Chapter XIX: Letter IV (6)

[246] This is a mistake on Busbecq’s part. The first German immigrants came to Transylvania at the invitation of Geisa II., king of Hungary, in the times of Conrad III. and Frederick Barbarossa, _i.e._, about the middle of the twelfth century. Most of them came from the Lower Rhine. They still form distinct communities, marrying only among themselves, and are known as Saxons.

[247] See note 1, page 415.

[248] A similar legend is told of St. Raymond, a Spanish saint, who lived in the thirteenth century. He was confessor to Don James, King of Aragon. In the words of Mrs. Jameson (_Legends of the Monastic Orders_, p. 421), ‘the latter’ (the King) ‘had but one fault; he was attached to a certain beauty of his court from whom Raymond in vain endeavoured to detach him. When the King summoned his confessor to attend him to Majorca, the saint refused unless the lady were left; the King affected to yield, but soon after their arrival in Majorca, Raymond discovered that the lady was also there in the disguise of a page; he remonstrated; the King grew angry; Raymond intimated his resolution to withdraw to Spain; the King forbad any vessel to leave the port, and made it death to any person to convey him from the island. The result is thus gravely related: St. Raymond, full of confidence in God, said to his companion, “An earthly King has deprived us of the means of escape, but a heavenly King will supply them!” Then walking up to a rock which projected into the sea, he spread his cloak on the waters, and setting his staff upright and tying one corner to it for a sail, he made the sign of the cross, and boldly embarked in this new kind of vessel. He was wafted over the surface of the ocean with such rapidity that in six hours he reached Barcelona. This stupendous miracle _might_ perhaps have been doubted, if five hundred credible witnesses had not seen the saint land on the quay at Barcelona, take up his cloak, which was not even wetted by the waves, throw it round him, and retire modestly to his cell; more like an humble penitent than one in whose favour Heaven had so wonderfully wrought.’

[249] This feat is by no means impossible. See Hone’s _Everyday Book_, ii. p. 771-9.

[250] A receipt by which this feat may be accomplished is given in the _Booke of Secrets_ of Albertus Magnus, imprinted at London by H. Jackson. ‘Take the juice of Bismalua, and the white of an egge, and the seed of an herb called Psillium, also Pulicarius herba, and break it into powder, and make a confection, and myxe the juice of Radysh with the white of an egge. Anoynt thy body or hand with this confection, and let it be dryed, and after anoynte it againe; after that thou mayest suffer boldely the fire without hurt.’ (See Hone’s _Everyday Book_, ii. p. 774.) Similar feats were performed before Evelyn. (_Diary_, p. 370.)

[251] See note, page 226.

[252] Treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, concluded between France and Spain, April 3, 1559.

[253] ‘Alvaro de Sandé fit tres bien à la bataille de Gerbes, là où combattant vaillamment il fut pris et mené à Constantinople en signe de triumphe et presenté au grand Solyman, qui le fit garder fort curieusement et estroictment, en faisant serment sur son grand dieu Mahom(!) qu’il ne luy feroit jamais plus la guerre, et qu’il vieilliroit et mourroit en prison sans le vouloir jamais mettre à rançon; car il sçavoit bien que le roy d’Espagne son maistre le rechapteroit de beaucoup. Enfin, voyant que pour or ny argent il ne le pouvoit faire rançonner ny avoir, il envoya prier avec grande suplication le roy Charles, son beau et bon frere, par le moyen de ceste bonne Reyne d’Espaigne sa sœur, d’envoyer une ambassade vers le Grand Seigneur pour le luy demander et le luy donner; dont le Roy (comme je le vis moy estant lors à la Cour) despescha aussitost M. le chevalier de Salvyaty, qui a esté depuis premier escuyer de la reyne de Navarre, homme fort digne pour ceste charge, et fort habile, qu en fit l’ambassade, avec danger de sa vie, pourtant qu’il courut par les chemins, me dict il à son retour. Le Grand Seigneur du commancement en fit un peu de refus à ce qu’il me dict; mais vaincu par prieres du Roy, il ne l’en voulut refuser, et le luy accorda pour la premiere demande qu’il luy avoit faicte, parce que c’estoit son avenement à la couronne: outre plus, luy envoya les plus belles offres du monde. Par ainsy ledict chevalier s’en retourna libre avec son prisonnier, qui ne pensoit rien moins à cela devoir à nostre Roy sa vie et sa liberté.’—_Brantôme_, i. 218.

It is needless to point out the absurdities and gross inaccuracies of this account, which is given by Salviati’s friend. It is contradicted by the despatches of the French representative at Constantinople, which show that Salviati’s mission was a complete failure: ‘Solyman ne se souvenant plus de ses parolles et de ce qu’il avoit escrit au roy dernièrement par M. le chevalier Salviati, que sa foy ne permettoit point de délivrer les chrestiens pris en bataille, accorda la délivrance desdits trois chevaliers espagnols, à la premiere requeste et instance que Ferdinand luy en a faicte soubz ombre de cent cinquante esclaves turcqs qu’ilz ont promis dellivrer.’—Charrière, _Négotiations de la France dans le Levant_, ii. 704.

[254] ‘Quant à l’aultre point des chevalliers espagnols délivrez, Ali me dit que certainement leur foy ne permettoit point délivrer les chrestiens pris en bataille, mais que le Grand Seigneur ayant remis ce pesché sur ses bassats, ils avoient trouvé par leur loy que pour eschange d’esclaves en tel nombre que les Espagnols promettent, et faire un bien public comme la paix, leur foy, comme par une indulgence spécialle, permettoit ladite délivrance.’—_Charrière_, ii. 706.

[255] See page 156.

[256] These ants are mentioned first by Herodotus, iii. c. 102, where he gives an account of the stratagem by which the Indians steal the gold thrown up by them as they burrow. The most plausible conjecture is that which identifies this animal with the Pangolin or Ant-eater. See Blakesley’s and Rawlinson’s notes on the passage, in the latter of which the statement in the text is referred to.

[257] This headdress must have resembled that of the Janissaries Busbecq saw at Buda. See p. 87 and note.

[258] Aleppo is really a considerable distance from the Euphrates.

[259] The date of Bajazet’s death was September 25, 1561.

[260] See note, page 108.

[261] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_.

[262] Compare page 159.

[263] Theriac, the original form of the word treacle, is derived from θηρίον, i.e. a venomous serpent (see Acts xxviii. 4). It originally meant a confection of vipers’ flesh, which was popularly believed to be the most potent antidote to vipers’ poison. Hence the word came to mean any antidote against poison.

[264] The value of this balsam is illustrated by the amusing account of the adventures in Ireland of Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, given by Sir James Melville in his _Memoirs_ (page 10, Bannatyne Club edition). Like his friend Busbecq (see vol. ii. p. 34, _Letter to Maximilian_, XI.) he had been ambassador at the Turkish Court, and was afterwards sent in the same capacity to Scotland. On his return he paid a visit to Ireland to intrigue with the chieftains who were hostile to England. Melville, then a boy of fourteen, was sent back with him by Mary of Guise, the Queen Regent, to be a page to her daughter Queen Mary. They landed on Shrove Tuesday, 1550, in Lough Foyle, and were taken to Odocarte’s house. A woman, who had been brought to entertain the bishop, and was kept quietly in his chamber, ‘found a little glass within a case standing in a window, for the coffers were all wet by the sea waves that fell in the ship during the storm. But she believed it had been ordained to eat, because it had an odoriphant smell; therefore she licked it clean out; which put the bishop in such a rage that he cried out for impatience.... But the Irishmen and his own servants laughed at the matter, for it was a phial of the only most precious balm that grew in Egypt, which Solyman the great Turk had given in a present to the said bishop, after he had been two years ambassador for the King of France in Turkey, and was esteemed worth two thousand crowns.’

[265] See p. 86.

[266] Here we part from the gallant Spaniard. For his future career see note p. 317. He was finally Governor of Oran, ‘où il a finy ses jours fort vieux et cassé.’—_Brantôme_, i. 219.

[267] The then Duke, or rather Elector, of Saxony, was Augustus the Pious, who succeeded his brother, the famous Maurice, in 1553, and died in 1586. The Duke of Bavaria was Albert III., surnamed the Magnanimous, who reigned from 1550 to 1579. His wife was a daughter of Ferdinand. William the Rich was then Duke of Juliers, Cleves and Berg, &c. He reigned from 1539 to 1592, and he also had married a daughter of Ferdinand. He was younger brother of Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII.’s fourth wife.

[268] Ferdinand might have defended himself by the example of his predecessor Sigismund. See the story in Carlyle’s _Frederick the Great_, i. 187, of his speech at the Council of Constance. “‘Right Reverend Fathers, date operam ut illa nefanda schisma eradicetur,’ exclaimed Sigismund, intent on having the Bohemian schism well dealt with,—which he reckons to be of the feminine gender. To which a Cardinal mildly remarking, ‘Domine, schisma est generis neutrius (Schisma is neuter, your Majesty),’ Sigismund loftily replies, ‘Ego sum Rex Romanus et super grammaticam (I am King of the Romans, and above Grammar)!’”

[269] An allusion to Horace, _Odes_, iii. 3, 1-10.

[270] In the battle of Nicopolis, A.D. 1396, Bajazet defeated Sigismund, King of Hungary (afterwards Emperor), and a confederate army of 100,000 Christians, who had proudly boasted that if the sky should fall, they would uphold it on their lances. Among them was John, Count of Nevers, son of Philippe-le-Hardi, Duke of Burgundy, afterwards the Duke known as Jean Sans-Peur, who led a contingent of French knights. In the battle of Varna, A.D. 1444, Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Poland, was defeated, and killed by Sultan Amurath II. For Mohacz, see _Sketch of Hungarian History_.

[271] Compare Camoens: ‘Eu nunca louvarei o general que diz “Eu não cuidei.”—I will never praise the general who excuses himself by saying, “I thought not.”’

[272] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_.

[273] The Suleimanyeh, or mosque of Solyman, is the most glorious masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. It is built after the pattern of St. Sophia, and was intended to surpass it. As regards the regularity of the plan, the perfection of the individual parts, and the harmony of the whole, that intention appears to have been fully attained. It was begun in 1550 and finished in 1555.

[274] Johann Trautson von Matray, Freiherr von Sprechenstein, &c., descended from an ancient Tyrolese family, was Governor of the Tyrol, and Privy Councillor and Lord High Chamberlain to Ferdinand, who created him a Baron. Leonard von Harrach, a member of an ancient Bohemian family, Privy Councillor and Court Chancellor of Ferdinand, is probably the person meant.

[275] Mattioli or Matthioli, an Italian physician, was one of the founders of modern botany. He was born at Siena in 1500, and died at Trent in 1577. He was educated at Venice and Padua, and afterwards lived at Siena and Rome, but was compelled by the sack of the latter city to retire to Trent, from which he removed to Goritz. In 1562 he was summoned by Ferdinand to his Court, where for ten years he was first physician to Maximilian. His most celebrated work is his _Dioscorides_ and his _Commentary_ on that author. In this he made especial use of two MSS. discovered at Constantinople by his intimate friend Busbecq, one of which is presently mentioned in the text.

Mattioli in his _Commentaries_, continually refers to the specimens and information he had received from Quacquelben, Busbecq’s physician. He gives a figure and description of the _Acorus_, the plant mentioned in the text, which Busbecq had had collected for him from the Lake of Nicomedia, and also mentions the _Napellus_ under the head of Aconite. Apparently there were two species known by that name, one of which was extremely poisonous. Mattioli gives instances of experiments tried with it upon condemned criminals, some of which proved fatal. Mattioli also describes and gives figures of the horse-chestnut and lilac, taken from branches and seed sent him by Busbecq.

Quacquelben took advantage of the return of Busbecq’s colleagues in August 1557, to send Mattioli a box of specimens accompanied by a long letter, which, with Mattioli’s reply, is printed among the letters of the latter.

[276] The sweet or aromatic flag was used as a medicine in cases of bites from mad dogs, &c. See Salmon’s _Herbal_. It was also used for scenting rooms, and for ornamental purposes. See Evelyn’s description of Lady Clarendon’s seat at Swallowfield: ‘The waters are flagg’d about with _Calamus aromaticus_, with which my lady has hung a closet that retains the smell very perfectly,’ _Diary_, p. 490. See also Syme’s _English Botany_, vol. ix. p. 11.

[277] See page 389.

[278] Matarieh, a village near Cairo, occupies the site of the ancient On or Heliopolis, where Cleopatra’s Needles originally stood.

[279] See page 256 and note.

[280] This MS. was purchased by the Emperor, and is still preserved at Vienna. It is one of the most ancient and remarkable MSS. in existence. It was written at Constantinople, towards the end of the fifth century, for Juliana Anicia, daughter of the Emperor Olybrius, who died A.D. 472. On the second and third pages are two miniatures, each representing seven famous botanists and physicians assembled in consultation. Among those represented in the second are Dioscorides himself and Cratevas. On the fifth page is a picture of Dioscorides engaged in the composition of his work. Visconti considers that the resemblance of the two portraits of Dioscorides proves that they were taken from a real original, and are not imaginary. On the sixth page is a picture of Juliana Anicia seated on a throne between two allegorical figures of Wisdom and Magnanimity. A winged Cupid, above whom is written ‘The Love of the Creator of Wisdom,’ is presenting her with an open book, while a kneeling figure entitled Gratitude is kissing the feet of the princess. Engravings of these pictures, which, apart from their antiquity, are remarkable as works of art, are given by Visconti, _Iconographie Grecque_, vol. i. ch. 7, and by Montfaucon, _Palæographia Græca_, bk. iii. ch. 2. Throughout the MS. the description of each plant is illustrated by a figure.

Dioscorides was a famous botanist and physician, who wrote a celebrated treatise on Materia Medica. Cratevas was a Greek herbalist, who is supposed to have lived about the beginning of the first century B.C. The great work of Busbecq’s friend, Mattioli (see note 1 page 415), was his edition of _Dioscorides_.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON: PRINTED BY
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———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

OGIER GHISELIN

DE BUSBECQ

VOL. II.

(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_)

THIRTEENTH CENTURY.]

THE

LIFE AND LETTERS

OF

OGIER GHISELIN DE BUSBECQ

SEIGNEUR OF BOUSBECQUE

KNIGHT, IMPERIAL AMBASSADOR

BY

CHARLES THORNTON FORSTER, M.A.

_Late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge: Vicar of Hinxton_

AND

F. H. BLACKBURNE DANIELL, M.A.

_Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge: Barrister-at-Law_

Πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω

_IN TWO VOLUMES_

VOL. II.

LONDON
C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1881

CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME.

PAGE

LETTERS FROM FRANCE TO MAXIMILIAN—I.-XXXVII. 3

” ” ” RODOLPH—I.-LVIII. 141

APPENDIX 265

INDEX 311

LETTERS FROM FRANCE.