Storia do Mogor 9: IV. THE VENICE CODEX, XLIV. (ZANETTI).
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 9
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Contents
IV. THE VENICE CODEX, XLIV. (ZANETTI).
9.1.1
Some time in 1704 or 1705 Manucci received from Catrou an advance copy of his 'Histoire,' or of the preface to it. A perusal of this communication aroused intense indignation in the Italian author, and in January, 1706, he resolved to despatch to Europe the original draft of his Parts I., II., and III., together with the Part IV. on which he had been engaged since the beginning of 1701, accompanied by a Latin letter to the Venetian Senate, of which the following is a translation, made for me by my friend Mr. James Kennedy : ' MOST SERENE PRINCES ! ' Love of travel and inborn inclination to visit foreign nations caused the writer, Nicolo Manucci, a client and nursling of the Most Serene Republic, to leave Venice when he was only fourteen, and led him happily to the Empire of the Mogul (Mogor), in which he served divers princes of the blood royal for a period of fifty-four years, as this history shows. There, at the request of certain friends, Frenchmen by race, he began a most extensive account of this despotism, and finished it in 1700. Of which work as soon as the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus residing in India got wind, they left no stone unturned to appropriate it, as if it were their own. But considering my many vigils and the sundry expenses I had to incur, it did not seem to me right that the aforesaid Fathers should transfer to themselves the glory won by another's labour, nor that I should be cheated out of my expectations.
9.1.2
' Wherefore I placed in the hands of a certain friend of mine this work, divided into four parts, in which I treat carefully and accurately of the times from Tamerlane to Aurangzeb, who now holds the sceptre, as well as of all his family and of the principal chiefs of the army. With it I handed over to him sixty-four coloured pictures now in Paris. And these ' [i.e., the books and pictures] ' ought, according to my directions, to have been forwarded to the Reverend Father Eusebius, a Capuchin of Bourges ' [Bituriens, the mediaeval name for that province], ' Apostolic missionary in the East Indies, that he might offer them on my part to the Most Serene Senate to dispose of them as they might think best. But my friend died at Galle ' [? Egellia in text], 'and, as I had feared, my said book fell into the hands of the aforesaid Fathers, who wrote to me on this matter. But little gratification did I get from their writings, with selections from my works, for they only set forth what was of comparatively little value in the book, and what was best they kept to themselves.
9.1.3
' Wherefore I earnestly and prayerfully beg and entreat that Your Most Serene Highnesses will deign to order the publication of this little work, which is likely to be of the greatest use to travellers, missionaries, and merchants, etca. asking them to add a short and befitting preface, such as may appear best suited for it. If I could issue it at my own expense, right willingly would I do it ; but for such an expenditure my own resources, as well as the resources of my relations living in Venice, are too limited, therefore I have ventured to give this trouble to the Most Serene Senate. ' The original text, which I have always kept by me, I send to Your Most Serene Highnesses by the hands of the said Reverend Father Eusebius (which is a right good opportunity)—namely, the First, Second, and Third Parts already completed. At the same time I send the Fourth Part, written in French, which has always remained with me, and has never heretofore been sent to Europe. In it the life of the Mogul and various events of the government, besides other things omitted in Parts I. and II., are clearly narrated. I am now proceeding indefatigably with the Fifth Part, in which I examine in detail all and every event happening in these last days of King Aurangzeb's life, and I shall willingly give it to the Actor ' [who is referred to is not clear] ' if I am alive.
9.1.4
' The said Reverend Father Eusebius [also] takes with him a book containing sixty-six drawings of the false Hindu gods, wherein Hindu marriages and other ceremonies are represented, all of which the Agent (?) will find explained towards the end of the third part. Nor must it be thought strange if various languages appear in the work now sent, for according to the amanuensis whom I chanced upon, did I compose the work sometimes in French, sometimes in Italian, and occasionally in Portuguese. All of which defects, as well as others that may possibly have occurred, I beg the charity of Your Most Serene Highnesses to excuse, whom Almighty God preserve for many years. 'Madraspatanam, the 15th January, 1705 [i.e., 1706], 'Your Most Serene Highnesses' 'Most humble and devoted 'Client and Alumnus, 'N. MANUCI.' Inside Codex XLIV. (Zanetti) there lie two loose leaves in Italian, which I imagine to be Zanetti's notes for the article in his catalogue. But these embody a second letter from Manucci in Italian, which seems to vary somewhat from the one in Latin. I extract any additional facts yielded by this second letter. He says he began to write to oblige some Frenchmen for the favours they procured him from their king, who in 1699 sent him some medals, one of gold with the image of the king on one side and of the falfi (?) on the other, and six others of silver bearing the figure of Victory.
9.1.5
In order to show himself grateful for so many favours, he forwarded his history to France in 1700 by one of his faithful friends, a person of consideration, loved and esteemed by all in India. This person on his arrival in France was the object of much honour from the French monarch. But having been sent by his king to the West Indies, he was unable to procure the printing of the three volumes on the Mogul Empire. He was obliged to leave them behind him, and another with sixty-four (fifty-six) portraits. The friend gave these (? the three volumes) for inspection as a curiosity to the Jesuit Father Catrou, a young man of great astuteness, to whom the Jesuits had already written from India requesting him to secure the work if he could, which he thus succeeded in doing. Catrou forwarded to Manucci the preface of the book it was his intention to print. 'I saw that he meant to make the work one to his own glory, and mix me up with the fables told by other authors, thereby usurping the result of my labours and fatigues during so many years, and of such great expenditure, while he would have all the coin and the honour. I therefore requested him to return the work to me. But fearing from what I know of him that this will be of no effect, I have in order to get it back appointed as my attorney the Reverend Father F. Eusebius, of Bourges, a Capuchin and French missionary in this land of India, who is now departing for Europe.'
9.1.6
Further on Manucci says : 'This' [the Fourth Part] 'the Jesuits have not had, nor had I ever sent it; but now I send it, and I will employ all my diligence to prepare the Fifth Part, if God should grant me life, in order to display my sincerity, and to give ample satisfaction to the inquiring reader.' Again, further on : 'The inquisitive Reverend Fathers above named' [i.e., the Jesuits] 'made great exertions to get hold of these two books' [the Fourth Part and the pictures of gods and goddesses], 'but my answer to them was "Nescio vos."' On the question of language he says : 'The reason is that I have not found in this country any Italian amanuensis.' In conclusion he says : 'Demanding pardon if I have made mistakes in words or in spelling, for in this land of India I have employed my maternal language only on this occasion, in which I profess myself, 'Venerable Signors,
9.1.7
'NICOLAO MANUCI.' The maker of this Italian precis goes on to abstract from the 'Storia' whatever refers to Manucci's life and travels. He gives the month of leaving Venice as November, thus coinciding substantially with the deduced date of October, arrived at by me independently (see the note on Viscount Bellomont, following Part I., p. 47, of the text). Manucci's age at departure is given as nineteen, whereas it is fourteen in the Berlin text (Phillipps 1945). The abstract ends abruptly with: 'He set out with the prince (Dara) for the war against Aurangzeb.' The writer makes the incorrect statement that part of the 'Storia' is written in Spanish; he should have said Portuguese.
9.2.1
I have failed in obtaining much trace of Father F. Eusebius, of Bourges, Capuchin, while in India, and nothing at all about him after his return to Europe. Manucci, in Part IV., fol. 193, speaking of 1704, says that a short time before that year Eusebius had arrived at Madras from Surat, on his way to France. He went on to Pondicherry, where the Jesuits spread reports that he had been excommunicated, and thus every door was shut in his face. I do not know what became of him; but we learn from Morelli that he made over the books to the then ambassador of the Venetian Senate at Paris, Lorenzo Tiepolo (son of Francesco, son of Marco), a man of distinguished ancestry, whose family tree is given in vol. viii. of Count Pompeo Litta's 'Celebri famiglie Italiane' (Milano, n.d., ? 1835). There is a biography of him on p. 162 of vol. xxii. of Gerolamo Boccardo's 'Nuova Enciclopedia Italiana' (Torino, 1887), and in 'Il campodoglio Veneto' of Girolamo Alessandro Capellari, vol. iv. (of which the manuscript is in the library of San Marco). In the same library, Class VII., Codex DCCCCL, is the manuscript of Tiepolo's 'Relazione della sua ambasciata a Luigi XIV. di Francia.' In the State Archives at I Frari his dispatches from Paris are preserved. The first is dated April 4, 1704, and the last April 27, 1708. In none of these sources could I find any mention of Manucci's work, of its arrival in Paris, or its transmission to Venice. The Abbé Morelli, librarian from 1778, says on p.
9.2.2
46 of his 'Della pubblica Libreria di San Marco' (Venice, 1774), that Tiepolo obtained the Codex in France in 1722, but I do not know what authority he has for this statement. The year seems much too late; but 1712 might be correct. Tiepolo, who is described as a man of vast erudition, became procurator of St. Mark, and in 1736 was appointed librarian. He died in 1742, at the age of sixty-nine. Under Tiepolo's auspices as librarian, Antonio Maria Zanetti, the younger, drew up a catalogue of the San Marco collection, which appeared under the title of 'Latina et Italica D. Marci Bibliotheca Codicum manuscriptorum per titulos digesta' [&ca], folio, Venice, 1741. On p. 235 we have the following account of the Manucci manuscript: 'Codex XLIV., in folio, paper, ff. 778, of the eighteenth century. "Historical Memoirs of the Mogul Empire," by Niccolo Manuzzi, Veneziano, divided into four parts, written partly in Italian, partly in Portuguese, and partly in French. From the beginning of the fifteenth to about the eighteenth century.' From the first three parts of this work, carried to France by Monsieur Deslandes in 1700, Father Catrou derived his 'Histoire de l'Empire Mogul,' published at Paris in 1705, two volumes, octavo, and at the Hague, 1708, in 12mo.; translated into Italian in 1731, and printed at Venice.
9.2.3
This celebrated literary man, although he had compiled various notices of that kingdom from other authors, nevertheless renders due justice to the labours of our Manuzzi, and he admits him to be the support and foundation of all his statements, wisely dwelling on the character of that author, who was not a simple traveller or merchant (people who are forced either to hurry hither and thither, or to confine themselves solely to cities near the sea), but in truth a medical man, whose profession had detained him at the court for a period of forty or more years, whereby was thrown open to him access to particular information, concealed from every other European, and the means of transcribing the original chronicles themselves. The said Father observes, furthermore, that in the mode of Manuzzi's narration, in spite of the text being in various and obscure languages, there is found a certain ardour of imagination fitted to sustain the historian who works on such materials; to which may be added that at the same time we discover in all these writings a certain air of unstudied simplicity and honest frankness, which still can be detected even when heightened and embellished by a chastened style [i.e. Catrou's]. This production of Father Catrou, although much honoured by Manuzzi, had not the fortune to please him when it reached him in India;
9.2.4
on the contrary, he was deeply offended that Catrou had inserted the accounts of other people, and had omitted from his book certain statements which Manuzzi considered important. Therefore the author decided to send his own original manuscript to Europe through a Capuchin Father, who gave a pledge that he would hand it over to the first official of the Venetian Republic that he encountered. This monk did as promised, and on reaching Paris delivered it to the Cavaliere Lorenzo Tiepolo, then Venetian ambassador at that court, at present procurator of San Marco, and its illustrious, most meritorious librarian. The gift of Manuzzi was addressed to the Senate with a Latin letter, and these were speedily sent on to Venice by the ambassador. In addition to the above-entered four parts of the 'Historical Memoirs,' there was also a fifth, which went on with the same subject. There was also another volume, with pictures of the gods, priests, and other matters connected with the idolaters who dwell in that country. These pictures are often referred to in the course of the work, and serve to explain the religious beliefs and rites of the ancient inhabitants of Hindustan. But what is more precious for its beauty and its magnificence is a volume containing the portraits of the Mogul emperors, of their families, and other illustrious personages among those idolaters. These are painted with incredible labour, and present the most lovely colouring, heightened by much gilding;
9.2.5
and although they do not display all the requisites of correct drawing, or of light and shade, yet the figures are not wanting in naturalness, and, if one may infer it from the diversity of idea and from certain details of the faces, the portraits must be very like their originals. Father Catrou, who had seen the pictures, would have liked to reproduce them in his history, but he feared to add to the expense of a first edition. We have felt ourselves constrained to give, at the least, a selection of three, and we have chosen the portraits of our Manuzzi, of Tamerlane, and of Orangzeb; the first as being that of the author of the work, the second as that of the first of the emperors, the third as being that of the ruler under whom the writer lived and dwelt in India. The portrait, then, of Manuzzi is in the highest degree like him, as is asseverated by more than one person who had personal knowledge of him. He is clothed in Mogul attire, and in the act of feeling the pulse of an Indian patient, giving in this way a sign of his profession.
9.2.6
Tamerlane, or Timur-lenk, a name much spoken of in many histories, was the first among the Tartars who conquered and ruled over Hindustan. He is represented out hunting, in which he greatly delighted, in the act of slaying a lion with an arquebuss. The hunting of these wild beasts the Moguls carry out by throwing down in the path a sheep bound with cords. On seeing it, the wild beast rushes at once to devour it; meanwhile they watch, and can easily kill it. The attire of Tamerlane is noticeable, still more his armour, which consists in a corslet of mail richly adorned with gems. Perhaps this costume was peculiar to the Tartars before that of Hindustan began to prevail among them. The posture of this prince, who is kneeling, is asserted by some as intended to indicate that from birth he was weak in the legs, because the second half of his name — that is, lenk — means in the Tartar language 'The Lame.'
9.2.7
Orangzeb, eleventh emperor, who died in 1707, after a very long reign, left behind him a resounding memory as the man who to gain the summit felled and slew — partly by deceit, partly by force — all his three brothers, and as one who for many a day held his own father a prisoner. Before he became emperor he was of a certain sect of the Mahomedans who style themselves faqirs, and maintained throughout his life an assumed exterior of religion. Thus the artist succeeds in taking him to the very life in the act of reading the Quran, in an attitude full of piety and composure, to which there is not wanting any sanctimonious detail.
9.2.8
In many aspects, then, this manuscript of Manuzzi is of value, and the gathering together of all these different books is worthy of high praise. Certainly the public has benefited by a considerable portion of them in the compilation of Father Catrou. All the same, without advertence to the absence of any extracts from the last two parts, it seems that still other chapters from the Memoirs of our author are called for as additions to Catrou's publication. One chapter ought certainly to be on the natural history of Hindustan, which could be gathered so easily from many dispersed passages to be found in Manuzzi's story, and in his notes on his medical practice, where plants, animals, and other rare products are spoken of, not omitting the marvellous properties of the elephant. Another chapter should be on the private habits of the Indians and the Tartars, which could be deduced from particular instances. But let this suffice for a general notice of this Codex, thus deviating no further from our original scheme.
9.3.1902
Zanetti's volume includes three fine copper-plate engravings: 1. Orangzeb, XI. (Blochet, 'Inventaire,' No. 13); the emperor is on a white horse, reading, and there are twenty-five other figures round him on foot. 2. Tamur-lang, I. (Blochet, No. 3). A jungle scene, Taimur on one knee, shooting: thirty-one other figures. 3. Portrait of Niccolao Manuzzi, author of the 'History of the Mogul' (Blochet, No. 2). A stout, white-faced, entirely shaven man in Indian costume looking to the left and holding the pulse of a very dark man.
The assertion of Cardinal Placido Zurla is inaccurate in stating that the Manucci manuscript 'was unfortunately mislaid in the late political troubles,' meaning the days of Napoleon's invasion, his remark, as we shall see presently, applying only to the volume of portraits. Codex XLIV. (Zanetti) is still in its place at Venice, and I proceed to give further details, such as I was able to glean from an inspection of it in May, 1902.
9.3.1704
Codex XLIV. is a large folio of 778 pages, the paper used being of several different sizes ; it is bound in calf, and stamped on one side with a lozenge-shaped shield bearing the figure of a winged lion holding in its paw a book, with the letters P E T M M (in other words, it bears the arms of the republic) ; it is lettered on the back, ' Manuzzi, Istoria de' Mogoli.' Loose within it are the two leaves of the Latin letter already quoted, the signature to which appears to be in the hand of a scribe ; also four leaves, two written on in Italian, apparently not in the same writing as the Latin letter, but signed on the third line of the second page ' Nicolao Manuci.' A facsimile of this signature is inserted beneath our reproduction of the second portrait of the author. The first two pages (in Italian), 'Notice to the Reader,' are not numbered, and at the end bear the signature ' Nicolao Manuci,' which we have reproduced at the foot of the younger of the two portraits.
The small cramped handwriting of the earlier part might be the same as that of the second letter. The MS. Phillipps 1945, at Berlin, is, on the contrary, in a fair copyist's hand. The first handwriting of Codex XLIV. continues up to p. 366 (in Italian). On pp. 367-406 the hand resembles that of the Berlin MS. ; on p. 407 the first hand recommences. Pp. 416-616 are on a smaller (foolscap) paper, and here the third part apparently ends.
The subjects of this third part are as follows — it begins on p. 149 : p. 170 (year 1664), p. 212 (year 1666), p. 304, titles of princesses and concubines; p. 305, men's titles; p. 307, palace slaves; p. 320, names of generals; p. 322, Mansabs; p. 337, provinces; p. 340, names of peoples. On some unnumbered leaves following p. 366 he explains that ' for want of writers of Italian, I am obliged to continue my work in French.' From p. 368 he goes on in French up to p. 406. On p. 407 Portuguese begins, ' On Elephants,' down to p. 415. P. 416 is blank. On p. 417 he begins (still in Portuguese) about AdunI ; p. 419, the royal seal and hand imprint ; pp. 421 to 423, blank ; pp. 424-427, the Dakhin kings ; p. 450, principal Hindu temples ; p. 451, temples destroyed by Aurangzeb; p. 455, Joao P. de Faria in Madras; p. 465, St. Thome in 1695; p. 474, Damao in 1681; p. 479, Manuel Macedo at St. Thome; p. 501, one quarter blank; p. 502, blank; p. 503, begins 'serviço' (? a misplaced leaf); p. 511, year 1663; p. 565, year 1678; p. 582, Bassein in 1666; p. 606, year 1694. Page 616 ends with the words: 'Lagrima de sangue emover o modo tao improprio e tao diverço do que antigamte obravaon.'
Then on an intermediate size of paper begins in French 'Suite . . . Quatriesme Partie, Preface,' with a new paging, and in a handwriting something like that of the Berlin MS. The history breaks off on p. 122; then pp. 123 and 124 are blank. On p. 125 the author commences to speak of the bad conduct of the Portuguese, and this subject goes on as far as p. 145, attestations from various authorities beginning on p. 140. Between pp. 140 and 141 are bound in four 4to. pages of minute handwriting, apparently the copy of a certificate from the Bishop and Vicar-General of St. Thome, dated January 23, 1705. Pp. 148 to 152 are blank.
Next, with p. 153, comes the large folio paper once more, the writing being that of a copyist, and the language French; mention is made of 1703; and the French text ends with one line on the top of p. 164. On p. 165 there begins in Portuguese an account of Cardinal C. M. de Tournon's stay at Pondicherry. On p. 175 is a date, July 11, 1704. On p. 177 is Manucci's 'Manifesto' to the Friars and Patriarch at Pondicherry, which ends on p. 182, being followed by the Archbishop's letter from Goa, dated September 1, 1704.
9.3.p3
On p. 184 the handwriting changes, and the historical narrative is resumed without any heading; on p. 186 is the date, September 9, 1704. On p. 200 we return to more talk about the Portuguese misdeeds, which ends on p. 216. Page 217 is a half-sheet only, apparently intended as the conclusion of Part IV.; and there Manucci promises, if he lives, to go on with a Fifth Part, and the passage is dated Madras, January 5, 1705-1706. At the end is a signature, in a hand differing from the text, 'Nicolas Manuci.' At p. 218 we return to foolscap paper, and the narrative turns again to Aurangzeb. On p. 223 is a date, November 4, 1704, and on p. 226 we have a letter to the author from the Archbishop of Goa, dated January 22, 1705. On p. 230 is the Manifesto; on p. 231 a letter from the Bishop of Mailapur (St. Thomé). On p. 234, after the fourth line, is scrawled: 'The end of the Fourth Part of Nicolas Manucci, Venetian.'
Then follow four leaves (not numbered) about Aurangzeb and Shah 'Alam; a sheet (also not numbered) with seventeen lines of writing on the upper half of it; one leaf fully written on one side, and with nine and a half lines on the other; two leaves in a different handwriting from the preceding, having three written pages and ten and a quarter lines on the fourth side, referring to Daud Khan and Thomas Pitt. Lastly, there are two large folded sheets, giving the order of battle of Shah 'Alam's and of 'Azam Shah's armies respectively. If these plans of battle accompanied the volume originally from India, and were not sent subsequently with the Fifth Part, then Codex XLIV. could not have left India until after June, 1707, the battle in question having been fought on the eighteenth of that month.
For Part IV. of my translation I have used the text contained in Codex XLIV. (Zanetti), from the new paging beginning in French 'Suite de l'Histoire du Mogor,' going on to p. 235, and the remaining unnumbered leaves above referred to. I saw this and the other Codices on my visit to Venice in 1902, and, thanks to the good offices of Professor Dr. G. Coggiola, sub-librarian, who, on this and many other occasions, has been most graciously helpful, I obtained a copy of Part IV., which was made for me by Signor Gilberto Moni.