LIBRARY. His own library room was decorated (1449) with
portraits of pagan and Christian authors by Fra ANGELICO.
Himself a scholar, Nicholas mixed on equal terms with the
humanists who crowded to Rome, among them, VALLA,
FILELFO, and BESSARION. The most significant event of his
pontificate was the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the
Ottoman Turks, which Nicholas saw as a blow to scholar-
ship as much as to religion. He called a crusade to eject the
Turks, but could arouse no response. His plan for extend-
ing and beautifying Rome, over which he consulted AL-
BERTI, among others, met with serious opposition, and in
1453 there was an unsuccessful conspiracy to overthrow
him.
Nicholas of Cusa See CUSANUS, NICHOLAS
Ninety-five Theses See INDULGENCES; LUTHER, MARTIN
Niza, Marcos de (c. 1500–1558) Italian missionary in the
New World
Niza, a native of Nice (now France), became a Franciscan
missionary and led the first group of Franciscans to Peru
in 1531. After moving to Mexico (1537), he was sent by
Viceroy Antonio de MENDOZAto search for the fabled
golden cities of Cíbola and became the first European to
reach Arizona (1539). The following year he accompanied
CORONADO’s expedition to New Mexico. He remained in
Mexico as father provincial of Franciscan missionaries
until his death.
Nogarola, Isotta (1418–1466) Italian humanist scholar
Her cultured, aristocratic Veronese family enabled her and
her sister Ginevra to study classics with a leading tutor,
Martino Rizzoni, and while still a teenager she began cor-
responding with fellow humanists. Her extraordinary in-
tellectual gifts attracted such attention that she was named
La Divina Isotta, but adulation from male humanists did
not bring with it acceptance into a world closed to
women. In 1438, after a baseless charge of promiscuity
and incest was brought against Nogarola, her brother, and
sister, they moved to Venice. Three years later she re-
turned to Verona. Resolute that she would not marry, and
unwilling to enter a nunnery, she undertook long periods
of contemplation and religious study in the confines of
her own home. The remaining 25 years of her life were in-
terrupted only by an intense period of intellectual corre-
spondence (1451–53) with Ludovico Foscarini, which
prompted the writing of her two books, De pari aut impari
Evae atque Adae peccato (1451) and her treatise on St.
Jerome Oratio in laudem beati Hieronymis (1453).
Noot, Jan Baptista van der (Jonker Jan van der Noot)
(c. 1540–c. 1595) Dutch poet and prose writer
Noot was born in Brecht and was sheriff of Antwerp until
(1567) he was forced to take refuge in England on account
of the political and religious turmoil. He later moved on to
France and Germany. Noot was deeply affected by the Re-
naissance ideals embodied in the work of the PLÉIADE, es-
pecially RONSARD, and his Het Bosken, published in
London in 1570 or 1571, is the first true volume of Re-
naissance verse in Dutch. Het Theatre oft toon-neel (1568),
a Calvinistic prose tract, was also published in London
and was translated into French the same year, into English
(possibly partly by SPENSER) in 1569, and German in- In 1578 Noot returned to Antwerp where he strug-
gled to make a living by writing and eventually died. His
Olympiados (1579) is an epic interspersed with sonnets;
the full text is known only from a German translation, Das
Buch Extasis (1576).
North, Thomas (1535–c. 1601) English translator
Born into a good London family, North seems to have suf-
fered financial difficulties throughout his life. In 1574 he
accompanied his brother on a embassy to France and
about 1591 he was knighted. Otherwise his fame rests en-
tirely on his translations. The first of these to appear was
of Antonio de GUEVARA’s Reloj de príncipes, via an inter-
vening French version, under the title The Diall of Princes
(1557). The Morall Philosophy of Doni (1570) was a trans-
lation of a collection of oriental fables made by the Italian
Anton Francesco DONI. The Lives of the Noble Grecians and
Romans (1579), dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, is a trans-
lation of Amyot’s 1559 French version of PLUTARCH; as
such it is neither scholarly nor accurate, but it was
nonetheless immensely and deservedly successful, not
least because of North’s clear and vigorous style. SHAKE-
SPEAREdrew heavily upon North’s Plutarch for his Roman
plays.northeast passage A passage from western Europe to
China and India through northern European and Russian
waters. The merchant Robert Thorne (died 1527), writing
to Henry VIII in 1527, proposed a northeast, northwest, or
polar route to the Indies as being shorter than the
southerly routes taken by the Spaniards and Portuguese.
Sir Hugh Willoughby led the first of many unsuccessful
attempts at discovery in 1553, perishing in the endeavor
(see MUSCOVY COMPANY). Another notable but unsuccess-
ful explorer in this direction was the Dutchman Willem
BARENTS, and all attempts over the next three centuries
were defeated by the harsh climate and dangerous cur-
rents. The first successful passage was achieved in 1878
when a Norwegian ship, Vega, sailed to Japan via the Arc-
tic Ocean.
See also: NORTHWEST PASSAGE
Further reading: Tryggvi J. Olesen, Early Voyages and
Northern Approaches, 1000–1632 (London and New York:
Oxford University Press, 1964).33442 2 NNiicchhoollaass ooff CCuussaa