121

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.365, cont., 12.366)

The MS is bound in black and brown leather with flap, richly embossed with gold, blue and dark-blue tooled insets in Oriental style both on the outside and inside; glazed white paper; the title of (1) is written on the bottom edge; 7+216+10 folios; 232x137 mm and 153x79 mm, varying; 19 lines; catchwords; headings, rubrics, lines and dots in red; gold borders set within black lines; occasionally gold dots in text; precious headpieces with floral patterns in gold blue, orange, red, pink and white in ff. lb, 66b and 80b (with title in red against a golden background); varicoloured maps and pictures in (3) (described above); completed by Mehmed b. Veil on Tuesday 3 Muharrem 1060 (6 January 1650); the inscription Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 42’ by the owner himself occurs on the first flyleaf, recto; two notes written by Taeschner on separate pieces of paper with detailed descriptions of the contents, references to literature, date of copying and so forth are found in the MS; according to one note the MS was acquired from Harrassowitz in December 1924 (Cat. 400 No. 2496).

Cod.Or. 12.366 Cem-niimd ftfenn-i cografya U» |^ ^ i... An undated copy - if it is not an autograph, which seems unlikely, see below - of a translation of the first eight introductory chapters of Jacques Robbe’s Méthode pour apprendre facilement la Géographie, first published in Paris in 1678, a handbook of geography. The name of Robbe, private geographer to the King of France [1643-1721], is mentioned in f. 5b: 17. It consists of a preface (mukaddime), seven chapters (bab) and a conclusion {hatime). The translation covers the text, including the interlinear illustrations (see plates) and a table, found in the edition published in The Hague in 1688, up to p. 74. Chaper viii of the original is the fifth fasl of chapter seven in the Turkish version, f. 28a. Chapter ix of the original was used for the conclusion, f. 29b. The translation was made by Barun (Petros Baronian), first dragoman for the state of the Two Sicilies (cf. f- 5a: 10 and the author’s colophon, f. 29b) and completed in Istanbul on 22 Zi l-hicce 1145 (6 June 1733). The title is mentioned in f. 5a: 12-3 and in a heading preceding the text on f. 3b. (An earlier version of 1144/1732 had the title ‘Fenn-niimd-yi jami-yi Cem ezfenn-i cografya’, cf. Taeschner’s article, p. 109n.) The work is preceded by an introduction (3b-4a) in which the author informs us that he was bom in Kayseri and had received a copy of the work from the late Count [Jacob] Colyer who had been the Dutch ambassador to the Porte for forty-