John’s, is another long and broad isle called Mulstorak [Malazgirt]; it is under Prester John’s lordship. In this isle there is great plenty of goods and riches. Once there was there a rich man called Catolonabes [Hasan ben Sabbah], and he was powerful and marvellously cunning. He had a fair strong castle, standing on a hill, and he had strong high walls built round it. Inside the walls he made a beautiful garden and planted in it all kinds of trees bearing different kinds of fruit. He had all kinds of sweet‐smelling and flowering herbs planted too. There were many fair fountains in that garden, and beside them lovely halls and chambers, painted marvellously delicately in gold and azure with different stories; there were different kinds of birds, worked by mechanical means, which seemed quite alive as they sang and fluttered. In that garden he put all the kinds of birds and beasts he could get to please and delight a man. He also put there beautiful maidens, not older than fifteen, the loveliest he could find, and boys of the same age; they were all clad in clothes of gold. These he said were angels. He also had three lovely wells made of precious stones enclosed in jasper and crystal, and other precious stones set in gold. He built conduits under the earth so that, when he wished, one of these wells would run with honey, another with wine, and another with milk, from these conduits. This place he called Paradise. And when any young noble of the country came to him, he led him into this Paradise and showed him all these things I have mentioned. He secretly had minstrels in a high tower where they could not be seen, playing on different instruments of music. He said they were God’s angels, and that that place was the Paradise God grants to those He loves, saying, Dabo uobis terram fluentem lac et mel, which means, ‘I shall give you a land flowing with milk and honey.’
IA5 Various authors on artistic and cultural relations between Italian city states and the Ottoman and Mamluk empires during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
One of the principal effects of contemporary globalization on art history has been to bring about a reappraisal of that cornerstone of the Western canon, the Renaissance, moving away from an exclusive focus on Italy and the classical heritage. Part IB reflects the recently emerged art‐historical interest in cultural developments during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the newly discovered lands to the west across the Atlantic. This present cluster of short texts making up IA5 offers documentary testimony to relations during the same period between Italian city states and the Islamic empires to the east: the Ottomans in present‐day Turkey, and the Mamluks in modern Egypt and Syria. As already shown by IA1 and IA3, Venice had been a gateway to the East for many years, to the Christian empire of Byzantium, and further afield, via the Silk Road, to China. With the final fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, a new chapter opened in these interactions, as Venice and other Italian city states strove to reach an accommodation with the emerging Islamic powers in the eastern Mediterranean: an area which was then one of the principal hubs of commercial and cultural exchange in the world (others being the Islamic maritime nexus linking Arabia, East Africa and southern India, and the Chinese sphere in East Asia). The extracts are presented chronologically. We have listed our sources after the introduction to each text.
IA5(i) Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini (1417–68) Letter of introduction for Matteo de’ Pasti to Mehmed II
This letter of introduction, written in 1461 for the artist Matteo de’ Pasti from Sigismondo Malatesta, Duke of Rimini to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (cf. IA5(iii)), responds to a request from the sultan for an artist. The letter was translated for the present volume by Giuliana Paganucci and Richard Dixon and edited by Paul Wood. It is reprinted in full in Jonathan Raby, ‘Pride and Prejudice: Mehmed the Conqueror and the Italian Portrait Medal’, Studies in the History of Art, vol. 21, Appendix 1, Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1987, pp. 171–94.
Over the past days I was informed by a great number of messengers and by letters from the Venetian nobleman Girolamo Michiel that you very much admire sculptures and medals which record great men of antiquity, famous commanders and emperors. I too very often find myself admiring their portraits, precisely because they allow a silent object to speak to its contemporaries and to posterity. This interest of yours was, I felt, admirable and worthy of a great sovereign, considering the immortality of his fame. […] It is universally known that Alexander the Great, renowned king of the Macedonians, behaved much like you in this regard. Indeed this sovereign, so desirous of these things about which we have just spoken, would not let himself be portrayed in paintings or sculptures by just anybody, so that he actually ordered by edict that no one, except Apelles, could portray him in paintings and that no one, except Lysippos, could sculpt the features of brave Alexander in statues of bronze. […] In this regard, you most insistently ask that Matteo de’ Pasti of Verona, for several years my companion and friend, a marvellous artist, be sent to you, so that he may portray you in paintings and reliefs. I am attached to him by deep affection, having had countless opportunities to admire his virtues, the diligence that he has always assured and demonstrated to me in every circumstance, and certainly the greatest loyalty, extraordinary modesty and learning unequalled in our times, and I have bestowed the highest honours on him and rewarded him with generosity. Various princes of this our Italy and of France have expressed the desire to have him with them, and until today I have never yielded to the pressures of anybody, not wishing to be parted from him. […] I nevertheless entrust him entirely to your loyalty and benevolence and commend him to you with all the kindness, affection and apprehension of mind of which I am capable. It remains for you to welcome him with your humanity and your usual benevolence.
IA5(ii) Marin Sanudo (1466–1536) from his diary for 1 August 1479
Sanudo, a member of the Venetian elite, recounts an invitation from the sultan to the wedding of his son, and a request for an artist. The Venetian Senate responded with a diplomatic mission and the loan of the leading Venetian artist of the day, Gentile Bellini. During his stay in Istanbul, Bellini made a portrait medal of the sultan and a portrait in oil paint, now in the National Gallery, London. The translation here is from Patricia Fortini Brown, Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, p. 54.
On the first day of August a Jewish orator from the Lord Turk arrived with letters. He wished for the Signoria to send him a good painter, and invited the Doge to go to honor the marriage of his son. [The Signoria] responded, thanking him, and sent Gentile Bellini, an excellent painter, who went with the galleys of Romania; and the Signoria paid his expenses, and he left the third of September.
IA5(iii) Mehmed II (1432–81) to the Venetian Senate
A record in the Venetian State archive of a letter from Mehmed II to the Venetian Senate requesting further artists, dated 7 January 1480. The letter is taken from Raby op cit Appendix 2 where it is reprinted in full. It was translated for the present volume by Giuliana Paganucci and Richard Dixon.
7 January 1480
From the great Lord & great emir Sultan Muchamet etcetera to the most excellent messer Zuan Mocenigo doge of Venice etc. worthy greetings etc. Be it known to your excellence that as in our other letters we have written to your excellence, & through those have requested a Master of Founding copper or bronze; and your Sublimity has complied; and the said master was sent. Again we write to your Excellence if he be pleased to command that by searching his country there be found two other masters, One of which should be a fine master of Founding bronze such as the one whom Your Excellence sent before, or even better than that. The other should be a master builder & be perfect. They should come together with my Lordship’s men, to serve him for several days, In such matters as we require & whenever they wish to leave, may he be free to go wherever they wish & they will be safe & without any Harassment & his wages will be paid by my Lordship, according to what is reasonable.
IA5(iv) The Venetian Senate Letter to Mehmed II
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