Wednesday, October 17, 2012

notes April 8, 1522 Sanudo Diaries vol 33:314-6; April 8, 1516: 22:114


The report from ser Marco Minio in 1522 briefing the Senate on the personality and resources of the new sultan came at a time when great instability seemed to rock all corners of Venetian holdings. This would continue for the rest of Sanudo's life.

Editor's note: "The relationship with the Ottoman Empire was no more resolved when Sanudo's diaries ended than when they began, except that the peace, or extended truce, continued until 1537, the year after Sanudo's death.  In these four decades Turkish power continued to play a significant role in the foreign affairs of Venice as it did in those of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. " [p 210]

A quick list:
1500 August, Venice lost the Greek port of Modon. It's a port on the end of one of the peninsulas that extend from southern Greece
1516-17 Syria and Egypt were cut off from trade with Venice, for a time
1522 Rhodes was lost, another important port of Venice, a strategic Greek island off the coast of Turkey.
1526 Mohacs, the important Hungarian city was taken by the Ottoman's
1529 Vienna was attacked and laid siege to
1571 Cyprus was lost
1669 Crete would fall or most of it

All the while Venice continued to negotiate and were much blamed by their Christian allies for it. In 1529 it was understood that everyone believed that the Venetians has encouraged the Turks to attack Germany so they might stay away from Italy."But", as our Editor tells us, "it was such accommodation, judicious neutrality, and diplomatic dexterity that gave the Venetian empire its long lease on life, without which the history of Europe in this period would have been very different." pp. 208-11

In addition to worrying about the Turks, Venice knew the value in obtaining several sources of information. One man was kept to decipher codes and prepare outgoing dispatches.
In 1516, also on April 8, Sanudo recorded information obtained from a coded letter sent from the captain general of the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire during the War of the League of Cambrai. Everyone, especially the pope and France had decided that it was time for Venice to go. At one point the Emperor was in league with a number of Italian states that wanted Venice gone. The captain general needed money to pay off a group of Swiss forces and that money promised from Henry VIII the king of England to continue the fight would only be paid to certain other Swiss forces.
But it was good they captured the letter so the Emperor would not as quickly learn of his general's needs and the army's subsequent troop movements. Later in 1516, Emperor Maximillian I would accept a loser's truce and Venice would regain control of much of Lombardy and northern Italy. For four years. Then the war of Italian states would erupt again for ten more years.
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

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