Ludovico da Bologna[a] (fl. 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.
- ^ Green 2018.
- ^ Walsh 1977, p. 70.
- ^ Morrison 2002, pp. 217–220.
- ^ Salvadore 2017, p. 79 n. 34.
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