Cornelius Agrippa, perhaps the most important follower of the Hermetic (alchemical) tradition, claims to be able to turn iron into gold with just a glance, to fly, and to converse with angels; he never demonstrated his powers (which is not surprising…).

Florence. Leonardo portrays the hanged corpse of one of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy, Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli (the assassin of Giuliano de’ Medici), confirming a strong connection to the House of Medici.

Bernardo Bandini, one of the conspirators in the Pazzi conspiracy of April of the previous year, arrives in Florence after being captured in Istanbul a few months earlier. He is still dressed in the oriental clothing he was wearing when he was captured, and his reappearance in Florence causes a huge stir. However, Lorenzo is in Naples negotiating peace and an agreement with Ferrante, and the satisfaction is lost.

In the armed confrontation between the papal and Florentine coalitions, San Gimignano succumbed to the siege of the Neapolitans and the papacy, after messengers were hanged and biological warfare experiments were carried out involving the launching of infected cattle.

In the wake of Pope Sixtus IV’s excommunication of Lorenzo the Magnificent, an anti-papal front formed in Italy, and even the Tuscan bishops sided with Lorenzo. A letter (the Florentine Synod) was sent to Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, and to the sovereigns of Spain and France. The conditions were laid for an unavoidable armed conflict that would see papal and Neapolitan troops advance into Tuscan territory. Formal support from Milan for the Este family of Ferrara-Modena arrived only gradually.

Pope Sixtus IV excommunicates Lorenzo the Magnificent and his supporters. Medici assets in Rome are requisitioned.

Florence. The papacy was behind the Pazzi conspiracy (the priest Stefano da Bagnone, the apostolic vicar Antonio Maffei, both hanged; Napoleone Franzesi, Bernardo Bandini, Francesco de’ Pazzi, the archbishop of Pisa Filippo Salviati, all hanged; Jacopo de’ Pazzi hanged and thrown into the Arno River; Renato de’ Pazzi lynched) against the Medici and their allies (Giuliano, Francesco Nori, Lorenzo the Magnificent). Lorenzo had never had any doubts. Pope Sixtus IV had in fact granted the Pazzi management of the papal finances, which the Medici had managed for a century, as well as management of the papal mines of Tolfa, near Civitavecchia, where alum is mined, needed to fix the colors on fabrics, a thriving Florentine industry (pardon the pun…).

Florence. Pazzi Conspiracy. Giuliano de Medici is assassinated in the church (Santa Maria del Fiore), during Easter Mass, by a conspiracy hatched by the noble Florentine Pazzi family, supported by Pope Sixtus IV and Ferdinand I, King of Naples. Lorenzo de Medici is only wounded and flees to the sacristy, where he shows himself, bleeding, to the crowd, thus failing the conspiracy. The revenge against the Pazzi family will be terrible and will be carried out street by street.

Peace between the Venetians and the Ottomans. Sixteen years of war with the Turks, without aid from the rest of the West, had exhausted the Republic of San Marco. In the agreement with the Grand Turk, the Venetians maintained access to trade with the East, subject to the payment of an annual tax. Several aspects of this agreement had already been in place since 1453.

Silver reaches its peak value, about one hundred times its current value. This will soon spur the search for new mines, especially in the New World. The new reserves discovered by the Spanish and Portuguese in America will finance their respective empires for several centuries (consider the name of the nation Argentina). Although gold is remembered, in terms of monetary value, Spain will import six times as much silver. This, combined with additional mines discovered in North America in the 19th century, will produce a surplus of silver supply that persists to this day, resulting in the price having collapsed to one hundredth of what it was in the 15th century.

Sandro di Mariano Filipepi, known as Botticelli, the painter, creates ‘Venus’.

Sandro di Mariano Filipepi, known as Botticelli, paints ‘Spring’.

Florence, Giuliano de’ Medici is killed by political enemies (Pazzi Conspiracy)

In Bologna, based on the Latin version of the Arabic version of Claudio Tomeo’s text Geography, a Ptolemaic atlas is printed in 500 copies, one of which will be bought and carefully studied by Christopher Columbus.

Leonardo da Vinci, 23, is accused of sodomy with a well-known local prostitute, Jacopo Saltarelli (17), who worked in a nearby shop. Leonardo is briefly imprisoned (perhaps just one night). But shortly thereafter, a new, similar accusation arrives, again of sodomy with Saltarelli, but this time, since there are no direct witnesses, the charge is dropped without consequences. Leonardo was attracted to men, both romantically and sexually, and doesn’t appear to have a problem with it, unlike Michelangelo Buonarroti. Leonardo, with his “male love,” makes it another element of his unconventionality, along with his left-handedness and his way of dressing and behaving.

The story of the Bavarian Johannes Schiltberger is published in the first edition. There will be 11 editions in the 17th century. He is the page of a Bavarian nobleman taken prisoner in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. He spends thirty years as a slave, first to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid, then to the Mongols of Tamerlane when they defeat the Ottomans. He is taken to the steppes and then to the Caucasus and Crimea, eventually managing to escape and return to Istanbul. He returns home in 1427. It circulates as a manuscript story, and with the spread of printing around 1450, it is one of the first stories to be widely distributed throughout the West.

Michelangelo is born. On March 6, 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti, who would become a painter, sculptor, and architect, was born. Many of his early masterpieces, including the most famous, the gigantic marble statue of David, are preserved in Florence. But the work that would later bring Michelangelo his greatest fame is found in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, in the Sistine Chapel, where the Last Judgement is depicted. In 1508, the artist began frescoing the chapel’s ceiling and walls, a work that would take twelve years to complete. The master continued to produce art of extraordinary beauty until his death at the age of 89.

The Sultan (Great Turk) of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II (Mehmet II), approaching fifty, is suffering from gout and is no longer able to attend the sessions of the Council of State (divan-i mumayum). He drinks heavily and, as a rule, has four days of political duties every week, two days of carnal pleasures with the young men and women of the harem, and one day of rest in the gardens of the seraglio. Now his leg has become a huge, painful swelling and impedes his movement. However, he will not refrain from leading the Empire.

Cesare Borgia, known as Valentinois, is born the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo Borgia) and Vannozza Cattanei. He later became a general, cardinal, nobleman, and politician. He is one of the most controversial figures of the Italian Renaissance. Destined from a young age for an ecclesiastical career by his father, he was made a cardinal by the latter, who had meanwhile become Pope. Following the death of his brother Giovanni, Duke of Gandia (likely assassinated by his brother Cesare Borgia), he returned to the lay state. Cesare Borgia thus also became the first person to resign from the office of cardinal. He initially sought to marry the daughter of the King of Naples, to continue the Pope’s pro-Aragonese policy, but later married the French aristocrat Charlotte d’Albret, obtaining the title of Duke of Valentinois. Through this marriage, Cesare and Alexander VI allied themselves with King Louis XII of France, who put an end to his claims on Italian territory. He led the French army to conquer the Duchy of Milan and, with the Pope’s support, began the reconquest of the Romagna territories, defeating various local lords, including the famous Caterina Sforza, later receiving the title of Duke of Romagna from his father. He subsequently invaded the Kingdom of Naples leading French troops. In 1502, having quickly achieved great political power, he successfully defended himself from the Magione conspiracy, deceiving the traitors and having them strangled in Senigallia. This vendetta deeply affected public opinion, so much so that Niccolò Machiavelli cited it in his work The Prince, a book written under the influence of Valentino.

Beatrice d’Este: from one of the most venerable Italian noble families. She repeatedly asked Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait, never receiving a positive response.

Cesare Borgia: son of Pope Alexander VI, subject of Machiavelli’s The Prince, employer of Leonardo da Vinci

Jubilee celebrated by Sixtus IV

Leonardo da Vinci painted the portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci. Leonardo’s style already exhibited certain traits, such as the rendering of inner emotions, that would culminate in the Mona Lisa, or Gioconda, at the end of his career and life.

The first patent recognized by law was issued in the state of Venice. This was the first patent legislation as we still understand it today. Another demonstration of the Venetian Republic’s extreme foresight and commercial vocation. The first patent (though ad personam, without a law) dates back to Filippo Brunelleschi in Florence in 1421.

Premature death of Mehmet II’s favorite son, his second son Mustafa.

Antoine d’Ambroise: French governor of Milan, employer of Leonardo da Vinci.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland

Invention of industrial printing

The Ottomans under Mehmet II conquer the Venetian island of Negroponte, the main Venetian base in the northern Aegean.

Constantinople. An Ottoman fleet of 300 warships leaves the Dardanelles. A Venetian spy describes it as “a forest on the sea, incredible to describe, but astonishing to behold.”

Machiavelli was born in Florence

First printing house in Venice

Niccolò Machiavelli: Florentine diplomat and writer, he worked for Cesare Borgia and became a friend of Leonardo da Vinci.

Lorenzo the Magnificent’s active political life proved to be the “needle of the balance” of Italy, conferring with his extraordinary political and diplomatic ability a policy of peace and balance throughout Italy.

Ivan II married Zoe Palaiologina, daughter of Thomas Palaiologina, who claimed the throne of Constantinople. Moscow thus became the “Third Rome,” after Rome and Constantinople.

The Albanian George Castriota Scanderbeg, Venice’s staunchest ally against the Turks, the “athlete of Christianity,” dies. Throughout his life, he held his ground against the superior Ottoman army throughout Albania. At the end of his life, he entrusted his cause to Venice, which, however, managed to defend only a few Albanian port towns. He was buried in Alessio. The war would last another 11 years. Mehmed II would massacre the men and enslave the women and children, in revenge for the humiliations suffered. In 1479, Venice made peace with the Turks, ceding all of Albania to them except Durazzo. Many Albanians fled to Italy, and their descendants are still there today, maintaining their language, faith, and rites. Ahmed Gedik Pasha later landed in Italy, conquering Otranto, but was unable to threaten Rome. Then Mehmed II died on May 3, 1481, before realizing his dream. Those 25 years of fighting in Skanderbeg Albania providentially delayed Mehmed II, who wanted to go down in history as the one who had conquered Constantinople and Rome, who had cut off the two heads of Christianity.

Maximum power of the Aztec empire

First printing house in Rome

Prince Ivan III of Moscow proclaims himself Tsar of All the Russias.

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, impales approximately 20,000 Turkish prisoners, as a deterrent to try to prevent an Ottoman invasion of the region.

Reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich (Иван III Васильевич), also known as Ivan the Great. He was born in Moscow on January 22, 1440, and died in Moscow on October 27, 1505, the eldest son of Vasily II of Russia, whom he succeeded as Grand Prince of Moscow. He is considered the unifier of the Russian lands. He managed to quadruple the territory of his state, built the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations for the formation of the Russian autocracy. He is the sovereign who, of all times, reigned for the longest years in Russia, as many as 43, from 1462 to 1505. During his reign, the position and authority of the grand princes of Moscow acquired attributes of majesty and officialdom (such as the title of gosudar’, “Sovereign of All the Russias”) that had been unknown in the previous period and that none of the predecessors had thought to manifest.

Pius II (Sienese Enea Silvio Piccolomini), after realizing the substantial failure of the anti-Ottoman alliance at the European and Italian levels due to local and national interests, prepared the Epistle to Mohammed. In essence, he proposed that Mohammed II convert to Christianity. Mohammed II was an Ottoman, a people of Mongolian origin who converted to Islam after arriving in Turkey, so the idea was not unlikely, given that it would open the doors of Europe to the Ottoman Empire, whose greed for Italy was all too evident. The epistle was shocking: just a few drops of holy water and the deal would be done, but it remained stuck among the papers of the papal secretariat. Mohammed II would only read a copy several years later. The reasons for the blockage remain a mystery. Had the Sultan accepted the letter, it would have opened the doors of Rome and perhaps Europe to the Ottomans, but it would also have opened the doors of the entire Middle East to the Pope.

Upon the death of Henry, King of Portugal, his explorers’ southward push reached Sierra Leone, but not without difficulties: the serious defeat at Tangier with the capture of his younger brother Ferdinand, and the troubled period that followed with the outbreak of civil war.

Cosimo De Medici, a Florentine nobleman, sends emissaries around the world to track down ancient manuscripts on the Hermetic (or alchemical) arts. A monk appears, claiming to be in possession of a work written by none other than Hermes Trismegistus himself, dating back to the time of the ancient Egyptians. In reality, the manuscript, “Corpum Hermeticum,” is no older than the 3rd century AD. This document, however, will inspire generations of medieval alchemists.

The papacy of Pius II (the Sienese Enea Silvio Piccolomini), thanks to the phobia of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish phobia), led, for the first time, to the identification of Europe as a single nation, under the common Christian matrix.

Hunyadi successfully defends Belgrade from the assault of the Turks of Mehmet II

Three years after the triumph of Constantinople, Mehmet II failed in his attempt to capture Belgrade. Legend tells of the Franciscan monk John Capistrano, a fervent preacher, the hammer of the Jews, and the scourge of heretics, and his company of ragged crusaders who joined forces with John Hunyadi, the greatest soldier of the time, to save Christian Belgrade.

Italy. According to the chronicles of the Franciscan Cambruzzi, movable type printing (on Venetian glass—fragile but easy to work with) was invented by Panfilo Castaldi in 1456, in Feltre.

Documented transit of the comet that would be named Halley’s Comet centuries later. The first to observe it were Chinese astrologers, but the most detailed measurements were those of Paolo Toscanelli. According to Diebold Schilling’s “Croca di Lucerne,” Naples is destroyed while Rome rains blood and there are atrocities in the streets (in short, a perfectly normal day in the capital) (cit. Adrian Fartade).

The Modena Cathedral Choir begins its service

The Marquis of Ferrara commissioned a team of artists to create an illuminated Bible. It was the most valuable illuminated manuscript in Italy: the Borso d’Este Bible. It took them six years to complete. It was exported from Italy and purchased by Senator Giovanni Treccani during World War I at an auction in Paris. In 1923, he donated it to the Modenese Library, where it is now located.

Alvise da Cadamosto (Portugal) explores the Senegal and Gambia rivers and also discovers the Cape Verde islands

The trade agreement between the Venetians and the Ottomans was reiterated: in exchange for the payment of 2% of their trade revenue, Venetian merchants maintained access to trade in the East.

England, Wars of the Roses