Copia della capitolatione ...

This manuscript is an official copy of the Adhname of 1575 between Sultan Murat and the Republic of Venice, translated by Mattio Marcuini from Ottoman Turkish and carried to Venice by the ambassador Giacomo Soranzo in 1576. It has been extracted from an official letter book, as indicated by the heading 'XXVIII' and the foliation 240-252.

The Adhname was a form of contractual agreement between the Ottoman Empire and European states, commonly known in Europe as a 'capitulation'. It was not an agreement between equals. Most Adhnames between the Porte and Venice were usually drafted after a war. The Adhname of 1575 was the second to be drafted after the War of Cyprus (the first was signed in 1573 between Selim II and Venice), and it ushered in a period of more than 70 years of peace between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that Venice and the Ottoman Empire were military rivals, they were also long-time trading partners with large economic interests at stake. Even while war was being waged, business was being maintained, and this document reaffirms the fact that war was war, but business was business.

This Adhname was signed two years after the Adhname of 1573, which caused disgust among the other European states, since it was signed barely two years after the battle of Lepanto and the loss of Cyprus. These Adhnames regulated the commercial relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Adhname of 1575 contains 52 clauses covering a wide variety of activities. Subjects discussed include customs regulations for commodities, the slave trade, which Ottoman ports Venetian ships could enter and what sort of licence was necessary, what sort of protection Venetian merchants were entitled to, the amount of tax subject peoples were required to pay and so forth. Two clauses deal with Cyprus in the wake of the war of 1571: articles 33 and 44 concern the amount of tribute the island must pay to the Porte per year: 8 million gold chequins or sequins. As Iain Fenlon says, "The indemnity was high, but in return the prized trading agreements which guaranteed access to the markets of the Levant were retired".