Jubilee of 1300

On Via Giovanni Verrazzano, just north of Santa Croce, there is a small plaque set into the wall. It reads:

“♰ Ad perpetuam memoriam. Pateat omnibus evidenter hanc paginam inspecturis quod omnipotens Deus in anno domini nostri Iesu Christi MCCC specialem gratiam contulit christianis Samsepulcrum quod exstiterat a Saracenis ocupatum reconvictum est a Tartaris, et christianis restitutum et cum eodem anno fuisset a papa Bonifatio sollepnis remissio omnium peccatorum videlicet culparum et penarum omnibus euntibus Romam indulta. multi ex ipsis Tartaris ad dictam indulgentiam Romam accesserunt e andovi Ugolino chola molgle.”

“♰ In eternal memory. Let it be perfectly clear to all who will see this placard that almighty God has conferred in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1300 a special favor upon all Christians, for the Holy Sepulcher, which had been taken by the Saracens, has been recaptured by the Tartars and returned to the Christians; and that in the same year Pope Boniface VIII declared indulgences and the solemn remission of all sins, including all censure and punishments, to all those who travel to Rome. Many of these same Tartars have traveled to Rome for the said indulgence, and Ugolino went there together with his wife.”

We don’t know who this Ugolino was, other than the fact that he and his wife presumably lived here and that they went on pilgrimage in the first jubilee year ever, which Pope Boniface VIII declared for the 365 days between Christmas eve 1299 and Christmas eve 1300. Dante was in Rome at that time and witnessed the enormous numbers of pilgrims with his own eyes. (He talks about it in Inferno 18.28-33.) His setting of the Divine Comedy at Easter of this same jubilee year reflects his otherworldly pilgrimage.

Interestingly, the actual papal bull (pictured above) makes no reference to the taking of Jerusalem by Tartars. It is likely that the news received in Florence about the Mongol attacks on Jerusalem in 1299 and 1300 was somehow transformed into an important aspect of the jubilee.