The Content And Authorship Of The Historia Turchesca
The Content and Authorship of the Historia
Turchesca
Pierre A. MacKay*
A note on the most accessible MS of Historia Turchesca, (Paris Bibliothèque
Nationale, Cod. mixt. 1238), identifies the work as, «Historia Turchesca di
Gio. Maria Angiolello schiavo et altri schiavi dall'anno 1429 sino al 1513».
The editor of this manuscript, Ion Ursu, noted the two passages in which
Angiolello makes a personal reference to himself, but he noted other passages
as well, where a certain Donado da Lezze does the same thing. Faced with
this alternative, Ursu chose to ascribe the work to Donado da Lezze and,
although this attribution has not found much favor, it may well be correct.1
My purpose here is not, however, to vindicate the claim of Donado da Lezze,
but to rescue Giovan-Maria Angiolello from any charge that he was
responsible.
We can ill afford to lose any documentation from the first one and a half
centuries of Ottoman History, and it is certainly true that the Historia
Turchesca contains some extremely valuable detail, some of which is
undoubtedly copied from Angiolello's work, This is probably the most
valuable part of Historia Turchesca, but it needs to be recognized that it is
Angiolello at second hand and it needs, above all, to be recognized that the
general content and flavor of the work is in no sense representative of
Angiolello's experience and judgement.
The general habit of referring to the Historia Turchesca as the work of
Angiolello has had the unfortunate effect of drawing attention away from his
Memoir of the fall of Negropont and what came after, up to my return, which
has far greater historical value than any part of Historia Turchesca that co-
vers the same period.2 In all the studies collected in the recent transactions of
* For publication data see the last page.
1
Historia Turchesca, pp. ix-xxx.
2 Kenneth Setton, for example, whose reference carry great authority, ascribes the Historia Turchesca to
Angiolello in several references in The Papacy and the Levant, Vol 2: pp. 302-03, notes 115 and 118..
1 [213]
the symposium on The Ottoman Emirate, Angiolello's Memoir is not once
cited, although it would have enriched several of the best articles in that
collection.3 In Johannes Koder's major study of Negropont,4 Angiolello, who
has more and better detail about the city under siege than any other
contemporary writer, is never cited and, in general histories of the period,
when the capture of Negropont is mentioned, the operatic exaggerations of
other writers, including the real author of Historia Turchesca, are routinely
repeated. I hope that this paper will help to put an end to those habits.
Giovan-Maria Angiolello was born some time after 1452, in Vicenza, Italy.
In 1468 he accompanied his older brother, Francesco, to the Venetian outpost
of Negropont on the island of Euboea. The city was not then under siege but,
already in 1460, even before the outbreak of the Venetian-Ottoman war of
1463, it was recognized as vulnerable. When the siege finally came, in June
1470, Francesco served in the defense, and was killed in the final assault on
July 12. Giovan-Maria survived; his obvious youth spared him from the
execution of all surviving men of military age on the next day, and from that
we can determine that he must have been somewhere between 14 and 18 years
old.5 He was turned over to Mehmed II as a palace slave, and thereafter
served Mehmed's son, Mustafa for several years until Mustafa's death, when
he returned to Mehmed's service and was shortly afterward appointed to one
of the positions in the defterdarlık, probably mal defterdarı.6 To serve
effectively in this position, he will have had to read and write Turkish,
probably in both Naskhi and Siyakat scripts as well as speak it.
His account of the siege of Negropont is vivid and detailed, and agrees with
the terrain, with surviving maps, and with the more reliable contemporary
accounts among Venetian sources. The title on the one surviving manuscript
suggests that Francesco may have started it, but there is no change in style
3
But see Galotta, «Il `Mito Oguzo'», pp. 47-48, n. 36, who erroneously cites Giambattista Angiolello.
4
Koder, Negroponte, especially pp. 56-62, and 69-95.
5
Previous scholars have used the fact that he was younger than the men who were executed to declare
that he must have been 18 years old, but this judgement does not allow for the possibility that he was a
mature 15 or 16-year old. We really cannot specify his birth year accurately, except that it was in the
mid 1450s. Note the phrase «pizolo stando» in the following note.
6
His elevation to this position is mentioned in a note on Bibl. Marciana.Cod. Lat XIV. 123. According
to Niccolo di Lenna, «Richerche». p. 18n3, this MS begins, «El testamento fece Maumeth nel morire
ad Hali suo genero, traduto da idiomo turchesco in italo per Juan Maria Anzelelo nobile vincentino, il
quale, pizolo stando stato preso da Turchi, fu alevato con gran credito apresso il signor Turco . . ., et
era thesoriero de tute le sue intrade». Di Lenna was scewptical about this, but without good reason. It
is particularly likely during the time of Mehmed II. The details and pay scales in the organizational
survey of the Ottoman court which will be mentioned later could hardly be known except by a
defterdar.
2 [214]
to indicate where Giovan-Maria took it over. For Giovan-Maria, the siege
and sack of the town was the turning point of his life, and if he had had any
hand at all in the formation of the Historia Turchesca one might reasonably
expect that some element of his experience would be reflected in that work.
There is, however, very little of Angiolello to be recognized in the short and
somewhat sensationalized account in Historia Turchesca.
In 1469, Niccolo da Canal, a legal scholar and orator for Venetian interests
at the papal court in Rome, was appointed Captain General of the Venetian
Navy. That he had no naval experience was a difficulty, but perhaps not
insurmountable,7 That he covered his own inadequacies by play-acting the
part of a daring and bloodthirsty corsair was a disaster. His sack of the rela-
tively unimportant and poorly defended port of Aenos in Thrace provided
Mehmed II with an emotionally charged incentive to destroy Negropont.8
The Historia Turchesca is aware of this, and may ultimately have derived the
knowledge from Angiolello's Memoir, but it was also general knowledge
among other Venetian and Italian contemporaries.9 Beyond that point, the
account in Historia Turchesca bears very little relation to the precise details
supplied by Angiolello in the Memoir. One of the striking things about
Angiolello's eyewitness account is that he assesses the various conspiracies,
defections and supposed communica-tions with the Ottomans as unimpor-
tant. He gives the full story of Tomaso Schiavo, commander of the four
hundred man mercenary force in the town, but treats it as a case of war
nerves and panic rather than as a considered preference for the Ottoman
side. «Tomaso Schiavo was an able fellow personally, but no man for an
undertaking such as that of Negropont, and since he had some relations on
the Turkish side, when he found himself besieged by so great a force as the
Turks had, he had misgivings, and decided secretly to send a messenger to
the Sultan so that he might save himself and his family from death».10
Others, following after Tomaso Schiavo, are dismissed as «sorry creatures»
7
He served the year before, under Giacopo Loredan, and it would be interesting to have Loredan's
reaction to that experience. Some resolutions in the records of the Senato Mar make it evident that, in
effect, he bought the office.
8
Historia Turchesca, pp. 34-35.
9
Iorga, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, Vol. 2: p. 146n3, cites a chronicle from Dresden, “Molti
hanno creduto che per questo mancamento fossero puniti nella presa di Negroponte.” (Chron. F. 33).
10 Tomaso Schiavo era valente della sua persone, man non era huomo da si fatta impreza come quella di
Negroponte, et per haver alcuni suoi parenti con il Turco, trovandosi in cosi grand' assedio, come era il
sforzo del Turco: dubitò, et pensò seacretamente di mandar un messo al Gran Turco per francar la
persona, et famiglia sua da morte..MS Vicenza, folio 2v, 24-28.
3 [215]
of little concern to anyone in the city.11 Angiolello had the opportunity to
speak both to the Sultan himself and to the real architect of the Ottoman
victory, Mahmud Pasha, and he knew that intelligence carried by defectors
was of no importance during the siege. For Angiolello, the only significant
fact was the exposure and public execution of Tomaso Schiavo, which
resulted in the loss of trust among the various defense units in the city.12
This was not what Venetians wanted to hear. Tales of a «stab in the back»,
of sinister acts of premeditated treason, make a crushing defeat seem much
less crushing. The popular taste developed elaborate and operatic tales of
espionage, treason, and rather silly acts of personal bravado to disguise the
fact that they had simply been outgunned, and that the overt cowardice and
incompetence of Niccolo da Canal had lost them a real chance of saving the
town at the last moment. The Historia Turchesca contributes its own detail
to the collection of fairy tales in the person of a pirate named Zuan Monaco,
and claims that Tomaso Schiavo had told the Ottomans where the city walls
were weakest well before the siege began. The author is unfamiliar with the
name of Mahmud Pasha, somebody Angiolello knew and admired, and it
finishes the account of the siege with a touching story about the last act of
the Venetian Bailo, Pollo Erizzo, awaiting death in the main chamber of the
council. Angiolello, the only person who was in the city when it fell, is also
the only source to inform us that Erizzo died early on the last morning, fight
ing at the breach in the southeast wall.13
The Historia Turchesca account of the fall of Negropont is clearly not by
Angiolello, and several of the details in it are so very much at variance
with what Angiolello knew that they indicate that he had no part, not even
an editorial part, in the organization and general tone of the work. This
conclusion requires us to read even those passages that are obviously copied
11 MS Vicenza, folio 4r, 16-19.
12 . . . li predetti Cittadini et Candiotti, si missero in sieme, opponendo à molt' altri Soldati et per esser
nella detta Terra più forti essi Cittadini, et Candiotti, li Presidenti non gli potevano contradire, et quasi
contra sua voglia gli fecero appressentar alquanti altri Soldati alli prigioni. Oltra questo, dove che
s'incontravano per la Terra erano alle arme, ferendosi, et ammazzandosi come inimici capitali, e tutt'
erano danno nostro, et degl' huomini che mancavano perli predetti errori. MS Vicenza, folio 4r, 19-27.
13 MS Vicenza, folio 6r, 20. The real Pollo Erizzo found an honorable end beside his Venetian and
Negropontine neighbors. It is something of a relief to know this, because the actions of the operatic
Erizzo often seem rather servile and discreditable. Erizzo was a quite distinguished Venetian family,
and one wonders how they liked hearing of their ancestor skulking around in the cellars and sewers of
Negropont after all his companions had been executed. His operatic daughter, Anna, is entirely
fictional, but her image survived to be transformed as the heroine of Rossini's opera “The Siege of
Corinth,” so named because few opera-goers in the 19th century could be expected to know or care
about Negropont.
4 [216]
directly from Angiolello's genuine works with a little caution. It also means
that where the Memoir and the Historia Turchesca disagree, the passage in
Historia Turchesca ought not to be ascribed to Angiolello. Nowhere is this
more important than in the outline history of the Ottoman dynasty.
Close to the mid-point of the unique manuscript of Angiolello's Memoir he
gives an account of the beginning of the Ottoman state under Osman. This is
an extraordinary passage, a calm and judicious attempt to understand the
circumstances of tribal life in a semi-nomadic environment. It reads a bit like
modern anthropology, and offers a picture very like what Rudi Lindner
offered in his study, Nomads and Ottomans in Mediaeval Anatolia:
Before the family of the Sultan began to achieve their dominion,
know that in various parts of Asia, that is, in Tartary, in Persia and
Turcomania, and in many other pagan regions, there are numerous
herdsmen, rich in all sorts of animals, camels and other livestock,
and the herdsmen of this sort, with their wives, their families, and
their herds, live out in the open, where they have cleverly contrived
huts, made of wicker and covered with felt, which are very easy to
dismantle and reassemble, and to transport from place to place. Of
these herdsmen, 200 or 300, more or less, will come together, each
with his own household, and from among their number they elect a
chief who will have authority over the entire gathering, and will be
obeyed by all. This man they call Tugcu, which in our language
means “Chief of the herdsmen.” When he starts out they all follow
him, and arrange their dwellings in order about the home of their
chief. According to whether the season is hot or cold, they travel to
where there is good grazing and water, and they keep searching for
temperate weather. Many of them sow fodder crops in numerous
places, and where the temperatures range from cold to hot, they
begin by sowing the high cold places, then the middle, and finally the
lowest places. The harvest, however, starts from the bottom, and
goes back up, since the last sown areas produce first, owing to their
being warm. The women work too, and make fine carpets and other
woolen stuffs.
Osman was the first Sultan in the present line—the Ottoman
house is named after him---and this Osman became Tugcu, that
is to say Chief of the herdsmen, at a time when a pagan ruler
named Boga ruled over the country where Troy once stood. At
the death of this ruler, there was no heir remaining to whom
5 [217]
the succession might pass, but all remained in confusion, ready to the
hand of whoever might have most power. Now Osman was well
thought of in the region, and had a large following of herdsmen,
among whom it was customary that there should always be a supply
of good horses. He began to arm himself, therefore, and to do what a
great many others like him were doing, that is, to loot and conquer
those less powerful than himself, and since he had no battle standard,
he cut the tail off a horse, and put that on the tip of his lance as a
banner, and from that day to the present the Turks carry one or two
horsetails as a standard. They also carry other standards made of the
same tails, as I have described, and this is in memory of the same
Osman, who by his good conduct of affairs gained many victories.
Many herdsmen, and others too, ranged themselves under his banner,
until he came to lay siege to the fortress of Bilecik, and put the finish
to it. From then on, he became greater, day by day, with the result
that before his death he had become lord over much of the territory of
the lord Boga, and of the region of Troy also.14
14 Prima che la progenia del Gran Turco comincio à pigliar signoria sappiate come nelle parti dell' Asia,
cioè in Tartaria, in Persia, in Turchamania, et in molt' altri luoghi di Pagani, si trovano assai Pastori
ricchi d' ogni conditione di bestiami, cioè Cavalli Gambelli, et altre bestie grosse; et questi tali Pastori
con le mogli, et figliuolli, et suoi bestiami vivono in campagna, i quali hanno alcune case di Vimene
coperte di feltre congnegnate, che commodamente si possono far, et disfar, et portar da luogo à luogo,
et serano 202 et 300 di questi Pas<tori> piu, et meno, et siascuno c la sua casa fra loro eleggono il
Capo, il quale habbia il governo di tutta la congregatione et sia ubedito da tutte, et lo chiamano Dogge
che in nostra lingua vuol dir Capo di Pastori. Quando lui si leva, tutti lo seguitano et con ordine
alloggiano attorno le case del suo Capo, et secondo il caldo, et fredo vano dove conoscono esser buoni
pascoli, et buoni acque, et cercano gl'aeri temperati. Molti di questi seminano in piu luoghi molte sorte
di biave, et in luoghi caldi, et freddi cominciano à seminar prima i luoghi alti, et freddi, et poi li
mezzani, et poi li piu bassi, lo raccolto comincia di sotto in suso, perche gli ultimi seminati producono
piu à buon' hora per esser luoghi caldi. Ancora le loro Donne lavorano et fanno di buoni, et belli tapeti,
et altri lavori fatti di Lanna.
Osman, il quale è stato principio alla signoria del Gran Turco da lui è chiamato la casa di Osmani,
questo Osman trovandosi Dogge, cio è Capo di Pastori, in quel tempo un signor pur Pagano, il quale
haveva nome Boga, et signoreggiava le dette contrate dove fu già Troia, et dopo la sua morte non gli
rimase herede al quale toccasse la signioria, ma rimase in confusion, et in man di chi piu poteva, et
Osman, il quale era ben voluto in quelle contrade, et haveva seguito dalli suoi Pastori, i quali di
consueto sempre si atrovano buoni Cavalli. Ancora questo Osman si messe ad armiggiare, et far quelli
che facevano molti altri suoi simili, cio è à saccheggiar, et abbatter chi di lui manco poteva, et per non
haver standardo, taglio la coda ad un Cavallo et posela sopra una lancia per standardo, et fin il giorno
di hoggi li Turchi portano uno ò due code di Cavalli per standardo. Ancora portano altri standardi
delle dette code per memoria del predetto Osman, il quale per suoi buoni portamenti hebbe assai
Vittorie, et molti Pastori et altri si riducevano sotto la sua bandiera per modo ch'egli mise l'assedio ad
un Castello chiamato Billezuch, et con questo fece testa, et à giornata andavasi facendo grande, per
modo che avanti la sua morte si fece signor di gran parte del paese del detto Signor Boga, et anco del
paese di Troia. MS Vicenza folio 10v 4-11r 19.
6 [218]
Angiolello has benefited from his opportunity to observe the phenomena of
Anatolian nomadism during the campaign against Uzun Hassan in 1473. He
has put his observations together with older traditions that could still be heard
around the Sultan's court, traditions that had not yet been replaced by the
dynastic and religious themes of post 15th century historiography. The result
is something that is almost uncannily like Lindner's reconstruction of the
beginnings of the Ottoman enterprise. This passage, so far as I can determine,
has never been cited in studies of Ottoman origins. It ought to be one of the
primary sources.
Whether the author of the Historia Turchesca had any knowledge of the text
quoted above, is difficult to say. He certainly made no use of it. At the
beginning of the book he introduces the Ottomans with a trivial piece of
derogatory rhetoric that is historically innacurate in virtually every detail:
The descendants of the Ottoman house have their origin in the
year 1300 A.D. The first of these people was a low-born
plowman and trench-digger named Zich.. This man at the time of
his death had a 15 year-old son named Ottoman, and the name of
the Ottoman house derives from him. He was an evil man, of
vile character, a highwayman, and with this he acquired authority
and many friends just like him. He made himself their leader,
and managed to become master of a castle of the Greeks which
lies 6 days journey from Bursa in the direction of Trebizond, to
which he gave the name Osmancik.15
This puerile, spluttering is echoed by numerous 16th century writers, and
notably by the influential Paolo Giovio in his short biography of Osman
(misnamed Suleyman in at least one printing). It issomewhat interesting
that it shows an awareness of the association of the diminutive Osmancuk
applied to Osman I by Ibn Battuta.16 Perhaps the Italians had learned this
appelation from their contacts with the Emirate of Germiyan, where it would
certainly have been used pejoratively. That is clearly the way Ibn Battuta
intends it. The association with the town of Osmancik, halfway across
15 La progenie della casa ottomana principiò del 1300 di Christo. Il primo de questa gente fu villano,
arator, et zappatore di terra per nome chiamato Zich. Costui hebbe un figliuolo alla morte sua, d'anni
15, per nome chiamato Ottomano, dal quale fu denominato la casa ottomana. Era huomo vitioso, et di
mala natura, huomo di strada, et con questo aquistò facoltà, et amici assai simili a'lui., et fattosi capo di
costoro hebbe modo di farsi signori d'un castello dei Greci, qual'e lontano da Bursa 6 giornata verso
Trabisonda, al quali messe nome otoman Zich. Historia Turchesca, p. 4.
16 Defrémery and Sanguinetti, Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah p. 321.
7 [219]
Anatolia from Osman's original territory is utter nonsense. The Ottomans did
not acquire Osmancik until near the end of the 14th century.
I do not think there is the slightest possibility that Angiolello was responsible
for this passage, and I do not think that it would have appeared at the start of
the Historia Turchesca in its present form if Angiolello had had anything to
do with the organization of the book. There are many other places where the
Historia Turchesca comes up wanting by comparison with the few passages
known to be by Angiolello, but these two ought to be sufficient to rescue him
from any taint of responsibility for it. There is, of course, a great deal of
Angiolello in Historia Turchesca, long passages copied, we may hope
verbatim, from some manuscript of Angiolello's that has not survived. We
need to look at even those passages carefully, however, and correct them for
the fact that Angiolello probably knew Turkish better than any of his
contemporaries, and the writer of the Historia Turchesca had no more than a
slight acquaintance with the language.
There are a few simple criteria that can help tao distinguish quotations of
Angiolello from the rest of the work. The most obvious is his preference for
the phrase, «Gran Turco» to designate the Sultan. Where alternatives such
as «Signor Turco» are used there is usually other evidence that Angiolello is
not the source. I have made a tentative list of the pages most obviously
copied or derived from Angiolello, and it amounts to 131 out of 276 pages,
but some of these are substantially reworked. Pages 39-59 are approximately
the same material as is found in Ramusio, Navigationi et Viagii, folios 66-
70.17..Pages 59-110 appear to be almost all Angiolello, with the exception of
an intruded document on page 107. Pages 63 and 102 contain the direct
statements of authorship by Angiolello. Pages 110-111 seem to be another
source, but Angiolello is probably the author of pages 112-118, and there is
probably a good of Angiolello in 119-123, although there seem to be other
sources here as well. The survey of the principal instutions of the Ottoman
state with detailed pay-scales for all officers occupies pages 123-152. A
much fuller version of this is in the Memoir, where it runs from folio 20r 24 to
the abrupt end of the manuscript on folio 32r...When the two versions are
compared it can be seen that the Historia Turchesca leaves out a lot, such as
the delightful description of how the horses are reared in the Imperial
stables. The part of the survey in Historia Turchesca pages 145-150 is
known only from this work. The list of Sancaks,on pages 152-164 is not by
17 In Grey's Hakluyt Society translation it is pages 73-93.
8 [220]
Angiolello, but there is likely to be some Angiolello in pages 164-183 where
the struggle between Beyazid Veli and Cem is recounted.
The remainder of the Historia Turchesca contains a great deal of interest, but
little or none of it is derived from Angiolello. The whole work needs a re-
edition, with perhaps more attention paid to the earlier, Venetian dialect
manuscripts. Perhaps in the course of such an effort it will be possible to
determine whether Ursu's ascription of it to Donado da Lezze ought to stand.
9 [221]
Bibliography
Manuscripts
Angiolello, Giovan-Maria. Come l'Anno 1468, io Francesco et Gio. Maria, mio Fratello de gli
Anzolelli Vicentini, partissimo da Vicenza à di 5 Agosto, per lo Viaggio di Negroponte, et
quello, che ne incontra fino alla ritornata. MS Vicenza 413, Biblioteca Civica. Bertoliana.
---------. .El testamento fece Maumeth nel morire ad Hali. MS Venice Bibl. Marciana. Cod.
Lat XIV. 123.
Incert Aut. Historia Turchesca. MS Paris. Bibl. Nationale. Cod. Mixt. 1238; MS Paris.
Archives des Affaires Étrangers, Turquie. No. 2, folios 410-517; MS Milan. Bibl. Ambrosiana.
No. 113 sup., folio 181.
Published References
Angiolello, Giovan Maria. Viaggio di Negroponte, ed. Cristina Bazzolo. Vicenza, 1982.
Caporozzo, A. Di Gio. Maria Angiolello e di un suo inedito manoscritto. Vicenza, 1881.
Defremery, C. & B. R. Sanguinetti. Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah. Paris 1877.
Galotta, Aldo. «Il `Mito Oguzo'». In The Ottoman Emirate. Rethymnon, 1993.
Grey, Charles (Earl). A Narrative or Italian travels in Persia, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. London, 1873.
Iorga, Nicolae. Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches. Gotha, 1908.
Koder, Johannes. .Negroponte.Vienna, 1973.
di Lenna, Niccolo. «Richerche allo storico G. Maria Angiolello». Archivio Veneto-Tridentino.
V, 1924.
Lindner, Rudi Paul. Nomads and Ottomans in Mediaeval Anatolia. Bloomington, Indiana, 1983
Ramusio, Giovanni Baptista. Navigationi et Viaggi. Venice 1563-1606 (Rpt.., Amsterdam,
1967-1970).
Reinhard, Jean. , ANGIOLELLO, Historien des Ottomans et des Persans. Buenos Aires,
1913(?) A bad and almost unobtainable edition. (Also cited as printed at Besançon, 1913).
Setton, Kenneth. The Papacy and the Levant. Vol. II. The Fifteenth Century. Philadelphia,
1978.
Ursu, Ion. Historia Turchesca, 1300-1514, publicata, adnotata, împreuna cuo introducere de I.
Ursu. Bucharest, 1909.
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This paper represents the text and also the pagination of:
“The Content and Authorship of the Historia Turchesca,” in
İstanbul Üniversitesi 550. yıl, Uluslararası Bizans ve Osmanlı Sempozyumu
(XV. yüzyıl) : 30–31 Mayıs 2003 / editör, Sümer Atasoy = 550th anniversary
of the Istanbul University, International Byzantine and Ottoman Symposium
(XVth century) : 30–31 May 2003 / edited by Sümer Atasoy. (Istanbul, 2004) .
pp. 213–223.
11 [223]
