Notizie dal Bosforo. Una lettera ritrovata di Bartolomeo da Giano ad Alberto da Sarteano

The first part of the article retraces the biographical events and the literary works of the Observant friar Bartolomeo da Giano, within their historical context, through a reanalysis of both the sources and the previous bibliography. His letters, particularly, are a primary source for the history of the turkish conquest of south-eastern Europe. The second part is focused on the handwritten witnesses of the epistle, that Bartolomeo sent from Constantinople in 1438 December 12th to friar Alberto da Sarteano, at the time engaged in preaching in Venice, in which he describes the critical condition of the city. Until today the letter was known only thanks to the edition of the camaldolese scholar Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli of 1779. Therefore, after the presenta- tion of two new manuscripts, one Latin and the other, more complete, both Latin and Vulgar, a critical edition is provided of this latter, and hitherto unknown, version (Padova, Civic Library, A. ms.11), that can be assumed to be the original one written by the hand of the Umbrian friar.