Author: William Irvine
Editor(s): Margreat L Irvine
Publisher: LP Publications
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 310
ISBN/UPC (if available): 817536310X
Description
Niccolao Manucci, the hero of our narrative, ran away from Venice in 1653, being then fourteen. He hid on board a vessel bound for Smyrna, and was fortunate enough to find a protector in a certain Viscount Bellomont, an English nobleman, then on his way to Persia and India. He followed Bellomont through Asia Minor to Persia, and from Persia to India, meeting with many adventures by sea and land. The sudden death of his master near Hodal, in 1656, left Manucci friendless in a strange land.
This brief sketch of the man and his work will serve, to awaken interest in his story, and perhaps it will not be out of place to state here the reasons which suggested that a volume of selections from the Storia might meet with success. The Storia do Mogor, as a whole, is very lengthy, and somewhat diffuse; and a great deal of it is interesting only to the student and the scholar. Some passages, such as those dealing with the disputes between the Capuchins and Jesuits, might even be called wearisome, whilst to many people the mere appearance of the four weighty volumes is quite alarming. Therefore, by making a selection of passages, dealing chiefly with Manucci’s own life-story, that we might thus give a sufficiently faithful picture of the man and his career, and introduce him in this way to many readers, who otherwise would never have made his acquaintance.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Departure from Venice
Warlike Preparations
Manucci as Medecin Malgre Lui
A royal Patient, successful treatment
Why Manucci left the Mogul country
Manucci in Madras
Da, ud Khan’s hostile return
Index