, i tuoi figli guerrieri
>
> Oh fresche aure. volanti sui vaghi
> ruscelletti dei prati lombardi !
> Fonti eterne ! Purissimi laghi!
> Oh vigneti indorati di sole
>
> Dono infausto, crudele è la mente
> che vi pinge sì veri agli sguardi
> ed al labbro più dura e cocente
> fa la sabbia di un arido suol!
>
> Fa la sabbia - fa la sabbia di un arido suol!
> D'un arido suol - d'un arido suol!
>
>
> http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8171/8171-h/8171-h.htm
>
>
> "It seems to have been the fate of Grossi as a poet to achieve fashion, and
> not fame; and his great poem in fifteen cantos, called "I Lombardi alla
> Prima Crociata", which made so great a noise in its day, was eclipsed in
> reputation by his subsequent novel of "Marco Visconti". Since the
> "Gerusalemma"
> of Tasso, it is said that no poem has made so great a sensation in Italy
> as "I Lombardi", in which the theme treated by the elder poet is
> celebrated
> according to the aesthetics of the Romantic School."
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
> References:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operas_set_in_the_Crusades
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