Communicate with the Turkish: Mediterranean Diplomacy in Front of the Ottoman Advance

The Ottoman advance in south-east Europe had slowly replaced the Byzantine dominion with the Turkish one. What did it mean for Latin people meeting the Turks? Might they correctly understand Turkish uses, power and behavior? Diplomacy acts show changes and new attempts to contact them. On the basis of these sources the paper aims to answering the above questions focusing two phases: firstly Genoese and Venetians as well, tried to get friendly relations, afterwards they understood it was unrealistic and begun to really fear such a powerful entity even trading with them.