Leonardo Boldù was a member of the patrician Boldù [it] family, who served the Republic of Venice as governor in Albania and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the First Ottoman–Venetian War.
Life
In October 1467, he was rector of Scutari (Shkoder), when he was entrusted with a diplomatic mission to Sultan Mehmed II to end the ongoing First Ottoman–Venetian War. Granted safe-passage to the Ottoman court through the intercession of the Albanian nobleman Alexius Span and bearing rich gifts for the Sultan, Boldù managed to meet Mehmed in March 1468, but his mission failed to achieve anything substantial.
In May 1474, Boldù was appointed overall governor (provveditore) of Venetian possessions in northwestern Albania, which faced an Ottoman attack that culminated in a failed siege of Scutari.
References
- Babinger 1961, p. 58.
- Babinger 1961, pp. 58–60.
- Babinger 1992, pp. 261, 265–266.
- Babinger 1992, pp. 334–336.
Sources
- Babinger, Franz (1961). Johannes Darius (1414 - 1491), Sachwalter Venedigs im Morgenland, und sein griechischer Umkreis (in German). Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. OCLC 54905371.
- Babinger, Franz (1992) . Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Bollingen Series 96. Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. Edited, with a preface, by William C. Hickman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09900-6. OCLC 716361786.