Ludovico da Bologna ( 1431/1454–1479) was an Italian diplomat and churchman. A lay Franciscan, he traveled extensively on diplomatic missions for both the Holy See and various powers, both Christian and Islamic. The overarching goal of his travels was the creation of an alliance against the rising power of the Ottoman Empire. In 1461, he was named Patriarch of Antioch, but he never received canonical investiture.
His first missions, to the Holy Land, Ethiopia and India, were aimed at church unity, but it is not known if he ever got past the Holy Land. He traveled to Georgia and Persia in 1457 and 1458, returning to Europe with a major embassy from the eastern rulers. With this embassy, he traveled throughout Europe in 1460–1461 to drum up support for an anti-Ottoman crusade. His career languished, however, after he had himself consecrated patriarch uncanonically.
In 1465, he moved between the Holy See, the Crimean Khanate and Poland to build an anti-Ottoman alliance. This drew him for a time into Danish service. In the 1470s, he moved between Persia, the Holy See and Burgundy. The untimely deaths of his Persian and Burgundian patrons in 1477–1478 rendered his efforts fruitless. His date of death is unknown.
Family and early life
Ludovico came from a wealthy and politically connected merchant family. He was born at Ferrara, probably around the third decade of the 15th century, possibly as early as 1410. His father, Antonio di Severo, died before 1438. His grandfather, who moved the family from Bologna, made a fortune in the lumber trade. His cousin Severo was the chancellor and secretary of Duke Ercole I of Ferrara between 1491 and 1500.
Nothing of Ludovico's education is known before he became a lay member of the Observant Franciscans. In the 16th century, Marianus of Florence traced his membership back to 1431, identifying him with the Ludovico da Bologna who was one of six Franciscans (including Giovanni da Capestrano) in a chapter formed by Pope Eugene IV to consider the means of protecting eastern Christians from heresy and the Ottomans. He has also been identified with the letter-bearer (baiulus litterarum) of the same name sent by Alberto Berdini da Sarteano from Jerusalem to Rome in 1436, and with a Ludovico da Bologna who visited Constantinople and Caffa with two brother friars in 1437 on a mission to deliver the papal invitation to the Council of Ferrara to the Armenians. The identification of the anti-Ottoman diplomat Ludovico with the Ludovico of the 1430s has, however, been doubted on the grounds that they require Ludovico be either unrealistically young at the start of his career or unrealistically old at its end in 1479.
Diplomatic career
Missions to the Holy Land, Ethiopia and India (1454–1457) The first certain mention of Ludovico is in a bull issued by Pope Nicholas V on 28 March 1454. Living in Jerusalem at the time, he and two companions were granted privileges and dispensation to go to Ethiopia and India. This was part of a papal strategy to bring the eastern churches into papal obedience and create a global anti-Ottoman alliance. At some point, Ludovico returned to Rome and received money for further missions in Ethiopia, India and the Holy Land, according to two bulls issued on 11 May 1455 and 10 January 1456 by Pope Calixtus III, who permitted him to take along four companions. During his time in Italy, he visited his native Ferrara on 19 November 1455. The funds raised in October by Duke Borso of Ferrara for a crusade may have been related to Ludovico's visit.
From Ferrara, Ludovico set out for Ethiopia and India. He was back in Rome by late 1456 or early 1457, bearing "letters from Asian rulers" and accompanied by eight Ethiopian monks. It is certain, however, that he could not have visited Ethiopia and India and returned in this time. It is possible, given the imprecise European geographical knowledge of the time, that he did indeed visit or at least get near a place he considered "Ethiopia". Thus, although papal documents suggest that he should have made at least two trips to Ethiopia and India, it seems quite unlikely that he ever made it. His way was most likely blocked by the Mamluks. The actual results of all these early missions are therefore unknown.