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Cancila R (letture)_8 19/04/19 17:33 Pagina 167

Appealing to the enemy, breaking boundaries

DOI 10.19229/1828-230X/4582019

The volume by Giovanni Ricci, Appeal to the Turk. The broken
boundaries of the Renaissance (Viella, Rome, 2018, pp. 190), along with
his previous publications, Ossessione turca (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2002)
and I Turchi alle porte (il Mulino, Bologna, 2008), make up a trilogy in
which the author develops the theme of the Turkish threat, whether
real or imagined, in the Italy of the Renaissance. And with a final coup
de théâtre: the appeal to the Turk.
In the first of the three books the danger was for the most part
imaginary, the fruit of that fear which since 1453, the year of the fall
Constantinople, had spread throughout Europe, to such an extent as
to transform itself into a pathological reaction, a real obsession that
was impossible to suppress, even in a city like Ferrara, a place well
behind the lines, which was indeed not at all exposed to the danger.
This obsession was transformed into a real danger, on the other hand,
in the second volume, I Turchi alle porte, which has as its focus of
interest the actual incursions made by the Turks into Italian territory
towards the end of the fifteenth century: at least five in Friuli and a
devastating attack in 1480 on Otranto in Puglia, territory belonging to
the Kingdom of Naples. The two worlds, the Christian and the Muslim,
that appear to be in contrast in the first book, thus really do oppose
each other in the second. But let us come to the third, whose title
raises several questions. To appeal means to invoke, to call someone,
to make them come, to turn to someone in order to receive their help.
How is it possible that this obsession and this opposition should then
become an invocation, a call for help?
It is the breaking of a border, of a stereotype; one of contrast, of
opposition, of the division between two worlds. And it is significant that
this emerges on the political level, or rather that political powers and

n.45 Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVI - Aprile 2019
n.40
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)