Noel Malcolm, An Unknown Description of Ottoman Albania: Antonio Bruni’s Treatise on the beylerbeylik of Rumeli (1596)

Noel Malcolm - All Souls College, Oxford
TOME LIII 2015
p. 71-94
Online publication date: 
02/05/2024
Keywords: 
Antonio Bruni; Rumeli; Albania; Lazaro Soranzo; Habsburg-Ottoman War
Abstract: 

This article presents the text of a treatise on the beylerbeylik of Rumeli, written by Antonio Bruni in 1596, and gives a summary account of Bruni’s life. Bruni was an Albanian from the Venetian-ruled city of Ulcinj; members of his extended family worked in Venetian, papal and Ottoman service, and he himself, after a Jesuit schooling in Rome and a doctorate in Avignon, worked for one of his cousins in Moldavia. His treatise was written for Cardinal Cinzio, nephew of Pope Clement VIII, at a time when the Papacy had a strong interest in exploiting Ottoman military weakness and encouraging rebellion, particularly in the Albanian lands. Bruni’s work shows a detailed knowledge of conditions both in Rumeli generally and in Albania. This treatise, which has remained unknown in modern times, has a double significance: it is the first general description of Albania by a named Albanian author, and it was also a major source of information for Lazaro Soranzo’s L’Ottomanno (1598), one of the most influential early modern publications on the Ottoman Empire.

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