Alle origini della traiettoria turca nell’Italia del Quattrocento (1453–1455)

Abstract

At the Origins of the ‚Turkish Trajectory‘ in Fifteenth-Century Italy (1453–1455). This article examines the origins of what could be defined as the ‚Turkish trajectory‘ within the Italian political system, understood as the set of strategies adopted by different Italian players in response to the military, economic, and political pressures and opportunities generated – directly or indirectly – by the Ottoman expansion. In particular, it reassesses the long-assumed causal link between the fall of Constantinople (1453), the achievement of peace in Italy, namely the Peace of Lodi (1454), the subsequent Italic League (1455) and the crusade. Drawing primarily on diplomatic documentation, especially Milanese correspondence, the article recontextualizes these two events and explores the spectrum of Italian reactions to the conquest of 1453, ranging from fear of the Sultan Mehmed II to the opportunities and power vacuums created by the Ottoman advance. The methodological novelty of this study lies in its comparative and synoptic reading of sources from multiple Italian states. In doing so, it avoids the mere accumulation perspectives, instead framing the Turkish question as an issue affecting the Italian political system as a whole, rather than as the concern of any single polity. Finally, the article identifies, in nuce , the constitutive lines that came to shape the Turkish trajectory in the following decades: on the one hand, the crusade against the Turks; on the other, the political fascination with the Ottoman power.