Abstract
On 14 January 1597, as recorded by the archivist in the Archivio di Stato di Mantova on the carta 475 of the Fondo Gonzaga, Fr Giovan Battista Ruffini wrote directly to Manerbio Aderbale, secretary of Duke Vincenzo I’s Chancellery, from Venice. Ruffini rejoices for having arrived in Venice on Christmas day after his journey to the Holy Land; with a tone of satisfaction, he reveals that he has brought a ‘special gift’ back for the Duke.
With me I brought back a Syrian, who owns beautiful writings, and can make beautiful things with his hands; I would like you to consent for me to take him to meet His Serenissima Highness … He [the Syrian] has three or four very ancient books in Ajiam-Farsi, Chaldaic, and Arabic and I hope he will have something to please His Highness; he speaks very well; and he writes Arabic, Persian/Farsi, and Turkish. He is a person that I imagine will not displease His Highness; he was the personal scribe of Cigalah when this was the Sinan Pasha of Babylon, he has father, wife, and children in Aleppo but he came with me because he was persecuted by a fellow Turkish.1
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© 2014 Federico M. Federici
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Federici, F.M. (2014). A Servant of Two Masters: The Translator Michel Angelo Corai as a Tuscan Diplomat (1599–1609). In: Federici, F.M., Tessicini, D. (eds) Translators, Interpreters, and Cultural Negotiators. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400048_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400048_6
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