عنوان

Florence, Byzantium and the Ottomans (1439-1481) :

Number

TLets642380

Title Proper

Florence, Byzantium and the Ottomans (1439-1481) :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Virgilio, Carlo

Title Proper by Another Author

politics and economics

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Birmingham

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Birmingham

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

This dissertation studies the diplomatic and political communication between Florence, the Byzantine and the Ottoman empires in the fifteenth century (1439-1481). The first chapter is introductory to the thesis and reconstructs the contacts between Florence and Byzantium. The second chapter and the third chapter examine the privileges granted by John VIII to Florence; the chapters present the contents and contextualise the privileges within the humanist environment. The fourth chapter studies the Florentine-Byzantine contacts after the Council (1439-1453), focusing on why Florence abandoned Byzantium. The fifth chapter analyses the beginning of Florentine-Ottoman relations and reconstructs the commercial privileges given by the sultan to Florence. The sixth and seventh chapters investigate Florence's diplomacy during the Ottoman-Venetian war (1463-1479) and Otranto (1480-1481) until Mehmet II's death. The thesis is accompanied by three appendices including a number of unpublished documents, a prosopography of the Florentines involved in the Levant, and selected Byzantine charters used for the analysis in chapter two. I aim to demonstrate that the relations between the eastern and the western part of the Mediterranean in the fifteenth century were determined by political and economic considerations rather than faith. These considerations guided Florence's diplomacy to achieve commercial superiority in Constantinople.

D111 Medieval History

DG Italy

HC Economic History and Conditions

Virgilio, Carlo

University of Birmingham

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y