"Frenemies" in the Age of Exploration: The Ottomans and the Venetians

This episode dives into the relationship between the Venetians and Ottomans as the two leading powers in the Mediterranean. Presented as “frenemies,” the two ambitious powers sparred on many occasions, yet the Ottoman Empire and the city-state of Venice had a surprisingly functional working relationship. The two were avid trading partners, recognizing the potential for a mutually beneficial relationship, and engaged in an impressive cultural exchange. 

Researchers and Hosts

Emily McCaffrey, Calvin Czapko, Caitlin Froeb, and Megan Haught. 

Image

Venice City View, The Book of Navigation, The Walters Art Museum, ms W658. f. 185b.

Music Credit

Ali İzzett Özkan, “Türkmen Kızı Bar Oynuyor.”

Necati, Özdemir, “Yar Ölmeden.”

Arif Sağ, “Yol VerDağlar.”

Adem Sevinç, “Yaylanın Soğuk Suyu.”

Bibliography

Berardi, Luca. “The Sixteenth-Century Muhit Atlası: From a Venetian Globe to an Ottoman Atlas?” Imago Mundi 69, no. 1 (January 2, 2017): 37–51.

Çizakça, M. (2012). The Ottoman government and economic life: Taxation, public finance and trade controls."

Debby, Nirit Ben-Aryeh. "Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of

Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople." In Maps and Travel in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. De Gruyter, 2019.

Eric R. Dursteler. Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Baltimore, 2006).

Stantchev, Stefan. "Devedo: The Venetian Response to Sultan Mehmed II in the Venetian-Ottoman Conflict of 1462-79," Mediterranean Studies 19 (2010): 43-66.