Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1320s

For a lot of folks, the 1320s were kind of a reprieve after the Great Famine.  The Mongols were past high-water mark, and the -- erm... -- social disruptions that would strike many places at mid-century were still on the horizon.  Good times.

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1. Simone Martini finished this painting in 1320. Where, generally speaking? And what was it for, generally speaking?

2. Also in 1320,

 ....the Arsenale Nuovo was built, much larger than the original. It enabled all the state's navy and the larger merchant ships to be both constructed and maintained in one place…. At the peak of its efficiency in the early sixteenth century, the Arsenal employed some 16,000 people who apparently were able to produce nearly one ship each day, and could fit out, arm, and provision a newly built galley with standardized parts on a production-line basis not seen again until the Industrial Revolution.

Where was this proto-industrial powerhouse?

3. During the 1320s, this nation expanded rapidly to the southeast, conquering Kiev and almost all of the western Rus’ under Grand Duke Gediminas. What country was beginning its rise to late-medieval greatness?

4. Julius Caesar, writing about himself in 48 B.C. (in the third person, but hey! He was Julius Caesar!) about the campaign against Ptolemy XIV, said

Now because of the narrowness of the strait there can be no access by ship to the harbour without the consent of those who hold the Pharos. In view of this, Caesar took the precaution of landing his troops while the enemy was preoccupied with fighting, seized the Pharos and posted a garrison there. The result was that safe access was secured for his corn supplies and reinforcements.

1371 years later, the Pharos was finally toppled in an earthquake. What is the more common name for this famous ancient landmark?

5.  Mansa (“Emporer”) Musa I of Mali passed through Cairo in 1324. Why?

6. Musa’s visit is said to have devastated the mercantile system of Egypt and Arabia. Heck, there is even a theory that the European Renaissance may have been pushed along by the influx of skilled craftsmen fleeing the economic carnage. What did Mansa Musa do to wreck such havoc?

7. Here’s the empire that Orhan I inherited in 1326. He would about quadruple its area during his long reign. What’s the empire?

8. On April 6, 1327, a fellow saw a woman named Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon and fell madly, head-over-heels in love. What was his name?

9. Nicholas V

was elected through the influence of the excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor, Louis the Bavarian, by an assembly of priests and laymen, and consecrated at Old St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, on 12 May 1328 by the bishop of Venice…. On 19 February 1329 [he] presided at a bizarre ceremony in the Duomo of Pisa, at which a straw puppet representing Pope John XXII and dressed in pontifical robes was formally condemned, degraded, and handed over to the secular arm (to be "executed")…

Nicholas V was excommunicated by John XXII in April 1329…. Having obtained assurance of pardon [and] remained in honourable imprisonment in the papal palace [in] Avignon until his death in October 1333.

Today, Nicholas V is usually called one of the “__________”

10. Patzcuaro is a medieval town founded in the 1320s with a beautifully preserved and historic colonial indigenous charm. Its original name was apparently Tzacapu-ansucutinpatzcuaro. Where is Patzcuaro?

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Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1310s

1. England's power export from 1250-1350: wool.
2. Lincoln Cathedral was probably the tallest building in the world until its central spire burned down.
3. The hill dwellings were briefly a hopping town on Mesa Verde.
4. King Haaken V's Akershus Fortress helped develop Oslo.
5. Lancelotto Malcello rediscovered The Canary Islands.
6. Celebration in Jade Pool in from China, of course.
7. Edward Bruce was the last guy to really try to revive the Kingdom of Ireland. 
8. The dominant horribleness of 1315-17 in Europe was the Great Famine.
9. Guelphs and Ghibellines were the rival parties in Italy.
10. The Guelphs were generally on the side of the Popes.  The Ghibellines were generally for the Holy Roman Emperor.  Some folks and areas were staunch, and some flip-flopped opportunistically.

As has become common, it's kind of hard to put my finger on a rightest person.  Besides, there's no reason to get all touchy-feely anyway.  Susan and pfly and UnwiseOwl all had eight definites (I'm not going to penalize Owl for not knowing which was which on question ten). I especially liked, for this week's least intuitive question (#2, Lincoln Cathedral), how the Owl had an esoteric reason for knowing about Lincoln Cathedral, pfly reasoned that sumbitch out, and Susan just stated it with calm confidence.  Nice.