Abstract
MS Or.5, preserved at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, contains a Safavid Shāhnāme dated Shavvāl 990/ September-October 1582. Included in Angelo Michele Piemontese’s catalogue of Persian manuscripts in Italian libraries (1989), the manuscript, of excellent craftsmanship, represents a very interesting case of an Ottoman gift to the Medici court. The protagonist of this donation was an Ottoman admiral Muṣṭafā Paşa Muṣāḥib (1640-1686), who, according to a deed preserved in the State Archives of Florence dated 1093/1682-83, gave the manuscript as a gift to the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici (r. 1670-1723 ) along with two other manuscripts, a Khamsa by Neẓāmī also from the late sixteenth century and an Eskandarnāme, which may correspond to the work in Turkish by Aḥmedi preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice (Ms. Or. XC 57). This gift represents an important political act: Muṣṭafā Paşa Muṣāḥib was in the service of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687) and was a learned scholar and collector of manuscripts of the highest quality. The gift preceded the Battle of Vienna by a few months. The Florence State Archive preserves many other documents that concern Muṣṭafā Paşa Muṣāḥib and show the political strategies of the Ottomans in the face of the uncertain policy of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which would lead to his participation in the Holy League in the years following the donation. The presentation will also be devoted to the manuscript, which represents a highly interesting example of Safavid production at the end of the sixteenth century, as well as part of a valuable Ottoman collection. The presentation also benefitted of Veronica Prestini’s contribution. She has produced a historical study on Cosimo III de’ Medici and the Ottomans which will also be presented summarily in the paper.
