Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s
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Leo Donnarumma
Abstract
At the end of July 1480, a strong army led by the Turkish general Gedik Ahmet Pascia landed in Southern Italy near the city of Otranto. During the siege, the fury of the Ottomans was unleashed following the killing of the Turkish ambassador, sent to negotiate the surrender of the city. The Ottoman army was made up of elite soldiers from the Middle East, but throughout the following year it had to face one of the most specialized armies in Italy, the army of the Kingdom of Naples. Thanks to some recent research, it is now possible to shed new light on this clash: the Neapolitan army, reformed in 1464 by Ferdinand I, featured soldiers coming from all over Europe, and it demonstrated its own versatility against the Ottomans by displaying an innovative way to fight a war. Not only was it a confrontation between two armies, it was also one culture pitted against the other, whose mixing was destined to leave tangible signs in the history, the respective societies, and the geography pertaining to the places involved in the war: a true encounter of two separate worlds, at least in military terms. This paper aims at exploring on a deeper level the connections between military history and forms of globalization through the analysis of the composition of the armies, especially the Neapolitan one, and at comparing the two different ways of fighting by the armies involved through analyzing unpublished diplomatic and fiscal sources of the fifteenth century as well as international research discussing the topic. Therefore, this paper is not only about military history, since it also focuses on the question to which extent two different mindsets - each being the expression of a specific culture and of specific royal policies - happened to influence each other.
Abstract
At the end of July 1480, a strong army led by the Turkish general Gedik Ahmet Pascia landed in Southern Italy near the city of Otranto. During the siege, the fury of the Ottomans was unleashed following the killing of the Turkish ambassador, sent to negotiate the surrender of the city. The Ottoman army was made up of elite soldiers from the Middle East, but throughout the following year it had to face one of the most specialized armies in Italy, the army of the Kingdom of Naples. Thanks to some recent research, it is now possible to shed new light on this clash: the Neapolitan army, reformed in 1464 by Ferdinand I, featured soldiers coming from all over Europe, and it demonstrated its own versatility against the Ottomans by displaying an innovative way to fight a war. Not only was it a confrontation between two armies, it was also one culture pitted against the other, whose mixing was destined to leave tangible signs in the history, the respective societies, and the geography pertaining to the places involved in the war: a true encounter of two separate worlds, at least in military terms. This paper aims at exploring on a deeper level the connections between military history and forms of globalization through the analysis of the composition of the armies, especially the Neapolitan one, and at comparing the two different ways of fighting by the armies involved through analyzing unpublished diplomatic and fiscal sources of the fifteenth century as well as international research discussing the topic. Therefore, this paper is not only about military history, since it also focuses on the question to which extent two different mindsets - each being the expression of a specific culture and of specific royal policies - happened to influence each other.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
