Giambattista Della Volpe (c1435-1515)

'Giambattista Della Volpe' was an Italian adventurer in Russian during the XVI century. In Russia he was known under the name of Ivan Fryazin (Иван Фрязин]]), Fryazin being a distortion of the name Francesco, and was the Old Russian name for people coming from Southern Europe, mainly Italians.

Giambattista Della Volpe was of noble origin, from the Italian city of Vicenza, Around 1455 he left Italy, going to Eastern Europe. He first visited the Tatarsa went to Moscow where he converted to Orthodoxy and entered the service of Ivan III. Eventually he became the mint master of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, being in charge of producing the duchy's coins.

In 1469 Volpe was sent to the Roman court of matchmaker for the Grand Duke Princess Sophia Palaeologus. Performing the task, he again went to Rome and here in 1472, was deputy Ivan III in the commission of the marriage ceremony. After leaving Rome, together with Sofia on June 24, Volpe November 12 was already in Moscow. In a dispute about permission papal legate Anthony Bonumbre come to Moscow in the previous Holy Cross, Volpe ardently defended the interests of Catholics. Even earlier, by his nephew, Antonio Dzhilardi, who was returning from Moscow, Volpe suggested that the Venetian government to liftthe Golden Horde on the Turks in the amount of 200 thousand horsemen. The Senate accepted the proposal and sent to the Tartars (in Russia), his secretary, Jean-Baptiste Trevisan in 1471. In Moscow, however, Volpe somehow concealed from the grand duke this mission Trevisan and gave him for his nephew, by profession a merchant, hoping to quietly hold it to the Horde. With the arrival of Sofia Palaeologus (in Russian sources - even before) opened a fraud. Angered by Ivan III Volpe imprisoned in Kolomna, ordered the plunder his goods, and his wife and children - to drive home. Trevisan almost paid with his head. Only after relations with the Venetian government, when it emerged that an embassy to the Tartars does not involve the nature of a hostile Russia, Trevisan was released to the Khan Ahmat. The subsequent fate is unknown Volpe.