Peiresc's Mediterranean World

641 Pages·2015·14.556 MB·English

by  Peter N. Miller

Peiresc’s
mediterranean world

Peiresc’s
mediterranean world
Peter N. Miller
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, En gland
2015
Copyright © 2015 by Peter N. Miller
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available from
the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-0-674-74406-6
For my wondrous Livy and Sam
(cid:2)
Although my profession seems far removed from knowledge of the
stars we can not be completely forbidden consideration of them,
because of our nature: “man was given a lofty countenance and
was commanded to behold the skies.”
— P eiresc’s dedication to Queen Marie de’ Médicis,
quoting from Ovid, of his never- completed study
of the moons of Jupiter, ca. 1612

Contents
Note on the Text ix
Introduction 1
1 (cid:2) P rologue: Algiers, June 1932 29
2 (cid:2) M arseille- Aix 33
3 (cid:2) M arseille and the French Mediterranean 36
4 (cid:2) C ontingency 49
5 (cid:2) P eiresc’s Letters 54
6 (cid:2) W riting to the Levant, 1626–1637 60
7 (cid:2) P eiresc’s Names, or, On Reading the Namescape 143
8 (cid:2) T he Problem of Detail 153
9 (cid:2) T he Postal Link 160
10 (cid:2) T he Last Mile (Mule Is King) 165
11 (cid:2) M arseille’s Merchants 169
12 (cid:2) M arseille’s Merchant Families 186
13 (cid:2) F inancing, Disbursing, Reimbursing 188
14 (cid:2) S anson Napollon 206
15 (cid:2) N aturalizing Merchants 209
16 (cid:2) N orth Africans in Marseille 212
17 (cid:2) N ortherners in the Mediterranean 214
18 (cid:2) S hip’s Captains and Patrons 225
19 (cid:2) T asks Entrusted to Captains 226
20 (cid:2) P ort Practices: Packaging—P lague— Quarantine 229
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21 (cid:2) Setting Sail 235
22 (cid:2) Merchant Routes 237
23 (cid:2) Mapping the Mediterranean 241
24 (cid:2) Sicily 258
25 (cid:2) People in Motion 265
26 (cid:2) Ottoman Empire News 280
27 (cid:2) Time and Timings 287
28 (cid:2) Corsairs 293
29 (cid:2) Ransoming 299
30 (cid:2) End Points 312
31 (cid:2) Merchants as Intellectual Partners 338
32 (cid:2) Before Statistik 356
33 (cid:2) Peiresc’s Mixing in Cairo’s Consular Politics 362
34 (cid:2) Peiresc and Travel 367
35 (cid:2) Where Mediterranean Meets Orient:
Ethiopia, India, Yemen 370
36 (cid:2) At the Still Point 388
appendix a Peiresc in History, 1637–1932 393
appendix b Peiresc’s Letters to the Levant,
1627–1637, Analyzed 399
appendix c Patrons and Captains 411
Abbreviations 447
Notes 449
Ack now ledg ments 617
Index 621
Note on the Text
Peiresc’s original language and that of his correspondents has been pre-
served as much as possible. Where his idiosyncratic seventeenth- century
orthography and that of his many secretaries may puzzle readers I have
tried to reassure them with [sic]. Where it is likely to lead readers astray I
have silently corrected the spelling.
The spelling of names in par ticu l ar is vexing, especially given the
tendency for the same name to be reused within successive generations of
the same family, and the prevalence of family businesses in Marseille’s
maritime world. I have generally tried to standardize orthography, and
generally tried to follow current conventions. But not always. In one par-
ticu l ar case, that of the Magy brothers, I have always referred to the
Marseille- based brother as “Jean- Baptiste,” while the Cairo- based Jean is
usually referred to as “Magy” and only sometimes as “Jean Magy.”
Peiresc’s own convention was to underline passages of importance.
These have here been rendered in italics, which is our convention for
emphasis. Italics have also been used to render foreign terms of art. I
trust the reader to distinguish between the two uses.
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