Judeo-Persian Tobit and G. B. Vecchietti: Exile and Writing between Florence and the Persianate World

Abstract

ON THE EVE OF THE YEAR 1600 , Giovambattista Vecchietti (1552–1619)— former papal envoy, scholar, and agent of oriental books—found himself at an impasse on the Island of Hormuz. In order to continue on his journey to India where he hoped “to try his luck and settle down financially once and for all,” Vecchietti had to pay the island’s Portuguese governor a passage tax that he deemed unreasonable. While wealthier travelers like merchants from Venice or Florentine Jesuits with powerful patrons could pass without delay, Vecchietti was traveling on borrowed money in 1599. Not quite able or, at any rate, not quite willing to pay a hefty