Mehmet II’s Political Success? The Establishment of the Florentine Colony in Ottoman Constantinople (1453–1470)

Abstract This article investigates the outset of Florence’s colony in Ottoman Constantinople until the conquest of Negroponte in 1470 by the Ottoman forces led by Mehmet II. It analyses the dynamics of the Florentine approach toward Constantinople and the inception of Florentine-Ottoman relations in order to provide a detailed political reconstruction of the events that would enable Florence to successfully establish a colony in the new Ottoman capital. The study intends to reconstruct Mehmet II’s original privileges as a ground to explore further the political interactions of the colony with the Ottoman sultan as well as thanks the support to institutional sources such as the letters of consulars and merchants living in Constantinople and – although with great care – Benedetto Dei’s chronicle. All these elements will be approached by taking into consideration the balance of power between the Florentine colony and the Ottoman court within Constantinople, which has not previously been taken into account by past historiography in order to verify whether the Florentine colony was effectively an honorable guest or a privileged hostage.