Epistola Mahomethi Turchiae Graeciaeque Imperatoris ad Ferdinandum Regem Siciliae de expugnatione Negropontis. Responsio dicti Ferdinandi Regis Siciliae de eadem re : [between 1475 and 1500?].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Mehmed II, Sultan of the Turks, 1432-1481.

Language:

Latin

Subjects (All):

Negropont (Venetian colony)--History.

Greece--History--1453-1821.

Greece.

History.

Sicily (Italy)--History--15th-18th centuries.

Turkey--History--1453-1683.

Turkey.

Venice (Italy)--History--Turkish Wars, 1453-1571.

Genre:

Manuscripts, Latin.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Old shelf marks on wrapper: ww .l .A 1 30 XXIII.

Acquired, 1958.

Physical Description:

1 item (1 leaf) : paper ; 22 cm

Other Title:

Magometh dey gratia turchieque grecieque imperator.

Serenissimo et illustrissimo domino Magometh.

Place of Publication:

[between 1475 and 1500?].

Language Note:

In Latin.

Summary:

Copy of a letter purportedly written by Muhammed II to Ferdinand, King of Sicily, concerning the siege of Negropont. Includes a copy of Ferdinand's response.

Notes:

Title from label on 17th-century wrapper.

Heading of copy of first letter: Copia littere theucri ad dominum Regem.

Incipit of first letter: Magometh dey gratia turchieque grecieque imperator ...

Heading of copy of second letter: Copia responsionis Regis.

Incipit of second letter: Serenissimo et illustrissimo domino Magometh

Written in Italy, possibly Naples. Each letter gives the date of its composition; the date of the first letter cannot be read easily, but the second letter is dated 5 September[?] 1470 at Naples (the Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue reads "februarii" instead of "settembri"). The copies appear to date to the last quarter of the 15th century; the Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue tentatively dates them to the 1470's.

Humanistic cursive. The copies of both letters are in the same hand.

Pasted into a paper wrapper that appears to be of Italian origin. The wrapper contains 17th-century watermarks.

The manuscript is very fragile. It shows some evidence of worm damage and is badly stained.

The authenticity of these letters has been neither confirmed nor disproven. They do not appear to be part of Laudivius Zacchia's compilation of the letters of Muhammed II, though the Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue asserts that the letters may be part of this compilation.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800: Supplement A (4). The Library Chronicle XXXVIII (1972), p. 98 (Ms. Lea 579).

Babinger, Franz. "Laudivius Zacchia, Erdichter der Epistolae Magni Turci." Bayerische Akad. d. Wiss., Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, 1960, Heft 13.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 89.

OCLC:

213469689