Andrea Cambini

Andrea Cambini

cover of Cambini's book
Born 1445 or 1460
Died 1527
Florence
Other names Andreas Cambinus
Occupation historian
Known for being an author of the famous early work on Ottoman Empire

Andrea Cambini or Andreas Cambinus (1445/1460—1527) was an Italian historian, humanist and writer.[1]

Works on Ottomans

Cambini was the author of an early history of the Ottoman Empire, the Commentario de Andrea Cambini fiorentino della origine de turchi, et imperio della casa Ottomanna, which was published in 1529,[2] two years after his death in Florence in 1527.[3] By 1541, Cambini's book had been reissued several times.[4]

Cambini was a pupil of fellow humanist Cristoforo Landino.[5] Since Cambini had never traveled outside Italy, he wrote his work on the Ottomans by relying on older sources from around Western Europe.[6]

Cambini belonged to a group of sixteenth-century Italian historians which included Paolo Giovio and Giovanni Menavino. They openly praised the Ottoman's organization and behavior.[7] His work sparked interest in the origin of the Ottoman dynasty.[8] In his work, he rejected a theory that the Ottomans were descendants of the Trojans.[9] Cambini followed the fashion of other contemporary historical works and wrote a history of the Ottomans focused on the personality of the Ottoman sultans and on the military events of their reigns.[6]

Use of his works by other contemporary authors

Some authors had considered the work of Christophe Richer on the Fall of Constantinople to be the account of an eyewitness (an otherwise unknown Riccherio), but it was later discovered that it was actually the work of Richer himself, who based his narration of the event on the work of several pervious historians, including Cambini.[10] Cambini's work remains a valuable source of information on the siege because his sources included the testimonies of survivors.[11]

In 1562, John Shute translated the works of Cambini and Paolo Giovio into English and composed a tract on them (Two very notable commentaries: The one of the original of the Turcks and the empire of the house of Ottomanno, and the other of the warre of the Turcke against George Scanderbeg).[12]

References

  1. ↑ Bisaha, Nancy (2004). Creating East and West: Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-8122-3806-8. Sixteenth-century Italian historians and treatise writers such as... Andrea Cambini
  2. ↑ Andrea Cambini (1529). Commentario de Andrea Cambini, fiorentino, della Origine de'Turchi, et imperio della casa Ottomanna.
  3. ↑ Philippides, Marios; Walter K. Hanak (2011). The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Ashgate, cop. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-4094-1064-5.
  4. ↑ John Tolan; Henry Laurens; Gilles Veinstein (25 November 2012). Europe and the Islamic World: A History. Princeton University Press. p. 236. ISBN 1-4008-4475-4. Andrea Cambini's Origin of the Turks and of the Ottoman Empire was reissued several times between 1528 and 1541
  5. ↑ Andrea Cambini (1538). Della origine de turchi.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 David B. Ruderman; Giuseppe Veltri (2004). Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 70, 71. ISBN 0-8122-3779-X. ...the works of two well-known contemporary Italian historians, Andrea Cambini and Paolo Giovio.28 Without having ever left Italy...
  7. ↑ Nancy Bisaha (1 January 2011). Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 178. ISBN 0-8122-0129-9. Sixteenth-century Italian historians and treatise writers such as Giovanni Menavino, Andrea Cambini, and Paolo Giovio spoke highly of the Turks' organization and honorable behavior
  8. ↑ Rhoads Murphey (4 January 2002). Ottoman Warfare, 1500–1700. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-203-01597-1.
  9. ↑ Albrecht Classen; Nadia Margolis (29 September 2011). War and Peace: Critical Issues in European Societies and Literature 800–1800. Walter de Gruyter. p. 482. ISBN 978-3-11-026822-5.
  10. ↑ Marios Philippides; Walter K. Hanak (2011). The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-4094-1064-5.
  11. ↑ Steven Runciman (26 March 2012). The Fall of Constantinople 1453. Cambridge University Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-107-60469-8. Useful information can be obtained from the Florentine Andrea CAMBINI. For his work on Ottoman history, written towards the end of the fifteenth century, he seems to have consulted survivors from the siege.
  12. ↑ Healey, Robin (2011). Italian Literature Before 1900. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-4426-4269-0.

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