The power of the quill: espionage under Charles V during the Tunisian Campaign Varriale, Gennaro Ottoman expansion into the Western Mediterranean in the sixteenth century created an intense rivalry with the Habsburgs. This article examines this conflict from a different aspect, i.e. that of espionage. While on the one hand analysing the political changes in the Mare Nostrum in the 1530s, on the other, it scrutinizes the Neapolitan intelligence, the most important information gathering at the service of Emperor Charles V. It furthermore specifically concentrates on the contribution of espionage to the Emperor’s campaign of Tunis against Khayr al-din Barbarossa. 2025-01-23T08:29:19Z 2025-01-23T08:29:19Z 2021 journal article Gennaro Varriale, The Power of the Quill: Espionage under Charles V during the Tunisian Campaign, in "Osmanli Arastirmalari - Journal of Ottoman Studies", 58 (2021), pp. 1-29. 2376-0702 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/100061 10.18589/oa.1041507 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Osmanli Arastirmalari - Journal of Ottoman Studies