On 27 February, 1511, in what is now the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of the largest and most violent revolts of Renaissance Italy occurred during the Carnival celebrations of Fat Thursday.Long remembered as Cruel Fat Thursday (Crudêl joibe grasse in Fruilian, or Crudel zobia grassa in Italian), the Carnival transformed from an annual ritual of joyful mockery and symbolic reversals to one of unprecedented vendetta violence of warring elite factions that ignited a popular and peasant insurrection.27 February 1511 Research Group is building a simulation of the events of that Thursday. We will be using agent-based modelling — a method for exploring how individual behaviours produce complex social patterns — to understand how contemporary Friulians engage with this historical event.

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