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Le invasioni turche del Quattrocento nei destini individuali dalle suppliche nei registri della Penitenzieria Apostolica (1440–1500 ca.)
Abstract The Ottoman invasions of the Balkans, the Veneto region, Austria, Hungary, and southern Italy were crossings of military, political and regional borders. This chapter analyses the reactions of the victims of these invasions in communications with the papal court. The petitions in the Apostolic Penitentiary Archive in Rome are a rich source for studying the experiences of local people in areas affected by Ottoman military actions, and are a virgin source, having been out of bounds to researchers for a long time. The chapter addresses the advance of the Turks in the Balkans and their encroachment on Otranto, as recorded in the petitions of individual persons addressed to the Pope processed and filed by the Apostolic Penitentiary. These individuals had violated precepts of canon law and tried to obtain absolution or dispensation from Rome. Reading these texts, we view the Ottoman advance not from the perspective of state letters and envoy reports, but as told by ordinary people. One had converted to Islam while in Ottoman captivity, another man’s wife had been kidnapped or killed by the Ottomans, and now sought to marry again. The petitions recount – with specific date and location – executions and massacres, naval expeditions, escaping from burning Constantinople, fighting monks and slave life: great history narrated at the level of personal fates.
