La Terrasanta nel quadro della politica orientale di Alfonso V d'Aragona

The propaganda promoted by the humanists of Alfonso d’Aragona’s court tends to present him as a perfect monarch, and moreover a champion of religiosity, in order to accredit him as ideal military leader of a future crusade the purpose of which would be to counter the advance of the Ottomans and to reconquer the Holy Land. Mostly during the 40s’ and 50s’ of XV century Alfonso builds a dense diplomatic network in all the Mediterranean area: he developes relations not only with the king of Cyprus and the knights of Rhodes but also with the caliph of Tunis, the sultan of Egypt, the king of Ethiopia and the Ottoman sultan. The life of his loyal subject Giovanni Filangieri, a cadet of a noble Sicilian family, in this regard is exemplary, and for this reason has been narrated in detail: he takes an active part in almost all the military initiative of his king in the Mediterranean