Christian-Muslim Relations

A Bibliographical History
Volume 9. Western and Southern Europe
(1600-1700)

Edited by
David Thomas and John Chesworth
with Luis F. Bernabé Pons, Stanisław Grodź,
Emma Gaze Loghin, Radu Păun, Mehdi Sajid,
Davide Tacchini, Ann Thomson

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2017

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 CONTENTS

Foreword ........................................................................................................ vii

List of Illustrations ....................................................................................... xi

List of Maps .................................................................................................... xiii

Abbreviations ................................................................................................ xiv

Luis F. Bernabé Pons, Introduction: Empires, wars, and languages.

Islam and Christianity in 17th-century western and southern
Europe ......................................................................................................... 1

José Maria Perceval, Attraction and repulsion of the other:

Muslim descendants in the Iberian Peninsula ................................... 17

Works on Christian-Muslim relations 1600-1700 ................................. 27

Iberia ................................................................................................................ 31

France .............................................................................................................. 391

Italian states ................................................................................................... 619

German states ............................................................................................... 817

Central Europe .............................................................................................. 915

Index of Names ............................................................................................. 1021

Index of Titles ................................................................................................ 1035

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 Ottaviano Bon
Date of Birth 7 February 1552
Place of Birth Venice
Date of Death 19 December 1623
Place of Death Venice

Biography
Ottaviano Bon was born on 7 February 1552 into one of the oldest and
most aristocratic families in Venice, the second of 14 children. His father,
Alessandro di Alvise, was politically active, but was also lucratively
engaged in Venice’s maritime trade at a time when the number of Vene-
tian patricians involved in international commerce was reduced. Bon
studied at the university in Padua, and frequented noted reformist intel-
lectual salons, where he came into contact with Paolo Sarpi, Giordano
Bruno, and possibly Galileo.
Bon’s political career began in 1577, and he progressed through a series
of positions of increasing importance, before beginning his diplomatic
career in 1601 with his election as ambassador to Spain. In April 1604, he
was elected to one of Venice’s most sensitive and important diplomatic
postings, bailo in Istanbul, a position he held until early 1609. Relations
between Venice and the Ottoman Empire during Bon’s term were for
the most part peaceful, which was the default position sought by both
polities. The ongoing disruptions to trade and shipping by the pirati-
cal Uskoks of Senj in the northern Adriatic, fomented by the Austrian
Habsburgs and the papacy, threatened this stability, but Bon effectively
neutralised this issue. He also ably managed the disruptions caused by
the interdict controversy between Venice and the papacy, including par-
rying Ottoman proposals to ally in a coalition against Spain and Rome.
In the commercial realm, Bon worked to defend Venetian trade interests
against Dutch, English and Jewish competitors. His success in Istanbul
was partly a result of the extensive network of relationships he estab-
lished with influential Ottoman officials. Upon his return to Venice in
1609, Bon presented his relazione (report), which is a prime example of
his penetrating and lucid diplomatic sensibilities. Another product of his
time in Istanbul, the Descrizione del serraglio del Gransignore, is a rare
first-person description of the sultan’s seraglio based on a surreptitious
personal visit Bon arranged.

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Following his return from Istanbul, Bon was repeatedly elected to

important offices, including ambassador to Rome and France. From his
days in Padua, he had been active in reformist circles and a critic of
papal corruption, and he continued his engagement in internal Vene-
tian political debates even while posted to Istanbul. This outspokenness
led in 1617 to a group of patrician political adversaries charging him with
failing to carry out the senate’s directions during his embassy to France.
Bon was exonerated but embittered, and thus decided to retire to Padua.
Two years later, he was again accused of ambassadorial misconduct and
favouring Spanish interests, and was once more absolved of all accusa-
tions, though his writings were ordered to be destroyed. In March 1620,
he was elected by the senate to the position of podestà of Padua, in an
attempt at reconciliation and in recognition of his long and honourable
service to the state. He died in Venice on 19 December 1623, never hav-
ing married.

MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Primary
L. Lollino, Vita del cavaliere Ottaviano Bon, Venice, 1854
Secondary
P. Preto, ‘I turchi e la cultura veneziana del Seicento’, in G. Arnaldi and M. Pastore
Stocchi (eds), Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 4/2: Dalla controriforma alla
fine della repubblica. Il Seicento, part 2, Vicenza, 1984, 313-41
M. Pasdera, art. ‘Ottaviano Bon’, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome,
vol. 11, 1969, 421-4

Works on Christian-Muslim Relations

Descrizione del serraglio del Gransignore,
‘Description of the seraglio of the Grand Signor’
Date Around 1606
Original Language Italian
Description
While it was written by an experienced Venetian diplomat, the Descrizione
differs significantly from the typical Venetian ambassadorial report, such
as the one Ottaviano Bon himself delivered at the end of his mission.
It does not treat the political structure of the Ottoman Empire or the
key figures in the hierarchy, nor does it consider the political climate

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668 ottaviano bon

of the day, in particular the sultan’s relations with neighbouring pow-

ers. Rather, its focus is on the seraglio’s physical space, its personnel,
immense costs, and the rhythms of life within its walls. Bon describes the
divan and its functioning, and the audiences of diplomatic representa-
tives, like himself, with the sultan. He also provides a detailed discussion
of the palace’s kitchens, cuisine and culinary rituals. Almost inevitably,
Bon turns his eye to the women of the harem, though not in the usual
voyeuristic, eroticised way that characterises most contemporary and
subsequent descriptions, founded as they were on imagination rather
than observation. Rather, he discusses the complex organisation of the
harem, its political influence, the provenance of its female inhabitants,
the sultan’s children and the nature of their upbringing in the harem.
Bon also describes in great detail the bureaucratic structure of the
palace, listing all the chief officials who serve there, and gives detailed
descriptions of their roles and duties. The document finishes with a gen-
eral discussion of Islamic belief and praxis in the Ottoman capital.
It is not clear what happened to the original version of Bon’s text.
There is no record of it being presented before the Venetian Senate, and
it is unclear which, if any, of the many extant copies is in fact the origi-
nal. It circulated from early on in manuscript form, as is evidenced by
its inclusion in the manuscript travel narrative of the Bolognese travel-
ler and merchant, Tommaso Alberti, dated to the early 1620s. Curiously,
it first appeared in print in two English translations that plagiarised
and expanded on Bon without any attribution. The first, The Grand
Signiors serraglio, was printed in the second volume of Purchas his pil-
grimes in 1625. It was the work of Robert Withers, a young member
of the entourage of Paul Pindar, English ambassador to Istanbul from
1611 to 1620. Withers divided the work into chapters, which was not the
case with Bon’s original text, but was reasonably faithful to the original,
even though Withers did not make this link explicit. Twenty-five years
later another, significantly altered version, entitled A description of the
Grand Signor’s seraglio, or Turkish Emperours court, appeared. This was
edited by John Greaves, an Oxford scholar and Professor of Geometry at
Gresham College, London, who appears to have been unaware of With-
ers’ earlier translation.
The first Italian edition of Bon’s manuscript was not published
until 1865, by Guglielmo Berchet, where it takes up 69 pages. Girolamo
Soranzo in his Bibliografia veneziana (Venice, 1885, p. 132) mistakenly
reports a 1684 Italian edition, but this is in fact an Italian translation

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 ottaviano bon 669

of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier’s Nouvelle relation de l’intérieur du serrail du

grand seigneur (Paris, 1675).
Significance
The Descrizione represents an important addition to the corpus of writ-
ings on the Ottoman Empire because it provides the first account of the
seraglio of the Ottoman sultans based on actual, first-hand experience
and observation. Bon was able to gain this unprecedented access dur-
ing an absence of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17), who was away from the
capital on a hunting excursion. Though unpublished for centuries, the
Descrizione circulated widely in manuscript copies and deeply informed
subsequent discussions of the Ottoman palace and the harem.
Publications
Thanks to widespread interest in the Ottomans generally, and the sera-
glio in particular, the Descrizione circulated in numerous manuscript
copies produced over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. Many
of these are now located in Venice, others have been dispersed in librar-
ies throughout Europe and the United States. These differ not only in
their transcription, but also to some degree in content, with some leav-
ing out material included in most copies, and others adding additional
passages. It is not clear which of the surviving manuscripts, if any, is the
original by Bon’s hand.
MS Vicenza, Biblioteca civica Bertoliana – 955
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – It. VI, 61 (5687)
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – VI, 283 (5705)
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – It. VII, 578 (7283)
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – It. VII, 923 (7800) (includes 3 sepa-
rate copies)
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – It. VII, 977 (7631)
MS Venice, Biblioteca Marciana – It. VII, 1083 (8531)
MS Paris, BNF – Italien 1326
MS London, BL – Addit. 18661
MS Venice, Museo Correr – Cicogna 1126
MS Venice, Museo Correr – Misc. Correr XVII/1580
MS Cambridge MA, Houghton Library, Harvard University – Ital 62
MS Cambridge MA, Houghton Library, Harvard University – Ital 62.1
MS Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Cod. 5923
MS Syracuse, Syracuse University, Leopold von Ranke collection – 105

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670 ottaviano bon

Robert Withers, ‘The Grand Signiors serraglio’, in Samuel Purchas,

Purchas his pilgrimes in five bookes, London: Henrie Fetherstone,
16252, vol. 2, book 9, 1580-1613; STC 20509 (digitalised version avail-
able through EEBO) (English trans., much altered)
Ottaviano Bon, A description of the Grand Signor’s seraglio, or Turk-
ish Emperours Court, ed. John Greaves, London, 1650, 1653; Wing
W3213 (digitalised version available through EEBO) (English trans.,
much altered)
G. Berchet, Il serraglio del gransignore descritto da Ottaviano Bon
bailo veneto a Constantinopoli nell’anno 1608, Venice, 1865; repr. in
N. Barozzi and G. Berchet, Le Relazioni degli stati europei lette al
Sentato dagli ambasciatori veneziani nel secolo decimosettimo,
series V (Turchia), vol. 1. Venice, 1866
A. Bacchi della Lega (ed.), Viaggio a Costantinopoli di Tommaso Alberti
(1609-1621), Bologna: Romagnoli dall’Acqua, 1889; repr. Bologna,
1969
Ottaviano Bon, The Sultan’s seraglio. An intimate portrait of life at the
Ottoman court, ed. G. Goodwin, London, 1996 (English trans.)
Ottaviano Bon, Il serraglio del Gransignore, ed. B. Basile, Rome, 2002

Eric Dursteler

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