Constructing the Circassians: The Genoese Humanist Giorgio Interiano and the Ethnography of the Enslaved

The Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting NEW ORLEANS 22–24 March 2018 Mapa de Cuauhtlantzinco (detail); © 2017 The Latin American Library, Tulane University. 93 Friday, 23 March 2018 9:00–10:30 20115 Hilton Riverside 1st Level Grand Salon 13 Administering Venice and Genoa: Slaves, Land, Coasts Organizer: Renaissance Society of America Chair: Letha Catherine Ch’ien, Sonoma State University Steven Teasdale, University of Toronto Constructing the Circassians: The Genoese Humanist Giorgio Interiano and the Ethnography of the Enslaved Azeta Kola, New York University “In tempo di Guerra I non die pagar”: The Catasto Veneto di Scutari, 1416–17 Vittorio Tigrino, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” Coasts and Beaches in Mediterranean: Local Communities’ Practices and Aristocratic Landscape Depictions (Liguria, 16th–18th Centuries) CONSTRUCTING THE CIRCASSIANS THE GENOESE HUMANIST GIORGIO INTERIANO AND THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE ENSLAVED Steven Teasdale, University of Toronto THE VITA ET SITO DE ZYCHI Printer mark of the Aldine Press. Source: Giulio Menna, Leiden University. Title page of Vita et Sito de Zychi (1502) Preface of Aldus Manutius as a dedication to Jacopo Sannazaro Source: Berlin State Library 1 2 SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS OF THE VITA Matthias Miechow, Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis (1518). The Vita appears in the appendix, translated by Johann Eck. Giovanbattista Ramusio, Delle Navigationi et viaggi (1559) The Vita is included among numerous Mediterranean travel narratives, with textual changes by Ramusio. THE LANDS OF THE CIRCASSIANS, CA. 1500 3 4 RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OF THE CIRCASSIANS Senty Church, in the province of Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia. Located in the traditional land of the medieval Circassians. Constructed 10th century. Source: Crimean News Agency ( Агентство Кримські Новини ) CIRCASSIAN WOMEN The Favourite Sultana. Painting by Étienne Jeaurat, ca. 1750. Pera Museum, PM_GAP_PC.050 5 6 CIRCASIAN SLAVERY Present day Feodosia (Caffa), showing the remains of the fifteenth-century Genoese walls, across the Kerch strait from Circassian lands. Source: Crimean News Agency ( Агентство Кримські Новини ) THE INTERIANO FAMILY Palazzo Paolo Battista e Niccolò Interiano. Piazza delle Fontane Marose, 2, Genoa Constructed 1565–67. Herald of the Interiano family ASGe, Manoscritti 497, Pandetta di Stemmi, fol. 2r. Dated 1700. 7 8 WHO WAS GIORGIO INTERIANO? ASGe, Notai antichi 667, Branca Bagnara filza 20, nr. 357, dated 1455-09-13. q. Giorgio q. Tommaso attested as deceased in infancy. Refers to an earlier will of 1441-08-21, where an infant Giorgio was indicated as an heir. ASGe, Manoscritti 798, Scrutinio della nobilità ligustica, fol. 100v. Federico Federici. Dated 1634. Identifies “Geronimo Interanio” as the author in Ramusio’s Navigazioni. GIORGIO INTERIANO… ? Famagusta 1487, during the time of the administration of the Casa di San Giorgio. Source: Beschreibung der Reise von Konstanz nach Jerusalem by Conrad Grünenberg. Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe, Cod. St. Peter, pap. 32. 9 10