Venetian spies and Ottoman guns

In May, and September 2022, Rémi undertook fieldwork in Venice to look at documents and objects related to firearm technologies in the Mediterranean world, especially in the Ottoman empire. In its long history, Venice was the main interlocutor of the Ottomans. Intense conflicts, trade relations and diplomatic exchanges produced vast archival holdings. The Archivio di Stato di Venezia (State archives of Venice) contains 70 km of shelves full of documents in multiple languages (Italian, Ottoman, Arabic), covering the entire history of the Venetian Republic and those communities across the world with which they had political, economic and cultural relations. The archives also have a large iconographic collection, including maps, drawings, sketches, and engravements.

During these visits, Rémi explored the consular archives, from the Bailo of Venice in Istanbul and from the Consul of Cairo, rich sources of information about Europeans migrating to the Ottoman empire. These were renegades (converted to Islam) or military advisors and they served as artillery men, canon founders, or captains in the Ottoman fleet.

He also dived into the rich iconographic collections: an Ottoman war map taken by the Venetians, that shows the organisation of artillery in a field army; or the plans of Ottoman canons, as reported by from the Venetian intelligence in the 18th century. Rémi also visited the museum of the Arsenal, to look at their collections of canons and firearms. As in Paris, some of them where owned by the Ottomans, who engraved technical indications on the barrel.

Ottoman engravings on a Cannon in the Museum of Arsenal