ABSTRACT

This article investigates the start of Florence’s approach to Ottoman Constantinople. It analyses the elements that enticed the Florentine Signoria to reconsider its commercial interest in Constantinople by highlighting the political role of the Ottoman sultan. In addition, this study intends to shed light on the difficulties the Florentine establishment faced in its diplomatic effort to successfully establish a profitable state trade route with the former Byzantine capital. The Signoria’s diplomatic groundwork has never been extensively studied, but doing so reveals how an apparently routine matter of administration, the negotiations over the safe-conduct with the Kingdom of Naples, became a salient political issue that took nearly three years (1455–1458) to resolve. The article also aims to make an original contribution to the history of the Florentine Mediterranean thanks to material from previously unconsulted sources.

摘要

本文探讨了佛罗伦萨接近奥斯曼君士坦丁堡的开始。它通过强调奥斯曼苏丹的政治作用，分析了促使佛罗伦萨领主重新考虑其在君士坦丁堡商业利益的因素。此外，本研究旨在揭示佛罗伦萨当权者在与前拜占庭首都成功建立一条有利可图的国家贸易路线的外交努力中所面临的困难。执政团的外交基础从未被广泛研究过，但这样做揭示了一个看似例行公事的行政事务，即与那不勒斯王国的安全通行谈判，如何成为一个耗时近三年（1455-1458）的突出政治问题。解决。