Scales of Gold: The Fourth Book of the House of Niccolo Read online

  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

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.1_r1

  Contents

  Cover

  Map

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Preface

  Characters

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Reader’s Guide

  About the Author

  Other Books by This Author

  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

  * Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi of Naples, her son

  The Vatachino Company and Associates (Genoese):

  * David de Salmeton, broker, merchant and agent

  Martin, broker, merchant and agent

  Raffaelo Doria, commander of the Fortado

  Tati, his servant girl

  Michael Crackbene, ex Doria, sailing-master of the Fortado

  * Urbano Lomellini, Genoese plantation owner, Madeira

  * Baptista Lomellini, his brother

  * Gilles Lomellini, host to Genoese merchants in Bruges

  * Prosper Schiaffino de Camulio de’ Medici, former envoy of Milan

  Kingdom of Portugal:

  * Diogo Gomes, former sea captain, Treasurer of Palace of Sintra

  * Zarco, Captain of the Funchal region of Madeira

  Princes of Guinea:

  * Zughalin, Jalofo King of the Senagana

  * Gnumi Mansa, under-King in the Gambia

  * Bati Mansa, under-King in the Gambia

  Muslims of Guinea:

  * Saloum ibn Hani, marabout, freed Mandingua interpreter

  * Ahmad al-Qali, freed captive and guide

  * Muhammed ben Idir, prince and Timbuktu-Koy

  * Umar, his son and successor

  * Akil ag Malwal, Maghsharen Tuareg commander

  * And-Agh-Muhammed al-Kabir, Qadi and scholar

  * al-Mukhtar, Muhammed and Ahmed, scholars, his sons

  * Muhammed Aqit, judge and scholar

  * Katib Musa, of the imamate of Sankore

  Abderrahman ibn Said, merchant of Timbuktu

  Jilali and Mustapha, his brothers

  (Umar ibn Muhammad al-Kaburi)

  Zuhra, his wife

  Introduction

  THE ELEGANT WORKING out of designs historical and romantic, political and commercial, psychological and moral, over a multivolume novel is a Dorothy Dunnett specialty. In her first work in this genre, the six-volume “Lymond Chronicles,” suspense was created and relieved in each volume, and over the whole set of volumes; the final, beautifully inevitable, romantic secret was disclosed on the very last page of the last volume. “The House of Niccolò” does the same.

  The reader of Scales of Gold, then, may wish to move directly to the narrative for a first experience of that pattern, with a reader’s faith in an experienced author’s caretaking; the novel itself briefly supplies the information you need to know from past novels, telling its own tale while completing and inaugurating others. What follows, as a sketch of the geopolitical and dramatic terrain unfolding in the volumes which precede Scales of Gold, may be useful to read now, or at any point along the narrative, or after reading, as an indication of which stories of interest to this volume may be found most fully elaborated in which previous volume.

  VOLUME I: Niccolò Rising

  “From Venice to Cathay, from Seville to the Gold Coast of Africa, men anchored their ships and opened their ledgers and weighed one thing against another as if nothing would ever change.” This first sentence of the first volume indicates the scope of this series, and the cultural and psychological dynamic of the story and its hero, whose private motto is “Change, change and adapt.” It is the motto, too, of fifteenth-century Bruges, center of commerce and conduit of new ideas and technologies between the Islamic East and the Christian West, between the Latin South and the Celtic-Saxon North, haven of political refugees from the English Wars of the Roses, a site of muted conflict between trading giants Venice and Genoa and states in the making and on the take all around. Mrs. Dunnett has set her story in the fifteenth century, between Gutenberg and Columbus, between Donatello and Martin Luther, between the rise of mercantile culture and the fall of chivalry, as that age of receptivity to—addiction to—change called “the Renaissance” gathers its powers.

  Her hero is a deceptively silly-looking, disastrously tactless eighteen-year-old dyeworks artisan named “Claes,” a caterpillar who emerges by the end of the novel as the merchant-mathematician Nicholas vander Poele. Prodigiously gifted at numbers, and the material and social “engineering” skills that go with it, Nicholas has until now resisted the responsibility of his powers, his identity fractured by the enmity of both his mother’s husband’s family, the Scottish St Pols, who refuse to own him legitimate, and his maternal family, the Burgundian de Fleurys, who failed his mother and abused him and reduced him to serfdom as a child. He found refuge at age ten with his grandfather’s in-laws, especially the Bruges widow Marian de Charetty, whose dyeing and broking business becomes the tool of Nicholas’ desperate self-fashioning apart from the malice of his blood relatives.

  Soon even public Bruges and the states beyond come to see the engineer under the artisan. The Charetty business expands to include a courier and intelligence service between Italian and Northern states, its bodyguard sharpened into a skilled mercenary force, its pawn-broking consolidated toward banking and commodities trading. And as the chameleon artificer of all this, Nicholas incurs the ambiguous interest of the Bruges patrician Anselm Adorne and the Greco-Florentine prince Nicholai Giorgio de’ Acciajuoli, both of whom steer him toward a role in the rivalry between Venice, in whose interest Acciajuoli labors, and Genoa, original home of the Adorne family. This trading rivalry will erupt in different novels around the different, always highly symbolic commodities: silk, sugar, glass, gold, and
human beings. In this first novel the contested product is alum, the mineral that binds dyes to cloth, blood to the body, conspirators to a conspiracy—in this case, to keep secret the news of a newly found deposit of the mineral in the Papal States while Venice and her allies monopolize the current supply.

  Acciajuoli and Adorne are father-mentor figures Nicholas can respect, resist, or join on roughly equal intellectual terms—whereas the powerful elder males of his blood, his mother’s uncle, Jaak de Fleury, and his father’s father, Jordan de Ribérac, steadily rip open wounds first inflicted in childhood. In direct conflict he is emotionally helpless before them. What he possesses superbly, however, are the indirect defenses of an “engineer.” The Charetty business partners and others who hitch their wagons to his star—Astorre the mercenary leader, Julius the notary, Gregorio the lawyer, Tobias Beventini the physician, the Guinea slave Lopez—watch as a complex series of commodity and currency maneuvers by the apparently innocent Nicholas brings about the financial and political ruin of de Fleury and de Ribérac; and they nearly desert him for the conscienceless avenger he appears to be, especially after de Fleury dies in a fight with, though not directly at the hands of, his nephew.

  The faith and love of Marian de Charetty make them rethink their view of this complicated personality. Marian, whose son was killed beside Nicholas in the Italian wars, and whose sister married into his family, is moved towards the end of the novel to suggest that Nicholas take her in marriage. It is to be platonic: her way of giving him standing, of displaying her trust in him and his management of the business, and of solacing him in his anguish. Once married, however, she longs despite herself for physical love, and Nicholas, who owes her everything, finds happiness also in making the marriage complete.

  That marriage, however, sows the seeds of tragedy. The royally connected Katelina van Borselen, “characterful,” intelligent, and hungry for experiences usually denied a genteel lady, has refused the vicious or vacuous suitors considered eligible, and seeks sexual initiation at the hands of the merry young artisan so popular with the kitchen wenches of Bruges. Against his better judgment, Nicholas is led to comply, for, however brusque her demands, she has just saved his life in one of the several episodes in which the St Pols try to destroy him. Two nights of genuine intimacy undermined by mismatched desires and miscommunicated intentions culminate in Katelina’s solitary pregnancy. Unaware of this, Nicholas enters his marriage with Marian, and Katelina, alone, fatalistically marries the man in pursuit of her, the handsome, shrewd, and fatally self-centered Simon de St Pol, the man Nicholas claims is his father. Sickened at what she believes is Nicholas’ ultimate revenge on his family—to illegitimately father its heir—Katelina becomes Nicholas’ most determined enemy.