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Ghosts of Admiral Roger: Piracy and Political Fantasy in Tirant lo Blanc

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Mapping Pre-Modern Sicily

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Abstract

This chapter addresses the way in which representations of Sicily and maritime aggression, or piracy, configure plot and narrative in the fifteenth-century Catalan epic novel Tirant lo Blanc. While scholarship has shown that principal author Joannot Martorell (1410–1465) and Martí Joan de Galba (d. 1490), who edited and completed the work, drew upon earlier accounts of the admirals Roger de Lauria and Roger de Flor to imagine the exploits of their protagonist, I argue that the authors also drew on more recent episodes of maritime violence, engendered by rivalries between Catalans, Venetians, and Genoese—evoking, in Tirant lo Blanc’s fictional Christian triumphs over Muslims in North Africa and Constantinople, nostalgia for a Catalan past that could substitute for the reality of Christian defeat in the fifteenth-century Levant.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Joanot Martorell, Tirant lo Blanc, ed. Ramon Vernet Moya (Tarragona: Tinet, 1999) https://www.tinet.cat/portal/uploads/tirant_lo_blanc_2_ed_v2_20130919155911.pdf. I have also referred to two English translations: Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan de Galba, Tirant lo Blanc: The Complete Translation of Ray La Fontaine (New York: Peter Lang, 1993); and Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba, Tirant lo Blanc, trans. and with a foreword by David H. Rosenthal (New York: Schocken Books, 1984). This project emerged from research with the Setton Microfilms of records in the Archivio di Stato, Venice, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library during a sabbatical leave from 2018–2019 granted by Queensborough Community College. The author is grateful to her college; the Van Pelt Library staff, as well as Melanie Locay, Associate Manager, Center for Research in the Humanities and Rebecca Federman, Managing Research Librarian, New York Public Library, General Research Division, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, for their assistance with this project during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

  2. 2.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CIV ed. Vernet Moya, 275–80; trans. La Fontaine, 193–4. For the siege of Rhodes and its influence on the novel, see David Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey—Tirant lo Blanc and Mehmed the Conqueror: Iberia, the Crusade, and Late Medieval Chivalry,” in Byzantines, Latins and Turks in the Eastern Mediterranean World After 1150, ed. Jonathan Harris, Catherine Holmes, and Eugenia Russell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 291–312, esp. 310. For the definitions of corsairs and pirates, see E.S. Tai, “The Legal Status of Piracy in Medieval Europe,” History Compass, vol. 10, no. 11 (2012): 838–51.

  3. 3.

    This incident itself is described by several sources; see Doukas, Historia Byzantina, XXXVIII.7, in Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantina ed. I. Bekker, 50 vols. (Bonn: Weber, 1834); vol. 20: 474–5; see also the translation by Harry J. Magoulias, Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975), 213–4 and note 266; Nicolò Barbaro, Giornale dell’Assedio di Constantinopoli, ed. E. Cornet (Vienna, 1856), trans. J. R. Jones, Diary of the Siege of Constantinople, 1453 (New York: Exposition Press, 1969), 33–4; and Leonard of Chios, Epistola ad Papam Nicolaum V in J. P. Minge, Patrologia graeca, vol. 159 (Paris, 1866), cols. 931–34. Note especially Leonard of Chios, col. 931: “Interea ex Chii in nostrum subsidium Genuenses armis, militibus frumentoque conductae navis; unam imperatoris quae ex Sicilia frumento onusto.” Note also translated sources in Constantinople, 1453, Des Byzantins aux Ottomans: Textes et documents, ed. Vincent Déroche and Nicolas Vatin (Toulouse: Anacharis Éditions, 2016) that refer to this incident: 146; 240; 254; 332; 375; 657–65; 688; 704; 711; 715; 859–61; and John R. Melville-Jones, The Siege of Constantinople: Seven Contemporary Accounts (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1972), esp. 11–41. The main passage that suggests that Cattaneo was considered a pirate by the Turks comes from the Chronicon Maius of Makarios Melissenios, sometimes called Pseudo-Sphrantes, given in the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn: Weber, 1838), vol. 39, 259 and Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1866), vol. 156, col. 854, the key phrase being “illae naves non sunt mercatores sed piratae/εισιν εμπορικαι αλλα λησται θαλάτειοι” (literally, “sea-robbers”). This is echoed by Leonard of Chios, who also reports, col. 932, that the Ottomans “dixerant piratarum erant, quos imperator conduxerat contra eas agere velle, quae inimicorum suorum essent.” See also Makarios Melissenios, The Chronicle of the Siege of Constantinople, April 2–May 29, 1453, trans. by Marios Philippides (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), 106–9. For general overview of the events and sources for the siege of Constantinople, see also Jonathan Harris, The End of Byzantium (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010); Steven R. Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965); La caduta di Costantinopoli, ed. Agostino Pertusi, 2 vols. (Milan: Arnaldo. Mondadori Editore/Rome: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1976).

  4. 4.

    For the concept of “connectivity,” note especially Sharon Kinoshita and Jason Jacobs, “Ports of Call: Boccaccio’s Alatiel in the Medieval Mediterranean,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 37, no.1 (2007): 163–95.

  5. 5.

    Les quatres grans cròniques, ed. Ferran Soldevila, revisió filologica de Jordi Bruguera; revisó històrica de M. Teresa Ferrer I Mallol (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 2007). See also Bernat Desclot, Crònica del rey En Pere e dels seus antecessors passats, ed. Joseph Corleu (Barcelona: Imprenta Renaixensa, 1885), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100533892 Bernat Desclot, Chronicle of the Reign of King Pedro III of Aragon, A.D. 1276–1285, trans. F. L. Critchlow (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1928); Ramon Muntaner, Crònica Catalana de Ramon Muntaner, ed. Antonio de Bofarull (Barcelona, 1860). https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadXDpjjMNlLiB_RF-xUBZdybfbG5w4taKa0nvWh2oPuzqvYvbm-C0Pi79-vOw43obF0jovj2G5RSYfVLZcEvvnNgCyQEUxh3OJl2Gk-mrF1_6CiNqjZ7jOsVwxYvoERmvGGIhBRHGF9eJMRIZFdidzPxDW1GphJxojlIjb5fVfPw0g9NkMbg4qA2iQvUR0lEBnB6d_6zQrHRiNZlo2ew-is5OBGjtugbXXRnURG3lRZeb-3hw8QIvcRb9OQjMOGMMt2tVNB; and The Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner, trans. H.M. Goodenough (London: The Hakluyt Society, second series, no. 47, 50, 1920–1921). http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf.

  6. 6.

    Montserrat Piera, “Tirant lo Blanc: Rehistoricizing the ‘other’ Reconquista,” in Tirant lo Blanc: New Approaches, ed. Arthur Terry (Suffolk, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1999), 45–58, esp. 53.

  7. 7.

    David A. Wacks, “Fiction, History, and the Struggle for the Mediterranean in Tirant lo Blanch (Valencia, 1490),” (April 11, 2015), https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/tag/tirant-lo-blanc/.

  8. 8.

    See Rosenthal’s introduction, vii and 724; and La Fontaine, 5–6; and Joseph A. Vaeth, Tirant lo Blanch: A Study of Its Authorship and Principal Sources and Historical Setting (New York: Columbia University Press, 1918), 1–5.

  9. 9.

    William J. Entwistle, “Observacions sobre la dedicatòria i primera part del ‘Tirant lo Blanc,’” Revista de Catalunya 7 (October, 1927): 381–98; some of these parallels, which I will mention below, are also discussed by Vaeth, 117–21, that of greatest importance being Roger de Flor’s relief of Messina in Muntaner, Crònica, CXCVI in Crònica Catalana de Ramon Muntaner, ed. de Bofarull, 373–4, which presents some parallels to Tirant lo Blanc, CIV.

  10. 10.

    Constantin Marinescu, “Du Nouveau sur Tirant lo Blanch,” Estudis Romànics 4 (1953–1954): 137–203, esp. 144–56 and 166–7.

  11. 11.

    Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 292–3; idem, “La Corona de Aragón en la época de Tirant lo Blanc, 1392–1516,” in Joanot Martorell y el otoño de la caballería Centro del Carmen-Valencia (Diciembre de 2010—Marzo de 2011) (Valencia: Consejo General del Consorcio de Museos de la Comunidad Valenciana, 2011), 47–59; for broader studies of Alfonso V, see especially Alan Ryder: The Kingdom of Naples Under Alfonso the Magnaminous: The Making of A Modern State (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), and Alfonso the Magniminous, King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, 1396–1458 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

  12. 12.

    For Joanot Martorell’s time at Alfonso’s court in Naples, see Lola Badia, “Alfonso d’Aragona e i grandi scrittori Catalani medievali,” in L’immagine di Alfonso il Magnanimo/La imatge d’Afons el Magnànim, ed. Fulvio Delle Donne and Jaume Torró Torrent (Florence: Sismel Edizione del Galluzzo, 2016), 3–19, esp. 6. Elaborate praise for the king may be noted in the history of Bartolomeo Facio, Rerum gestarum Alfonsi regis libri: Texto latino, traduzione italiana, commento e introduzione, ed. Daniela Pietragalla (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2004), esp. Book 10, nn. 127–9, 534–7.

  13. 13.

    Bartolomeo Facio, Rerum gestarum Alfonsi regis libri: Texto latino, traduzione italiana, commento e introduzione, ed. Daniela Pietragalla, esp. Book 10, n.129–30, n. 132, 536–7; and n. 135, 538–9. See also Constantin Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, roi de Naples (1416–1458), ed. M. T. Ferrer I Mallol (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1994).

  14. 14.

    Vaeth, 79–90; 97–111; 121–32.

  15. 15.

    I am grateful to Heather Burton, who discussed this concept in a conference paper, “Pirate Hermeneutics: Sir Bevis in the Mediterranean,” presented at Pirate Fiction in the Middle Ages, 500–1500, September 21–22, 2017, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. See also M. Mollett, “In Peril of the Sea: Travel Genres and the Unexpected” in Travels in the Byzantine World, ed. R. Macrides (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002): 259–84; and Stavros Deligiorgis, “Boccaccio and the Greek Romances,” Comparative Literature 19, no. 2 (1967): 97–113.

  16. 16.

    Tirant lo Blanc, V, ed. Vernet Moya, 73–6; trans. La Fontaine, 45–6. Once again, the text calls these men corsairs: “per ço com algunes fustes de corsaris havien robat un lloc seu.”

  17. 17.

    These are given in Tirant lo Blanc, ed. Vernet Moya, CXV and CLXXXVI, ed. Vernet Moya, 327 and 586; although La Fontaine, 395, note 2, suggests these names may be connected to monarchs of the Latin kingdom of Constantinople.

  18. 18.

    Harris, 149–53; note also Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 310. For the Ottoman siege of Rhodes in 1480, see the version of the Obsidionis Rhodiae of Guillaume Caoursin (1430–1501), Vice-Chancellor of the order, and an eyewitness to the siege, incorporated into Marin Sanudo il giovane, Le Vite dei Dogi (1474–1494), ed. Angela Caracciolo Aricò, 2 vols. (Padua: Editrice Antenore, 1989–2001), 1:191–214.

  19. 19.

    Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 309.

  20. 20.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDLXVII–CDLXX, ed. Vernet Moya, 1123–8; trans. La Fontaine, 784–7; trans. Rosenthal, 699–701; the romance with Carmesina begins at CLXVIII, trans. La Fontaine, 239ff; trans. Rosenthal, 203ff; Princess Carmesina’s expiration given in Chapters CDLXXIII–CDLXXIX, ed. Vernet Moya, 1133–51; trans. La Fontaine, 790–803; trans. Rosenthal, 705–14.

  21. 21.

    Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 294–6; see also Curial e Güelfa: A Classic of the Crown of Aragon, trans. Max W. Wheeler with an introduction by Antoni Ferrando (Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2011), esp. 3–25; and John Pryor, “The Naval Battles of Roger de Lauria,” Journal of Medieval History 9 (1989): 179–216, esp. 212. 

  22. 22.

    Tirant lo Blanc, C, ed. Vernet Moya, 261–7: “moltes fustes de moros … hagueren molts combats ab fustes de genovesos e de moros fins que foren prop de Tunis. Aquí acordaren d’anar a l’illa de Sicília per carregar de forment. Com foren dins lo port de Palerm.” La Fontaine, 183–4, translates fustes as “light Moorish vessels” and “lighter Genoese and Moorish vessels,” which suggests a distinction that is not assigned in the Catalan text, although the characterization of these vessels as “light” is consistent with the smaller scale of these ships, which were rendered in Latin as ligna; note Auguste Jal, Glossaire Nautique (Paris: Firmin Didot, frères, 1848), 726.

  23. 23.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 275–80; trans. La Fontaine, 193–6; Rosenthal, 161–3.

  24. 24.

    Compare Tirant lo Blanc, CLXIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 535–43; trans. La Fontaine, 385–91; trans. Rosenthal, 337–8, with Ramon Muntaner, Crònica, ed. Soldevila, CXCIV, 842; ed. Bofarull, 371; see also Goodenough’s translation, 2:472.

  25. 25.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDXVIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 1035–8; trans. La Fontaine, 727–9; trans. Rosenthal, 651–2.

  26. 26.

    For general points about amphibious warfare, see Pryor, “Naval battles,” 179–216; esp. 185 and 192–3; Charles D. Stanton, Norman Naval Operations in the Mediterranean (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011), 5–8. It may also be worth considering that, while de Lauria had triumphed at Ponza (note Pryor, 208–10), Alfonso had suffered an ignominious defeat in 1435; note Ryder, 199–211.

  27. 27.

    “Un mariner molt destre que havia en la nau, quie nomenava Cataquefaràs,” at Tirant lo Blanc, C, ed. Vernet Moya, 262; trans. La Fontaine, 183–4 and Rosenthal, 151–2.

  28. 28.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CLXIV ed. Vernet Moya, 548–9: “lo combat fon tan fort e tan admirable que los turcs feren de moltes pedres, que quasi la gent no podien anar per la nau. E la pedra que esdevenia a l’home plegat lo metia per terra, per bé que estigués armat. En la nau del Capità havia moltes ballestes, e de la primera batalla n’i hagué molts de nafrats e morts. No penseu que la galera jamés s’hi gosàs acostar. E de cascuna de les naus llançaren los rampagolls e tengueren-se molt fort, car no se’n podien anar encara que ho volguessen.” I have quoted La Fontaine’s translation of this passage, 388–9; note also Rosenthal, 342.

  29. 29.

    For piratical seizure of foodstuffs, note “Nuova serie di documenti sulle relazioni di Genova coll’imperio bizantino,“ed. Gerolamo Bertolotto, Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, XXVIII, 2 (1897): 338–573, esp. 513; 524–6; 528; 532–7; Ausilia Roccatagliata, L’Officium Robarie del Comune di Genova (1394–1397), Regesti, 3 vols. (Genoa: Università di Genova, Istituto di medievistica, 1989–1994), I:6–11; I:27–32, VI doc. 1 I:67–83, XII, doc. 2; I:315–24, XXXVIII; Gareth Morgan, “The Byzantine Claims Commission of 1278.” Byzantinishe Zeitschrift 69 (1975): 411–38, esp. 436–7; and Marie A. Kelleher, “The Sea of our City:” Famine, Piracy and Urban Sovereignty in Medieval Barcelona,” Mediterranean Studies 24, no. 1 (2016): 1–22.

  30. 30.

    Compare Desclot, Crònica, CXVI, ed. Corleu, 219; trans. Critchlow, 341–5; and Tirant lo Blanc, CVI, ed. Vernet Moya, 284–9. See also La Fontaine, 200–1; Rosenthal, 167–70. These events are also described by Muntaner, Crònica, LXXXII, ed. Bofarull, 148–51; trans. Goodenough, 156–8. See also Pryor, “The Naval Battles of Roger de Lauria,” 199; and William Sayers, “The Lexicon of Naval Tactics in Ramon Muntaner’s Crònica,” Catalan Review, vol. 17, no. 2 (2003): 177–92, esp. 177.

  31. 31.

    Desclot, CXXVII, ed. Corleu, 233–5; trans. Critchlow, 346–54. This incident is also described by Muntaner, CXXXV, ed. Bofarull, 270–2; trans. Goodenough, 1: 287–8, although Muntaner represents it as a somewhat more successful maneuver, closer to Tirant lo Blanc, CLXIV; see also Pryor, “Naval Battles,” 199.

  32. 32.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CLXIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 543–51; see also La Fontaine, 385–91, esp. 388; and Rosenthal, 339–44, esp. 342.

  33. 33.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDXVIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 1035–8; trans. La Fontaine, 727–8; and Rosenthal, 651–2.

  34. 34.

    Compare Desclot, XCIV, ed. Corleu, 174; trans. Critchlow, 346–54, esp. 351–2 with Tirant lo Blanc, Chapter CDXVIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 1035–8; trans. La Fontaine, 727–9, esp. 727; Rosenthal, 651–2.

  35. 35.

    Tirant lo Blanc, X, ed. Vernet Moya, 80–2; trans. La Fontaine, 50–1; trans. Rosenthal, 12–3: “E fes-me dar unes vestidures de moro e veuràs lo que io faré, car anant a la Casa Santa de Jerusalem fui en Alexandria, e en Barut me fonc mostrada la llengua morisca, perquè aturí grans dies ab ells, e aprenguí dins Barut fer magranes de certs materials compostes, que estan sis hores en poder-se encendre e com són ençeces, bastarien a tot lo món a cremar, que com més aigua hi llençen…”

  36. 36.

    Compare Tirant lo Blanc, CCXCIX, ed. Vernet Moya, 814–21; trans. La Fontaine, 575–9; trans. Rosenthal, 519–23 with Boccaccio’s Decameron, available at Decameron web https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?myID=nov0502&lang=it.

  37. 37.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDXIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 1028: “Tirant cridà un cavaller natural del regne de Tunis qui era stat moro i era de casa real, lo qual havia nom Sinegerus … E aquest cavaller, cautelosament desviant-se del camp dels moros, féu da via de la ciutat. E encara no pogué escapar que no donàs en mans d’espies del camp dels moros, emperò ell, parlant-los en lurlenguatge molt discretament.” See also La Fontaine, 721–3, esp. 722; Rosenthal, 646–7.

  38. 38.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDLXIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 1116: “E per quant la Princesa, perquè era senyora de noble enteniment e discreció, en lo passat temps havia après de molts llenguatges per la pràtica dels estrangers qui per la causa de la guerra eren venguts en la cort de la maiestat de l’Emperador, pare seu, e molt més que sabia parlar la llengua llatina per haver après de gramàtica e poesia, e la reyna de Etiòpia, quan promès a Tirant que deliberà d’anar a Contestinoble per ésser a la solemnitat de les sues bodes ab la Princesa, après de gramàtica e parlava ab molta gràcia la llengua llatina, la Princesa e la reina se parlaren de moltes cortesies segons que entre galants dames s’ acostuma.” See also La Fontaine, 778–9; trans. Rosenthal, 695.

  39. 39.

    Desclot, LXXXIX, ed. Corleu, 166: “E en tota aquella ost no hac Genovesos, ne Pisans, ne Venecians, ne Provençals, ne en mar ne en terra; que tota la armada era de Catalans e de Aragonesos, e tots triats e provats de llurs armes.” See also Critchlow, 56–8. The fleet itself is described by Jeronimo Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, ed. A.C. Lopez (Zaragoza: Institucióón Fernando el Católico, 1977–1980) Book 4, Chapter 16; Muntaner, Chapters XLVIII–XLIX, ed. Bofarull, 90–4.

  40. 40.

    Muntaner, Crònica, XVII, ed. Bofarull, 34; trans. Goodenough, 37. Muntaner describes a similar repopulation with bona gent cathalans (worthy Catalans) after Alfonso III’s conquest of Majorca, Chap. CLXXII, ed. Bofarull, 326; trans. Goodenough, 346. Note also Peter III’s specifications for Catalans and Latins only aboard Admiral de Lauria’s galleys, LXXVI, ed. Bofarull, 137–8; trans. Goodenough, 145.

  41. 41.

    Muntaner, Crònica, LXXXI, ed. Soldevila, 734; ed. Bofarull, 147–8. See also Goodenough, I:185.

  42. 42.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDII–CDIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 1005–10; trans. La Fontaine, pp. 703–5; trans. Rosenthal, 632–5. For Saint Vincent Ferrer, see Laura Ackerman Smoller, The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby: The Cult of Vincent Ferrer in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2014). See also Badia, 17; and Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 297–8.

  43. 43.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDIX, ed. Vernet Moya, 1017–20; see also La Fontaine, 712–15; Rosenthal, 639–41.

  44. 44.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDLIX, ed. Vernet Moya, 1107–10; see also La Fontaine, 712–15; trans. Rosenthal, 690–2.

  45. 45.

    Pryor, “Naval Battles,” 205; and Charles D. Stanton, Roger de Lauria (1250–1305), “Admiral of Admirals” (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2019), 236–55. Note also Marin Sanudo Torsello’s reference to the diversity of thirteenth-century pirate crews, E. S. Tai, “Marking Water: Piracy and Property in the Pre-Modern West,” in Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges, ed. Jerry Bentley, Renate Bridenthal, and Kären Wigen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 205–20, esp. 209.

  46. 46.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CLXIII–CLXIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 535–43; see also La Fontaine, 378–91; Rosenthal, 337–44; note also Clifford R. Backman, “Piracy,” in A Companion to Mediterranean History (Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2014), 174–83.

  47. 47.

    While the medieval Mediterranean slave trade lies beyond the scope of this chapter, see Hannah Barker, That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260–1500 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), esp. 32–8; 70; 157; and Debra Blumenthal, Enemies and Familiars: Slavery and Mastery in Fifteenth-Century Valencia (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2009), esp. 9–13; 19–28; 41–2.

  48. 48.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CXLIX ed. Vernet Moya, 468–73, 469: “Lo Soldà tenia un servidor que s’havia criat de molt poca edat, lo qual era estat crestià e natural de la ciutat de Famagosta, qui és en Xipre, e fon pres en mar per una fusta de moros, e per la poca edat e discreció que tenia feren-lo tornar moro. See also La Fontaine, 331–4; and Rosenthal, 291–3, who utilizes the word “pirate” to characterize the Moors in his translation, although the term is not employed in the text.

  49. 49.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CVIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 293–7; trans. La Fontaine, 378–91; Rosenthal, 337–44; CXLVI, ed. Vernet Moya, 454–63; trans. La Fontaine, 321–8; CCCXII, ed. Vernet Moya, 852–4; trans. 602–4; Rosenthal, 542–3. For cross-confessional ties in the late medieval and early modern Levant, see Eric R. Dursteler, Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Co-Existence in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 112–19; idem, Renegade Women: Gender, Identity, and Boundaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011); Claire Norton, “Lust, Greed, Torture, and Identity: Narrations of Conversion and the Creation of the Early Modern Renegade,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 29, no. 2 (2009): 259–68; and David Coleman, “Of Corsairs, Converts, and Renegades: Forms and Functions of Coastal Raiding on Both Sides of the Far Western Mediterranean, 1490–1540,” Medieval Encounters 19, nos. 1–2 (2013): 166–92. Another example of a character with intercultural competencies, although not sea-borne, is the Greek Carillo, Tirant lo Blanc, CDXX, ed. Vernet Moya, 1040–2; trans. La Fontaine, 730–1; Rosenthal, 653. For Sinegerus, see note 36, above.

  50. 50.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CVII, ed. Vernet Moya, 289–90: “Ab la cara girada al revés has senyorejats dotze reis coronats los quals tostemps són estats a tu obedients. Est-te concordat ab la mala intenció del teus pròximos parents e fictes crestians, los genovesos, qui pietat ne amor no han a negú, com no sien moros ni crestians, com tu sies nat dins aquella mala ribera e costa de Gènova; e per ço los teus reprovats mals te condemnen que muires, com a home celerat, de mort.” See also La Fontaine, 204–5; Rosenthal, 171. See also CLXIV, ed. Vernet Moya, 543–51, where the Genoese are criticized for taking on Turkish passengers, La Fontaine, 385–91; Rosenthal, 339.

  51. 51.

    Tirant lo Blanc, XCVIII, ed. Vernet Moya, 248–54; see also La Fontaine, 173–4 and Rosenthal, 141–3.

  52. 52.

    David Abulafia, “The Merchants of Messina: Levant Trade and Domestic Economy,” Papers of the British School of Rome, vol. 54 (1986): 196–212, esp. 206–12.

  53. 53.

    Giustina Olgiati, Classis contra regem Aragonum: Organizzazione militare ed economica della spedizione navale contro Napoli: Genova, 1453–1454 (Cagliari: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto sui rapporti italo-iberici, 1990), 11–13, 28–30; 37–47; 54–64; 420–5. Cattaneo’s seizure is also mentioned by De Facio, Book 10, 592–3.

  54. 54.

    David Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 304–10.

  55. 55.

    Nicolò Barbaro, trans. J. R. Jones, 37–9. See also Céline Dauverd, “Cultivating Differences: Genoese Trade Identify in the Constantinople of Sultan Mehmed II, 1453–1481,” Mediterranean Studies, 23, no. 2 (2015): 94–124.

  56. 56.

    For the death of Pere Julià, note George Sphrantzes, Chronicon Maius. Book 3.9, in Patrologiae Graecae, vol. 156, col. 883: “magistratum cursus publici Catalanorum cum duobus filiis.”

  57. 57.

    It may be significant, for example, that Marin Sanudo, Le Vite dei Dogi, refers to the incident but does not mention Cattaneo’s name; in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ed.L.A. Muratori, Vol. 22 (Milan: Societatis Palatinae in Regia Curia, 1733), cols. 399–1252, esp. col. 1148.

  58. 58.

    David Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 303; Runicman, 80.

  59. 59.

    Barbaro, 9–10; and The Fall of the Byzantine Empire, trans. Philippides, 62, 141.

  60. 60.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CIV–CV; ed. Vernet Moya, 275–84; see also La Fontaine, 193–200; Rosenthal, 161–7.

  61. 61.

    Tirant lo Blanc, CDXIV–CDXXI, ed. Vernet Moya, 1027–1043; see also La Fontaine, 721–32; Rosenthal, 646–55. For de Flor’s exploits at Messina, see Muntaner, Crònica, Chapter CXCVI, ed. Bofarull, 373–4; trans. Goodenough, 395–6.

  62. 62.

    See sources cited in note 3, above.

  63. 63.

    Leonard of Chios, Epistola ad Papam Nicolaum V in J. P. Minge, Patrologia graeca, vol. 159 (Paris, 1866), cols. 923–44, esp. 936; trans. John R. Melville-Jones, The Siege of Constantinople; Seven Contemporary Accounts, 11–41; note also Déroche and Vatin, 715.

  64. 64.

    The letter is edited by Pertusi, La caduta di Costantinopoli 1:39–51. Note esp. 47–8: “Inquisivit Mauritium Cattaneum et Paulum Boccardum qui se occultaverunt…” See also translations in Déroche and Vatin, 519–34, esp. 530–1 and nn. 56–7; and Melville-Jones, The Siege of Constantinople: Seven Contemporary Accounts, 134.

  65. 65.

    Documentation for this incident has been traced through two sets of records: ASV, Libri Commemoriali, XV, f. 71r-v (February 11, 1461); f. 73r-v (same date); indexed by Riccardo Predelli, I Libri Commemoriali della di Repubblica di Venezia: Regesti, 8 vols. (Venice: Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, 1876–1914), vol. 5: 142–3, nn. 72–4; and ASV, Deliberazioni Segrete, Reg. 21, f. 12r–13v (July 10, 1460–July 18, 1460); f. 17v (September 9, 1460); f. 20r (October 4, 1460); f. 22r (October 18, 1460); f. 26v (December 12, 1460); f. 27r (December 18, 1460); f. 28v (January 22, 1461); f. 30r (February 5, 1461). Antonio Loredano’s appointment as rector of Modon is documented in ASV, Deliberazioni Segrete, Reg. 21, f. 46v (June 23, 1461), published in C.N. Sathas, Documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire de la Grèce au moyen-âge publiés sous les auspices de la chambre des Députés de Grèce, 9 vols. (Paris: Maisonneuves et Che, Éditeurs, 1880–1890), vol. 1:237, doc. 158.

  66. 66.

    La Fontaine, 396, n. 23 and Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 309.

  67. 67.

    Harris, 149–53; note also Abulafia, “Aragon vs. Turkey,” 310.

  68. 68.

    Daniel Duran i Duelt, Kastellórizo, una isla griega bajo dominio de Alfonso el Magnánimo (1450–1458): colección documental (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Istitución Milá y Fontanals, Departmento de Estudios Medievales, 2003), esp. 16–7.

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Sohmer Tai, E. (2022). Ghosts of Admiral Roger: Piracy and Political Fantasy in Tirant lo Blanc. In: Sohmer Tai, E., Reyerson, K.L. (eds) Mapping Pre-Modern Sicily. Mediterranean Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04915-6_13

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