"By order of His Holiness the pope, the cardinals are informed that today, June 10th, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the Turkish ambassador will enter the city by the Porta del Popolo, and they are instructed to send to welcome him the shield-bearers of their households, but not their bishops, priests or chaplains. The shield-bearers will meet the ambassador and ride with him in customary fashion through the Porta del Popolo and straight along the Via Lata to Santa Maria, hence passt the Palazzo Massimo, across the Campo di Fiori and over the Sant'Angelo to the Palazzo San Martinello, where the ambassador will be given hospitality."
The Turkish ambassador did come to Rome. He was met at the city gate called the Porta del Popolo and the papal entourage greeted him as did others who were involved in Turkish negotiations, the brother of the Turkish sultan, and others there meaning to pay their respects. Then they paraded through the city streets and went to the appointed palace. At this time, 1493, Djem, the brother of Bajazet the Turkish sultan, was being held in detention, by the papacy, as a result of the actions of the previous pope Innocent VIII. When the previous sultan Mehmet II had died in 1481, the younger brother Djem had tried to take the throne from his elder brother. Bajazet tried to have his brother killed who fled to Rhodes. There, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers seized Djem and, the following year, took him to France. He also secured an annuity to be paid by the sultan -- some 40,000 ducats -- to hold onto this brother and to keep him far away from Turkey. So they did, and many thought this was quite a prize - something a king, for example, might like to have - and began to vie for custody of this Turk, son of Mehmet II. After some years of intrigue and competition, Djem ended up in the custody of the pope. With a new pope, it was inevitable that the Turks would send someone to talk about the security of Djem and whether or not he would stay securely where he was. As Burchard says it, though, it was more about the money.
"The purpose of the ambassador's visit was to pay the final annuity to the pope under the agreement made about the detention of the Sultan Djem."Burchard was the master of ceremonies, an official in the papal entourage charged with making sure everything looked right and was according to tradition and canon law. Directing a parade of dignitaries was an important occasion as it was understood to project the power of the papacy, the Church and everything that stood for. The entire City of Rome (and much else besides, it should be remembered) was considered a sovereign state under the control of the pope. So, welcoming a dignitary of whatever stripe, at the city gates was a clear expression of political ceremony as well. And Burchard knew this as he carefully describes the arrangement of officials in the retinue. The pope had two chief military officers, his brother Rodrigo Borgia the palace-captain and the Count of Pitigliano, Nicolo Orsini captain-general since 1489.
"... setting the ambassador between the palace captain [Rodrigo Borgia] and himself [Nicolo Orsini], he escorted him along the route arranged to the Palazzo San Martinello. The ambassadors in turn came to greet the Turk in the names of their princes and governments, and joined the procession: first the Venetian envoy by himself, then the envoys of Florence, Siena and Naples, and finally the French ambassador. One of our knights led the column, followed by the cardinals' shield-bearers, the Turkish soldiers and our leading lords and nobles, together with three Turkish lords detained who had sent all their retinues to meet their ambassador. There followed the infantry of the palace captain and the armour-bearers, whilst I rode without my colleague who was sick, but nevertheless with a companion, Gregorio our Turkish interpreter, on my left. Behind the ambassadors came two brothers of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia [the pope] (one a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem), both guarding our Turkish prisoner, Prince Djem; with them was Don Giorgio Bucciardo, an Apostolic scribe, who was now returning from his earlier mission with Chasimpueg."
In a footnote, the translator explains that this Giorgio Bucciardo under the previous pope had been an emissary to the Turkish sultan and through negotiation had secured the return of a holy relic, the Holy Lance, to Rome in 1492. A person of high reputation in those days which should show some of the priorities for the Church and how they were measured. This Holy Lance had been taken when the Turks conquered Constantinople just forty years before.
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All quotes from pp. 60-2 in: At The Court of the Borgia, edited and translated by Geoffrey Parker, The FOLIO Society, Ltd, London, 1963
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