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Otranto. A fleet of Ottoman ships swells on the horizon, menacing, monstrous. Suddenly, to the villagers, the scenes from the Cathedral’s Tree of Evil seem prophetic. They are depictions of frightening beings and wretched humanity, made with 600,000 fine mosaic tiles, laid by Presbyter Pantaleone

Rhodes. The final Ottoman attack on the eastern flank of the city. The bombers concentrate on the Jewish quarter, all the way to the Italian Gate. They manage to open a breach and, after slaughtering the guards, force the bazibozuks—brutal and undisciplined Ottoman fighters—through, clearing

Rhodes. The Knights of St. John manage to repel yet another Ottoman attack. The overwhelming charge of the Ottoman forces and the vehement response of the Knights of Rhodes, at the end of a savage battle, leaves hundreds of corpses floating in the harbor. Individual

Rhodes. The indomitable Johannites find themselves alone, facing the entire Turkish army of Mehmed II. The fortified citadel is too old for the modern Ottoman heavy guns. The Ottomans first bombard Fort St. Nicholas, which protects the Mandraki, the key military port. Then begins the

Cornelius Agrippa, perhaps the most important follower of the Hermetic (alchemical) tradition, claims to be able to turn iron into gold with just a glance, to fly, and to converse with angels; he never demonstrated his powers (which is not surprising…).

Florence. Leonardo portrays the hanged corpse of one of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy, Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli (the assassin of Giuliano de’ Medici), confirming a strong connection to the House of Medici.

Bernardo Bandini, one of the conspirators in the Pazzi conspiracy of April of the previous year, arrives in Florence after being captured in Istanbul a few months earlier. He is still dressed in the oriental clothing he was wearing when he was captured, and his

In the armed confrontation between the papal and Florentine coalitions, San Gimignano succumbed to the siege of the Neapolitans and the papacy, after messengers were hanged and biological warfare experiments were carried out involving the launching of infected cattle.

In the wake of Pope Sixtus IV’s excommunication of Lorenzo the Magnificent, an anti-papal front formed in Italy, and even the Tuscan bishops sided with Lorenzo. A letter (the Florentine Synod) was sent to Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, and to the sovereigns of Spain

Pope Sixtus IV excommunicates Lorenzo the Magnificent and his supporters. Medici assets in Rome are requisitioned.

Florence. The papacy was behind the Pazzi conspiracy (the priest Stefano da Bagnone, the apostolic vicar Antonio Maffei, both hanged; Napoleone Franzesi, Bernardo Bandini, Francesco de’ Pazzi, the archbishop of Pisa Filippo Salviati, all hanged; Jacopo de’ Pazzi hanged and thrown into the Arno River;

Florence. Pazzi Conspiracy. Giuliano de Medici is assassinated in the church (Santa Maria del Fiore), during Easter Mass, by a conspiracy hatched by the noble Florentine Pazzi family, supported by Pope Sixtus IV and Ferdinand I, King of Naples. Lorenzo de Medici is only wounded

Peace between the Venetians and the Ottomans. Sixteen years of war with the Turks, without aid from the rest of the West, had exhausted the Republic of San Marco. In the agreement with the Grand Turk, the Venetians maintained access to trade with the East,

Silver reaches its peak value, about one hundred times its current value. This will soon spur the search for new mines, especially in the New World. The new reserves discovered by the Spanish and Portuguese in America will finance their respective empires for several centuries

Sandro di Mariano Filipepi, known as Botticelli, the painter, creates ‘Venus’.

Sandro di Mariano Filipepi, known as Botticelli, paints ‘Spring’.

Florence, Giuliano de’ Medici is killed by political enemies (Pazzi Conspiracy)

In Bologna, based on the Latin version of the Arabic version of Claudio Tomeo’s text Geography, a Ptolemaic atlas is printed in 500 copies, one of which will be bought and carefully studied by Christopher Columbus.

Leonardo da Vinci, 23, is accused of sodomy with a well-known local prostitute, Jacopo Saltarelli (17), who worked in a nearby shop. Leonardo is briefly imprisoned (perhaps just one night). But shortly thereafter, a new, similar accusation arrives, again of sodomy with Saltarelli, but this

The story of the Bavarian Johannes Schiltberger is published in the first edition. There will be 11 editions in the 17th century. He is the page of a Bavarian nobleman taken prisoner in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. He spends thirty years as a

Michelangelo is born. On March 6, 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti, who would become a painter, sculptor, and architect, was born. Many of his early masterpieces, including the most famous, the gigantic marble statue of David, are preserved in Florence. But the work that would later bring

The Sultan (Great Turk) of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II (Mehmet II), approaching fifty, is suffering from gout and is no longer able to attend the sessions of the Council of State (divan-i mumayum). He drinks heavily and, as a rule, has four days of

Cesare Borgia, known as Valentinois, is born the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo Borgia) and Vannozza Cattanei. He later became a general, cardinal, nobleman, and politician. He is one of the most controversial figures of the Italian Renaissance. Destined from a young

Beatrice d’Este: from one of the most venerable Italian noble families. She repeatedly asked Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait, never receiving a positive response.

Cesare Borgia: son of Pope Alexander VI, subject of Machiavelli’s The Prince, employer of Leonardo da Vinci

Jubilee celebrated by Sixtus IV

Leonardo da Vinci painted the portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci. Leonardo’s style already exhibited certain traits, such as the rendering of inner emotions, that would culminate in the Mona Lisa, or Gioconda, at the end of his career and life.

The first patent recognized by law was issued in the state of Venice. This was the first patent legislation as we still understand it today. Another demonstration of the Venetian Republic’s extreme foresight and commercial vocation. The first patent (though ad personam, without a law)

Premature death of Mehmet II’s favorite son, his second son Mustafa.

Antoine d’Ambroise: French governor of Milan, employer of Leonardo da Vinci.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland

Invention of industrial printing

The Ottomans under Mehmet II conquer the Venetian island of Negroponte, the main Venetian base in the northern Aegean.

Constantinople. An Ottoman fleet of 300 warships leaves the Dardanelles. A Venetian spy describes it as “a forest on the sea, incredible to describe, but astonishing to behold.”

Machiavelli was born in Florence

First printing house in Venice

Niccolò Machiavelli: Florentine diplomat and writer, he worked for Cesare Borgia and became a friend of Leonardo da Vinci.

Lorenzo the Magnificent’s active political life proved to be the “needle of the balance” of Italy, conferring with his extraordinary political and diplomatic ability a policy of peace and balance throughout Italy.

Ivan II married Zoe Palaiologina, daughter of Thomas Palaiologina, who claimed the throne of Constantinople. Moscow thus became the “Third Rome,” after Rome and Constantinople.

The Albanian George Castriota Scanderbeg, Venice’s staunchest ally against the Turks, the “athlete of Christianity,” dies. Throughout his life, he held his ground against the superior Ottoman army throughout Albania. At the end of his life, he entrusted his cause to Venice, which, however, managed

Maximum power of the Aztec empire

First printing house in Rome

Prince Ivan III of Moscow proclaims himself Tsar of All the Russias.

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, impales approximately 20,000 Turkish prisoners, as a deterrent to try to prevent an Ottoman invasion of the region.

Reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich (Иван III Васильевич), also known as Ivan the Great. He was born in Moscow on January 22, 1440, and died in Moscow on October 27, 1505, the eldest son of Vasily II of Russia, whom he succeeded as Grand Prince

Pius II (Sienese Enea Silvio Piccolomini), after realizing the substantial failure of the anti-Ottoman alliance at the European and Italian levels due to local and national interests, prepared the Epistle to Mohammed. In essence, he proposed that Mohammed II convert to Christianity. Mohammed II was

Upon the death of Henry, King of Portugal, his explorers’ southward push reached Sierra Leone, but not without difficulties: the serious defeat at Tangier with the capture of his younger brother Ferdinand, and the troubled period that followed with the outbreak of civil war.

Cosimo De Medici, a Florentine nobleman, sends emissaries around the world to track down ancient manuscripts on the Hermetic (or alchemical) arts. A monk appears, claiming to be in possession of a work written by none other than Hermes Trismegistus himself, dating back to the

The papacy of Pius II (the Sienese Enea Silvio Piccolomini), thanks to the phobia of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish phobia), led, for the first time, to the identification of Europe as a single nation, under the common Christian matrix.

Hunyadi successfully defends Belgrade from the assault of the Turks of Mehmet II

Three years after the triumph of Constantinople, Mehmet II failed in his attempt to capture Belgrade. Legend tells of the Franciscan monk John Capistrano, a fervent preacher, the hammer of the Jews, and the scourge of heretics, and his company of ragged crusaders who joined

Italy. According to the chronicles of the Franciscan Cambruzzi, movable type printing (on Venetian glass—fragile but easy to work with) was invented by Panfilo Castaldi in 1456, in Feltre.

Documented transit of the comet that would be named Halley’s Comet centuries later. The first to observe it were Chinese astrologers, but the most detailed measurements were those of Paolo Toscanelli. According to Diebold Schilling’s “Croca di Lucerne,” Naples is destroyed while Rome rains blood

The Modena Cathedral Choir begins its service

The Marquis of Ferrara commissioned a team of artists to create an illuminated Bible. It was the most valuable illuminated manuscript in Italy: the Borso d’Este Bible. It took them six years to complete. It was exported from Italy and purchased by Senator Giovanni Treccani

Alvise da Cadamosto (Portugal) explores the Senegal and Gambia rivers and also discovers the Cape Verde islands

The trade agreement between the Venetians and the Ottomans was reiterated: in exchange for the payment of 2% of their trade revenue, Venetian merchants maintained access to trade in the East.

England, Wars of the Roses

The homicide rate in Italy is 70 per 100,000 people per year (0.070%/year), in the Netherlands and Belgium 50 (0.050%/year), and in England 15 (0.015%/year). This is the highest in Europe. Rates will decline to less than 5 per 100,000 people per year (0.005%/year) from

Hundred Years’ War: The Reconquest of Normandy and Guyenne

Lorenzo the Magnificent de Medici: banker and de facto governor of Florence from 1869 until his death

A Ming imperial decree bans the construction of ocean-going vessels

The Hundred Years’ War: The Partisans’ Resurgence

Joan of Arc (Joan of Arc) is burned at the stake in the Old Market Square of Rouen

The Hundred Years’ War: The French Resurgence under Joan of Arc

Charles VI, already Dauphin since 1417, is crowned King of France in Reims

Plague epidemic in Italy: Puglia, Genoa, Florence, Lucca, Venice, Ragusa, Dalmatia

Jubilee celebrated by Martin V

Hundred Years’ War: “Maine and Anjou” Phase

After the Venetian victory at Gallipoli, the Turks signed an agreement with the Venetians. Venice, whose Doge was Tommaso Mocenigo, retained control of 38 fortresses and cities. Among them: Durazzo (modern-day Durres), Scutari (modern-day Shkodra), Alessio (modern-day Lezhe), Drivasto (modern-day Drisht), Budua (modern-day Budva), Ulcinj

Admiral Zhen He’s first African mission during the Ming Dynasty. He reached Somalia and Kenya. He may also have reached South Africa and circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope. Chinese art of the period is rich in references to Africa, and, conversely, 15th-century Chinese handicrafts

The Venetian fleet, led by Pietro Loredan, defeats the Turks in the Battle of Gallipoli, now Gelibolu. The Turks, in Loredan’s words, “were cut to pieces.”

Hundred Years’ War: Norman Phase

Europe is a desolate place compared to the Near East and China. The bubonic plague is still raging. In England, Henry IV has killed Richard II. In France, there are internecine wars between the followers of the Duke of Burgundy and those of the murdered

Greenland. Last known contact between the Norwegian outposts and the rest of the Europeans. The first outposts were established in 874. Then, with the arrival of the Little Ice Age of the 13th century, contact became more difficult. After 1410, the outposts were completely abandoned.

Venice, after reclaiming Dalmatia from the King of Hungary, and at the height of a booming trade, returned to the prosperous conditions prevailing before the Black Death and the War of Chioggia with the Genoese. It acted as an intermediary in trade between East and

The encyclopedia Wung Lo Ta Tien (The Great Standard of Yung Lo) receives imperial approval. It is a monumental undertaking, commissioned several years earlier by the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to collect all knowledge in various fields: the Confucian canon, history, philosophy, literature,

The Arabic translation of Claudio Tomeo’s Geography was translated into Latin, and a Benedictine friar, Nicolaus Germanus, redrew the maps using a trapezoidal projection, one of the three proposed by Ptolemy. This edition would become the basis of a Ptolemaic atlas printed in Bologna in

Siberia. Toqtamish, Tamerlane’s internal rival, is killed by Shadiberg, governor on behalf of Edigu.

The defeat inflicted by the Mongol Tamerlane on the Ottomans at Ankara delayed the Turkish conquest of Constantinople by half a century, and allowed the Venetians and Genoese to continue trading with the Black Sea, bringing fish, grain, furs and slaves to Italy.