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Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice exploration, colonization commerce medicine religion art theater, film music tobacco food and drink population |
Lorenzo de' Medici, 26, journeys to France from his native Florence in March and is married in late May at the Château d'Amboise to Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, 16, a match arranged by his uncle, Pope Leo X, to cement relations with the new French king, François I.
Spanish colonists in Santo Domingo import more slave labor from Africa to perform the hard work of chopping cane in the colony's 28 sugar plantations (see 1501). The island's native population has dwindled as a result of disease and exploitation.
New Spain gets its name from Spanish explorer Juan de Grijalva, now 38, who has been sent by his uncle Diego Velázquez to follow up last year's discovery of the Yucatán by the late Francisco de Cordoba. He has set out with four ships and 200 men, discovered Cozumel Island, maps rivers on the peninsula, and will become the first European to have contact with the Aztec, whose king, Montezuma, will soon hear of the landing of white men, but when he returns to Cuba he finds that his uncle has heard reports of the peninsula's riches and is angry that Grijalva has made no effort to establish a settlement (see Cortéz, 1519).
Charles, duc de Bourbon, renews his pleas to François I in the spring for reimbursement of the moneys he laid out 3 years ago to pay mercenaries and French troops in Lombardy, and he asks the king for an annual pension as a reward for his services. The king responds favorably but drags his feet, so Bourbon sends messengers to seek financial aid from his rich, 19-year-old relative Carlos of Spain, who agrees to pay a generous pension (see politics, 1519). François obtains a loan of 240,000 livres from merchant Jacques de Beaune, who will be appointed chief financial officer of the realm in 1523 (see 1527).
A third major epidemic of the sweating sickness spreads over England with more severity than the epidemic of 1507. The epidemic wipes out most of the population in some towns, many important figures succumb at Cambridge and Oxford, the disease reaches Calais, but it affects only the English there (see 1529).
Oxford physician-humanist Thomas Linacre, 58, founds a college of physicians with authority from Henry VIII. Having become alarmed at the indiscriminate practice of medicine by barbers, clergymen, and anyone else so inclined, Linacre obtains from the king letters patent for instituting a body of regular physicians with authority to examine and license physicians throughout the kingdom and power to impose fines and prison terms on offenders (exempting graduates of Oxford and Cambridge). Linacre becomes the first president of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Martin Luther's Reformation gains the support of Swiss clergyman Huldreich Zwingli, 34, at Zürich, who persuades the city council to forbid entrance to the Franciscan monk Bernardin Samson despite Samson's commission to sell indulgences. Zwingli becomes priest at the Great Minster of Zürich.
Painting: The Assumption by Titian; St. Michael and the Devil by Raphael (see 1505); altarpiece for Florence's Church of San Michele Visdomini by Italian painter Jacopo da Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci), 24, who has been influenced by the late Fra Bartolommeo. Mitsunobu Tosa, now 84, is appointed chief artist to the Ashikaga shōgunate.
Theater: The Ship of Purgatory (Auto de la Barca do Purgatorio) by Gil Vicente.
Flemish composer Loyset Compère dies at Saint-Quentin, France, Augut 16 at age 73 (approximate), having written numerous chansons, at least four Magnificats, and several masses and motets. Pierchon (Pierre de La Rue) dies at Courtrai November 18 at age 58, leaving more than 30 masses, some 45 motets, and more than 30 secular pieces, including vocal part-songs and vocal solos with instrumental accompaniment.
Tobacco is introduced to Juan de Grijalva by a native chief who (according to Spanish historian Fernandez de Oviedo) "gave the general and to each of the Spaniards . . . a little hollow tube, burning at one end, made in such a manner that after being lighted they burn themselves out without causing a flame, as do the incense sticks of Valencia. And they smelled a fragrant odor . . . The Indians made signs to the Spaniards not to allow that smoke to be lost" (see 1492; 1531).
French silk merchant Jacques Le Saige attends a ducal banquet at Venice and notes that "these seigneurs, when they want to eat, take the meat up with a silver fork" (see 1071; 1570).
New Spain has an estimated 11 million inhabitants, while old Spain has 4.5 million (see 1519; 1547).
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