2. Vansleb’s first travel to the East

Vansleb’s first travel to the East was on the recommendation of his mentor Hiob Ludolf and on behalf of Ernest I. Duke of Saxe-Gotha. The intent was to reach Ethiopia. Officially a study trip to which the Duke only granted a subsidy, but actually fully financed by him, with detailed instructions and itinerary, as well as specified procedure and goals. Vansleb set out 1663 and arrived in Egypt in January 1664, where he formed contacts with the Copts. Their Patriarch Matthew IV. dissuaded him from going to Ethiopia. It was not Vansleb’s main goal to collect manuscripts on his journey, but he was able to copy a few. Without reaching Ethiopia, Vansleb returned to Italy landing in Leghorn in 1665.

Exercises

-> Try to reconstruct Vansleb’s journey. Read:

• Gelbke, Johann Heinrich. 1810. Herzog Ernst der Erste genannt der Fromme zu Gotha als Mensch und Regent: eine historische Darstellung aus Acten und bewährten Druckschriften gezogen und mit einem Urkundenbuche. Gotha: Perthes.

• p.7-9 in: Hamilton, Alastair, ed. 2018. Johann Michael Wansleben’s Travels in the Levant, 1671-1674: An Annotated Edition of His Italian Report. The History of Oriental Studies 4. Leiden: Brill.

• Beck, August. 1865. Ernst der Fromme, Herzog zu Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Weimar: Böhlau.

• Beck, August. 1865. Ernst der Fromme, Herzog zu Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Weimar: Böhlau.

-> Get an overview of Vansleb’s account on Egypt by glancing over one of the following language editions:

• Italian
• German 
• Arabic

-> What were the personal, ecclesiastical, scholarly and politic intentions of the main people involved? Collect a list for:

• Johann Michael Vansleb
• Hiob Ludolf
• Ernest I, ‘the Pious‘, Duke of Saxe-Gotha

Start reading with:

• Collet, Dominik. 2007. Die Welt in der Stube. Begegnungen mit Außereuropa in Kunstkammern der Frühen Neuzeit. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 232. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

• Bausi, Alessandro. 2015. “Johann Michael Wansleben’s Manuscripts and Texts. An Update.” In Essays in Ethiopian Manuscript Studies: Proceedings of the International Conference Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts: The Transmission of Knowledge in the Horn of Africa. Hamburg, 17-19 July 2014, edited by Alessandro Bausi, Alessandro Gori, Denis Nosnits in, and Eugenia Sokolinski, 197–243. Supplement to Aethiopica 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

• From p. 569: Beck, August. 1865. Ernst der Fromme, Herzog zu Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Weimar: Böhlau.

-> The London Fellows collected a list with questions for Vansleb’s travel, it is not clear if it reached him though. Browse through it here

-> Vansleb got detailed instructions for his travel. Read about them here, mainly p. 162-166

Excursion: Gotha’s connections to Ethiopia

Read on Gotha’s international connections and interest for exotics, as well as the visit of Abba Gregorius in:

• Collet, Dominik. 2007. Die Welt in der Stube. Begegnungen mit Außereuropa in Kunstkammern der Frühen Neuzeit. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 232. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• p. 562-569: Beck, August. 1865. Ernst der Fromme, Herzog zu Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Weimar: Böhlau.