several such alliances. Pope JULIUS IIinspired the Holy
League (1511–13) of the papacy, Venice, Spain, England,
and Emperor MAXIMILIAN Ito fight the French threat to
Italy. The French won at Ravenna (1512), but were de-
feated by the league’s Swiss mercenaries at Novara (1513).
This league collapsed after quarrels among its members
and Julius II’s death. In 1571 Spain, the papacy, Venice,
and other Italian states formed the Holy League to fight
the Turkish threat. Their navy practically annihilated the
Ottoman fleet at LEPANTO(1571).
Holy Roman Empire During the Renaissance, a loosely
organized collection of between 300 and 400 states, vary-
ing greatly in size. The term itself dates back to 1254.
These mainly Germanic territories covered central Europe
from the Alps in the south to the Baltic in the north, and
from France in the west to Hungary and Poland in the
east. The empire’s population, about 20 million in 1450,
was the largest in Europe.
Although the Golden Bull (1356) had established an
electoral empire, heads of the HAPSBURGfamily ruled the
empire continuously from 1438 to 1740. In many ways
the emperor was a nominal ruler, and real power lay with
the princes, especially the seven electoral princes; these
were the archbishops of three Rhineland cities (Cologne,
Mainz, and Trier), the king of Bohemia, the margrave of
Brandenburg, the duke of Saxony, and the count Palatine
of the Rhine.
The Holy Roman Empire faced serious problems in
the Renaissance period. In the 14th and 15th centuries
local and factional warfare brought it close to disintegra-
tion. Emperors often only survived because they were too
weak to be a threat to their powerful subjects. In the 16th
century OTTOMAN TURKSreached the gates of Vienna, the
Hapsburg–Valois conflict strained the empire’s resources,
and the empire was torn apart by religious wars. In the
17th century it was devastated by the Thirty Years’ War.
Some emperors tried to centralize the empire and to
make it into a modern sovereign state like France and
England, but they were defeated by its size, its diversity,
and its powerful vested interests. Only CHARLES Vin the
16th century might have managed to weld it into a mod-
ern European power.
Further reading: Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman
Empire 1495–1806 (New York and London: Palgrave
Macmillan, 1999).
Homer (?ninth century BCE) Greek epic poet
Although the stories of the Iliad and Odyssey were known
in the West in the Middle Ages, the almost universal ig-
norance of Greek prevented any widespread appreciation
of the poems themselves. Various Latin paraphrases, com-
mentaries, and secondary material were available (see
TROY, LEGEND OF) and these accounted for the medieval
picture of Homer as a great and venerable poet. DANTE, for
instance, refers to him in the Divine Comedy as “Omero
poeta sovrano.” The earliest humanist Latin translations
of the Iliad and Odyssey were made in the 14th century at
the instigation of PETRARCHand BOCCACCIO; BRUNIand
VALLAin the following century were responsible for Latin
prose versions and POLITIANfor one in Latin hexameters.
The growth of GREEK STUDIESin western Europe from
the mid-15th century eventually ensured a readership for
the Homeric poems in their original tongue. The editio
princeps was printed in Florence in 1488. Inevitably
Homer was compared with his Roman epic counterpart
VIRGIL. Pierre de RONSARDwas one of the earliest critics to
contrast “la naïve facilité d’Homère” with “la curieuse dili-
gence de Virgile.”
See also: EPIChomilies See PREACHINGHondius, Jodocus (Josse de Hondt) (1563–1612)
Flemish cartographer
Raised in Ghent, Hondius moved to London around 1583,
where he established himself as an engraver and type
founder and met many geographers and scientists, includ-
ing Richard HAKLUYT. Hondius engraved the terrestrial
globes developed by Emery Molyneux (1592) before mov-
ing to Amsterdam in 1593. His most celebrated works
were his two world maps on the MERCATORprojection.
One was the illustrated “Christian Knight” map, so called
because it contained the image of a knight; the other de-
picted the voyages of Sir Francis Drake and Thomas
Cavendish. Hondius made other maps and globes and en-
graved the maps for John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of
Great Britain (1611–12), but the latter part of his career
was successfully involved with the work of Mercator,
whose plates he bought in 1604. He published a Mercator
atlas with 37 new plates two years later. Hondius’s work is
less scientific but more attractive than Mercator’s, and is
notable for its decorative calligraphy. His sons, Jodocus
(1593–1629) and Henricus (1597–1644), and also later
descendants, continued his business, capitalizing on the
phenomenal and enduring success of the Mercator–
Hondius atlas.Hooft, Pieter Cornelisz. (1581–1647) Dutch poet,
playwright, and historiographer
Hooft’s father was a prosperous merchant of Amsterdam,
who obtained a good classical education for his son. Hooft
then traveled in France and Italy (1598–1601); his literary
encounters in these countries made a deep impression,
turning him away from the indigenous tradition nurtured
in the CHAMBERS OF RHETORIC(he was a member of De
Egelantier in Amsterdam) and toward the Renaissance
poets such as PETRARCH, ARIOSTO, TASSO, and RONSARD. His
brilliance as a lyricist manifested itself not only in the love
lyrics he wrote in the decade after his return but also in22442 2 HHoollyy RRoommaann EEmmppiirree