A GEORGIAN EMBASSY TO SPAIN AND ROME (1495–1497) AND LITHUANIAN DIPLOMACY

MARIA KOROGODINA

MARIA KOROGODINA Doctor of Historical Sciences and Head Researcher and Director of the Manuscripts Department at the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Constantine II, King of Kartli, sent an embassy to Queen Isabella of Castile and Pope Alexander VI in 1495 in the hope of concluding an anti-Ottoman alliance. On the way back, the ambassadors visited the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where two letters from King Constantine II were translated. One of them, addressed to Pope Alexander VI , has so far remained unknown. The discovery of this letter, and the study and edition of its

text, which are the subject of this paper, allow us to fill in the gaps in information about the Georgian embassy and to understand more accurately the interests and aspirations of European sovereigns, including far beyond the borders of Georgia and the Vatican.