Bessarione e la Crociata: l’epistola al frate minore Giacomo della Marca

On 20th May 1459, a few days before the opening of the Council of Mantua, in which pope Pious II called a new Crusade against the Ottomans, Cardinal Bessarion, who was at that time Protector of the Franciscan Order, wrote a letter to friar James of the Marches to urge him to gather men and goods for a military expedition in the Peloponnese. In this letter, Bessarion reports a brief description of the geography and the economy of the Peloponnese the narration of the events that took place there the year before, i.e. Thomas Palaeologus reconquered some of the regions which once belonged to the Despotate of Morea. So, Bessarion invites Giacomo to collect as many Crusaders as possible and send them in the Peloponnese, in order to help Thomas and his troops. This essay contains the edition of the letter, with an Italian translation and an historical commentary. In particular, I focused on the comparison between the content of this letter and the Latin and Byzantine contemporary sources, and on the relationship between this epistle and other Bessarion’s works, especially a letter about the conditions of the Peloponnese sent in 1444 to Constantine Palaeologus.