People

Benedetto da Lezze, Lazzaro Mocenigo e Piero Basadonna

The three Venetian nobles in April 1567, with a notarial deed, founded a company for the construction of a large merchant ship which, at least in their initial intentions, was supposed to travel along the western maritime routes, towards the English and Flemish coasts. However, the outbreak of the Venetian-Ottoman conflict in 1570 upset the plans of the three partners, forcing them to put their ship at the service of the Republic of Venice. During one of these voyages, the ship's commander was ordered to lead a military contingent of 500 soldiers to Corfu, 280 of whom under the command of the young colonel Giovan Tommaso Costanzo. During the crossing, on 21 July 1571, the ship's journey suddenly stopped near the island of Sazan in front of Vlorë, due to an unexpected lack of wind. The ship was sighted by the Ottoman fleet which took advantage of the circumstance to attack it. After eleven hours of furious fighting the vessel fell into the hands of the famous corsair, and then the governor of Algerie, Uluç Ali.

Francesco Valenza di Curzola

Francesco Valenza di Curzola was a shipbuilder from the island of Korčula (It. Curzola) in Dalmatia. He arrived in Venice in 1539, with his whole family, after the outbreak of war between the Venetians and the Ottomans. In Venice, Francesco began his new career in private shipyards that built merchant ships, and the State Arsenal that built galleys and other military vessels. He was also employed as the captain of merchant ships. In one autobiographical document he takes credit for inventing vessels with three decks. In 1567, three Venetian nobles commissioned Francesco to build a large ship of the capacity of 700 tons. After launching in 1569, he personally took command of it. Afraid that his ship would be captured by the Ottoman fleet that was about to invade the island of Cyprus, Francesco disobeyed the orders of the Venetian commander Marcantonio Bragadin. Tried in absentia, the court sentenced him to death, but Francesco managed to escape from Venice and avoid punishment. After a year spent in the service of the papal fleet, he was temporarily pardoned for his services. He died shortly thereafter, around 1573, under unknown circumstances.

Alvise Finardi

Alvise Finardi was born around 1507 to a family which probably originated from Bergamo. In his long maritime career, he accomplished several feats. In 1537 he thwarted an attempted mutiny by the crew of the ship Dolfina. In 1538, having embarked on the ship Coressa, he nearly succeeded in freeing the Christian slaves who were imprisoned in the castle of Tripoli. For many years he commanded merchant ships.

Together with Francesco Valenza di Curzola, in 1570 he was sentenced to death by the court of Venice for having disobeyed a command given by the military authorities of Cyprus. Fled from Venice he embarked on the papal galleys. Thanks to his merits he was pardoned, and became admiral of the galley of General Sebastiano Venier, winner of the battle of Lepanto. In 1581 he became captain of the ship Gagliana Grossa, which sank in autumn of 1583 near the islet of Gnalić. Alvise Finardi died on 28 January 1587 at the age of 80, and was buried in the church of St. Stephen (Ven. Sant' Iseppo) in Venice, next to the body of his friend Giovanni da Vrana.

Giovanni da Vrana

Giovanni da Vrana was an experienced sailor but short-tempered and brusque. Son of Marco, he was captain of several merchant ships, including the Duoda in the 1940s, the Alberta in the 1950s and the Giustiniana in the 1960s. Enlisted in the Venetian struggle, he valiantly participated in the battle of Lepanto as admiral of General Sebastiano Venier's galley, and was wounded by two arrows during the clashes. After the battle, from the division of the booty he received a gift of an Ottoman galeotta ship as a reward for his service. Later, after having bought some slaves, Giovanni took command of his galeotta and fought the Ottomans as a corsair, taking numerous plunder and prisoners.

He died after the plague of 1576 and was buried in the church of St. Stephen (Ven. Sant' Iseppo). A sumptuous altar was erected in his honour, adorned with valuable depictions of merchant ships, in memory of his past as a captain, and of the deployment of the Venetian and Ottoman fleets during the battle of Lepanto.

Giovanni Tommaso Costanzo

Giovanni Tommaso Costanzo was a descendant of an ancient line of men of arms. He was the son of Scipio Costanzo, a well-known leader, once in the service of the French king Francis I and of the Republic of Venice. From a very young age he demonstrated a remarkable skill in the use of weapons, and an innate aptitude in the art of war. In 1570, shortly after the outbreak of the Cyprus War, at the age of just 17, Costanzo joined the Venetian army in the rank of colonel, to fight the Ottomans.

During the journey by sea to reach the island of Corfu, the ship Lezza, Moceniga and Basadonna, on which he was embarked, was attacked by the Ottomans. After twelve hours of bloody fighting, the ship was captured by Uluç Ali, who after the Battle of Lepanto become the Great Admiral of the Ottoman fleet. The wounded Costanzo was taken to the Sultan's court, where he refused to renounce the Christian faith. He was then imprisoned in the infamous Ottoman fortress Rumelihisarı on the Black Sea, where he remained until 1575. He died in 1581, during the The Eighty Years' War in Flanders, and was buried in the cathedral of Sant'Antonio in Padua.

Nicolò da Ponte

Nicolò da Ponte (1491-1585), son of Antonio and Regina Spandolino, was elected 87^th Doge of the Serenissima Republic of Venice on 3 March 1578, at the age of 87. His election was a cause of heated contrasts due to his origin from a second-rate patrician family and his well-known avarice, despite his conspicuous patrimony. A proud and stubborn man, due to his advanced age he was unable to participate actively in political life, particularly in the last years of his mandate.

When in 1583 the Senate received the dispatch from bailo Giovan Francesco Morosini, announcing the fire of a wing of the Sultan's Old Palace, the Council presided over by the Doge, put forward the proposal, which was immediately accepted by the Senate, to send the 5,000 windowpanes (Ven. rui) as a gift necessary for the reconstruction of the windows, together with some precious silk brocade fabrics as a tribute to the Sultan’s mother Nur Banu. During the recently resumed excavation of the shipwreck site, the lead seal of Nicolò da Ponte was discovered, confirming the presence of the cargo shipped by Dodge himself.

Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francesco I de' Medici (1541-1587) was the son of Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Saint Stephen Pope and Martyr. He died a few days before his wife Bianca Capello, under suspicious circumstances never clarified.

In 1581 the ship Gagliana and Turiglia was plundered by the Tuscan galleys of the Knights of Saint Stephen. In the face of the violation of the non-aggression pact against the merchant ships of San Marco, the Venetian Senate spoke to the Grand Duke of the requests for compensation for the damages suffered. However, the Grand Duke opposed the return of the goods stolen by his corsairs, arguing that the ships owned by the Gagliano family could not benefit from the privileges of Venetian nationality as they participated in companies with Ottoman subjects. It was only thanks to the skills of the Venetian diplomats in Constantinople and the intervention of the wife of the Grand Duke, whom the Doge himself had elevated to the title of "true and particular daughter of the Republic" a few years earlier, that a terrible conflict was avoided. That event was one of the main reasons for Odardo da Gagliano, to buy an old Venetian ship (Gagliana Grossa), inscribed in the Registers of the Republic of Venice.

Murad III

Murad III’s long reign, from 1574 until his death in 1595, was marked by protracted wars on the Ottoman Empire’s western and eastern fronts, against Austria and Iran. His reign also saw the empire’s increasing control on the eastern coast of Africa. Yet he never personally participated in a military campaign. Murad III’s sedentary lifestyle in the Harem at the Topkapı Palace led to a major institutional and architectural reorganization, centering on his mother, Nurbanu, who was on the way to becoming one of the first Queen Mothers to play a dominant political role at the court. Other court ladies, more specifically, elder sister of Murad III, Ismihan, and his favorite concubine Safiye Sultan, as well as his female courtiers, became important power contenders and exercised a strong influence on state affairs.

He was a great patron of arts and a bibliophile. In 1582 he organized a monumental festivity to celebrate the circumcision of his son, the future Mehmed III. The lavish public celebrations which lasted for 52 days and nights was documented in a “book of imperial festivities” (Surname-i Hümayun). illustrated by over 400 manuscript paintings. He commissioned numerous other luxuriously illustrated historical manuscripts and the imperial art workshops excelled in the arts of the book during his reign. Murad III furnished the contents of the two-volume Şehinşahname (the Book of the King of Kings), depicting victories of the Ottoman army, the justice of the sultan, audiences given to ambassadors, and various memorable events of the era, and Kitabü’l-Menamat (The Book of Dreams), addressing his spiritual advisor, Şüca Dede. The latter is a unique collection of first-person accounts of an Ottoman sultan, telling Murad III’s mystical experiences as a Halveti Sufi disciple. He wrote mystic poems under the pseudonym Muradi. 

In May 1583, bailo Giovanni Francesco Morosini notified the Senate of a fire that had destroyed a part of the sultan’s Old Palace. Sultan Murad III immediately engaged all craftsmen in Istanbul and charged high officials from his court with oversight of the works, in the hope that the competitive spirit, thus engendered among them, would accelerate the building’s reconstruction. Venetian patricians decided to use the ship Gagliana Grossa to send 5.000 windowpanes, ordered from Venice for its reconstruction.

Nurbanu

Among all the people associated with the cargo of the, one that stands out is Nurbanu Sultan, the principal consort (and later legally married wife) of Selim II, who gave birth to Murad III, the next Ottoman sultan. There is some uncertainty about Nurbanu’s origins, but her frequent correspondence with the Doge of Venice testifies to a peculiar affinity with the Serenissima, which may have been her place of birth.

Documents found in the Venetian Archives reveal that she had contacted authorities and commissioned agents in both Istanbul and Venice to obtain new furnishings for the “old Harem” in the imperial palace. For the moment, there is also uncertainty about which specific Istanbul palace these Venetian furnishings might have been intended for. Among the palaces where commissioned items were planned to be placed are her own palace at Yeni Kapı on the Marmara shore, the Old Imperial Palace and the New Palace (the Topkapı Palace), which were both under reconstruction at the time.

The most striking pieces in Gagliana Grossa’s cargo included a 43-meter-long piece of woven silk cloth and five meters of damask associated with Nurbanu Sultan, who was known for her love of luxury and fashion. In a letter of June 1583 to the bailo she requested bales of silk, robes of silk damask and gold cloth as ‘gifts’, and in one instance, small lap-dogs of the kind so fashionable among Venetian aristocratic ladies.

Five letters Nurbanu Sultan wrote between May-November 1583, addressing the Doge, and the bailos Contarini and Morosini, show that right down to the end, she was still involved with her duties as well as diversion and comfort. Nurbanu died just before both harems’ renovations were finished. And the cargo of the Gagliana Grossa never reached Istanbul.

Uluç Ali or Kılıç Ali Pasha

Despite the many sources retelling the remarkable life of Kılıç Ali Pasha, we have very little reliable information about the first years of his life. He was born in a very humble family, between 1505 and 1518, as Giovanni Dionigi Galeni, in the village of Le Castella, in the east coast of Calabria. On 29 April 1536 he was captured by the Ottomans, and forced to serve as a galley slave. Within a few years, Giovanni converted to Islam and became a corsair in the fleet of Turgut Reis, also known as Dragut.

The exercise of privateering allowed Kılıç Ali Pasha, to start an extraordinary career in the contest of the escalating rivalry between Christianity and Islam for control of the Mediterranean. His naval and administrative skills first brought him the governor-generalship of Tripolitania (1565-1568) and Algeria (1568-1572) and then the Grand Admiralty of the Ottoman fleet (1572-1587).

The name he assumed once he converted to Islam appears in different forms in various sources: Uluç Ali, Uluccialì, Uccialì, Luccialì, Occhialì, among others. These many names seem to reflect the complexity of his life and the versatile, feared and admired personality of a man on the cusp of two worlds. He died in 1587.

In July 1571 he attacked and captured the ship Lezza, Moceniga e Basadonna in front of the Bay of Vlorë in Albania. He kept the ship for ten years, and in 1581 sold it to Odardo da Gagliano, an Ottoman subject of Venetian origin, who lived in Pera, the European part of Constantinople.

Odoardo and Domenico da Gagliano

Since the late Middle Ages, families who aspired to expand their business used to send their family members abroad to create commercial networks. Domenico, son of the merchant Antonio residing in Constantinople, arrived in Venice in the years between 1520 and 1530. After a period of apprenticeship, he began his business in 1554 and over the course of thirty years he achieved a certain notoriety among the Christian and Jewish mercantile community. Together with his nephew Odoardo, who remained in Constantinople, he expanded the family fortune by investing in the ownership of ships, buildings, land and shops.

Following the looting of one of their ships, the Gagliana and Turiglia, by Tuscan corsairs, the family da Gagliano was accused of illegally embarking the goods of Ottoman merchants, falsely declaring that they enjoyed the protection of the flag of the Republic of San Marco. In an attempt to defend its reputation, the family bought an old Venetian ship, the Lezza, Moceniga and Basadonna from the Uluç Ali, the Great Admiral of the Ottoman fleet. The new ship, renamed Gagliana Grossa, sank in the autumn of 1583 near the islet of Gnalić.

Grand Vizier Siyavuş Pasha

Crotian-born Kanijeli Siyavuş Paşa (d. 1602), originally from Kanizsa in modern-day Hungary, served three times as the Ottoman Grand Vizier (1582–1584, 1586–1589, 1592–1593). Grand Vizier was the title of the effective head of government in the Ottoman Empire. As the absolute deputy of the sultan, the grand vizier held the imperial seal and could convene all other viziers to attend to affairs of the state. From 17^th century onwards, the grand viziers gained political supremacy, while the sultans reigned in name only. In the 19^th century, the grand vizier’s office became comparable to that of European prime minister. 

Siyavuş Paşa married Fatma Sultan, the youngest daughter of Selim II and Nurbanu Sultan in 1573, who died while giving birth prematurely to a daughter in 1590. The couple were great patrons of architecture. They had two palaces in Üsküdar and a third within the city walls in Istanbul, near the Süleymaniye complex, all built by Mimar Sinan, the chief of royal architects.

He commissioned the construction of a madrasa from Sinan's successor, Davud Aga, in memory of Fatma Sultan, next to their palace, and opposite Hoca Hamza's mosque in Süleymaniye. In her will, together with the madrasa, she requested her husband to build a Friday Mosque, a dervish convent, an elementary school, a hospice, a caravanserai, a public fountain, a stone bridge and pavements. Like Murad III, Siyavuş Paşa commissioned luxuriously illustrated historical manuscripts. One such art work in his library was Zübdetü’t-Tevârîh (Cream of Histories), written by the court panegyrist Seyyid Lokman as a visualization of Murad III’s spiritual legitimacy.

In late spring 1583, bailo conveyed to the Senate an order of 5,000 round window panes (Ven. rui) needed for the restoration of the windows of the Old Palace, which he received on behalf of the sultan from Grand Vizier Siyavuş Paşa. The windowpanes were loaded on the ship Gagliana Grossa along with many other luxury items from the Murano workshops.

Giovan Francesco Morosini

Giovan Francesco Morosini (1537-1596) was the son of Pietro and Cornelia Corner. He started a political and diplomatic career from an early age. At the age of twenty, he accompanied the Venetian ambassador to Spain. At the age of 25, he was elected Savio agli Ordini (Wise Man of Orders; senior magistrate of the Republic of Venice, in charge of supervising maritime matters). He later held diplomatic posts at the Imperial Court in Austria and was twice Savio di Terraferma (Wise Man of the Mainland). In 1572, he was an orator in Paris at the court of Henry III of Valois. From 1578 to 1581 he was ambassador in Spain.

Upon his return to Venice in May 1582, he was appointed bailo (Venetian ambassador) in Constantinople, at the court of Sultan Murat III, where he remained until June 1585. The title bailo veneto a Constantinopoli was the most prestigious post in any Venetian diplomatic career due to the great responsibility involved, the sensitivity of negotiations with the Ottomans and its long tradition of existence. Among his many important duties, the bailo played the leading role in the Venetian intelligence service, so he received confidential instructions from the authorities and sent vital and secret information in encoded reports.

On June 16, 1583, Morosini sent a coded message to the Senate, in which he forwarded a request of Grand Vizier Siyavuş Pasha for the purchase of 5,000 window panes for the restoration of the Sultan's Old Palace, which was partially destroyed in a fire. Unfortunately, the Gagliana Grossa, which was transporting the requested goods, sank near the islet of Gnalić, so the Senate had to organize a new shipment.

Guglielmo Helman

Guglielmo Helman was the Flemish merchant, originally from Antwerp in Flanders. Despite his father Carlo being sentenced to prison in 1561, due to the substantial debts contracted by his grandfather Rigo, Guglielmo still managed to make the family business prosper, thanks to the new kinship ties established with the powerful Zanfort dynasty, also originally from Antwerp.

Guglielmo, after obtaining the privilege of citizenship in 1579, managed to integrate perfectly into Venetian society, by becoming a member of the confraternity of the Santissimo Sacramento (Eng. Blessed Sacrament). His business ranged from the trade of jewels and precious stones, to that of spices, sugar, grain, wool and silk fabrics. Between 1567 and 1587 he was enrolled in the guild of goldsmiths and jewellers. In this context Helman embarked in the autumn of 1583 on the ship Gagliana Grossa a considerable quantity of jewels destined for Constantinople. Unfortunately, the ship was wrecked but the valuables were later recovered. In the same year, Guglielmo commissioned a monumental family tomb to be erected in the church of Santa Maria Formosa, where his remains were buried in 1591.

Antonio Paruta

Antonio Paruta was a well-known commercial intermediary, active on the market of Constantinople, especially in the sector of trade in fabrics and precious stones. In this context, Paruta maintained an intense epistolary relationship with his clientele, including the Venetian citizen of Flemish origin, Guglielmo Helman.

In some letters from the latter, dated between August and September 1583, Helman informed Paruta of the imminent arrival in Constantinople of the ship Gagliana Grossa, on which he had secretly embarked an iron casket and a box containing jewels and precious stones of considerable value. With the same letters, Helman also warned Paruta that another ship would soon arrive in Constantinople with a rival jewel merchant on board, known to Venetian justice for "stealing the business of others". He therefore advised Paruta to sell as soon as possible the jewels that had just come into his possession and, at the same time, warn the Ottoman authorities so that they could intervene to stop the dangerous competitor. Unfortunately, the ship Gagliana Grossa sank shortly after, but the precious cargo was eventually recovered.

Manoli “Fregata”

Manoli “Fregata” was of the Greek origin, native of the island of Crete, and son of Iani. He was the expert in the recovery of goods, shipwrecked at a maximum depth of about 30 meters. In February 1572 he provided for the recovery of barrels of oil wrecked with the ship Michela in the port of San Pietro dei Nembi (Cro. Sveti Petar near Ilovik, Croatia). In July 1577, with 6 boats and 24 men, he recovered some anchors and artillery from the ship Bonalda, which sunk in the waters of Cittanova (Cro. Novigrad) near Poreč (Croatia), after a fire broke out on board.

In the winter of 1583, he was charged with recovering cargo and ship's equipment from the shipwreck of the Gagliana Grossa. During the recovery operations, the clerk’s chest was found, with bags of money inside, and two packages containing jewels and precious stones. From this discovery a dispute arose, with the insurers and the owners of the jewels, for the estimate of their value and the price to be paid to Manoli and the recovery team. Finally, Manoli got one third of the value of the salvaged goods, and arrested the salvage operations.