GONZALO FERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOBA Y AGUILAR

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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September 1, day (Old Style): Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was born in Montilla on the Iberian Peninsula as a “cadet son” (someone who, although not a hidalgo, indeed of legitimate birth, could nevertheless have no expectation of privilege, and would therefore need to plan to make himself useful in the military or the church unless and until the designated-heir son has died) of Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, count of Aguilar and Priego, with Doña Elvira de Herrera y Enríquez. He and an elder brother would be orphaned while quite young, but eventually he would make himself the Duke of Terranova and Santangelo, Andria, Montalto and Sessa, known as “El Gran Capitán” for having created the nearly invincible formation of pikemen, arquebusiers, and musketeers known as the tercio:

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

1453

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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The influence of the Archbishop of Toledo and of the Marqués de Villena enabled Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar to enter the service of the “infante,” of Spain, Alfonso.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.

LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

1465

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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King John II of Portugal refused to finance Christopher Columbus’s “The Enterprise of the Indies” proposal for a cockamamie wrong-way voyage. The visionary would need to relocate from Portugal to Spain, where the royalty knew less about the actual circumference of this planet.

The initial military accomplishment of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar came at the conquest of the Fortaleza de Tájara.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1483

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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Christopher Columbus submitted a proposal for a westward expedition to the East, to Castile’s Isabella the Catholic and Aragon’s Ferdinand the Catholic: “Let’s all think outside the box, shall we, just for a moment? We’ve all been saying to ourselves, the way to get to the East is to go toward the east, and yada yada yada — but who is to say that going west might not be a better way to get to the East? Now (holding up his hand) let’s just think about this for a moment, shall we, just for a moment?”

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar successfully defended the advanced post of Íllora near Granada from its recapture by the Moors.

Sword dancing was outlawed in Vitoria, Spain on account of “the scandalous behaviour and shedding of blood occasioned by them.”1

1486

1. Such Iberian dances often feigned combat between Moors and Christians — this is suspected to be the source of the English term “Morris dancing.”

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February 9, Monday (1488, Old Style): George Hartmann was born (he would design astrolabes, timepieces, etc.).

February 14, Saturday (1488, Old Style): Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar got married with Luisa Manrique de Lara, one of the ladies in waiting to Queen Isabella I of Castile.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1489

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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November 25, late Friday night (Old Style): Abu l-Qasim al-Muhli put his signature on the document which ended the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. The orderly transition of power from Muhammad XII Boabdil to the Catholic monarchs of Aragon and Castile was scheduled in this document for the following May (some of the Muslim leaders would desert their sinking ship early, and in consequence their ruler would need to rush the transition, so actually it would be on January 2d that the cross of Christendom would rise above the tower of the Alhambra).

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

November 28, Monday (Old Style): Since Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was able to communicate in the Berber dialect of Arabic, he was made one of the team that was arranging the ongoing details of the capitulation of the Moors of the Alhambra of Granada.

1491

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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Pope Innocent VIII died, and the Spanish Cardinal Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia of Játiva in Spain became Pope Alexander VI, the 2d pope of the Borja family from the region of the Basque Pyrenees.

1492

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After Charles VII had been crowned by Joan of Arc, Charles VIII took control of affairs in France.

Henry VII invaded France after the French threw their support to Perkin Warbeck, Flemish-born imposter, as claimant for the English throne. At the Peace of Etaples, France expelled Warbeck and paid England an indemnity of £159,000.

Lorenzo de’ Medici died. His son Piero became ruler of Firenzi.

For his services during the Catholic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was granted land at Loja near the city of Granada.

There were numerous Jews in the court of Queen Isabella of Castille and King Ferdinand of Aragon. They were divided for the moment into a group of unconverted ones led by Abraham Senior (the gent who had arranged the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469), and a group of conversos or “New Christians.” The unconverted Jews were in general unimpressed by Christopher Columbus’s agenda, while the converted ones were in general in support of it. (The reason for this difference is unknown, although there has been speculation that the conversos were hoping that Columbus could discover for them a new homeland to the west, to which they could migrate in order to finally free themselves from Spanish Christian suspicion and oppression.) It was after Columbus had been rejected at court, and had begun a journey toward Santa Fe, that one of these conversos, the Secretary of the Exchequer, Luis de Santángel, persuaded Queen Isabella to sponsor Columbus’s voyage into the Ocean Sea, by offering to loan her whatever money this would require. Thus it is especially ironic that Columbus’s departure toward a new world, and the final expulsion of the unconverted Jews from Spain, a Judenrein, would take place within three days of each other:

And blindly giving themselves over to their vain hopes, theysubmitted to the hardships of the road and left their nativeregions, great and small, old and young, on foot and mounted ondonkeys and other beasts, and in carriages, and made their wayto the various points of departure to which each of them had togo. And on the roads and terrains over which they passed theyencountered much hardship and misfortune, some of them falling

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down, to be picked up by their companions, others dying, othersbeing born, others getting sick, so that no Christian could lookupon them without anguish, and many along the way tried topersuade them to accept baptism. And some in their griefconverted and remained, but very few, for their rabbis were everby their side giving them courage, getting the women andchildren to sing, and playing tambourines to cheer everyone up.And thus they left Castile, some going to the ports from whichthey then embarked, others going to Portugal. [this was writtenby Andrés Bernáldez, curator of the village of Los Palacios]

Not only was it not the case that Chris’s opponents believed that the earth was flat, but also, a fact seldom appreciated, Chris himself did not believe that the earth was an exact sphere. He believed that these others, traditionalists who thought of the earth as a sphere, were not sufficiently nuanced: his Earth was shaped like a pear, and somewhere on it was to be discovered a grand nipple-like elevation:

I have always read that the world comprising the land and thewater was spherical, as is testified by the investigations ofPtolemy and others.... But I have now seen so much irregularity... that I have come to another conclusion respecting the earth,namely, that it is not round as they describe, but of the formof a pear ... or like a round ball, in one part of which is aprominence like a woman’s nipple.

Chris believed the tip of this nipple to be the Garden of Eden. He would come to be of the opinion that this great nipple was to be found by sailing up against the currents of the Orinoco River on the coast of South America.

ANTISEMITISM

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The more I reason on it, however, the more convinced I becomethat the place of which I have spoken is the terrestrialparadise.

The oldest terrestrial globe still in existence, known as the Erdapfel (Earth Apple), was constructed by Nürnberg geographer Martin Behaim. Poor guy, he was evidently unaware of Chris’s nipple, as he was unaware as yet of the Americas, Australia, and Antarctica — but he was of course able to depict places Europeans had actually visited, such as the Azores and other Atlantic islands.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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Piero de Medici was defeated by Charles VIII of France.

Ferdinand I of Naples died.

When the Catholics of the Iberian Peninsula determined to attack the Catholics of the Italian Peninsula, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was sent off as one of their conquistadores.

Double-entry bookkeeping appeared in Italy.

Christopher Columbus introduced cucumbers and other vegetables from Europe to Haiti. Columbus’s physician, Chanea, described Mexican capsicums (red peppers).

1494

PLANTS

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Jews were expelled from Lithuania. By order, all Jews were to be gone from Portugal by 1497.

A syphilis epidemic spread outward from Naples to all of Europe.

When the Catholics of the Iberian Peninsula determined again to attack French Catholics on the Italian Peninsula, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was put in command of the expedition and would achieve the sobriquet “El Gran Capitán.”

1495

ANTISEMITISM

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Charles VIII entered Naples and was crowned King of the Neapolitans. He then retreated to northern Italy. Pope Alexander VI formed the Holy League which aimed at expelling Charles VIII from the peninsula. This alliance was defeated at the Battle of Fornovo. Ferdinand II reconquered Naples. The French fleet was defeated at Rapallo, and the French army surrendered at Novara. The Holy League ended. Charles VIII returned to France. A peace was negotiated between Spain and France in Italy, with Lodovico Sforza as its agent. This was the first indication of what would become a tradition of a balance of power in European politics.

Looking Just Grand

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CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

Whatgoesaroundkeepscomingaroundandaroundandaround...

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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Michelangelo began carving a “St. Matthew” on a project for a set of twelve Apostles for the cathedral in Florence, of which only this statue would ever even be begun. Pope Julius II called him to Rome. The Swiss Guard, which is to say, the papal guard of the Vatican in Rome made up all and only of tall Swiss males, was being formed. The privates would not be allowed to marry, a detail of their life at the Vatican which would prove intriguing to Michelangelo (although some would tell you that the artist designed their colorful uniform, there is no reason to suppose that the artist ever took any interest in the clothes they had on).

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar became Viceroy of Naples.

In about this year Amerigo Vespucci got married with Maria Cerezo.

Giovanni Battista Ramusio became secretary to Venice’s ambassador to France, Alvise Mocenigo. He would begin to compile intelligence reports from travelers, and translate them into Italian.

1505

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Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar retired to his estate at the town of Loja near Granada.

The Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci’s letter about the four voyages to the New World in 1497-1498, 1499-1500, 1501-1502, and 1503-1504 was published, and Juan de la Cosa returned with the author to the Gulf of Darien and the Atrato River. The German cosmographer Martin Waldseemüller published 1,000 copies of a map showing, in his honor, the name “Terra America” — about where Brazil should be.

1507

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The native population of Hispaniola wasn’t doing so well, with the Spaniards in charge. Their numbers had by this point fallen to 60,000, in comparison with the original 200,000 to 300,000 of 1492. If they all died, what were these white people going to do to assure a continued cheap supply of colored local labor?

In disfavor with the King of Spain, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar took up the contemplative life at the monastery of San Jerónimo in Córdoba.

1508

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December 2, Sunday (Old Style): Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar died at Loja near Grenada. His burial would be in the Iglesia de San Francisco in Granada.

1515

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Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian’s romance GONZALVE DE CORDOUE, the initial of the three volumes of which consisted of a Tableau Chronologique des Souverains Arabes ou Maures, qui Régnèrent en Espagne, followed by a Précis Historique sur les Maures d’Espagne.

1791

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, IGONZALVE DE CORDOVE, II

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, III

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Republication of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian’s romance GONZALVE DE CORDOUE, OU GRENADE RECONQUISE (3 volumes, [Poitiers. — Imp. de F.-A. Saurin, Successeur de Calineau. Lecointe, Libraire, Quai des Augustins, No. 4] [Paris: Guillaume de cie.]).

A copy of this set would somehow come into the personal library of Henry Thoreau.

1828

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, IGONZALVE DE CORDOVE, II

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, III

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July 3, Friday: Henry Thoreau made reference in his journal to an exceedingly rare trio of volumes in his personal library (where and whence he obtained this set is unknown), Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian’s GONZALVE DE CORDOUE, OU GRENADE RECONQUISE:

July 3, 1840: When Alexander appears, the Hercynian and Dodonean woods seem to wave a welcometo him.

Do not thoughts and men's lives enrich the earth and change the aspect of things as much as a new growth ofwood?

What are Godfrey and Gonsalvo unless we breathe a life into them, and reenact their exploits as a prelude toour own? The past is only so heroic as we see it; it is the canvas on which our conception of heroism is painted,the dim prospectus of our future field. We are dreaming of what we are to do.

The last sunrise I witnessed seemed to outshine the splendor of all preceding ones, and I was convinced that itbehooved man to dawn as freshly, and with equal promise and steadiness advance into the career of life, withas lofty and serene a countenance to move onward through his midday to a yet fairer and more promisingsetting. Has the day grown old when it sets? and shall man wear out sooner than the sun? In the crimson colorsof the west I discern the budding hues of dawn — to my western brother it is rising pure and bright as it did tome, but the evening exhibits in the still rear of day the beauty which through morning and noon escaped me.When we are oppressed by the heat and turmoil of the noon, let us remember that the sun which scorches uswith brazen beams is gilding the hills of morning and awaking the woodland quires for other men.We will have a dawn — and noon — and serene sunset in ourselves.What we call the gross atmosphere of evening is the accumulated deed of the day, which absorbs the rays ofbeauty, and shows more richly than the naked promise of the dawn. By earnest toil in the heat of the noon, letus get ready a rich western blaze against the evening of our lives.

Low-thoughted, plodding men have come and camped in my neighbor's field to-night, with camp music andbustle. Their bugle instantly finds a sounding board in the heavens, though mean lips blow it. The sky isdelighted with strains which the connoisseur rejects. It seems to say — now is this my own earth.

In music are the centripetal and centrifugal forces. The universe needed only to hear a divine harmony that everystar might fall into its proper place and assume a true sphericity.

[Written in pencil on a fly-leaf of the Journal, we find: “I have heard a strain of music issuing from a soldiers'camp in the dawn, which sounded like the morning hymn of creation. The birches rustling in the breeze and theslumberous breathing of the crickets seemed to hush their murmuring to attend to it.”]

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

1840

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, IGONZALVE DE CORDOVE, II

GONZALVE DE CORDOVE, III

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2010. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>.

Prepared: October 21, 2014

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”

– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.

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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.