Marnanel — DWJ stuff — Annotations

Annotations for The Magicians of Caprona

Annotations for The Magicians of Caprona. Please beware a few unavoidable unmarked spoilers below.

DWJ suggests that the political structures of Italy are roughly the same as those of the early Renaissance in Our World, before the city-states were consolidated into a smaller number of Duchies

Dedication

For John

DWJ's husband

1

The best spells still come from Caprona

Caprona is a town in Italy. There is a genuine village of Caprona in Our World, about eight miles from Pisa, with a population, according to Wikipedia, of 507 people at the 2001 census. The Caprona of the book, however, is a substantial town or city, probably also in Tuscany

the Casa Montana or the Casa Petrocchi

echoes of Montague and Capulet, I think

The Old Bridge in Caprona is lined with little stone booths

several such bridges with shops and houses built on them survive — the best known is probably the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") in Florence

the wide street called the Corso

a common name for the main street of a substantial town, like High Street in the UK, or Main Street USA

The towers were each roofed with a little hat of red pantiles

large terracotta tiles, S-shaped in section, in shades of reddish-orange. They are side lapping and the ends overlap only tiles in the course immediately below. They are common in many Mediterranean countries

when Tonino started school, he was just as slow there as he was at home

Tonino’s struggles at school seem to be the magical equivalent of dyslexia; his depressive reaction to them is very typical of children with that diagnosis

Benvenuto

the cat’s name is the Italian word for "welcome"

2

Washing flapping overhead

it is still not unusual to see laundry hanging from rope or cable strung across narrow streets between facing houses or apartments at a higher level in Italian towns

Punch and Judy

a traditional British seaside entertainment in which a traditional story is told by puppets: usually glove puppets, though originally they were marionnettes. Much of the story and some of the characters can trace their roots in the Renaissance Italian art form the "Commedia dell’Arte", in which stock characters such as Harlequin (Arlecchino) and Columbine figured as star-crossed lovers. Pulchinello, a thuggish character, became Anglicised as "Mr Punch", a character with a pronounced hooked nose and a high-pitched, warbling voice achieved by means of a special device held in the performer’s mouth. Samuel Pepys mentioned the show more than once in his Diary, written in the 1660s. The brightly-painted tent booth was for centuries a traditional draw for families and children on beach holidays and in city streets, though the story, dealing with domestic abuse, theft and murder might not be seen as entirely suitable for youngsters these days! There’s a fascinating article at the V&A

3

Florence, Pisa and Sienna

three major cities of Tuscany, the area of Italy north of Rome and to the west of the Appenines, the central ridge of mountains which runs the length of Italy. In Our World they were extremely powerful city-states in the High Middle Ages, but eventually the latter two were conquered by Florence and all three became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under the Medici family in the sixteenth century

Eton jackets

the name comes from the jacket younger pupils at Eton College (a famous public, i.e. private, boarding school) wore until relatively recently. The jacket was much like a tuxedo but stopped short at the waist and was worn with a waistcoat (called a vest in North America) and a shirt with a very wide, stiffly-starched white collar attached to the shirt with studs. High-waisted long trousers completed the outfit: uncomfortable to wear and expensive to buy, they proclaimed the status of the wearer and his family. The clothing is often worn by boys in the works of E. Nesbit, and adds an Edwardian flavour here

Old Guido

the head of the family, but not particularly elderly. Compare "Old Capulet" and "Old Montague", heads of the warring families in "Romeo and Juliet"

my play— my pantomime, you know

in the US "pantomime" seems to be used as an alternative to "mime". In the UK it is a highly traditional form of theatrical entertainment, loosely descended from Commedia dell’Arte, and thus related to Punch and Judy. Pantomimes ("panto" for short) are associated mainly with the Christmas period and usually retell one of a limited number of traditional folk tales, but with a great deal of licence taken in the production; the romantic male lead is usually played by a young woman, while the comic female role, the Dame, is played by a man Stock characters such as cooks or decorators create organised chaos and audience participation is not so much encouraged as essential. Modern commercial pantos tend to feature TV or music stars and are big business; the takings from a good panto season often cross-subsidise the rest of the theatre’s offerings for the year

A great pastry puff

made out of layers of flaky or puff pastry, generally filled with cream and almost impossible to eat tidily

4

Domenico was no use

he has imbibed a little too much of the Duke’s generous hospitality (brandy)

There were journals from Rome and magazines from Genoa and Milan

in Our World, Rome is the capital city of the Italian Republic; presumably in this world it is simply another city-state. Milan and Genoa were very powerful states during the Renaissance. The first was, and is, a major financial centre; the second, a great trading city and port

Rinaldo looked at Marco, challenging him to answer

Rinaldo’s behaviour towards Marco is very reminiscent of Romeo’s friend Mercutio— full of swagger— and Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt— always looking for a fight

Merrily his music ringing

for the Latin text and a translation, see the end of this file. Marnanel writes:

"The tune, in my head, has always been the medieval Quem pastores (aka Quempas). But there are plenty of other tunes with the same metrical signature, 8-8-8-7"

two letters. One was addressed to Ferrari, the other to Rolls-Royce in England

the Casa Montana may struggle to maintain the horses for the carriage, but luxury cars are still within their reach— or at least Old Niccolo thinks they are

5

Reams of fresh paper and parchment

a ream is 500 (originally 480) sheets of paper of a given size. Parchment is prepared from animal skins; even today it is sometimes used for very special documents. Presumably it would enhance the power of the spells to use this traditional surface

A tweed travelling cap with daft earflaps

possibly a deerstalker, associated with Sherlock Holmes? "Daft" means mildly silly

My mission here has to concern the misuse of magic

as DWJ has explained in other books, Chrestomanci is a job title, not a name, and defines a function concerned with regulating the use of magic. Chrestomanci makes it plain that he needs an excuse to become involved as a personal matter, as he cannot be seen to support one side in a contest in which his own government remains neutral

The Court of Europe

a fascinating hint that something along the lines of the European Court of Justice, or perhaps the International Court at The Hague exists to deal with nations accused of crimes against humanity

the war would be declared next Sunday, so it would be a Holy War

DWJ was, of course, fully aware of the irony here

6

Giorgio had saved his country... without a spell coming into it anywhere

Tonino’s book is fantasy— that is, set in a world without magic. It convinces him that he can emulate the hero and find the key to defeating the city’s enemies. It also makes him lose any sense of logic

Benvenuto... uttered a truly appalling noise: "Wong wong wong wong wong-wong-wong!"

this is the noise Throgmorton, Millie’s cat, makes in The Lives of Christopher Chant. Perhaps they are related, though many cats say something similar when they're angry

The fighting began while they were still shouting

the fight between the Families is comic, but shows how evenly-matched they are. The missiles— eggs, rotten fruit, cowpats (dung) emphasise the childishness of their hostility

Testudo

the Latin word for "tortoise", but also a celebrated military tactic used by Roman Legions, linking their shields above their heads to provide almost invincible protection from enemy missiles

Voltava

the Anglicisation of "Vltava", the longest river in the Czech Republic. Also, in Italian, the imperfect form of "volere" meaning "He was turning"— the fire turns to water, which makes the river reference highly appropriate

7

The Ducal Police

the police force of Caprona, a state ruled by a Duke

riding bicycles along the pavements

police in Britain traditionally used bicycles to get around their areas until cars became much more common

The rest of you I order to sink your differences

The intervention here is highly reminiscent of the scene in "Romeo and Juliet" Act I in which the Prince orders the families to stop fighting

Then, momentarily, Guido was a man-shaped red-and-white check duster

the magic duel echoes that between Merlyn and Madam Mim in the book, and Disney cartoon, of The Sword in the Stone

8

Spire-shaped trees

presumably the evergreen Tuscan cypress tree (Cupressus sempervirens), which is iconic for the area

For a start, I'm tone-deaf

not literal deafness, but unable to hold a tune in her head or reproduce a note she has heard

About all I'm good for is understanding cats

a talent she shares with Tonino

9

A position of power

a place where she can see the entire room and thus dominate it, rather than a rank

It appeared to be made of wood

here and later, Tonino’s perceptions are far more accurate than he realises

He was wearing a bright red nightgown and there was a heaviness on the front of his face

Tonino has acquired the appearance as well as the role of Mr Punch. The business with the dog and the sausages is a traditional element of the Punch and Judy show, as are the other scenes described in this chapter

As pleased as Punch

the puppet character invariably sees himself as clever and cunning: "What a clever fellow" and "That’s the way to do it" are used by the character repeatedly during a show. The idiom is well over two centuries old, but has a pleasing dual meaning here

10

Chemist

usual UK term for a pharmacy

Notti’s

FWIW, there’s a pharmacy of that name in Montevideo, Uruguay. I doubt DWJ knew of it

swarthy enemy soldiers dragging Rosa off screaming

Paolo has been paying too much attention to propaganda; the enemies are from exactly the same part of Italy as he is

11

Tap

Americans call them faucets, I believe

The words on the scrolls

it’s possible that DWJ was inspired by the arms of the University of Oxford (where she studied) which has a book on which the words Dominus illuminatio mea (the Lord is my light) appear in fragmented form on the open pages:

In this case, however, it’s as if the original scroll has been divided vertically, so that only fragments of each word appear on the separate scrolls. Only when the two families’ versions are side by side would it be possible to work out the complete lyrics

Tonino left the scroll with "Carmen" scraped on it

it may be significant that this is a complete Latin word, meaning "song". Worth noting that the difficult journey Tonino and Angelica make through the palace is only possible because they are working together— at pushing the door open, for example

Beetling cliffs

a word derived from Old English, "beetling" means something which projects or juts forward

climbing across two rounded metal bars

I’m not sure what these are, unless they are some sort of stair rod? Or the sort of chair with a tubular metal frame which links the feet of the leg sections together into two parallel ridges?

12

The drawer was made of solid, spicy-smelling wood

cedar wood was commonly used to make drawers until plywood became more common

the old Chinese cigar torture

the only result for this offered by Google is to this line in the book. Presumably it is by analogy to other torments at one time believed to be traditionally Chinese, such as water torture. No slur would have been detected in the usage at the time DWJ wrote the book

My Lord, you’ve been smoking cigars in here again.

The Duchess addresses her husband formally, which helps to suggest the emotional distance between them, but it was very common for married couples to use this level of formality with each other during many periods before the twentieth century

13

"it allows me a free hand"

presumably the abduction of two minors would be seen by his government as valid cause for Chrestomanci to get involved

Mrs Grimaldi

the family name of the Princes of Monaco and also of a famous Victorian clown

someone holding one end of an acre of sheet metal and flapping it

hyperbole aside, this is a time-honoured theatrical method of creating thunderous sound effects

Griffins

a heraldic and mythological creature, half-eagle, half-lion (so, the king of the beasts melded with the king of the birds. The theme of combining two elements to create a more powerful whole strikes again.) DWJ expanded on the species in the two Derkholm books

14

"Please oblige me by eating it"

a rather long-winded, courtly way of offering Angelica the toffee

the Duke put in, mildly

an adverb DWJ used particularly with reference to Chrestomanci

Nero did it

the Roman Emperor Nero was popularly believed to have played music during a fire that devastated Rome in July 64 A.D. While the idiom has him "fiddling while Rome burned", he could not have done this so many centuries before the invention of the violin. Tacitus suggests he sang while watching the flames

The Archbishop of Caprona

it has always been considered helpful to a country under attack to have church dignitaries lead prayers and blessings Presumably it at least helps popular morale

15

they raced up long lead groins, and over rainbow buttresses, like dizzy bridges, to higher domes

the cathedral of Caprona seems to be composed of a set of domes ascending in size and height. The closest comparison in Our World may be the Hagia Sophia cathedral/mosque in Istanbul. There are famous domed churches in Florence, Venice and Rome, of course, amongst others, but they do not fit the descriptions here very well

Golden leopards entwined with winged horses

the heraldic badges of the two families; they also echo the griffins Angelica and Tonino summoned

The words of the Angel of Caprona

Latin, the language of religion (and magic) across Europe for many centuries

Latin, from ch15	English translation of the Latin	Tuscan dialect of Italian, represented in English, from ch4
Carmen pacis saeculare	A song of a generation's peace	Merrily his music ringing,
Venit Angelus cantare	An angel comes singing	See an Angel cometh singing,
Et deorsum pacem dare	And bringing peace down	Words of peace and comfort bringing
Capronensi populo	To the people of Caprona	To Caprona's city fair
Dabit pacem eternalem	It will give eternal peace	Victory that faileth never,
Sine morbo immortalem	Immortal, without disease (or, death)	Friendship that no strife can sever,
Sine pugna triumphalem	Triumphant, without a fight	Lasting strength and peace for ever,
Capronensis populo	To the people of Caprona	For Caprona's city fair
En diabola albata	The white devil having been	See the Devil flee astounded!
De Caprona expulsata	expelled from Caprona,	In Caprona now is founded
Missa pax et virtus data	Peace is sent and virtue is given	Virtue strong and peace unbounded—
Capronensis populo	To the people of Caprona	In Caprona's city fair.

Classical Latin poetry did not use rhymes, but verse written in the language during the Mediaeval and Renaissance periods often used the technique, as here. Compare Adeste fideles, or the collection known as Carmina Burana The English and Latin are both ambiguous as to whether the song or the angel is bringing peace (the angel's pronouns are it/its)

The scent of sweetness

Osmogenesia, or the Odour of Sanctity, is the sweet and pure aroma that Christian saints and even their dead bodies are said to produce

Small golden flowers

another traditional sign of sanctity or deity; Caprona, for all its magic, is in a distinctively Catholic Italy

Credits

Annotations by Gill Othen, with contributions by Marnanel, Farah Mendlesohn, Emma Falconer, and Devra.