Scales of Gold
Authors: Dorothy Dunnett
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 1999
Copyright
©
1991 by Dorothy Dunnett
Introduction
©
1994 by Judith Wilt
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Michael Joseph Ltd., London, in 1991, and subsequently in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1992.
The Introduction was originally published in slightly different form in the United States edition of
The Unicorn Hunt
, published in 1994 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Vintage Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Dunnett, Dorothy.
Scales of gold / Dunnett. — 1st American ed.
p. cm.—(The house of Niccolò)
eISBN: 978-0-307-76240-5
1. Fifteenth century—Fiction. 2. Belgium—History—To 1555—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Dunnett, Dorothy. House of Niccolò.
PR6054.U56S33 1992
823’.914—dc20 91-58554
v3.1_r1
Contents
The House of Niccolò
PREFACE
When my chronicle of Francis Crawford of Lymond ended, it seemed to me that there was something still to be told of his heritage: about the genetic lottery, as well as the turmoil of trials and experience which, put together, could bring such a man into being.
The House of Niccolò
, in all its volumes, deals with the forerunner without whom Lymond would not have existed: the unknown who fought his way to the high ground that Francis Crawford would occupy, and held it for him. It is fiction, but the setting at least is very real.
The man I have called Nicholas de Fleury lived in the mid-fifteenth century, three generations before Francis Crawford, and was reared as an artisan, his gifts and his burdens concealed beneath an artless manner and a joyous, sensuous personality. But he was also born at the cutting edge of the European Renaissance, which Lymond was to exploit at its zenith—the explosion of exploration and trade, high art and political duplicity, personal chivalry and violent warfare in which a young man with a genius for organization and numbers might find himself trusted by princes, loved by kings, and sought in marriage and out of it by clever women bent on power, or wealth, or revenge—or sometimes simply from fondness.
There are, of course, echoes of the present time. Trade and war don’t change much down through the centuries: today’s new multimillionaires had their counterparts in the entrepreneurs of few antecedents who evolved the first banking systems for the Medici; who developed the ruthless network of trade that ran from Scotland, Flanders, and Italy to the furthest reaches of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, and ventured from Iceland to Persia, from Muscovy to the deserts of Africa.
Scotland is important to this chronicle, as it was to Francis Crawford. Here, the young Queen of Scots is a thirteen-year-old Scandinavian, and her husband’s family are virtually children. This, framed in glorious times, is the story of the difficult, hesitant progress of a small nation, as well as that of a singular man.
Dorothy Dunnett
Edinburgh, 1998
Characters
May, 1464 – July, 1468
(Those marked * are recorded in history)
Rulers
* Flanders: Duke Philip of Burgundy; Duke Charles, his son
* Venice: Doge Cristoforo Moro
* England: King Edward IV, House of York (Henry VI, House of Lancaster, imprisoned)
* Scotland: King James III
* France: King Louis XI
* Popes: Pius II, Paul II
* Milan: Duke Francesco Sforza; Galeazzo Sforza, his son
* Cyprus: King James de Lusignan (Zacco)
* Portugal: King Alfonso V, nephew of Henry the Navigator
* Ottoman Empire: Sultan Mehmet II
* Aragon, Spain: King John II, uncle of Ferrante of Naples
* Castile, Spain: King Henry
* Ethiopia: Emperor Zara Ya’qob
House of Niccolò:
IN VENICE AND BRUGES:
Nicholas vander Poele (Niccolò), son of the first wife of Simon de St Pol
Gregorio of Asti, lawyer
Margot, Gregorio’s mistress
Father Godscalc of Cologne, chaplain and apothecary
Loppe (Lopez), former Guinea slave
Julius of Bologna, notary
Cristoffels, manager, seconded to the Charetty company
John (Jannekin) Bonkle, bastard of Edward Bonkle of Edinburgh
UNDER CONTRACT ABROAD:
Tobias Beventini of Grado, physician
Astorre (Syrus de Astariis), mercenary commander
Thomas, English captain, in Cyprus
John le Grant, engineer and shipmaster, in Cyprus
SEAMEN, THE GUINEA VOYAGES:
Jorge da Silves, Portuguese master of the
San Niccolò
Vicente, first mate of the
San Niccolò
Melchiorre Cataneo, ex
Ciaretti
, second mate of the
San Niccolò
Estêvão, helmsman of the
San Niccolò
Fernão, helmsman of the
San Niccolò
Luis, seaman on the
San Niccolò
Filipe, boy on the
San Niccolò
Lázaro, boy on the
San Niccolò
Vito, ex
Ciaretti
, seaman-carpenter on the
San Niccolò
Manoli, ex
Ciaretti
, seaman on the
San Niccolò
Triadano of Ragusa, master of the
Ciaretti
Ochoa de Marchena, Spanish master of the
Ghost/Doria
Flanders and the Duchy of Burgundy:
THE CHARETTY COMPANY:
Mathilde (Tilde) de Charetty, daughter of Marian, late first wife of Nicholas
Catherine, her younger sister
Henninc, dyeworks manager in Bruges
OTHER FAMILIES IN FLANDERS AND BURGUNDY:
* Henry van Borselen, seigneur of Veere
Florence van Borselen, half-brother of Henry
Gelis van Borselen, younger daughter of Florence
Henry (Arigho) de St Pol, child of the late Katelina, sister of Gelis
* Wolfaert van Borselen, son of Henry van Borselen
* Mary his wife, aunt of James III of Scotland
* Alexander, Duke of Albany, her nephew, brother of James III
* Paul van Borselen, bastard son of Wolfaert
* Louis de Gruuthuse, merchant nobleman
* Marguerite van Borselen, his wife
* Tommaso Portinari, manager, Medici company in Bruges
* Benedetto Dei, Medici agent and merchant
* Antony of Bourbon, bastard of Duke Philip
* Baudouin, his half-brother
* Sir Simon de Lalaing, seigneur of Santes
* Ernoul de Lalaing, his son
* Anselm Adorne of the Hôtel Jerusalem
* Margriet van der Banck, his wife
* Anselm Sersanders, his nephew
* Jehan Metteneye, host to the Scots merchants
* Colard Mansion, scribe and illustrator
* Bartolomeo Giorgio (Zorzi), merchant of Pera and Cyprus
Republic of Venice:
* Marietta Barovier, glassmaker of Murano
* Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto, merchant explorer
* Antonio da Ca’ da Mosto, his brother
* Marco Corner, merchant, sugar-grower in Cyprus
* Fiorenza of Naxos, his wife
* Catherine, his daughter
* Giovanni (Vanni) Loredano, deputy Bailie in Cyprus
* Valenza of Naxos, his wife
* Caterino Zeno, merchant
* Violante of Naxos, his wife
* Paul Erizzo, Venetian Bailie in Cyprus
* Anne, his daughter
* Piero Bembo, merchant
* Bessarion (John) of Trebizond, Cardinal Patriarch of Constantinople
* Alessandro di Niccolò Martelli, Medici company
* Alvise Duodo, galley commander and merchant
The families of St Pol (Scots) and Vasquez (Portuguese):
Jordan de St Pol, vicomte de Ribérac
Simon de St Pol of Kilmirren, his son
Lucia, sister of Simon and widow of Tristão Vasquez
Matten, her maid
Isobella (Bel) of Cuthilgurdy, her Scots companion
Diniz, son of Lucia and the late Tristão Vasquez
* Sir João Vasquez, secretary to the Duchess of Burgundy and “uncle” to Diniz
Jaime, factor of the St Pol estate at Ponta do Sol
Inez, his wife
Republic of Florence:
* Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici
* Piero de’ Medici, his son and successor
* Alessandra Macinghi negli Strozzi, widow