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An Eye-witness Account of the Expedition of the Florentines against Chios in 1599
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
An interesting footnote to the abortive expedition of the Florentines against the island of Chios in May 1599 is provided by a rare–possibly unique– book in the British Museum.
Its rarity may be gauged from the fact that we find no record of it in the catalogues of Steinschneider, Kayserling, and Ya'ari, or in the Jewish encyclopaedias. Nor have I been able to trace a reference to it in any other source. The book is a small quarto volume, measuring 7¾ in. by 5⅜ in., and consisting of twenty-eight leaves. The last leaf, which has no foliation, appears to be a cancel, as it reproduces, in a somewhat different form, the text of fol. 2. The book contains the Aramaic paraphrase of the Song of Solomon (known as the Targum), accompanied by a Judseo-Spanish (Ladino) version in the Hebrew character, and was printed in Salonica in the year A.M. (5)360 (A.D. 1600) at the printing press of Mattithiah Bathsheba and his sons, and subsidized by Moses [ben Samuel] di Medina. It was published for Jacob ben Judah Ashkenazzi, an itinerant bookseller of Safed in Galilee. A preface by him, as well as a poem by the same author on the game of chess, which, like the preface, is otherwise unknown (it is to be found on the verso of fol. 27), complete the book.
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1948
References
page 542 note 1 Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, Berolini, 1852–1860
page 542 note 2 Biblioteca Espanola-Portugueza-Judaica, Strassbourg, 1890.
page 542 note 3 
Jerusalem, 1934
page 542 note 4 As the Jewish New Year begins some three to four months earlier than the Christian, the book may have been printed in the winter of 1599.
page 542 note 5 For this printer, see Steinschneider, col. 2581.
page 542 note 6 A kind of minor Mæcenas, who contributed from his own pocket towards the printing of Hebrew books. See Steinschneider, col. 3004.
page 543 note 1 See The Expedition of the Florentines to Chios (1599). Described in contemporary records and military dispatches. Edited, with an introduction, by Philip P. Argenti, London, 1934
page 543 note 2 George Sandys, the famous English traveller, however, in his A Relation of a Journey Begun An: Dom: 1610, London, 1615, p. 13, says in reference to this Bey: “ For the Captaine Bassa upon his coming strangled the perfidious Gouernor: either for dishonouring the Turke in his breach of promise: or for his negligence in being so surprised ”.
page 543 note 3 These borrowings from the Bible are too frequent to be noted fully.
page 543 note 4 On which see also p. 553, n. 2.
page 544 note 1 Only 
[= A.M. (5)360] is to be computed in obtaining the chronogram, although both words are printed in the same type.
page 544 note 2 The author's own punctuation is very meagre; I have added to it where necessary
page 544 note 3 Sic. lege
page 544 note 4 Sic. lege
page 555 note 1 We should expect 
. The author is sometimes guilty of a confusion of persons
page 546 note 1 Sic. See my note in the translation
page 546 note 2 Livadia (
), near the coast and some two miles north of the port of Chios
page 546 note 3 Sic. Lege
page 546 note 4 i.e. Turkish meded.
page 546 note 5 i.e. Turkish topji.
page 547 note 1 Sic. Lege 
i.e. espingarda.
page 547 note 2 Sic. Lege 
It ia probably a printer's smudge which has turned the
into a
page 547 note 3 Sic. lege 
page 547 note 4 i.e. Turkish palamar “ a hawser ”.
page 548 note 1 Sic. Lege
page 548 note 2 Sic. Lege 
The retrospective pronoun–in this case 
–is sometimes omitted.
page 548 note 3 Cf. B*rakhoih (T.B.) 19a.
page 550 note 1 A port on the Sea of Marmora in Turkey in Europe, midway between Constantinople and the Straits of the Dardanelles. It is called by the Turks Tekfur-Dag.
page 550 note 2 I read
See the note in the text.
page 550 note 3 i.e. 1st May [1599]. See Argenti, p. xxi.
page 551 note 1 The names of these galleys were the. Capitana, Patrona, Senese, Pisana, and Livornina. Cf. Argenti, p. xix.
page 551 note 2 By the “ commander of the city ”, Jacob AshkenazzÏ no doubt meant the Bey of Chios. If so, he was wrong in his facts. For, actually, “ the Bey of Chios happened to be in a goelette [sc. schooner] in the harbour, as he was about to leave the island on the following day. At the sound of the unusual noise and commotion he succeeded in landing by an indirect route, and entered the city in spite of having a wound in his arm from an arquebus. With the most amazing sang-froid he managed to collect all the Turkish forces and prepare a counter-attack.” Quoted from Argenti, pp. xxii-xxiii.
page 551 note 3 Cf. Esther v, 9.
page 551 note 4 I read 
instead of the text's impossible 
. Taking 
as the subject of the infinitive the rendering would be, “ that his army should get ready ”. A similar use of the infinitive occurs further down the same page [2a] in TITH [T1]
–“ for the city to see ”. The cancelled leaf, it may be noted, preserves the same impossible form.
page 551 note 5 According to the Florentine dispatches, the troops disembarked at 3 a.m. in the Bay of St. Nicholas, near to the town of Vrondado. Vrondado (or Vrontado) is some two miles north of Livadia. See Argenti, p. xxi
page 551 note 6 According to Argenti (p. xxi), the number of the assailants was “ a little more than 300 ”.
page 551 note 7 This is at variance with the official account. Argenti, p. xxii, says: “ The artillery on the bastions fell into the hands of the Florentines, but the officers in command had not even sufficient forethought to spike all the guns ”. Our author uses the Italian word tiro for a gun, gun-shot, or rocket.
page 552 note 1 The Turkish word for “ Help ”. The text has
page 552 note 2 The author uses the Turkish word topji.
page 552 note 3 The presence of Jews in the citadel is confirmed from the official Italian account. Cf. Argenti, pp. xiv-xv. Only Jews and Turks were allowed to reside in the citadel. It was forbidden to the Christians.
page 552 note 4 The Spanish word espinga[r]da is here used
page 552 note 5 He was Count Bartolomeo Barbolina da Montauto, an infantry colonel, who was in command of the land troops. “ He was killed during the expedition [as Jacob Ashkenazzi also informs us]... and was subsequently buried with great pomp at Pisa on the 12th June 1599.” Quoted from Argenti, pp. xviii-xix.
page 552 note 6 The Italian is somewhat obscure. It may represent “ Godio, no hai paura ”.
page 552 note 7 Possibly Geronimo da Volterra, whose name appears in the list of slaves on board the galley of Sinam Bey. Cf. Argenti, p. 166.
page 553 note 1 The Bey of Chios.
page 553 note 2 The text has
Note the hybrid forms remos, hollas (Italian singular nouns with Spanish plural terminations). Jacob AshkenazzTs knowledge of these languages was probably purely colloquial; he does the same with Turkish words.
page 553 note 3 The author previously mentioned that there were five galleys belonging to the Florentines.
page 553 note 4 The Turkish palamar is here used
page 554 note 1 This is also borne out by the account of the Florentines, who do not, however, give the number of slaves. Cf. Argenti, p. xxiii.
page 554 note 2 These figures should be treated with caution
page 554 note 3 Now called Manisa, twenty miles north-east of Smyrna
page 554 note 4 In the Gulf of Smyrna, some twenty miles south-west of Smyrna.
page 554 note 5 i.e. Zion.