Europe, Islam, and the Role of the Church in the Afterlife of a Medieval Polemic, 1301-1543
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Europe, Islam, and the Role of the Church in the Afterlife of a Medieval Polemic, 1301-1543 by Katharine G. Waggoner Karchner A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Hussein Fancy, Co-Chair Associate Professor Ryan Szpiech, Co-Chair Professor Thomas Burman, University of Notre Dame Professor Paolo Squatriti Kate Waggoner Karchner [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1421-8396 © Kate Waggoner Karchner 2019 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements I’d first like to recognize my dissertation committee chairs, Hussein Fancy and Ryan Szpiech, for their mentorship throughout the past six years of my graduate career. I’ve been lucky to benefit from the guidance of these two exceptional scholars and advisors, who have supported my work and my goals even as they evolved. My thanks also to Paolo Squatriti, who was always ready to provide prompt and valuable feedback. All three mentors have offered me instrumental and unique perspectives that I hope this dissertation reflects. I can’t imagine a more dedicated, respectful, and genial committee. My special thanks, as well, to Tom Burman, who agreed to act as an outside reader for my dissertation and who has supported my research with curiosity and kind enthusiasm from its inception. I would also like to thank the many others at Michigan and beyond who guided my work, gave feedback, and offered support. Peggy McCracken, Christian de Pee, and the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Colloquium classes read early drafts of my chapters and provided me with a wonderful variety of perspectives, as well as support for my related endeavors. The Medieval and Early Modern Studies community at the University of Michigan, in general, has provided an exceptional place to grow and learn as a young scholar, as well as good friends. In particular, I’d like to thank Noah Blan for his friendship and his guidance throughout my tenure at UofM. The Administrative team for the History Department also deserves heaps of gratitude for their clear guidance through university bureaucracy. My research would not have been possible without the help of colleagues and other scholars who helped and supported me in my search for manuscripts, including Lydia Walker, ii Andrea Riedl, Pier Mattia Tommasino, and Val Kivelson. Additionally, so many archivists helped me obtain the materials I needed. They include Karine Klein, Nadine Sausset, Michel Chazottes, and Magali Raymond in Avignon; Edgardo Michelotti and Andria Maria Francesca in Turin; Rita De Tata and Martina Caroli in Bologna; Sylwia Lopatecka, Agata Ralska and Renata Sawińska in Krakow; Renate Würsch in Basel; Hans Peter Zimmer, Ingeborg Formann, and Eike Zimmer in Vienna; Axel Freitag, Bärbel Mund, and Manuela Senhen in Göttingen; Maria Grazia Alberini in Pesaro; Angela Bargellini, Daniela Magni, and Sonia Bonechi in Pistoia; Helga Tichy in Munich; Marcello Eynard in Bergamo; Angela Pinto in Naples; Julie Dietman at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library; José Antonio Zambrano and Nuria Casquete de Prado Sagrera in Seville; Eugenia Antonucci and Rossella Giovannetti in Florence; Ilaria Ciolli in the Vatican; and Marco Broesch in Bernkastel-Kues, as well as other nameless archivists and administrators. I would also and especially like to thank those archivists and scholars in Spain who supported my research while I was there: D. Agustin Hevia, Sr. Alfredo Rodríguez González, and D. Ricardo Muñoz Solla. If I had gained little else from my time at the University of Michigan, my friendship with Alyssa Penick would be worth the journey. Alyssa has been my grad-school rock during our time in the program, whether together or apart. She is always ready to give feedback, to listen to my gripes, to be sad or frustrated or excited or proud with me. I am so thankful for her friendship and her counsel. Another source of joy found during my time in graduate school is my dog Nellie, whom I adopted at the end of my coursework. I can honestly say that no one has witnessed as much of the dissertation process as she has, and no one has pulled me away from it more. I thank her for taking me out for a walk every day when my eyes were growing weary and my brain was growing tired. I owe immeasurable thanks to my parents, who have given me a iii model for support that I can only hope to aspire to in my own relationships. They instilled so many values in me for which I am grateful. The value they have placed on education, in particular, has shaped my life and my future. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my husband. When a Buckeye follows you to Ann Arbor, you realize he will follow you anywhere. Thank you for being the reason I’ve always had my priorities in order and thank you for being my number one. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………….…… ii List of Appendices……………………………...……………………………………………….. vi Abstract……………………………………….……………………………………………….... vii Introduction: The Origin of Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Polemic against the Qur’an ………………... 1 Chapter 1: The Circulation of Contra legem Sarracenorum – Part 1: Receiving, Reading, and Reproducing a Medieval Polemic…...…………………………………….…………………...... 26 Chapter 2: The Circulation of Contra legem Sarracenorum – Part 2: Authority and Authenticity in the Making of a Popular Polemic …………………………...………………………………... 62 Chapter 3: Islam, the Papacy, and the Ecclesia Catholica: Challenges in the Church during the Fifteenth Century ….……..……………………………………………….…………………….. 91 Chapter 4: Crusade and Dialogue: European Responses to Ottoman Expansion ……….……. 130 Chapter 5: Humanist Readings of Contra legem: Philosophy, Philology, and Polemic during the Renaissance………………………………………………………………………………... 169 Afterword: Riccoldo’s Legacy from Martin Luther to 9/11……………………………………. 208 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………….. 230 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………… 265 v List of Appendices Appendix A: Sources for the Transmission of Contra legem…………………………………. 230 Appendix B: Contents of Manuscripts containing Contra legem Sarracenorum……………... 254 vi Abstract This dissertation, titled “Europe, Islam, and the Role of the Church in the Afterlife of a Medieval Polemic, 1301-1543,” analyzes the circulation of the highly influential anti-Islamic polemic Contra legem Sarracenorum (Against the Law of the Saracens, c. 1301) in Europe from 1350 through 1550. It explore why late medieval and early modern readers circulated Contra legem and how they made use of the text to achieve their own purposes. The history of this text reveals the ways that a high medieval polemical approach to Islam spread within Christendom and impacted Christian-Muslim relations over several centuries. This dissertation also considers the relationships between Europe, the Church, and Islam during a period when religious upheaval within European society leading to the Reformation coincided with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into previously Christian-held lands. The Italian missionary Riccoldo da Montecroce had composed Contra legem in the popular medieval genre of religious polemics – texts that developed arguments disputing other religions’ claims to legitimacy. In his polemic, Riccoldo provided readers with an analytic guide to the Qur’an through a series of arguments proving why Islam’s holy book was not divinely- inspired. His work became the most widely-read medieval polemic on Islam in later centuries. The text is extant in thirty-one manuscripts in Latin, fourteen in Greek translation, and three in Russian translation. Additionally, the text was printed in Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian, and German in the sixteenth century. While previous scholars have widely recognized Contra legem’s popularity, my dissertation reconstructs the text’s influence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. vii In the fifteenth century, the growth of the Ottoman Empire generated a desire within Europe for information on and refutations of Islam. Christian scholars valued Riccoldo’s direct knowledge of Arabic and his experiences in the Near East as authentic. Moreover, the adaptability of Contra legem insured that these readers could appropriate Riccoldo’s knowledge of Islam for their own purposes and in new circumstances. Critical contexts for this reception were the expansion of the Ottoman Empire through the Byzantine Empire and into Europe and a concurring period of religious reforms and attacks on papal supremacy in the western Church. While historians have tended to treat pre-Protestant Church reform and early European reactions to Ottoman growth separately, the reception of Contra legem shows these developments were intimately related to one another. I argue that Contra legem became a tool for Europeans who linked the perceived threat of the Ottoman Empire’s expansion to the problem of determining authority within the Church. Readers used Riccoldo’s descriptions of the dangers of the Qur’an to conflate the Ottoman Empire with a broader Islamic threat to Christian society. Such positioning helped readers to substantiate the divine authority of the Church – and especially the papacy – as a bulwark against this threat. This historical study of knowledge transmission demonstrates the continuing impact that medieval views of Islam had on the religious uncertainties in Europe leading up to the Protestant Reformation. The struggle for authority heightened European fear of Islam, and this Islamophobia fueled the circulation of Riccoldo’s