Black Corporation: Joseon

Chapter 372

Chapter 372

A small Franciscan monastery on the outskirts of Florence.

“Brother Giovanni. A letter has arrived from Brother Angelo.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

Giovanni, taking the letter, returned to his room and sat at his desk.

Seeing the thick envelope, Giovanni sighed softly and muttered.

“I wonder how much has been redacted this time...”

***

The letters his friend Angelo consistently sent from Joseon gave him both joy and pain.

The stories of daily life in Joseon and its people written in the letters were full of the strangeness of a foreign land he couldn’t visit himself.

This strangeness and the academic stories obtained while researching at the institute gave him joy.

However, any sentences that might have contained even slightly important formulas or information were mercilessly blacked out.

And these blackouts gave him a thirst.

“What on earth could have been written in these hidden sentences?”

This wasn’t just Giovanni’s curiosity. The intellectuals residing in nearby Florence were the same.

After Angelo’s first letter was read at the Vatican, the intellectuals of Florence awaited Angelo’s letters as much as Giovanni did.

The letters sent by Angelo crossed the sea from Alexandria, passed through Florence, and then arrived at the monastery.

Therefore, the intellectuals of Florence knew well when a letter had arrived. As a result, about three days after the letter came into Giovanni’s hands, scholars would flock from Florence and the monastery would become bustling.

“I’m sorry for disturbing the monastery that should be quiet.”

To Giovanni’s apology, the abbot shook his head with a bitter smile.

“Aren’t they at least courteous enough not to open the seal of the letter first? We should endure this much. And... I’m curious about the contents of the letter too.”

***

Sighing softly, Giovanni broke the wax seal and opened the envelope.

“My dear friend Giovanni. I am still doing well, receiving the Lord’s protection...”

The front part of the letter was densely filled with content about how he was wrestling fiercely with numbers and formulas every day at the research institute in Joseon.

Reading the content full of complaints, Giovanni smiled slightly.

“This friend, he’s enjoying it.”

However, as soon as he turned to the next page, Giovanni’s eyes widened.

“They created their own script?”

-A script unique to this Joseon has been created. It’s a script that the king himself created, the crown prince assisted, and the second and third princes verified for ease of use.

I have tried using it myself, and its convenience is such that Latin cannot keep up.

This Joseon alphabet and its usage method are....

However, after that, it was densely blacked out, and the reason was written in red ink.

-The alphabet named ‘Hunminjeongeum’ has not yet been officially promulgated. Therefore, it is planned to declassify after official promulgation.

“This damn...!”

Giovanni, who unknowingly blurted out a curse, hurriedly made the sign of the cross.

After calming his mind, Giovanni examined the next page of the letter. The entire next page was blacked out.

Seeing the paper that had become completely ink-stained, Giovanni sighed and grumbled.

“Huh~. If they’re going to do this, they might as well remove it entirely... It’s not like they’re mocking people... Really, these Joseon people are diligent even in unnecessary parts...”

Grumbling, Giovanni flipped through the ink-stained papers and focused again when text reappeared.

-Ah! And we had a debate about the time difference issue confirmed as Joseon’s ships frequently traveled to Alexandria and various other countries.

In the end, after a heated debate, it was concluded that ‘the earth is round.’

“Of course it’s round. Why state the obvious...”

As Giovanni had a similar level of knowledge as Angelo, he made an expression that suggested this part was nothing special, or rather, “Only now?”

“They say Joseon’s scientific level is considerable, but it doesn’t seem like much.”

With a slightly deflated expression, Giovanni continued reading, but his face turned pale.

The following content was shocking and terrifying in itself.

-However, a heated argument broke out over the question the Crown Prince of Joseon posed next.

‘The fact that there is a time difference means that this world rotates. But what is it rotating around? Is this world the center? Or is the sun in the sky the center?’

Due to this problem, the people in the research institute were almost evenly divided, and a debate broke out.

To tell you the result first, based on astronomical records observed in Joseon, the astronomical records we brought, and data on the occurrence of solar terms and seasons, etc., after calculations...

We had to conclude that the earth rotates on its own while orbiting around the sun.

“The biggest problem is the scholars who will flock from Florence. If they know about this, there will be an uproar.”

“We can block those people with the excuse of illness, but the problem is the Vatican.”

Every time a letter from Angelo arrived, Giovanni would go to the Vatican to read it aloud.

This reading session was a mandatory event for the Pope, high-ranking priests, and leaders of nearby city-states to attend.

This was because there was tremendous interest in Joseon, which was said to be even further away than India, not to mention the Islamic countries across the sea.

“If we’re not careful, it could be seen as a serious challenge to traditional doctrine.”

“That’s right. But we can’t just skip the reading session either.”

“Should we black it out?”

“That would be a good method, but what if it’s found out?”

It would have been best if they blacked it out and kept quiet on their own, but if it was discovered, they could be put on the stake for trying to hide heresy.

The reason they couldn’t rule out the possibility of discovery was because of the scholars in Florence and the Vatican.

They were as curious about the blacked-out parts as Giovanni was. To solve this curiosity, they made every effort to erase the blacked-out parts. In the process, they had become the best forgery detectors when it came to letters sent from Joseon.

In the end, after much deliberation, the abbot had no choice but to choose the next best option.

“Let’s consult with the Bishop.”

***

The next day, the abbot and Giovanni immediately sought out the Bishop of Florence.

“Welcome. So, a letter has come from the country of flowers?”

The abbot and Giovanni, who paid their respects to the Bishop welcoming them, immediately got to the point.

“Yes, we have something to consult with you about that matter.”

“Hm?”

After hearing the whole story from the abbot and Giovanni, the Cardinal’s face became troubled.

“This issue is beyond my ability to decide.”

And so, the letter sent by Angelo gradually went up to higher-ranking officials, and finally reached the Pope.

***

In the conference room of the Vatican Papal Office.

Pope Eugene IV and the cardinals were sitting around with serious faces.

In the middle of the conference table they were sitting around was the letter sent by Angelo.

“There certainly is a problem.”

At Eugene IV’s words, the cardinals all nodded.

“Should we incinerate it?”

One cardinal suggested incineration, but another cardinal came forward to object.

“Half of Italy already knows that the letter has arrived. And we’re going to incinerate it? The matter will only grow bigger.”

No sooner had those words ended than another cardinal expressed support for the opposing opinion.

“If we handle it that way, the council won’t stay quiet. Aren’t they already making a fuss at every little thing they can find fault with?”

Since last year, the Council of Basel and the Pope had been in serious conflict. The point of contention was which was superior between the council and the Pope.

Eugene IV, who had been pondering for an appropriate solution, finally reached a conclusion.

“Let’s incinerate it.”

“Yes.”

Bang!

“Wait!”

At that moment, with a loud noise, a group of men entered the conference room.

“The council orders the letter to be made public!”

“The professors of the University of Florence petition for the letter to be made public!”

“The professors of Venice also...”

“The professors of Genoa also...”

Not only the council, but professors from universities located in major Italian cities flocked to request the letter be made public.

Under this pressure, Eugene IV finally decided to make Angelo’s letter public.

It was the beginning of ‘Angelo’s Letter Incident’, which caused an earthquake in 15th century European humanities and science, and became the spark for the Renaissance.

And Hyang, who heard the story through Mansur and others traveling to and from Alexandria, expressed slight regret.

“It’s more fun to watch the fire pit in real-time...”