Storia do Mogor 10: V. VENICE CODEX XLV. (ZANETTI).
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 10
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V. VENICE CODEX XLV. (ZANETTI).
10.1
This volume is thus described in Zanetti's Catalogue, p. 237: 'Codex XLV., in small folio, on paper, 740 folios, of the eighteenth century. An Italian version of Manuzzi's 'Historical Memoirs of the Moguls,' made by Count Stefano Nivibus Cardeira, Portuguese, the Public Professor of Civil Law in the University of Padua.' The volume begins with the Third Part (the pages are not numbered) ; after that another portion begins ' Delli elefanti,' of which the pages are numbered 1 to 260. Next is the Fourth Part, with Preface, on folios 1 to 197. Lastly is the Fifth Part, with a title-page: 'Parte Quinta | della Storia del Mogol | di | Nicolo Manuci Veneziano | Transportato | dell' Idioma Portoghesi all' Italiano | dal | Co. Diego Cardeira | Portoghese | ,' followed by an Italian letter of February 20, 1712, sending the Fifth Part of the translation, the signature is that of Agostino Gadaldini, then Secretary to the Venetian Senate, as Dr. Coggiola informs me. The writer speaks of having made over Part V. to Senhor Cardeira's sons for translation, and states that folios 2 to 90 (of the original) were part in Portuguese and part in French, to which must be added ' eleven detached leaves in one or the other tongue.' Next comes a leaf, written on both sides, and not numbered (probably displaced in binding). Then another title-page : ' Tome Quinto | composite per l'autore | Signor | Manucci di | Nazione Veneziano in questa | Fortezza di S. Giorgio | di Madrastapattam. |
10.2
On the reverse is the book-plate of the librarian, a winged lion with a sword and book, the year ( ? of appointment) MDCCXXII., and his name Hieronymo Veniero, Procurator of St. Mark. There is still another title-page : ' Quinta Parte | del raconto della Storia del Mogol | In questo presente anno | 1705 | nel mese di Genaro | di | Nicolo Manucci Veneziano.' | On p. 201, 'Account of Persecutions suffered by the Capuchins ' is said to be from the French, and translated by Count Andrea Cardeira. On p. 321 is the death of Aurangzeb, February 24, 1707 ; on p. 329 Prince Akbar's last letter to his father, with four lines of verse in the middle. On p. 339 we are told that Aurangzeb's final illness began on February 7, 1707. 'Azam Shah's coin inscription is given on p. 341, under the date of March 15, 1707. The work ends on p. 345. The only complete and consecutive text of Part V. now extant being the Italian version given in this Codex XLV., I have used it in preparing my translation. There are some repetitions of matter already contained in Codex XLIV., and these I have omitted from Part V., giving merely a reference to the page in that manuscript. I saw the Codex XLV. when at Venice in 1902, and Part V. was copied for me by Signor Carlo Alberto Corti. It remains to say a word or two of how I got upon the track of these Venice Codices XLIV. and XLV. (Zanetti).
10.3
For a time I believed I was the first student of Indian history to unearth them, and that the notice in Zanetti's catalogue of 1741 had gone entirely unnoticed. Misled by the 'Nouvelle Biographie Generale,' I had started in search of a Lisbon edition of Manucci's work, and to that end asked my friend, Mr. J. Batalha-Reis, M.V.O., Consul-General in London, to procure me information from the great libraries of Lisbon. This attempt was infructuous, for I was on the wrong scent; but Mr. Batalha-Reis's attention had been roused, and since, as befits one of his nationality, he is a diligent student of, and deeply versed in, geographical literature, he soon afterwards directed me to a passage he had just seen in the work of Cardinal Placido Zurla (1769-1834) : 'Di Marco Polo | e degli altri | Viaggiatori Veneziani | . . .,' 2 vols., folio, Venezia, 1818. In vol. ii., in a chapter headed 'Of Some Learned Travellers,' he says (p. 293, para. 67) : 'But more than all is worthy of mention the crown of this chapter, Nicolo Manuzzi, who, resorting to the Mogul (country) towards the end of the seventeenth century, exercised medicine there for over forty years, and by the help of that (p.
10.4
294) profession was able to frequent the court, and to inform himself of the history, politics, physical condition, and religion of the country, and inserted most entrancing information about it in his "Historical Memoirs of the Mogul Empire," divided into three books, and written partly in Italian, partly in Portuguese, and partly in French. They begin with the fifteenth and come down to the eighteenth century. These very manuscripts were sent by Manuzzi himself from the Mogol country to the Venetian Senate, and they formed one of the ornaments of the Marciana until in the recent political disturbances they were unfortunately mislaid. Some specimens may be seen in Anton Maria Zanetti's "Latina et Italica D. Marci Bibliotheca," where he reproduces three of the many pictures of that veritably magnificent and priceless codex; and he shows how Father Catrou made use of Manuzzi for his "History of the Mogols."'
10.5
Guided by the above passage in Zurla, I discovered and made extracts from Zanetti. Before going to Venice it was necessary to find out if the manuscript had ever been recovered. The questions I drew up were most kindly communicated by Dr. C. H. Hagberg Wright, of the London Library, to the librarian of San Marco. This inquiry produced a full and most interesting reply from the then librarian, Dr. Salomone Morpurgo, under date of March 29, 1899, the opening sentences referring to the volume of portraits which will be dealt with in a succeeding section. The following is a translation of this letter: 'The volume described by you certainly belongs to the Marciana, for it bears our old ex-libris, otherwise the lion and sword with the motto Custos vel ultor. With equal certainty it once formed part of Codex XLIV., described by Zanetti at p. 235 and following. The said Codex is to this day in the Marciana; but it was in 1797 bereft of this, its most precious part' [quotes Zanetti]. 'A marginal note on our exemplar of Zanetti announces that "the book of portraits was made over in 1797 to the Signor Brunet, the French commissary," and it was never subsequently restored. Zurla is inexact enough in his expression when he says the Manuzzi manuscript "was unfortunately mislaid in the late political troubles," for, instead of that, it was taken by force; but not the whole of it, as he (Zurla) seems to say. You can compare with the originals at Paris the three plates reproduced by Zanetti.
10.6
Thus, then, the text of the 'Memoirs,' Codex XLIV., remains in the Marciana, also the other volume mentioned by Zanetti, pictures of gods, priests, etc.; this is now placed in Classe VI., It. 136. In addition thereto we possess in manuscript (Classe VI., It. 345) descriptions of the portraits in the volume now at Paris, and I send the opening paragraph and the titles referring to each figure. Codex XLV. is still in its proper place on the shelves.' After that letter I was satisfied that my journey would not be fruitless ; but it was not till May, 1902, that I was able to visit Venice, inspect the manuscripts, and arrange to have them copied. As I have already said, I was convinced for a time that I was the first discoverer of this Venice Codex since Zanetti's and Foscarini's time. But I had not reckoned with the Teutonic genius for research : an eighteenth-century German professor had been before me. There are some rather interesting particulars in J. Bernoulli's note, and as it does not seem to be printed in the more commonly accessible French edition of the ' Recherches sur l'Inde,' I insert it from the German edition, ' Beschreibung von Hindustan,' Band II., Theil II. (1788), pp. 192, 193 :
10.7
' Two or three years ago my youngest brother ' [Jacques B., born 1759, drowned 1789], 'who is at present an ordinary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Science at St. Petersburg, stayed some time in Venice. I requested him to inspect this manuscript of Manuzzi, and more especially to give me an idea of the Fourth and Fifth Parts; and I also wanted him to look out for a copyist to transcribe those two parts, or to extract from them all that was valuable. He answered me on February 15, 1786, thus :
10.8
' " I went to the library, and unfortunately found the work about as badly divided as it could be in respect of the languages used. The first three books, just those you do not want, are all in Italian, excepting some 100 pages or so in French. The Fourth Part has 122 pages of history, some 20 on the Jesuits and the Inquisition, another 20 of history in French, followed by 20 pages in Portuguese. The Fifth Part has 130 pages of history in Portuguese, and 50 in French on the Jesuit and Capuchin disputes. You must see how difficult it is to find one copyist for all that at any reasonable price, for French is little known here, and Portuguese still less, or even not at all. The latter especially is not of a very easily-read handwriting for anyone not knowing the language, etc." ' 'At length a capable copyist was found, but at too high a rate, and while negotiations over this were pending my brother was compelled to continue his journey to St. Petersburg. He certainly confided the matter to a German friend in Venice; however, this gentleman died soon afterwards, and since then I gave up the project for the time being, although the Abbate Morelli, custodian of the library' [Jacopo Morelli, 1745-1819, custodian from 1778], 'assured me through another friend in Venice he would willingly produce the manuscript in question, if a diligent copyist could be found as to whose moral character he could entertain no doubts.'
10.9
Bernouilli winds up by expressing the hope that these hints will induce some one to follow up the trace and select the most valuable parts of this 'apparently-for-the-greater-part-important manuscript.' The Abbate Morelli's demand for a 'moral' copyist is somewhat diverting.