Ronchey, S. “La caduta di Costantinopoli.” Il Medioevo, X, Quattrocento: Storia. Ed. U Eco. Milan: Motta, 2009. 70-9 (= Il Medioevo: Esplorazioni, commerci, utopie, Milan: Encyclomedia Publishers, 2011. 32-5.)

In April 1453, Mehmet II, armed with an immense army and the most advanced technology of the time, laid siege to Constantinople, defended by a few thousand troops, hemmed in around the emperor Constantine XI and the enigmatic Genoese commander Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, and entrenched behind exalted but decrepit ancient walls. Nonetheless, resistance lasted over a month and the last Ottoman attack was about to be repulsed when Giustiniani Longo inexplicably retreated from the battlements, causing the capitulation of the City.  The fall of Constantinople precipitated a veritable trauma among the intellectual and political élite in the West and unleashed ambitious plans for anti-Turk expeditions.