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Antonia-Oana Avram SIXTEENTH -CENTURY TRAVEL LITERATURE COLLECTORS AND THE IMAGE OF THE OTTOMANS IN HUMANIST THOUGHT: FRANCESCO SANSOVINO AND RICHARD HAKLUYT MA Thesis in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Central European University Budapest June 2020 CEU eTD Collection SIXTEENTH -CENTURY TRAVEL LITERATURE COLLECTORS AND THE IMAGE OF THE OTTOMANS IN HUMANIST THOUGHT: FRANCESCO SANSOVINO AND RICHARD HAKLUYT by Antonia-Oana Avram (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ CEU eTD Collection Examiner Budapest Month YYYY SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TRAVEL LITERATURE COLLECTORS AND THE IMAGE OF THE OTTOMANS IN HUMANIST THOUGHT: FRANCESCO SANSOVINO AND RICHARD HAKLUYT by Antonia-Oana Avram (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest June 2020 SIXTEENTH -CENTURY TRAVEL LITERATURE COLLECTORS AND THE IMAGE OF THE OTTOMANS IN HUMANIST THOUGHT: FRANCESCO SANSOVINO AND RICHARD HAKLUYT by Antonia-Oana Avram (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest June 2020 I, the undersigned, Antonia-Oana Avram, candidate for the MA degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 05 June 2020 Antonia-Oana Avram Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract The constant interaction with the Ottoman Empire in the early modern times made Europeans develop an array of possibilities on how to coexist, cooperate, and comprehend this Muslim society. These variants were not expressed only in diplomatic, economic, political, or even religious premises, but also in literary ones. With the advancement of the Ottomans in Europe and the increased interaction with their socio-cultural practices, a vast amount of histories, travelogues, and ethnographic material began to be printed in Europe, either for practical purposes or for the curiosity of the readers. Broadly, the image of the Ottomans emerging from these accounts was one that scared European audiences, but during the sixteenth century it slowly changed, as these descriptions began to display admiration towards the Ottoman Empire. In this thesis I analyse how sixteenth-century humanists’ editorial practices and intellectual endeavors were main factors in constructing in their printed works an ambivalent image of the Ottomans. To pursue this line on inquiry, I use as Sansovino’s and Hakluyt’s works as a case study. I argue that although from both of their works stems an ambivalent image of the Ottoman Empire, each of them has its particularities that are specific to the work of the two humanists. These individual features reflect the influences of various external factors and actors, but as humanists, Sansovino and Hakluyt needed to establish the authority and integrity of their arguments, by putting a lot of emphasis on the veracity of the sources they use and on the credibility of their authors. A close reading of the dedicatory letters, prefaces, correspondence, and paratexts of both Sansovino and Hakluyt reveals that the ambivalent image of the Ottomans that stems from their printed materials is the reflection of their humanist editorial and intellectual endeavors. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude towards a number of people without whose help I would not have been able to complete this thesis: Jan Hennings, my main supervisor, for eagerly continuing to support my topic, for his guidance and confidence in my abilities to put all my ideas together. Marian Coman, who convinced and supported me to apply to CEU and who, during my entire academic career, gave me excellent advice and suggestions. Marcell Sebők for stimulating conversations and useful tips along the two years spent here. My colleagues Serkan Simen, Cevat Sucu, and Iskander Rocha Parker for providing me with insights from their fields of expertise on the matters I was not so well versed on. Last but not least, I am immensely grateful to all of my friends who made my time here at CEU a life- changing experience, and especially to Anja Božič for her unconditional support and encouragement during this last academic year. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Part I. Framing the Ottomans in the writings of Sansovino and Hakluyt .................................. 8 I.1. Francesco Sansovino’s Image of the Ottomans ............................................................... 8 I.2. Richard Hakluyt’s Image of the Ottomans .................................................................... 27 Part II. Humanists’ Agency in Constructing the Image of the Ottomans ................................ 47 II.1. Sansovino, Hakluyt, and Editorial Practices ................................................................ 49 II.2. Sansovino’s and Hakluyt’s Intellectual Formation ...................................................... 63 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 82 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 84 CEU eTD Collection iii Introduction In the early modern period, the Ottoman Empire made Europeans awe at its might. Territorial expansion, military organization, and supreme obedience to the sultan were only several details that filled up the portrait of this empire. With time, the dynamics between European states and the Ottoman Empire diversified, and the conversation between Christian and Muslim societies always translated into a discourse that vacillated between admiration and fear. This dichotomy of acknowledging or condemning the Ottoman Empire’s presence on the cultural, ideological, and political map was strongly linked with the emergence of secularized thinking during the Renaissance. Whether it was in the philosophical perception of man, the individual’s role in society (and how this relationship applied to other cultures), or the development of politics and trade interests separate from the interest of the church – the dissociation from long established Christian precepts transformed the Ottoman Empire into a familiar foreigner who nurtured the curiosity of Europeans. The fascination for the history of this Islamic empire, that ruled over a multi-religious and multi-ethnic population, has been lasting until today, as the wide range of analyses of European-Ottoman encounters show. Traditional historiographical frameworks kept the interaction between European states and Ottoman Empire compartmentalized. Whether approaching political, economic, or religious matters, it was not until towards the end of the twentieth century that scholars began CEU eTD Collection intertwining them to better explain the intricate interactions between the polities.1 As Palmira 1 Dorothy M. Vaughan, Europe and the Turk: A Pattern of Alliances, 1350–1700 (New York: AMS Press, 1976); Pauk Coles, The Ottoman Impact on Europe (London: Thames and Hudson, 1968); Paolo Preto, Venezia e i Turchi (Florence: G. C. Sansoni, 1975); Charles A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire, 1453–1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Asli Çirakman, From the “Terror of the World” to the “Sick Man of Europe”: European Images of Ottoman Empire and Society from the Sixteenth Century to the Nineteenth (New York: Peter Lang, 2002); Eric Dursteler, Venetians in Constantinople: 1 Brummett noted, historians still tend to “run in parallel rather than intersecting tracks” the ways in which the Ottomans were known in the sixteenth century.2 There have been published studies dealing with projections of imperial power; histories of the trade exploring

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