Negotiating Transcultural Relations in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Ottoman–Venetian Encounters by Stephen Ortega (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Negotiating Transcultural Relations in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Ottoman–Venetian Encounters by Stephen Ortega Amanda van der Drift Ortega, Stephen, Negotiating Transcultural Relations in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Ottoman–Venetian Encounters (Transculturalisms, 1400–1700), Farnham, Ashgate, 2014; hardback; pp. 212; 12 b/w illustrations, 2 maps; R.R.P. £65.00; ISBN 9781409428589. Stephen Ortega’s recent monograph investigates transcultural movement and encounter in the early modern Mediterranean to expose the power structures that facilitated, maintained, and monitored relationships across cultural boundaries. Ortega primarily examines Ottoman–Venetian encounters during a time of transition between the War of Cyprus (1574) and the War of Candia (1645) when the Ottomans and Venetians were experiencing peaceful relations and Venetian commercial interests shifted focus away from the sea. This resulted in an influx of foreign traders to the Serenissima that included many Muslims. Ortega argues that the outcomes of individual transcultural encounters and disputes between East and West were negotiated within networks of interrelated political and social power structures that operated at local and trans-imperial levels. These complex networks were designed to protect and maintain commercial interests between the powerful trading partners. The author supports his thesis through an examination of diverse, individual cases of transcultural encounter taken largely from Venetian inquisition, criminal, trade, and commerce records and makes use of English, Italian, and Turkish primary and secondary sources. The first of five themed chapters demonstrates the way Venetians empowered intermediaries to manage contact with Ottoman foreigners [End Page 343] at both local and state levels. Intermediaries were chosen because of their ability to move between the diverse cultural realms and therefore better establish and monitor local and imperial transcultural interactions. Ortega provides the example of local intermediary, Francesco Lettino, a Greek with ambiguous loyalties who operated as a trade broker on the Rialto. In the Republic’s attempt to reorganise the urban space to reduce the incidence of unsupervised transcultural contact, Lettino was granted permission to establish a fondaco in 1621 to house all Ottoman Muslims in Venice. At a higher social level, state appointed dragomans or interpreters from diverse ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds dealt with diplomacy and trade to promote and protect Venetian interests. Chapter 2 examines the role Venetian councils and magistrates played in providing a space for intercultural dialogue that gave foreign subjects a voice in disputes and conflicts. These forums enabled negotiation and resolution of differences that had the potential to impact transcultural relations at the highest level. In the third chapter, the movement of people across cultural boundaries is addressed. Ortega begins with the case of a Bosnian Muslim woman named Lucia who escaped her marriage and family and fled to Venice. She converted to Christianity and sought protection at the home of a Venetian administrator, only to be pursued by her family and returned. Through an in-depth examination of cases such as Lucia’s, the interrelated social and political contingencies involved in crossing cultural boundaries are revealed. They include the willingness of people to change religion as necessary and the difficulties of crossing state boundaries without the support of powerful connections; in Lucia’s case, the latter being of secondary concern to preserving the political and commercial interests of the respective powers. Chapter 4 investigates the way the Ottoman government projected sovereignty as well as political and legal power through the use of envoys, delegations, ritual, guarantees, letters, and networks of officials who effortlessly crossed religious and social boundaries. In the final chapter, Ortega shows how the ‘integrated political space’ of the Mediterranean became a site of contested jurisdiction characterised by power struggles and power shifts at factional and state levels. This is exemplified in a dispute that occurred in the Adriatic Sea between the Venetians, Ottomans, and Spanish in 1617 that was subsequently resolved through convoluted social and political negotiations and aggressive confrontation. With continuing scholarly interest in relations between the East and the West, Ortega’s well-researched book provides a valuable contribution to revealing the intricacies involved in negotiating transcultural encounters in the early modern Mediterranean. [End Page 344] Amanda van der Drift The University of Queensland Copyright © 2015 Amanda van der Drift