Ipnosi Turca. Un medico viaggiatore in terra ottomana (1618–1717) by Davide Baldi Bellini (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Ipnosi Turca. Un medico viaggiatore in terra ottomana (1618–1717) by Davide Baldi Bellini
• Richard W. Tait

Baldi Bellini, Davide, Ipnosi Turca. Un medico viaggiatore in terra ottomana (1618–1717) (Medieval and Early Modern Europe and the World, 2), Turnhout, Brepols, 2022; hardback; pp. 239; R.R.P. €60.00; ISBN 9782503599700.

Davide Baldi Bellini gives us two works in this slim volume—the first is an account of the Florentine physician Alessandro Pini (1653–1717), and specifically his life and adventures in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The second is an Italian translation of Pini’s work De moribus Turcarum (‘On the customs of the Turks’), with extensive explanatory notes. Both works are an expansion and reworking of parts of a 2004 book, in which Baldi Bellini was also a collaborator: Alessandro Pini viaggiatore in Egitto (1681–1683), ed., Rosario Pintaudi (Istituto Italiano di Cultura del Cairo, 2004). In addition, he is the author of the entry on Pini in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960–2020), which also contains a summary of the material in the first part of this book. His book provides a detailed first-hand account of an Italian physician in the Middle East and will be valuable for those interested in the interactions between Western and Ottoman culture and science.

The account of Pini’s life and adventures is based on his correspondence with the polymath Francesco Redi (1626–1697), court physician to Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany. Pini’s passion for the culture of the Middle East and its marvels is evident from his letters. This life-long enthusiasm is the basis for the book’s title: Ipnosi Turca (‘Turkish hypnosis’). Pini had trained as a physician and in 1681 was dispatched by Cosimo to Egypt to send back preparations of crystallised senna (Cassia angustifolia) and other medicinal simples. Senna is a laxative, and Cosimo prized the northern African variant over that available in Italy. Pini was entranced by Egyptian and Ottoman culture, quickly mastered the language, and considered himself as a cultural expert. In this edition, Baldi Bellini has used the letters to narrate a series of episodes of Pini’s life, such as his departure from Italy, his adventures in Egypt, his travels to Jerusalem and Syria, and his subsequent service as a naval doctor for the Venetian Republic. These are very readable and replete with quotations from Pini’s and Redi’s letters. The footnotes are long and discursive, full of background information. However, many scholars will find themselves looking for the complete texts of the correspondence provided in the 2004 book and might prefer the current book as a narrative support to the 2004 edition.

Pini’s text on the customs of the Turks, entitled De moribus Turcarum, can be found in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. The manuscript has only ten folios and terminates abruptly, but whether the rest is lost or was never completed [End Page 211] is unknown. Baldi Bellini’s translation into Italian has been revised from the 2004 version and is laid out face-to-face with the Latin for easy reference. The translator has divided the text into chapters by subject, each of which is followed by an extensive set of editorial notes, new to this edition. These notes were derived from only a few sources, mainly Robert Mantran’s La vita quotidiana a Costantinopoli ai tempi di Solimano il Magnifico (Rizzoli, 1985, but first published in French in 1965) and Vincenzo Abbondanza, Dizionario storico delle vite di tutti i monarchi ottomani fino al regnante gran signore Acmet IV. e delle più riguardevoli cose appartenenti a quelle monarchia (1788). The translator’s purpose for these notes is unclear; each is a collection of largely disconnected observations and quotations from supporting sources, but with no structured commentary by the author that might help the reader understand the subject better, including any omissions or errors by Pini. The notes do fill out the brief cultural observations made by Pini, which is welcome. However, the editor does not take up the challenge of using Pini’s undoubtedly well-informed observations to delve more deeply into the perception of Turkish...