Niccolao Manucci

Niccolò Manucci (* April 19, 1638, † 1717 probably in Pondicherry, South India ) was a Venetian adventurer, traveler and author. Manucci held in mid to late 17th century in the area of Mogul Emperor in India and worked in different functional Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan, Raja Jai Singh II and Kirat Singh. In the memoir about his adventurous life he paints a colorful picture of the Empire of the Mughals.

Life

Niccolò Manucci was the first of five children born into a Venetian family which earned with the preparation of spices and drugs from the Orient a modest livelihood. Manuccis knowledge of the effects of drugs that later earned him a reputation as a knowledgeable doctor here probably have their roots.

As the age of fourteen he went to an uncle in Corfu, sneaked into a under the English flag after Smirna sailing ship. Discovered as a stowaway, he should be thrown into the sea, which was the intervention of Henry Bard, Viscount of Mirth prevented. Bellomont, who later became ambassador of Charles II in Persia and India, Manuzzi kept in its wake. With Mirth he crossed Anatolia, came to the Caspian Sea, reaching 1655 Isfahan in Persia. 1656 he traveled with Mirth in its capacity as English ambassador to Surat in India, then to Agra in the Mughal Empire and on to Delhi where Bellomont died unexpectedly on June 20 and Manucci lost his patron and supporter.

At the court of the Great Mogul

Manucci, who spoke Turkish and Persian meanwhile, could get in touch with Dara Shiko, the oldest son and favorite for the succession of Shah Jahan, who hired him as an artilleryman. After the death of the Great Mogul there were bloody battles for the succession between his sons, in which the third son of the emperor, Aurangzeb was able to prevail, the put to death Dara Shiko and his son. Manucci was, however, almost penniless, escape.

Travel through India

He joined a caravan to Kashmir, came to Agra, where he reunited with old friends from Europe and decided to travel on to Bengal, which was going to develop into a thriving commercial center. In Agra, he met the German Jesuit priest and Indologists Henrique Roa know. About Allahabad and Benares he came to Patna and moved on to Dacca, the then center of Bengal. In Dacca, he learned the English Boat and canon Bauer Thomas Pratt know. He traveled to Hooghly, where he was received by the Jesuits. Because of its Sprachkenntenisse and his good contacts with senior representatives of the Mughal government, which were very useful for the Order, the Jesuits tried very to him and tried in vain to persuade him to stay.

Activity as a physician

Since his stay had obviously not met in Dacca his expectations on economic success, he returned several stations back to Patna back. Around this time has Manucci, who has never studied medicine, began practicing as a doctor. In Patna, he and a Dutch surgeon could successfully operate the governor of the city to a fistula, which cemented his reputation as a capable doctor.

In 1686 he married Helizabet Hartley, the daughter of an English administration officials. He continued to work as a doctor and wrote to his memories. 1706, after the death of his wife, he moved to Pondicherry on the Bay of Bengal, which was then under French rule. According to Venetian sources he died in 1717 in Monte Grande near Madras.

The Memoirs

A three-volume manuscript of his memoirs in Portuguese arrived in 1700 to Paris, was heavily edited by the Jesuit François Catrou and went in 1705 under the title Histoire générale de l' Empire du Mogol depuis sa fondation, sur les mémoires portugais de M. Manouchi, vénitien in pressure.

However, Manucci was with the cuts and edits Catrous not satisfied, revised and expanded his manuscript, which is now comprised of five volumes and passages in Portuguese, French and Italian language contained, it sent via the French ambassador in Venice in Paris, Lorenzo Tiepolo, the Venetian Senate and complained to Catrou of plagiarism. The Senate initiated an assessment of the manuscript by the University of Padua and had translated the Portuguese parts into Italian. A print of this revision was prevented by the intervention of the Jesuit order in 1751 and came into existence. A copy of this edition came in 1897 in the Royal Library in Berlin, where by William Irvine (* 1840), discovered a Scottish historian and former member of the Indian Civil Service, translated into English and 1907-1908 under the title Storia do Mogor or, Mughal India issued.

As a historical source for the Mughal Empire, the memoirs of historians is evaluated differently. Stories by hearsay, picaresque elements and their own observations are not to be separated always accurate. Bello Monts stay in Persia and its relations with the Großvesier of the Shah, the Manuzzi describes in his book, are confirmed by records that are kept in the British Library in London.

• Histoire générale de l' Empire du Mogol depuis sa fondation, sur les mémoires portugais de M. Manouchi, vénitien. [Paris, Jean de Nully, 1705 ]. First printed, but heavily treated by Catrou output.
• Istoria generale del Imperio del Mogul is the Italian version, which was released in 1751 in Venice by Domenico tatting.
• Storia do Mogor or, Mughal India, 1653-1708. 2 vols Transl. with introd. and notes by William Irvine. Calcutta 1965-67.
• History of the Mogul Dynasty in India: from its foundation by Tamerlane, in the year 1399, to the accession of Aurengzebe, in the year 1658 by Niccolò Manucci and Francois Catrou. . Nabu Press. ISBN 1-176-68840-5
• A partial edition in Italian was published under the title Storia del Mogol di Nicolò Manuzzi veneziano by Piero Falchetta in Milan in FM Ricci 1986.
• An abridged version in French translation by Robert Sctrick appeared in 2002 under the title Niccolo Manucci. Un Vénitien chez les Moghols in Paris at Phebus.

• Storia del Mogol di Niccolo Manuzzi veneziano. Introduzione: Miniature indiane con scene, corte in prevalenza, di (XVII sec ) Edit by Piero Falchetta and a contribution by M. Bussagli. 2 vols Milan, Rizzoli, 1986. ISBN 8821600351st This edition contains some 160 color photographs from the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.