Williamsburg Regional Library

Agents of empire, knights, corsairs, Jesuits and spies in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world, Noel Malcolm

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

collective biography

mapsplatesillustrationsportraits

index present

non fiction

Agents of empire

bibliography

907446235

Noel Malcolm

knights, corsairs, Jesuits and spies in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world

"In this fascinating and intimate look at the borderland between East and West--Venetian Italy and Ottoman Albania--distinguished historian Sir Noel Malcolm brings to life not a clash of civilizations so much as their fascinating and nuanced interdigitation. In the late sixteenth century, a prominent Albanian named Antonio Bruni composed a treatise on the main European province of the Ottoman Empire concerning his country's place in the empire. Using that text as a point of departure, Malcolm's Agents of Empire explores and evokes the lives of an eminent Venetian-Albanian family and its paths through the eastern Mediterranean. The family includes an archbishop in the Balkans, the captain of the papal flagship at Lepanto, the power behind the throne in the Ottoman province of Moldavia, and a dragoman (interpreter) at the Porte. Malcolm uses the family's collective biography as a framework on which to build a broader account of East-West relations and interactions in this period. In doing so, he sheds light new light on the interrelations between the Christian and Ottoman worlds, illuminating subjects as diverse as espionage, slave-ransoming and the grain trade, challenging assumptions about the relationship between. The family trees and biography of Antonio Bruni thus reflect a larger story of empire and cultures, and Malcolm's discoveries challenge classic assumptions while also providing an immersive narrative of discovery"--, Provided by publisher

A Note on Names, Conventions and Pronunciations -- 1: Ulcinj, Albania and Two Empires -- 2: Three Families -- 3: Antonio Bruti in the Service of Venice -- 4: Giovanni Bruni in the Service of God -- 5: Gasparo Bruni, the Knights of Malta and Dubrovnik -- 6: War, Galleys and Geopolitics, 1570 -- 7: War, Rebellion and Ottoman Conquest, 1570-1571 -- 8: The Lepanto Campaign, 1571 -- 9: War, Peace and La Goletta, 1572-1574 -- 10: Istria -- 11: Bartolomeo Bruti and the Prisoner Exchange, 1573-1575 -- 12: Intelligence-gathering, Espionage and Sabotage, 1575-1577 -- 13: Giovanni Margliani, Mehmed Sokollu and Secret Diplomacy, 1577-1579 -- 14: Bartolomeo Bruti, Sinan Pasha and the Moldavian Venture, 1578-1580 -- 15: Gasparo Bruni and the Huguenot War in Avignon, 1573-1586 -- 16: Antonio Bruni, Jesuit Education and the Last Years of Gasparo Bruni -- 17: Moldavia, Tatars, Cossacks and Iancu Sasul, 1580-1582 -- 18: Bartolomeo Bruti, Petru Schiopul and Aron, 1582-1592 -- 19: Cristoforo Bruti and the Creation of a Dragoman Dynasty -- 20: Petru Schiopul in Exile, and his Counsellor, Antonio Bruni, 1591-1598 -- 21: War, Geopolitics and Rebellion, 1593-1596 -- 22: The 1596 Campaign and Pasquale Dabri's Peace Mission -- Epilogue: The Legacy : Antonio Bruni's Treatise -- Glossary -- List of Manuscripts

adult