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An Eye-Witness Account of the Expedition of the Florentines against Chios in 1599

Author(s): Jacob Leveen


Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 12,
No. 3/4, Oriental and African Studies Presented to Lionel David Barnett by His Colleagues,
Past and Present (1948), pp. 542-554
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/608710 .
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An Eye-witness Account of the Expedition of the
Florentines against Chios in 1599
By JACOBLEVEEN

AN interesting footnote to the abortive expedition of the Florentines against


the island of Chios in May 1599 is provided by a rare-possibly unique-
book in the British Museum.
Its rarity may be gauged from the fact that we find no record of it in the
catalogues of Steinschneider,l Kayserling,2 and Ya'ari,3 or in the Jewish
encyclopaedias. Nor have I been able to trace a reference to it in any other
source. The book is a small quarto volume, measuring 71 in. by 53 in., and
consisting of twenty-eight leaves. The last leaf, which has no foliation, appears
to be a cancel, as it reproduces, in a somewhat different form, the text of
fol. 2. The book contains the Aramaic paraphrase of the Song of Solomon
(known as the Targrum),accompanied by a Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) version
in the Hebrew character, and was printed in Salonica in the year A.M. (5)360
4
(A.D. 1600) at the printing press of Mattithiah Bathsheba 6 and his sons,
and subsidized by Moses [ben Samuel] di Medina.6 It was published for
Jacob ben Judah Ashkenazzi, an itinerant bookseller of Safed in Galilee.
A preface by him, as well as a poem by the same author on the game of chess,
which, like the preface, is otherwise unknown (it is to be found on the verso
of fol. 27), complete the book.
The volume has few pretensions to typographical elegance or-at least
as far as the preface is concerned-great accuracy. What makes it of exceptional
interest, however, is the fact that in his preface the bookseller, rather like
Caxton some hundred years earlier, takes the reader into his confidence and
reveals to him the circumstances which occasioned the printing of the book.
Our author's story is certainly no ordinary one. Forced to leave Safed
owing to two successive failures of the harvest (in 1597 and 1598), which had
disrupted that once prosperous community, he found himself involved in
a series of perilous adventures which culminated in his landing in Chios shortly
before its invasion by the Florentines on the morning of 1st May 1599.
The main interest of the preface is our author's eye-witness account of the
invasion. Fortunately, this expedition sent against Chios is unusually well

1 Catalogus Librorum Hebrsorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, Berolini, 1852-1860.


2 Biblioteca Espanola-Portugueza-Judaica, Strassbourg, 1890.
3 "i IlNr5 "'ID ntWIYI, Jerusalem, 1934.
4 As the Jewish New Year begins some three to four months earlier than the Christian,
the book may have been printed in the winter of 1599.
5 For this printer, see Steinschneider, col. 2581.
6 A kind of minor Maecenas,who contributed from his own pocket towards the printing of
Hebrew books. See Steinschneider, col. 3004.
JEXr'EITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 543

documented from Florentine and Austrian archives.1 A comparison of the


description given in the preface with the official reports reveals a fair measure
of agreement, but also a certain number of discrepancies. These have been
dealt with in my notes to the translation, to which I would refer to the reader.
Jacob Ashkenazzi's account of the invasion is compressed into some 700 words,
which compares unfavourably in point of size with the voluminous records of
the Florentines. Nevertheless, his experiences usefully supplement the official
dispatches and give us, in addition, some vivid personal touches. His description
of the Florentine leader's premature rejoicing at the defeat of the enemy,
and the Jewish proselyte woman's anguished prayers to God for help, are
cases in point. But perhaps he is wrong in suggesting that the Bey of Chios
had to be prodded by Jews in order to do his duty. At least, this version is at
variance with the Florentine sources.2
Into the space of three closely printed pages Jacob Ashkenazziis able to pack
a surprising amount of detail concerning his odyssey. His narrative illustrates
the hazards of a journey by sea in those days, when, in addition to the menace
of piracy, passengers were so often at the mercy of villainous captains and cut-
throat crews. We learn, too, how dependent the Palestine economy was on
a good harvest, and how, at the recurringthreat of famine, seemingly prosperous
and well-knit communities were broken up. (Ever since the days of the
Patriarchs Palestine has suffered cruelly from the failures of harvests.)
The character of our author as drawn in this preface is not wholly attractive.
He is given to self-pity and sanctimoniousness, and is always posing as the
injured party. His faults, however, are to some extent redeemed by his genuine
devotion to the scholars of Safed. He is not a practised writer, and too often
spoils the continuity of his story by the intrusion of irrelevances, or rather by
inserting some of his material in the wrong place. He quarries his phrases
liberally from the Hebrew Bible,3 while for technical terms, particularly naval
and military, he falls back upon Italian, Spanish and Turkish words.4 Thanks,
however, to his lively personality, these literary defects do not greatly mar
the interest of his narrative.
The story of the abortive expedition by the Florentines has a curiously
topical interest for us, with the memory of D-Day still fresh in our minds. The
whole enterprise was foolhardy in the extreme and undertaken with no clear-cut
objective and with far too few forces. Like the more famous Armada of eleven
years earlier, this, too, in spite of some initial successes, foundered upon the
unpredictable factor of the weather.
1 See The Expedition
of the Florentines to Chios (1599). Described in contemporaryrecords
and military dispatches. Edited, with an introduction, by Philip P. Argenti, London, 1934.
2
George Sandys, the famous English traveller, however, in his A Relation of a Journey
Begun An: Dom: 1610, London, 1615, p. 13, says in reference to this Bey: " For the Captaine
Bassa upon his coming strangled the perfidious Gouernor: either for dishonouring the Turke
in his breach of promise: or for his negligence in being so surprised ".
3 These
borrowings from the Bible are too frequent to be noted fully.
4 On which see also
p. 553, n. 2.
544 JACOB LEVEEN-

I. TITLE-PAGE

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II. PREFACE 2

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3 Sic. Lege '=51b=.
4 SiC. Lege,11.
EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 545

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1 We should expect DnM5=. The author is sometimes guilty of a confusion of persons.


VOL. XII. PARTS 3 AND 4. 4
546 JACOB LEVEEN-

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1Sic. See my note in the translation.
2 Livadia (Ae,Sfds&a), near the coast and some two miles north of the port of Chios.
3 Sic. Lege nIxmZNflD^. 4 i.e. Turkish meded. 5 i.e. Turkish topji.
EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 547

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2 SiC. Lege nMU1. It is probably a printer's smudge which has turned the 3 into a a.
3 SiC. lege nIID22trn3
4 i.e. Turkish palamar " a hawser ".
548 JACOB LEVEEN-

mI)n ,nnm :="Tn nato ,1r#n,n nn,ll ,1nx ;n

QiT;N3om~
Because,
,even
'T.i,iTn :nr
mr
because I have on~,~made
been riTin 11m
y of
to drink deep 11
:n'^
wormwood
the
-
,nDun Ns^em,l ' Kmv :;1nt nrn:l ;rjln
lt3t iu:w jNT
pl I 1bt

n:ob 'I ingp!


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f te fthls time; and ps trbles nfollod for me and
circl

ty encd mn Ie t
nof Akhnai.) 1 And 'seb my complai
minn

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'nrnnN
h
DINna
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ytn31s, ND(:;llys<3
,
nl
lb
above my head. ( Theycopassed me about; yea,they conpassed me about;
n .1jIiN1
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nN =:V'I^1Y TDb-IT ?
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III. TRANSLATION
[1b] Master Jacob, son of Judah Ashkenazzi (may the latter's memory be
for a blessing !) says :-
Because, even because I have been made to drink deep of the wormwood
of these faithless times; and packs of troubles followed for me and circled
above my head. (They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about;
they enclosedme in the oven of Akhnai.3)And I was restlessin my complaint
1 Sic, LegentWn.
2 Sic. Ms
Lege . The retrospective pronoun-in this casean-is sometimes omitted.
3 Cf. BCrakhith (T.B.) 19a.
EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 549

and moaned from time to time. And I was wound up (like a ball), and tossed
violently. It was because of these trials that I found myself in exile, instead
of being in my own house like a fresh olive, secure and at peace in the great
city, the perfection of beauty in Zion, Safed of Upper Galilee (may it be speedily
rebuilt in our days !). It was there that I rolled in and embraced the dust of
the feet of the perfect scholars who shed lustre upon the land and the inhabitants
thereof. And I used to serve them, sometimes with the strength of my body
and sometimes with my money; and I occupied myself and took delight in
the work of heaven, selling and buying books and acquiring profit from the
labour of my hands. Thus had I prospered, although when I came to Safed
I had no more than eighteen silver florins on me (I had been robbed on the
way), and when I left I found myself in a similar plight. But from the very
beginning I had refused to live on the charity of any living creature. And it
came to pass, when those perfect scholars had departed this life-those scholars
for whom I used to do business, and to whose shadow I had attached
myself, and with whom I had found ample sustenance-that the days of the
visitation came. And when the men of charitable deeds fled, owing to the
fevers of hunger, to slanders, taxes, and imposts, I was no longer able to bring
food to my house, let alone act charitably towards others, as had been my
good custom (as those who speak truth can testify, for it is known in all places).
Notwithstanding, although my soul longed to dwell in the land of Israel,
yet would I come and go and ply my commerce abroad, and afterwards return
to the land of Israel to my former state. And I suffered agonies and poverty
rather than live on the charity of fellow-creatures.
Now these two years has the famine raged in the land. So I went forth
from the land of Israel. But no sooner had I left than many troubles encom-
passed me, which if I were to come to tell of them, time would come to an end.
Yet I must needs acquaint the multitude with my troubles, for " where there
is heaviness in the heart of man, he must complain thereof " [cf. Proverbs xii,
25]. But I will describe only a portion of them.
Now for my sins, before I left I took goods on credit from scholars learned in
the Torah, as well as pledges to bring to the city of Constantinople. But Satan
appeared when I came to Tripoli [in Syria] and boarded the ship. For the ship's
captain was an adversary and an enemy, and had designs to deliver us into the
hand of thieves, and he brought us into evil places, and led us from adversity
to adversity. And we were in this peril for two and a half months, until the last
farthing was emptied from the purse, and we were left with nothing but our
bare bodies. Nevertheless, we gave thanks to God who had saved us from
the unclean one.
Now it came to pass, after I had come to the island of Cyprus, that a certain
Jew of our company died, and men began to spread slanders about me, after
their usual fashion, [saying] that the goods and pledges which I had brought
with me had belonged to the dead man. I therefore stood in great peril and
was forced to part with a great sum of money, the rest of my savings. I was
550 JACOB LEVEEN-

in great peril, too, at sea, as I had fallen dangerously ill by reason of the bitter
cold. Many in the ship died, and I, by reason of my affliction and sickness, had
perforce to spend much money, both my own and other people's. But when
I arrived in Constantinople God was gracious to me and I dwelt in peace and
security. And I gained much profit, with which to pay my debts.
Then did I meet certain men who were bringing wheat to the land of Israel.
And they deceived me and made vain and empty vows to me that if I should
go with them they would reward me well. I therefore entreated the favour of
many of the most eminent and honoured citizens of Constantinople. And
they wrote letters to Rabbi Jacob Israel Celebi at Rodosto,l instructing him
to put me on board a ship. And I, thinking that God had prospered my way,
swore that this time, after I had arrived in peace in Safed, I would no longer
fare forth from it, for I had now acquired wealth. I therefore at once sold the
books that were on my hands cheaply-a collection of copies of the Torah
and the Prophets for a hundred silver florins, and the rest of the books at a
corresponding price.
So I travelled with these men to Chios. There they disclosed to me that
it was not their intention to pay even my expenses for the journey. And
when I heard this I shouted " Robbers " at them in the middle of Chios, and
I cried: " Why did you make me give up my business,2 if it was not your
intention to give me a share in the wheat, and force me to incur expenses
unnecessarily ? " And when the men of Chios saw how evil was their intention
there came a much-respected tax collector and sent an agent with me to
remove all my possessions from the ship. But they refused to let me go until
they had added sin to their iniquity and had extorted from me the ship's fare
in full.
After these things, when the men saw [2a] that I was remaining in Chios,
they sent to me some from amongst the merchants that were in the ship and
were travelling with them to persuade me to return to the ship. And they
beguiled me into returning and handing over my moneys into their hands.
And I demanded from these people that they should put the matter upon
a business footing, so that they could not later go back on their word. But
they held fast to their deceit. Then I knew of a truth that their designs were
evil, and I left the ship a second time, and gave thanks to God for delivering
me from the hands of those men. And they paid me back in base coin. So
I left the ship and dwelt in Chios for a time.
And perhaps there was a reason why I should see what I did see with my own
eyes in this city of Chios, and God (blessed be He !) was pleased to show wonders
and miracles which I saw with my own eyes. And I will relate them briefly.
And it came to pass on the seventh day of Iyyar,3 it being the Sabbath,
1 A port on the Sea of Marmora in Turkey in Europe, midway between Constantinople and
the Straits of the Dardanelles. It is called by the Turks Tekfur-Dag.
2 I
read Dn5=1. See the note in the text.
3 i.e. 1st May [1599]. See Argenti, p. xxi.
EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 551

the day of rest, that it was reported in the city that five galleys belonging to
the enemy 1 had come to plunder the city. But God (blessed be He !), in order
to show his wonders and miracles, had stopped up the heart of the commander
of the city,2 so that he neither stood up nor moved.3 For, as soon as he had
heard the report, it should have been his duty to get his army in readiness 4
and preparethe three galleys belonging to the Sultan (may his glory be exalted !),
which happened to be there. (And even if there had been six ships, it should
have been the Bey's business to get them in readiness so that they might be
equipped for battle.) But the Commander was dumb, and spoke not a word.
Yet this was the Lord's doing to show His mercies to all.
And it came to pass, on the night of the seventh of Iyyar, that five galleys
entered the harbour, and on board them there were some two thousand men.
And there landed outside the port, in Livadia,5 three hundred and fifty armed
warriors,6 picked men, each one of them equipped with two double-edged
swords, two muskets, and two large knives. They were clad in mail and filled
with terror all who gazed at them.
And they scaled the city on ladders; and they slew the guards; and they
spiked the guns with iron nails. There was not a gun left which they did not
spike.7 And they breached the entrance to the city; and they posted guards
in charge at all the corners of the city and in the towers. But God, blessed be
He, in the abundance of His mercies, put it in their mind to arrange a signal
amongst themselves. When they had completed all they had intended to do,
they were to send up rockets to announce to their companions that their
design had been accomplished. So they sent up a large rocket and woke the
inhabitants of the city, who were all sleeping in their beds. And they began to
rouse themselves from their sleep. And at the noise of the second rocket they

1 The names of these galleys were the Capitana, Patrona, Senese, Pisana, and Livornina.
Cf. Argenti, p. xix.
2
By the " commander of the city ", Jacob Ashkenazzi no doubt meant the Bey of Chios.
If so, he was wrong in his facts. For, actually, " the Bey of Chios happened to be in a goelette
[sc. schooner] in the harbour, as he was about to leave the island on the following day. At the
sound of the unusual noise and commotion he succeeded in landing by an indirect route, and
entered the city in spite of having a wound in his arm from an arquebus. With the most amazing
sang-froid he managed to collect all the Turkish forces and prepare a counter-attack." Quoted
from Argenti, pp. xxii-xxiii.
3 Cf. Esther v, 9.
4 I read 71'M5n instead of the text's impossible '7nm75. Taking lllt1 as the subject of
the infinitive the rendering would be, " that his army should get ready ". A similar use of the
infinitive occurs further down the same page [2a] in "1' JN [n]]l~ -" for the city to see ".
The cancelled leaf, it may be noted, preserves the same impossible form.
5 According to the Florentine dispatches, the troops disembarked at 3 a.m. in the Bay of
St. Nicholas, near to the town of Vrondado. Vrondado (or Vrontado) is some two miles north
of Livadia. See Argenti, p. xxi.
6
According to Argenti (p. xxi), the number of the assailants was " a little more than 300 ".
7 This is at variance with the official account. Argenti,
p. xxii, says: " The artillery
on the bastions fell into the hands of the Florentines, but the officers in command had not even
sufficient forethought to spike all the guns ". Our author uses the Italian word tiro for a gun,
gun-shot, or rocket.
552 JACOB LEVEEN-

stood up as one man, and they cried bitterly and loudly. For they had heard
that the enemy was in the city. And I, too, got out of my bed and I heard
a Turk shouting in his own tongue, " Meded ! " 1 And I cried aloud bitterly,
and said: " Woe unto me, that I should have left the ship wherein I was
safely lodged to fall into the hands of the uncircumcised ". At that moment
the chief of the [Turkish] gunners 2 went up to fire a shot. But they killed him,
and they also killed a few other Turks that were there. And the Turks kept on
crying to the Jews, " Help us ". Immediately there came out four Jews, whom
I myself saw.3 Now the uncircumcised began crying, "Long live the King
of Spain and the Duke of Florence ".
And when the Jews heard the rejoicing of the enemy, they cried bitterly
and said: " Answer us, O Lord, answer us ". And they cried unto the Lord
in a loud voice, and they covered themselves with sackcloth and [sprinkled]
dust upon their heads, and they prayed unto the Lord and cried in a bitter
voice, and said: "0 Lord, answer us, and do not deliver us into the hands
of these uncircumcised Christians ". All the people, lads, elders, and little
ones [engaged] in fasting, and weeping, and bitter lamentation, until their cry
went up unto the Lord and He saved them.
And the Lord sent a furious storm over the sea, so that there was great
commotion in the sea and they could not come forth from the galleys to fight
with the people in the city. Now the Turks were mustering with a banner,
and the Christians fired a gun 4 and killed the standard bearer. And they also
killed an officer of high rank from amongst the Turks. And they took a
standard and put a cross upon it and flew it over the tower in the city. And
they flew another standard, of black cloth (according to their usage) elsewhere.
And they destroyed and burnt down a house for the city to see. And their
commander, whom they called Colonel,5was laughing and rejoicing and saying
in his own tongue: "Rejoicing, thou hast not [cause for] fear !" 6 And one
of the Christians came up and called to his companion, Messer Geronimo,7
saying: Why art thou so gloomy ? Is not the city captured and does not our
commander rejoice ? And shall we not receive great honour from the Duke of
Florence, and will not many envy us greatly ?
Now the flag of the Christians was flying over the city. And they trained

1 The Turkish word for " Help! ". The text has tll'n.
2 The author uses the Turkish word
topji.
3 The presence of Jews in the citadel is confirmed from the official Italian account. Cf.
Argenti, pp. xiv-xv. Only Jews and Turks were allowed to reside in the citadel. It was.
forbidden to the Christians.
4 The
Spanish word espinga[r]da is here used.
5 He was Count Bartolomeo Barbolina da Montauto, an infantry colonel, who was in com-
mand of the land troops. " He was killed during the expedition [as Jacob Ashkenazzi also informs
us] ... and was subsequently buried with great pomp at Pisa on the 12th June 1599." Quoted
from Argenti, pp. xviii-xix.
6 The Italian is somewhat obscure. It
may represent " Godio, no hai paura ! "
7
Possibly Geronimo da Volterra, whose name appears in the list of slaves on board the
galley of Sinam Bey. Cf. Argenti, p. 166.
EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599 553

a gun against the fortress to show that if they [the Turks] would not surrender
the city they [the Florentines] would destroy it.
Now a 'certain Jewish proselyte woman hearing the Christian [2b] utter
these words to his companion wept very bitterly, with tears flowing beyond
measure, saying: " Lord of the Universe, after I have come to take refuge
under thy wings, I and my house, by reason of the fear of the Lord; how
can I now go back and fall into the hands of the unclean ? "
Then there was a great cry throughout the city. And the Lord heard her
voice and the voice of all the inhabitants of the city, little children and women.
And the Lord had compassion on them and did not give Jacob for a spoil. And
it came to pass early in the morning, at daybreak, that their commander the
colonel was slain. And great, indeed, was the salvation which was wrought.
For the Lord had raised a mighty storm over the sea so that the others could
not go forth from the galleys.
And when some of the Jews saw that the commander of the uncircumcised
was slain they rose and went to the [Turkish] commander of the city 1 and gave
him courage and said to him: " What meanest thou, 0 sleeper ? For surely
the Lord is with us." Then the commander rose and went with his men and
with some Jews, and was about to go forth outside the city. But when a Jew,
who was left behind, saw that the fortress was full inside with the enemy,
he cried to the commander that he should come back into the city lest the
enemy close the gate of the city. So some of them returned and closed the
gate of the city with oars and casks,2 for it was broken. Then the Turks began
to climb up the tower, but the first that went up they wounded mortally.
And when the Turks perceived they could not climb up the tower they brought
ladders from another place and placed them outside. And they climbed up
the high tower and fought with the enemy and slew many of the uncircumcised.
And others fled into a small inner chamber in the tower. And the commander
[the Bey] sought a gun but could not find one with the barrel clear as they had
all been spiked. So he sent orders to his house to fetch a gun. Meanwhile,
a certain Christian soldier slipped down the wall and went to the galleys to
tell them that their commanderthe Colonelwas killed and many men with him.
Then some of the Turks climbed up and removed the Christian standard
and replaced it with a Turkish one. And the commander fired a shot at one
of the galleys, which made a great noise. Now when the captain of these three
galleys saw this,3 he was seized with exceeding great terror, and he cut the
hawsers.4
Now there was in the harbour a ship full of Jews who had come from Safed

1 The
Bey of Chios.
2 The
text has 2lKXtOl1 IDV11'q. Note the hybrid forms remos, bottas (Italian singular
nouns with Spanish. plural terminations). Jacob Ashkenazzl's knowledge of these languages
was probably purely colloquial; he does the same with Turkish words.
3 The author
previously mentioned that there were five galleys belonging to the Florentines.
4 The Turkish
palamar is here used.
554 EXPEDITION OF THE FLORENTINES AGAINST CHIOS IN 1599

(may it be speedily rebuilt in our days !). At first, before the storm blew over
the sea, they [the Christians] had gained a very large amount of loot, as well
as capturing four hundred Christians who had been slaves 1 in the galleys of the
Sultan (may his glory be exalted !). But they left the Jews in the ship in which
they had come and tied it to their own galleys. But God came to the rescue
and showed his marvellous loving-kindness. For He raised a mighty storm
and He snapped the ship's cable and all the [other] cables, so that
the ship was able to escape. And many were drowned in the sea, and many
were slain-some five hundred men in all.2
Now this was what I had actually seen. And I have not told one in a
thousand of the miracles of God. And when I saw all the miracles and wonders
which God had wrought because of the merit which the people had acquired,
I lifted up mine eyes unto the heights and I poured out my supplication before
Him and I prayed unto the Lord and I said: Lead me in the good and right
way; so that I may acquire profit to perform my duties and repay the poor
scholars learned in the Torah in Safed.
Meanwhile, I stayed in Chios for a month. Now it was my intention to go
to Venice to print this book of the Song of Songs (they were searching for such
a book wherever I went, but could not find it) so that the people might acquire
merit and I might repay the scholars learned in the TSrahin Safed. But I could
not find a ship. Then they told me that I could not do better than go to Smyrna.
But when I went there, certain kindhearted people said to me: " Why do you
remain here ? You should go to the great city of Magnesia 3 where you will
find a resting-place for the sole of your foot. For the ships sailing to Venice are
delayed." So I went to Magnesia. But suddenly they wrote to me to return
to Smyrna, for a ship was sailing for Venice. Then I returned but could not
find the vessel, for they told me that it had already left for Urla.4 So I went to
Urla, but failed to get it. I found, however, a ship sailing for this city of
Salonica. Then I said: " This is the Lord's doing, and it is all for the best.
Behold, it is a great city, containing scholars and men of charity. There will
I print this book, which has been sought for everywhere." Now, therefore,
ye men of understanding, set your mind to it and purchase this book at a
suitable price, that I may pay back with it the debts which I owe to the scholars
learned in the Torah, the servants of the Lord. (For the waters have come in
unto my soul.) So may I return to wait upon the wise scholars, as it was my
good custom to do. And as a reward for this, may they [the purchasers] be
worthy to have sons occupying themselves with the Torah and may they be
worthy [to see] the coming of the Redeemer and the consolations of Ariel.5
And may the Redeemer come unto Zion. Amen.
1 This is also borne out by the account of the Florentines, who do not, however, give the
number of slaves. Cf. Argenti, p. xxiii.
2 These
figures should be treated with caution.
a Now called Manisa, twenty miles north-east of Smyrna.
' In the Gulf of Smyrna, some twenty miles south-west of Smyrna.
5 i.e. Zion.

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