ROTA (Giovanni).
Das Leben Unnd Gewonheyt, und Gestalt des Sophi Kunigss der Persien, unnd der Medier. Und von vill Andern Kungreichen. Und landt. Mit den Aller Grossisten Krige. Welche er than hat. Wider den grossen Turcken. Under anderer kung. Und Herrn. Und von der Bes
A VERY EARLY REPORT ON TRAVELS IN PERSIA
An extremely rare German translation of Giovanni Rota’s La Vida del Sophia re de Persia, following an Italian edition of 1508. The text consists of reports concerning the Persian and Turkish empires sent by Rota, a doctor who had resided at Aleppo, to Leonardo Loredan, the Doge of Venice from 1501-21. Also included are brief reports from other regions of the Near East.
First published in Rome in 1508, another Italian edition was printed in Venice circa 1515, and a French translation appeared in Jean Lemaire de Belge’s Le Traictie Intitule de la Differe[n]ce des Scismes et des Concilles de Leglise, printed in Lyon in 1511. It has been suggested that Rota’s writings were published in part to create interest in Christian Europe in a new Crusade. These reports, particularly the present German translation printed in newsletter format, can also be seen as responding to a market strongly interested in reports of the Near East and Asia.
Extremely rare. Not in OCLC, Catalogue of the James Ford Bell Library, or British Library’s STC German 1455-1600. VD16 records copies in Munich, Berlin, and Budapest.
