Abstract
The title of this essay comes from the oration of Giovanni de Nores, representative of the urban council of Nicosia, before the doge in Venice in 1520. It encapsulates the attitude of the Cypriot aristocracy towards the ruling power, Nores referring to the unwavering loyalty of his distant homeland that in his mind brought it geographically close to Venice. The Cypriot nobleman descended from an old aristocratic family of the Lusignan kingdom that flourished into the Venetian period when it was joined at the peak of the social pyramid by both local families of Greek or Syrian extraction and more recent arrivals from the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. Together they formed the island’s close-knit elite. Despite its varied linguistic and religious background, this numerically small group had become remarkably dominant and cohesive by the mid-16th century, distinguished by its close links to the metropolis, service in the administration, intense endogamy as well as marriage alliances with Venetian patricians, investment in land ownership, studies in Padua and sometimes scholarly pursuits.
There are several tools to reconstruct its profile, and some have attracted less attention than others. Portrait medals, for example, illustrate the wholesale adoption of a practice initially associated with the upper social echelons of Renaissance Italy. The group of eminent Cypriot dedicatees of several madrigals by Giandomenico Martoretta in 1554 offers another side of the same coin. A third one is provided by dedications to Cypriot aristocrats of literary, historical and other works written in Italy. Together these cases demonstrate several significant trends. First, that the elite was dominated by three extended and related families, the Podocataro, Singlitico and Nores. Second, that its members were not merely well acquainted with the way of life of their Venetian peers but that they consciously adopted numerous aspects of the latter’s lifestyle in an effort to get as close to the ruling power as possible. These extended from baptismal names and sartorial trappings to linguistic skills and spiritual concerns. Nevertheless, in 1570 their self-serving trajectory was cut short by the Ottoman conquest that put an abrupt and violent end to their ascendance.
There are several tools to reconstruct its profile, and some have attracted less attention than others. Portrait medals, for example, illustrate the wholesale adoption of a practice initially associated with the upper social echelons of Renaissance Italy. The group of eminent Cypriot dedicatees of several madrigals by Giandomenico Martoretta in 1554 offers another side of the same coin. A third one is provided by dedications to Cypriot aristocrats of literary, historical and other works written in Italy. Together these cases demonstrate several significant trends. First, that the elite was dominated by three extended and related families, the Podocataro, Singlitico and Nores. Second, that its members were not merely well acquainted with the way of life of their Venetian peers but that they consciously adopted numerous aspects of the latter’s lifestyle in an effort to get as close to the ruling power as possible. These extended from baptismal names and sartorial trappings to linguistic skills and spiritual concerns. Nevertheless, in 1570 their self-serving trajectory was cut short by the Ottoman conquest that put an abrupt and violent end to their ascendance.
| Translated title of the contribution | «In a nearby kingdom, adjacent to Venice». The Cypriot elite in renaissance Nicosia |
|---|---|
| Original language | Other |
| Title of host publication | Μεσαιωνική Λευκωσία. Πρωτεύουσα ώσμωσης Ανατολής και Δύσης |
| Editors | Dimitra Papanikola-Bakirtzi |
| Place of Publication | Nicosia |
| Publisher | A. G. Leventis Foundation |
| Pages | 184-199 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789963732487 |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |