Selections from Nicholas de Nicolay, The Navigations, Perigrinations and Voyages Made into Turkey.

1586 English translation by T. Washington & John Stell.(UMI Collection / reel number: Early English Books, 1475-1640 / 326:03) Modernization and editorial comments by Marybeth Lavrakas, 2003.

The Women of Chios Descriptions of Constantinople The Great Bazaar Description of Pera & the Greek women of Pera Of the City of Gallipoli Madytos Nicolay's observations on Turkish food

From the chapter "On the City of Chios, " p. 37

…As for the women and maidens, I do not think (without offence to any other) that in all the east[ern] parts are [there] any [that are] more accomplished in beauty and good grace and amorous courtesy. For above the singular beauty wherewith nature has so well endowed them, they do attire themselves so finely and have so modest a countenance and grace that men would judge them rather to be nymphs or goddesses than women or mortal maidens. The women of reputation wear their gowns or coats of velvet, satin, damask, or other rich silks, white or of other seemly color, which they guard about with broad bands of velvet and do fasten their sleeves above with silk ribbon lace of diverse colors. Their apron is of fine linen cloth wrought and fringed about, and [they] attire their head with a coif of white satin or other color embroidered with gold and pearls, and close the same about the head with long strings and other ribbons of like silk, as about the sleeves, in which they make knots and devises behind with a very good grace. And before their forehead they wear a yellow Cypress [1] wrought upon gold foil, which they shut and knit fast behind their coif. But the married women differing from the maidens, instead of a cypress wear on their shoulders a fair raile white as the snow, and generally their hosen and patens are of color white. Briefly, there is nothing to be seen upon them which is not proper & pleasant, but that they make their bodices short and have their breasts hanging [out?] because of the continual frequentation of the bathes. But upon their neck and upon their stomach they wear many chains, tablets and other trinkets of gold, pearls or other fine stones of great value, every one according to her quality and degree, so that all their pleasure and study is to attire and set themselves to make them the more acceptable unto men as well private as strangers.

[1]. According to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), 'cypress' is a term applied to several textiles that were imported to Europe via Cypress. Two such were satin and a "light, transparent material" of undefined content.

from Nicolay's descriptions of Constantinople, pp. 47r-50v

Byzance, called Constantinople, is a city most famous…situated in Thracia…upon the gulf of Pontus, which separates Asia from Europe. The form thereof is three square,[1] whereof the two sides are washed by the sea, and the third joins unto the firm land. The soil thereof is very delectable, bringing forth all kinds of good fruits necessary for sustenance of human life. The situation [2] [of the city] is so well devised and ordered that no ship can enter, nor go forth [,] but with the good will of the Constantinopolitans, being masters of the sea Pontique… p. 48 r, "The re-edification of Byzance by Constantine the great Emperor." Constantine the great emperor of the Romans, seeking to resist the courses and robberies which the Parthes daily used towards the Romans, deliberated to transport the empire into the east parts, and there to build a large city…[first intended to build in Sardinia, and later at Troy] but being by a revelation in the night inspired to change the place…taking the same for a good sign and divine instruction, caused the city [of Byzantium] to be repaired and amplified, which according to his name he called Constantinople, notwithstanding that at the first he had called the same New Rome…[it was called] by the Greeks Stimboli, and [by] the Turks Stampolda, which signified a large city [3]. The emperor, now seeing his city built and sufficiently peopled, compassed [4] the same with walls, towers and ditches, building therein many sumptuous temples, adorning [the city] with many magnificent buildings and necessary works public [as well as] private. And afterwards, for the more beautifying thereof, [he] caused to be brought from Rome divers antiquities worthy of memory, and among others the Palladium of ancient Troy, which he caused to be set in the place of Placote the great column of Porphyry, which was set (48v) up in the same place, near unto which he caused to be erected a statue of brass to the likeness of Apollo of a marvelous bigness, in which place he ordained his name to be set up…in the time of the Emperor Alexis Commene this statue, through a great and impetuous tempest, was cast down to the ground and broken all to pieces. This emperor [Constantine] lived there many years most prosperously in happy estate, as likewise did many of his successors, but not altogether exempt of divers persecutions [5], as well by wars, fire, pestilence, earthquakes [and] sundry other calamities, until such times as God being bent to punish the people for their sins through [the] negligence of the emperors stirred up Mehemet the second of that name and the Emperor unto the Turks…[who] went with a marvelous power both by sea and by land to give a furious siege unto the City. The end and issue whereof was such that after a long siege, battery and diverse assaults the Infidels having gotten the walls with a great hurlement and fury entered into the city, where at the first entry they made a marvelous slaughter of the poor assieged without sparing any age or degree…[6] (49r) Mehmet after he had thus taken the city …caused in all diligence the walls to be made new, and certain other places ruined to be repaired, and in stead of the great number of people that were there slain and carried away as prisoners he caused to be brought thither out of all the provinces and cities by him conquered a certain number of men, women and children, with their faculties and riches, whom he permitted there to live according to the institutions and precepts of such religion as it pleased them to observe, and to exercise with all surety their handicrafts and merchandises, which ministered and occasion to an infinite multitude of Jews … driven out of Spain for to come and dwell there, by means whereof in very short time the City began to increase in traffic riches and abundance of people. "Antiquities still visible in Constantinople", 50r-v The rest of the noble antiquities which presently are to be found at Constantinople are the Hippodrome…which is the place where in times past the Emperors made the horses to run for the pleasure and distraction of the people…which is now altogether ruined. In the middle of this place was set upon four bowls of fine marble a fair obelisk of colored stone all of one piece 50 cubits high…and near to it is a great column, in the which are carved [the] histories of things memorable which have been done in this hippodrome. There is also another great column near unto it of marble, and one of brass, made by singular artifice in the form of three serpents [twining together]…and divers other antiquities which are dispersed in diverse places of the City, as the palace of Constantine the great…which joineth to the walls near unto the corner which is towards the est. The sepulcher of the same Constantine, which is made all of porphyry, being in a corner of a street the most filthiest in all the city. And going towards the gate…is to be seen a great column of marble historied [7] after the manner of …those that are in Rome. Moreover there are conduit pipes, and diverse cisterns vaulted, [8] supported some by vaults and others by a great number of pillars, and divers other fragments of antiquities.

[1] A triangle

[2] Location

[3] Here we see the origin of the name "Istanbul," meaning "The City."

[4] Encircled

[5] Miscellaneous troubles. Nicolay telescopes over 1,000 years of history in this one sentence, moving from the time of Constantine to that of Mehmed the Conqueror.

[6] While it is true that several thousand Greeks were killed in the days immediately following the conquest, the vast majority were either enslaved or, if they came from one of the few districts within the city that did not resist the incoming Turks, spared altogether. The following line of the text correctly references the fact that the majority of the inhabitants were deported, and Turks, Greeks and others forcibly relocated to Istanbul to repopulate the city.

[7] Historiated; that is, covered with narrative carvings.

[8] These underground cisterns provided a secure water supply for Constantinople/Istanbul.

Description of the Great Bazaar of Istanbul, p. 61-2.

. …being a house, great, foursquare and high, made after the manner of a hall covered, having four gates and as many streets within it, being round about set with shops furnished with all sorts of rare merchandise and of high prices,[such] as rings, precious stones, furs of martins…and other fine skins of good prices in respect and comparison of this country [i.e., France]…all sorts of cloth of gold, of silver, of silk, chamblets[1] and fine mockados [2], bows of turkey, targets and bucklers [3], and other merchandise very rich and necessary. And there are also to be sold unto them that do bid and offer most for them an infinite number of Christian slaves of all ages and nations, in such order as we do sell horses, for such as do cheapen and are desirous to buy any of them do view their eyes, teeth and throughout the whole parts of the body…The [bazaar] standeth every day open until after the noon, except upon the Friday, which is the festival day of the Turks as Sunday is unto us, and the Saturday unto the Jews. There are besides this diverse other public places to sell upon the market days: one for old apparel and other things, as [the market of] St. Thomas Apostle is in London…and the other for all sorts of gold works, and of silk wrought with the needle, and in the Saddlers Hall are sold many fair furnitures for horses [4], vessels of gold and other fine things, fair painted after the Damascene fashion or after the Jamesque [5] sort fairer than any place in Turkey. But the aforesaid [bazaar] is the place where the most costly things are sold.

[1] Cotton fabrics (?).

[2] A cloth similar in texture to modern corduroy, made of wool or occasionally silk.

[3] These last three are military items, not types of cloth (bows to shoot with, and targets and bucklers are types of shields).

[4] "Furniture" here means saddles, bridles, etc. (i.e. things that must be furnished in order to ride a horse).

[5] What "Iamesque" refers to eludes me at the present.

Description of Pera (f 66r-67r) Pera, also called Galata, was a trading colony situated across the Golden Horn from Constantinople.

This city of Pera is built partly on the middle and partly on the hanging of a hill, being in compass a little less than 3 miles…it is separated by walls in three parts, within one of the which do dwell the right Peratins[1], in the other the Grecians, and in the third the Turks, which have the whole government thereof, and a certain number of Jews, for that the most part of the Jews do dwell in Constantinople…[The city] is very well beset with houses, which nevertheless are [not] greatly fair and [are] less commodious, notwithstanding [that] there are divers fair fountains led through pipes out of the river Danube and other floods [2] near unto them. All the whole length of the city is washed with the springs of the sea…On the height of the other part of the city [i.e., away from the seaside] are vines and gardens well tilled, accompanied with divers pleasant houses, for the most part appertaining [3] to certain Christians, of whom the most part do dwell at Pera and a [a] few at Constantinople, for so the Great Turk [4] do will and command. The Frenchmen and true Peratins do live according to the laws of the Rom[an] Church, which differ much from the religion of the Greeks, which is the occasion that they do not greatly love one another for the diversity of their faith. [If] it comes to pass that a Greek do marry with a [Roman Catholic woman], or a Greek woman with a (Roman Catholic man), [each] one of them do live according to their own religion and therefore [they] do not agree very well together. There is also without the city the saray of the zamoglans or janissaries, and the places ordained for the burying of the Jews and Turks. But the ambassadors of France do ordinarily keep their residence within the city, as likewise do the pledges or hostages of the Venetians and Florenetines, as well to maintain the leagues and confederacies of the amity which they have with the great turk, as for their traffic and trade of merchandise, which they do there exercise and likewise throughout all the parts of the Levant.

The apparel of the women and maidens of Greece and the Peratins Franques is so rich and costly, that he that had not seen it would scarce believe it. [They] do not only set all their care and study to be brave and well attired, but that which is more, they do oftentimes wear about them their whole substance as they go along [in] the city to their churches or baths. [There] is not so base a citizen or merchant's wife [who] do[es] not wear her gowns of velvet, crimson, satin, or damask, set with passament lace and buttons of gold or silver, and the meaner sort [wear] taffetas and figured silks, with many chains, hand rings or bracelets, carquants, tablets, and other jewels, garnished with diverse stones, some of them being fine and some again of small value. And on their head (I speak of the maidens and the newly married) they wear a round cap of crimson satin, or cloth of gold figured, wound round about with a band of two inches broad, being of silk and gold, set with fine pearls and stones very costly, their smocks are of cypress or taffeta colored, hemmed and overcast with gold, like as the Turks do wear. They forget not also to attire themselves after such a sort that if a man did see them as they do march, he would take them to be Nymphs… which is the occasion that the most part of them, [e]specially the married sort, do instead of virtue and chastity give themselves too all voluptuousness and unshamefastedness, for if the husband will not or can not entertain them in apparel according to their will and desire, they will procure one or more friends to furnish them at pleasure, which among them is very common and according to the custom of the country almost ordinary. But it is also very true that the women being somewhat aged, notwithstanding they are richly appareled, yet do wear the same modestly, for as they go about the streets they do wear a fine white linen cloth, hanging down behind even to the calf of the leg: but the widows wear the same colored yellow with saffron, marching with great gravity…

[1] The Italians who established the trading colony (Genoese)

[2] Rivers or other waterways

[3] Belonging

[4] European nickname for the Ottoman sultan (at this time, Sulieman Lawgiver, known in the west as Sulieman the Magnificent)

Of the city of Gallipoli pp. 44v - 45v. Gallipoli was the first Eurpean city seized by the Turks, some hundred years before the conquest of Constantinople.

Gallipoli is an ancient city situated upon Cherenesse of Thracia at the point [that] looks towards Propontide near unto the city of Lamsacque, which is in Asia the less [Asia Minor]. Some hold [the] opinion that she was [built] by C[easar] Caligula, and others say that she was in times past inhabited by Frenchmen, for that this word Gallipoli signifies City of the Gauls or Frenchmen, and for that the Frenchmen do dwell in Gaul, as Nicopoli and Philipopli signifies the city of Nicholas and Philip. She contains 600 households, but the principle habitations are so ruined that scarce is there any notable thing to be seen, but [1] that the haven is very good and able to hold a good army of all sorts of ships. Nevertheless there is a castle, which seems in times past to have been very strong, but now is altogether ruined, and yet there is an ordinary watch kept there.[2] In this city are divers windmills and there are also two Amarathes,[3] whereof the one is at the going out of the town towards Constantinople, which was built by Sinan Bascha, which was in the time of Mehmet the second, which conquered Constantinople, and the other of Sultan Biazet, which lieth buried there in a most sumptuous sepulcher. Very near unto the Great Turk [4] hath caused to be made a very fair fountain, which springs of very good waters through a conduit as big as a man's arm, whereof the water is carried to be sold throughout the city…for they have none other water to drink than well water, which is neither good nor wholesome to drink…the City is not compassed with walls, but is altogether open after the manner of a village, there are within it many fair gardens and most fruitful trees of all sorts and very excellent. Upon the cape which stretches into the sea is a high theatre made like unto a turret eight square, and about the cape are divers windmills…This city is peopled with Christians,[5] Greeks, Jews and Turks, which do use their great trades of merchandise being a town of great resort as well from the firm land as the sea, which is the occasion that victuals there are commonly very dear.

[1] "except"

[2] Gallipoli was the first city seized by the Ottoman Turks, which may explain why the castle was still manned by Turkish forces.

[3] I am looking for a modern definition for this term. "Bascha" is the same as "pasha."

[4] European nickname for the Ottoman emperor.

[5] Western Europeans.

 

Description of "Maiton/Mayton," (Madytos), pp. 44r-44v. I had to include this one, as it is the home town of the Lavrakas family

. …we went that day [and] came to ... anchor at a great village called Maiton…inhabited with Grecians, [who] are all spinners of wool and cotton, I say as well men as women, and of their thread they make Esclaunis, which are coverlets with long hair. The village contains about two or three hundred [households] and is situated upon the hanging of a mountain near the seaside, and on the bending of it... in the midst [of which] are seen the foundations of an old castle, and along the streets of the village and corners of the houses are pieces of fair columns and other monuments with certain figures broken (44v) which gives an appearance that it hath in times past been some renowned city. This place abounds [with] fair and fruitful gardens, and is a great country of vines producing great abundance of good wines, which they prefer in great earthen pitchers, which they bury in the ground to the intent to keep the same the longer good. They have also [an] abundance of pastures and good waters both of wells and fountains. All along the seaside are 36 windmills, having every one of them 10 wings, and also there are divers of them about the castle of Abyde.

"Of the cooks and other officers of the kitchen of the Great Turk, and the ordinary manner of the eating of the Turks," pp. 90r-91v.

…therefore it is to be understood that ordinarily [the sultan] keeps within his saray [1] 150 cooks, both masters and [slave] boys, amongst which the best and most experienced are chosen and ordained for the privy [2] kitchen of the great lord and the others for the common sort…Those of the privy kitchen have their furnaces apart for to dress and make ready the meat without smell of smoke, which being sodden and dressed [3], they lay into platters of porcelain and so deliver it unto the Cecigners, whom we do call carvers, for to serve the same unto the great Lord, the taste being made in his presence.[4] The other cooks for the common sort do deliver their meant unto those [that] have the charge of the distributing thereof throughout the sarail according to the order made by the officers thereunto committed… Now there [remains] to speak of the dressing of their meat and the ordinary manner of eating of the Turks, [who] fare different from ours,.[French food] being so superfluous, curious and delicate, and our Cooks dressing the same accordingly. Whereas to the contrary theirs is scant, bare and gross, without any diversities of lardings, dressings, sauces, juices and confections. [5] Their Cooks being very simple dressers of meat, as being neither dainty nor delicate in the dressings thereof. For the Turks do content themselves with slight meats and easily dressed, so as they be nourishing or restorative: as bucks flesh, goats flesh, mutton, lamb and kidd, and certain hens, whereof they have as fat and as savory as in any other place where I have been. They do eat little beef and less veal, for they say that the cow having her calf taken away from her would loose her milk, and thereby [they] should lack butter, cheese and other whitemeat. They hold the sheep's feet for a very delicate meat, which ordinarily in diverse shops at Constantinople are set forth to be sold ready sodden and dressed with piled garlic, which is their common sauce at all times. There are also to be sold pies of minced meat, and rice dressed with butter and almonds very savory and of a good taste. As for the flesh they [prefer to] eat it roasted … and do roast the same in the manner following. They have a great iron pot [the size] of a kettle, in the bottom whereof they do lay red burning coals, and over it a gridiron upon the which they do roast their flesh through the vapor and heat of the coals, which can neither be wholesome nor dainty. And to be short, their kitchen and cooks are nothing like unto ours. As for their drink, their most usual and common beverage is that which is natural unto all beasts in the world: to wit, fair and clear water. But they have notwithstanding other drinks artificially made and confectioned of diverse sorts which they do sell in sundry places of the city. Some [are] made with water and barley after the manner of ale, some others of pears or apples, or with the [stewing] together of plums, raisons, figs, pears, peaches and other like fruits, and the beverage which they do call Sorbet, [6] they do much use to drink in the summer with ice or snow to cool the same. The do also drink much aqua vita [7] both at and after meals, which they call Archent. As for natural wine, notwithstanding that by [Islamic] law the drinking thereof is forbidden them, yet do they for all that leave it nothing at all, taking of it sometimes so much that scarce are they able to bear it. …They have another order to make themselves drunk without wine, which is with their opium, being a composition made with a white stuff, whereof the Turks do not only use, but also the Persians and other people of [the] Levant, through the opinion…that it make them to forget choler and melancholy, and so cause them to be joyful and merry, and in the wars more stout and hardy.

[1] Imperial residence (palace). Nicolay is most likely referring to the Topkapi Saray, rather than the palace in the city used to house older imperial women.

[2] Privy means 'private'; in this context the privy kitchen means the Sultan's private kitchen, the one that cooks for him and not for the rest of the court.

[3] Marinated, and otherwise prepared for cooking, and then made ready for serving

[4] "the taste..." meaning each dish would be tasted in the sultan's presence to show that the food was not poisoned

[5] Even in the 16th century, the French devotion to sauces and belief in the superiority of their own cooking reared its head!

[6] Sherbert, which in this context is an iced, not frozen, fruit drink.

[7] This usually translates as whiskey