Contesti ottomano-balcanici dagli esemplari di manoscritti veneziani ritrovati
abstract
The object of this article is the analysis of a manuscript of a Storia Turca dealing with the Ottoman and European historical events up to 1516-1517, which is present in two copies in Venice, at the Museo Correr Library. So far, of this manuscripts, only the Paris copies were known. The Storia Turca kept in Paris has been published by Ursu (1909/1910) who, a century ago, attributed this historical work to Donado da Lezze, born in Venice in 1479 and dead in 1526 in Cyprus. From a comparative reading of the Paris and Venice manuscripts, it seems that the manuscript is not an original composition but a 'compilation', i.e., a work open to continuous contributions to its narrative nucleus, going back to Angiolello’s Narratione, which had been first published – as we know – in 1490 by Leonardo da Basilea, then printed again by Ramusio (1559). The present analysis considers the ‘polyphonic’ work present in the Venice copies, with the Persian and Balkan sections, and the discussion of the opinions of Ursu.
Keywords: 16th-18th centuries • Ottoman history • Ottoman and Venetian manuscripts