Later Mughals v1.c4.s3.t1.13

v1.c4.s3.t1.13

For a long time it was believed that the MS. which Manucci had presented to the Venetian Senate was mislaid during Napoleon's invasion of the Republic. But what Napoleon I. took away in 1797 was only a volume of 56 contemporary portraits of the Princes and other celebrities of the Mughal Empire drawn at Manucci's instance by Mir Muhammad, an artist in the household of Shah Alam, before 1686, and presented by Manucci to the Senate. (It is now O. D. No. 45 of the National Library, Paris). These portraits are of surpassing value and have been reproduced in Mr. Irvine's edition. Another volume of 66 drawings of Hindu gods, religious ceremonies, etc., sent by Manucci to Venice at the same time, is still there.