venice and its minorities 467
and continued its designs on Venetian possessions in the eastern Medi-
terranean, conquering cyprus in 1571. during the War of the Holy League,
when the senate heard that its bailo (ambassador) in constantinople,
together with the Venetian merchants there, had been arrested, it did the
same to turkish subjects in Venice—according to one source, 75 Muslim
and 97 Jewish ottoman merchants49—in order to facilitate the release
of their own citizens and their property. after the news of the victory
of the combined League forces at Lepanto in october 1571 reached Ven-
ice, the ottoman merchants, who meanwhile had been released, fled from
the rialto and locked themselves inside for four days out of fear of being
stoned. Presumably this experience led them, according to the papal nun-
cio, in august 1573 to request from the government “for the convenience
of trade, a place of their own, as the Jews have their ghetto.”50 in response
to a request by one Francesco di dimitri Littino, in august 1575, the senate
decided to require the ottoman Muslims to reside together in one house
while they were in the city since their property might be stolen, giving
rise to trouble and possible harm to the treasury; worse, it was claimed
that with little respect for God, they could go around at night wherever
they wished in the houses of christians, with scandal and the danger of
many troubles.
eventually, in March 1579 the collegio selected the house of Bartolomeo
Vendramin, located in rialto near the church of san Matteo and the for-
mer site of the osteria con l’insegnia dell’angelo, for the residence of the
turks, but in august, the collegio reversed itself and decided instead to
assign the house of Zaccaria Gabriel in san Polo. this induced Giulia, the
widow of Francesco Littino, to come to the signoria. recalling the conces-
sion granted to her late husband and pointing out that, since the house of
Gabriel was not yet ready, the otomans were living all over the city, she
requested permission to find another house in which the turks could live
together until the house of Gabriel was ready. the signoria responded by
granting her request on condition that she submit daily to the collegio a
list of all Muslims arriving and departing from her place. thereupon, the
Littino family rented the premises of Vendramin and in it housed many
49 For these numbers, see c. Kafdar, “a death in Venice (1575): anatolian Muslim
Merchants trading in the serenissima,” Journal of Turkish Studies 10 (1986), 200, photo-
reproduced in s. subrahmanyam, ed., Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World
(aldershot, 1996).
50 see a. Buffardi, ed., Nunziature di Venezia, 42 vols (rome, 1958–2008), vol. 11: 18
giugno 1573–22 dicembre 1576, ed. adriana Buffardi (1972), p. 69, cited in Preto, Venezia e i
turchi, p. 130.