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0 Comments | Feb 03, 2010

OTD Log – 2.2.10

Spent eternity searching on-line for full text version of exigit sinceras devotionis affectus, Pope Sixtus’ edict authorizing the appointment of Torquemada as Inquisitor General for all of Spain. There is some inconsistency in the literature as to whether Torq’s appointment was the Pope’s or Isabella’s and Ferdinand’s, but this distinction is minutia and not critical to my narrative. In any event I would like to locate the original bull, if only to use portions of it in the story. I located as well a new source book that looks excellent – it is now ordered on Amazon (thank goodness they had it). It’s full of original documents and trial transcripts from the period. I added more details to the flow of Chapter 1, though no actual writing has commenced. I am struggling with how to make the first section gripping, while introducing some of the key characters (Rodrigo de Triana for sure) and providing as well suitable motivation for the mayhem to follow. As it happens Rodrigo’s father was thought to have been killed by the inquisition, which will work out well for this story as well (the fictitious bit being that Rodrigo will unwittingly be the one who gets his father condemned). I think a nice extra element will be that he flees Seville thinking he has gotten them both killed, when in fact his mother will survive the process. I am struggling with how to create a meaningful female role in this story since so much of it will take place on the voyage over the Atlantic – no women there, I’m afraid. Thought about having mother sneak on disguised as a man, but that approach is not terribly plausible in 1492 and fraught with difficulties anyway.

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