Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Giovio, Paolo; La Prima Parte delle Historie del suo tempo, ed. Lodovico Domenichi, vol. I (Venice: Domenico de’ Farri, 1555).

Bk 18, p.525v 

“Mentre che io scrivea queste cose, Muleasse Re di Tunisi miserabile per essergli stati abbacinati gli occhi dalla crudele ingiuria del fratello (sic), mi raccontò, come una Caravana quasi tutta d’huomini soggetti al suo Regno, non ha molto tempo, corse si gran pericolo per uno scompiglio de venti, ch’à pena d’ogni dieci uno caminato il viaggio di molto mesi sano & salvo si ritornò à casa.”

“While I was writing about these things, Muley al-Hassan King of Tunis, miserable for having his eyes abacinated, a cruel outrage by his brother (sic), told me about a caravan made up almost entirely of his own subjects, who recently encountered a very dangerous windstorm. Of every ten men who made the months’ long journey, only one returned home safe and sound.” 

Notes:
*The blinding of the king occurred in 1543, but Giovio must be writing around 1548 when he met Muley al-Hassan in Rome.

*Should read "figlio" not "fratello."

*See Leo Africanus, Description of Africa, Bk 1, pp.37-40, on dangerous winds.
           

Monday, March 23, 2020

A blog dedicated to transcribing and translating Paolo Giovio's Tunis material from the Histories of his own time (1554, 1555).

Giovio, Paolo;  La Prima Parte delle   Historie del suo tempo , ed. Lodovico Domenichi, vol. I (Venice: Domenico de’ Farri, 1555). Bk 1...