Word: rome
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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WHAT DO TROY, Renaissance Rome, the English parliament of the eighteenth century and America in the 1960s have in common? Each had leaders who led their countries to disaster, and each is the subject of a chapter in historian Barbara W. Tuchman's new book The March of Folly...
...enough to leave Jews, Moslems and Protestants snickering and to send Catholics scurrying for their rosary beads. The indulgences of Innocent VIII, the depravity of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia bought himself the papacy and used it to benefit his illegitimate children), and the wars of Julias II left Rome bankrupt. When Cardinal Giovanni d'Medici became Pope Leo X, declaring "God has given us the papacy--now let us enjoy it", he was desperate for money and decided to sell the only thing he could--pardons. Full-scale simonry continued throughout the age, with indulgences being sold at church alters...
...Renaissance popes ignored the increasing alienation of the intellectuals, such as Martin Luther, who were ethically troubled by the trafficking, and the populace, who for purely financial reasons disliked the practice. They also overlooked the German and Spanish forces that marshalled outside Rome in 1527 and attacked the city of St. Peter. The combination of factors, however, proved too much for the system. Materially and spiritually bankrupt, Rome surrendered to Charles V and could not prevent the Protestant secession...
When David Wolfe of Neiman's went to Rome to buy the extravagant furs that Karl Lagerfeld turns out for Fendi, he and his assistants practiced a serviceable combination of hard business, constructive gossip and applied technology. Wolfe nixed a deluxe fur that was cut like a pullover sweater because "we have to consider those big bouffant Texas hairdos. You can't expect clients to have to drag their furs over them." A dyed gray beaver jacket, with collar, pockets and cuffs furrowed like a plowed field, is "ideal for Mrs. Bowing." (All names have been changed...
There is, of course, no question which treatment he prefers. For 16 years Balthus was director of the French Academy at the Villa Medici in Rome: never a sinecure for the meek, and perhaps not since Ingres's day held by a more indurated snob than Balthus. One can follow his appetite for grandeur as the name evolves: plain Balthasar Klossowski to start, then Balthasar de Klossowski, then Klossowski de Rola, and now, in his eighth decade, the "Comte de Rola." The fact that he has been able to fend off inquiry about his origins for so long...