Page 199 - sfogliabile 49

Infidel friends: Charles V, Mulay Hassan and the theatre of majesty 465

Velasco . Mulay Hassan went
67
to Augsburg for another perso-
nal meeting with Charles V, but
before that he travelled exten-
sively through Italy; his mo-
vements were widely dissemi-
nated by local chroniclers and
especially by his friend the
humanist Paolo Giovio. Giovio
praised Mulay Hassan as a cul-
tivated man who surprised his
European interlocutors with his
delicate taste for perfumes, his
passion as a book collector and
his proficiency in the philo-
sophy of Averroes and judicial
astrology, all common fields of
discussion beyond religious dif-
ference .
68
Mulay Hassan also visited
the viceroys of Sardinia , Sicily
69
and Naples. During that second
journey, the viceroy of Naples,
Pedro de Toledo, granted him a
Fig. 8. N. Van Der Horst, Muley Hazen Roy de dignified lodging and treatment,
Thunes, in J. Chiflet, Les marques d'honneur
de la maison de Tassis, Balthasar Moretus, but, as a proof of Mulay
Anvers, 1645, p. 76. Hassan’s diminished status,
the viceroy did not even visit
him . Mulay Hassan was received by pope Paul III in Rome on 28
70
January 1548, however, as his role as an enemy of the Ottoman sultan
was considered more important than his Muslim faith. The blind king
refused to convert to Christianity and showed a distant – even disdainful
– attitude towards the Pontiff, by refusing to take part in the usual

67 Ferrante Gonzaga to Charles V, 15 January 1546, Ags, E, 1117, n. 9; Gómez
Suárez de Figueroa to Charles V, Genoa, 1 december 1547, Ags, E, 1379, n. 255, f. 1v.
68 The communication between both men was intermediated by Arabic translators,
a situation that dismayed Giovio for «speaking through idiot interpreters» [«aunque
hablábamos por intérpretes idiotas»]. P. Giovio, Segunda parte de la historia cit., ff. 201r,
206r-207v, 398r; J. Nauclerus, Chronicon, Quentel, Coloniae, 1564, p. 703; S.
Deswarte-Rose, L’expedition de Tunis cit., pp. 117-118, 121-129.
69 Gómez Suárez de Figueroa to Charles V, Genoa, 1 December 1547, Ags, E, 1379,
n. 255, f. 1v.
70 «no le he podido ver, pero hele hecho tratar y recoger bien». Pedro de Toledo to
Charles V, Naples, 9 December 1547, Ags, E, 1037, n. 145.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)