Appeal to the Turk: The Broken Boundaries of the Renaissance

This book sheds some light on something unmentionable, that public powers and individuals in the Christian world had been doing for a long time: to solve their diverse personal and political issues, they appealed to the Turks. This especially happened in Renaissance Italy, particularly exposed both to the Turkish peril and seduction; and even some popes, in quarrel with other Christian princes, engaged in this practice. It seems clear that the prevailing historical memory, often hinged on conflict, is the result of a formal and morally charged selection of facts. If the Italian capitals germinated the plans, the actions were then spread quite widely along the coasts of the Mediterranean or into the interior of the Balkans or in Istanbul. In this, the Italian states were in the avant-garde, at least half a century before France established the so-called "impious alliance" with the Ottoman Empire.