The agent we are dealing with today is called Giovanni Barelli: originally from the island of Corfu, he belonged to the Order of the Knights of Malta, although he was in the pay of Philip II's Spain. Barelli had often travelled to Constantinople with safe-conducts to obtain information on Ottoman military and geopolitical considerations. Safe-conducts were instruments widely used by European agents: they were licences issued by the Sultans that allowed these agents to penetrate Ottoman territory. The main objective was the liberation of slaves, but often these operations were covers for real espionage missions. The first ruler to whom Barelli had offered his services, in 1569, was the Marquis of Pescara, Viceroy of Sicily: these potential services ranged from the burning of the Ottoman Arsenal to the poisoning of the Sultan's sons, to the killing or capture of Joseph Nasi. Meanwhile, the idea of ransoming Christians captured in the early stages of the War of Cyprus (1570-1573) had already taken shape in 1572. This was possible because Don John of Austria - the victor of Lepanto - had gathered 42 valuable prisoners to be exchanged, including the teenage sons of Müezzinzade Ali Pasha, the Ottoman admiral who had died at Lepanto. In March 1573, Giovanni Barelli was curiously allowed to take some prisoners with him to discuss the ransom of Ottoman prisoners in Constantinople; in fact, our agent was charged with negotiating with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Metrophanes III, to obtain information about the possibility that the Greek-speaking population in the Peloponnese was considering rebelling against the Ottomans. Barelli finally arrived in Salonica - the most important Ottoman port in Europe - where he managed to ransom the prisoners in exchange for 1,000 ducats. Unfortunately, our Barelli arrived late, because the agreement between Venice and the Ottomans, signed the same month, cancelled his plans to start an anti-Ottoman uprising in the Peloponnese.