Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World by Noel Malcom (review)

Historiography has paid particular attention to Mediterranean history, which is not surprising considering the importance this sea (surrounded by the coasts of Europe, Asia and Africa) had as a business, political, and cultural trade area among these three continents. Serving as a connecting zone between the confessional states in Europe and the Ottoman Empire, during the modern age the Mediterranean has been the stage where numerous characters acted, and who, despite their different responsibilities, contributed to connecting the Christian West with the Muslim East. In this context, alongside the figures with institutional tasks at the service of the States, there were also corsairs, spies, interpreters, religious people, and political intermediaries who played a significant role, which historiography has acknowledged only partially up to now. Considering this subject from this original point of view, Noel Malcom focuses his research on two Albanian families, Bruni and Bruti, which settled down and made a fortune in Ulcinj, a city situated in what is present-day Montenegro.

In the sixteenth century, Albania was a barrier between East and West, which is to say the Christian world and the Muslim one. It was a trade area which also witnessed comparisons and debates among Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam. Formerly subject to the Republic of Venice, in the second half of the fifteenth century, Albania was under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Taking into account an unpublished manuscript composed by Antonio Bruni about the history of his family, Malcolm focuses his attention on the political and cultural landscape which characterized the relationship between the European States and the Ottoman Empire. Giovanni Bruni seems to have been a remarkable figure. An Albanian orator born in Ulcinj, he became archbishop of the diocese of Bar, a city situated on the border between the Ottoman territory and the areas under the influence of Greek Orthodox and Lutheran confessions. Thanks to this experience, which put him in touch with faiths and religious confessions different from Catholicism, in 1562 he was summoned by Pius IV to the Council of Trent (1545–1563), an occasion in which the Roman Church tried to define its confessional identity after the Protestant Reformation. When he returned to his diocese, he put into practice the Tridentine decrees. When control of Albania passed from the Venetian State to the Ottoman Empire, Giovanni was taken prisoner and put into the Ottoman galleys of the 1571 Battle of Lepanto.

Thus, Giovanni was killed by a group of Spanish soldiers, who, overlooking his plea that he was a Catholic bishop, executed him. Together with Giovanni, his brother Gasparo is also remarkable. In 1567, he joined the Knights of Malta and, four years later, he took part in the Battle of Lepanto, playing a leadership role in the Christian fleet.

Bartolomeo Bruti, cousin of Giovanni and Gasparo Bruti, worked as a translator at the Venetian embassy in Constantinopole. Surpassing national and religious borders, Bartolomeo offered his linguistic and political diplomatic skills indiscriminately to Venice, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire. Malcolm’s original and accurate research, focusing on very interesting unpublished sources, helps us to understand the unique role of the Mediterranean during the early modern age, before the main political and trading routes moved to the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Thanks to the coexistence of different factors, such as its small size and mild climate, the Mediterranean became an area of cultural debate and confrontation, which contributed in shaping the identity of Europe and Asia in the modern age.

Thanks to trade, political relations, and war, the Mediterranean Sea brought into close contact three continents, facilitating the dialogue and exchange of knowledge between different societies, languages, religions, and cultures. Thus, Malcolm’s work may serve for integrating the historiographical interpretation, which focuses on geographic-political borders as a key element for understanding modern Europe and their consequences for political and...