The relationship between Italy and Ottoman Turkey during the

Renaissance: crucades and symbiosis

Aims: My aim with this thesis is to analyze, in the clearest way
possible, the relationship between the Italian Renaissance's world
and the turkish one, in order to give a faithful image of the italianturkish reality during the fifteenth century and reorganize texts and
sources for other researches of mine about other themes
Reasons of this choice: First of all, I chose this theme because
historiography (at least the one in the italian area) tends to reduce
the relationship between the italian world (and, more generally, the
christian world) and the muslim one, to a mere conflict aspect,
while instead it's possible to talk about two different and open
systems in a period like this, in which the absolute turkish enemy
doesn't really exist, as everyone could think reading the pontifical
sources.
Contents: The period under review is the one that goes from the so
called Crucade of Varna (1443-44) to Mohammed the second's
death (1481). It's a turning point for the West, characterised by the
final fall of the ortodox capital city, Costantinople. And then I want
to try to narrate the anxiety for these facts and the attempts to
organize an Holy War made by many popes since 1443, which
culminates with the crussade called by Sisto the IV. Then I will focus
on Otrantos Battle and the plea for the Holy War by the humanist,
where we can find another part of this kind of relation between
Othmans and Italian States concernig this feeling of hostility. In the
second part we will go to see the second perspective of this
relationship, that is the try of fusion between Turkish and
Reinassance world, which is made of commerce and influences in
art, culture, customs. That create new spaces, such as the great
mosques of Costantinople, which contains many elements made by
Italian artisans. Therefore, not only a fight, but also attempts to
culturaly know and to contaminate each other
Sources: The theme I want to treat are luckily well chronicled; we
have the papal bull that called the crusades, Isidore of Kiev and
Sagundinos writings that shows the terror for the Turks. Concerning
Otranto we have the places that conserves the memory of the fight,
but also the history of the siege of the city by Ilario of Verona
(Copia Idrutine Expugnationis) and the narration of the crussade
wrote by Giovanni Albino. For the section that wants to highlate the
attration between turkish and italian culture we can count on the

mail sent to Mehrmet the II by Pius II and to Costantinopolitan art

(for example Bellinis picture of Merhmet)