1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480
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England's Edward IV invades France in support of Burgundy's Charles the Bold. Louis XI meets with him and buys him off August 29 in the Peace of Picquigny.
Cologne gains recognition as a free imperial city (see 1396).
Portugal and Castile go to war over the succession to Enrique IV (see 1474), but the cortes at Segovia recognizes Isabella's right to inherit the throne with her husband, Aragon's Prince Ferdinand; Pedro Cardinal González de Mendoza helps bring peace to the realm by negotiating with rebellious landowners in Andalusia and pacifying dissident noblemen.
Soldier of fortune Bartolomeo Colleoni dies at Venice at age 75, having fought as a condottiere for both Venice and Milan. He has been generalissimo of Venice since 1454.
Ottoman forces invade Moldavia, but the Battle of Vaslui on the Barlad River ends in victory for Stefan the Great, now 40, whose 40,000 men defeat a Turkish army of 120,000 (see 1471). Stefan is determined to "cut off the pagan's right hand," and Pope Sixtus IV calls him the "athlete of Christ."
Pope Sixtus IV replaces Florence's Medici family as papal bankers with the Pazzi family following a rapprochement with Don Ferrante of Naples as the della Rovere family's pope tries to consolidate the papal states (but see Pazzi conspiracy, 1478).
The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye published at Bruges by dilettante English printer-translator-cloth dealer William Caxton, 53, is the first book to be printed in English. Caxton has learned the printing trade at Cologne after having dealt in hand written manuscripts, and he has spent 2 years in translating the Recuyell (Collection) from French (see 1476).
Poetry: "Trees with Mildew" ("Sylva in scabiem") by humanist Florentine poet Politian (Angelo Poliziano), 21, who has been charged with the instruction of Lorenzo de' Medici's eldest son Piero.
Painting: St. Justine by Giovanni Bellini; The Adoration of the Magi by Florentine painter Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo di Vannucci), 29; Apollo and Daphne and The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian by Italian painter Antonio Pollaiolo, 44, and his brother Piero, 31. Paolo Uccello dies at Florence December 10 at age 78.
England's Winchester Cathedral is completed after 425 years of construction.
Concerning Honest Pleasure and Physical Well-being (De Honeste Voluptate et Valetudine Vulgare) by Vatican librarian Platina (Bartolomeo de' Sacchi), 54, is the world's first printed cookbook (or, perhaps more accurately, a philosophical treatise on the good life containing some recipes). Platina (his pen name is a latinized version of his hometown, Piadena) is a onetime soldier, courtier, Greek tutor to the Medici family, and secretary to Cardinal Gonzaga, who now serves as librarian to Pope Sixtus IV. His book will be translated into Italian (in 1487), French, and German; he notes that sugar is now being produced in Crete and Sicily as well as in India and Arabia.
The world's first coffee house opens at Constantinople under the name Kiva Han (see 1453). Muslim fanatics will persecute coffee drinkers (see 1511; Venice, 1560).
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