Turkophilia and Religion: Machiavelli, Giovio, and the Sixteenth-Century Debate about War

This essay will piece together the genesis of Turkophilia in the sixteenth century, linking it to the reception of Machiavelli and of Paolo Giovio, in particular the latter’s Commentario delle cose de' Turchi which was published in 1532 by the same Roman printer as Machiavelli, Antonio Blado. Through the analysis of a number of texts, mainly Italian and Spanish, published before and after the middle of the 16th century, which in some cases fed into the collections of Francesco Sansovino, the paper will show how the two authors’ approach influenced a realistic view towards, and the possibility of a comparative analysis of, the Ottoman Empire. Specifically, it focuses on the issue of military discipline and the relationship between religion and war, which had taken centre stage thanks to Machiavelli’s dissection of the Roman Empire.