The Ottoman Wars and Personal Information Networks in Renaissance Rome: Francesco Maturanzio’s Letters from Rhodes (1473–74)

• In Event: News between Manuscript and Print in Renaissance Rome

Abstract

Ottoman advances in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean were an important topic in Renaissance Italy, with news circulating via both official and private channels. This paper proposes to analyze one such private channel: a series of nine, hitherto unedited and unanalyzed, private Latin letters that an Italian humanist, Francesco Maturanzio (1443–1518), sent from Rhodes to a Croatian bishop in Rome, Nicholas of Modruš (ca. 1425–1480), in 1473 and 1474, as the final clash between the Ottomans and the forces of the Aqquyunlu leader Uzun Hasan was taking place. This paper will consider the information that was circulated and the very process by which it was obtained, processed, and transmitted to Rome. Finally, it will draw on other literary sources in order to shed more light on the role of the recipient, Nicholas of Modruš, in circulating Ottoman-related intelligence at the Roman Curia.

Author

• Luka Spoljaric, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies