Historia della guerra fra Turchi, et Persiani... divisa in libri noue ... Con vna descrittione di tutte le cose pertinenti alla religione, alle forze, al gouerno, & al paese del regno de Persiani, et vna lettera all'illustre Sig. Mario Corrado, nella quale se dimostra qual città fosse anticamente quella, c'hora si chiama Tauris. Aggiuntiui ancho gli argomenti à tutti i libri, & vna nuoua carta di geografia, per maggior chiarezza della cose narrate nell' historia. Con tre tauole...vna per la dichiaratione delle voci barbare, l'altra per la ricognitione de' nomi antichi, la terza delle cose più notabili...
Venice: 1594. Fourth edition. First published in 1587. Double-page engraved map of Asia Minor and the Near East, extending to Persia and Afghanistan. Front hinge loose with a few chips to front pastedown near gutter. Some worming in the gutter of first two gatherings. Otherwise a very good, crisp copy. Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, soiled and discolored. Small quarto. [32], 383, [1], [24, index] pp. Item #16224
Giovanni Tommaso Minadoi (1549-1615) was an Italian physician and historian who studied at the University of Padua. He practiced in Rovigo and Venice. In 1578 Teodoro Balbi, the newly elected Consul in Syria, offered him the opportunity to travel with him to Aleppo as his personal physician. In Syria he gathered materials to write his account of the war between Sultan Murad III and Mohammad Hodabanda the Blind. He returned to Venice in 1583, but went back to Syria in 1584, remaining there for two years, during which he also spent time in Constantinople. He married Lucia Cezza di Bartolomeo in 1587, a member of one of the richest families in Rovigo. He was a colleague of Galileo Galilei, who described him as jovial, pleasant and honest. (See Viquipèdia, the Catalan-language version of Wikipedia). This history is well regarded as a first hand account of the war against Persia between 1578 and 1590. Although Turkey made and retained conquests in Georgia and Azerbaijan, her own historians have criticized her for weakening not only Turkey but also Persia and Daghestan, which facilitated Russia's future expansion at their expense. The engraved map is prized for being especially detailed and accurate. All early editions are scarce.
Adams M1456. Graesse IV, 533. Olschki Choix I, 1298.
Price: $2,500.00