JACOPO ON BOARD: IMAGINING LIFE ON A GALLEY IN 1423

When Jacopo Bellini fled Florence in the summer of 1423 to avoid retribution over his fight with Bernardo (see Jacopo Bellini: Fight or Flight), he didn’t just catch a boat out of town. He signed on as a hired seaman in Florence’s brand-new merchant galley system, and he stayed in it, or somewhere close to it, for well over a year.