Ottoman Empire--C18th Turkish and Habsburg diplomacy. Collection of manuscript documents, first half of the C18th

Starting price
£ 4 000
Auction dateClassic
21.09.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
Sotheby´s
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1028510
Lot 208 | Ottoman Empire--C18th Turkish and Habsburg diplomacy. Collection of manuscript documents, first half of the C18th
Remarkable collection of manuscript documents relating to the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) and the Austro-Turkish War of 1737-1739, including the Treaty of Belgrade (1739)

comprising: EIGHT MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENTS IN OTTOMAN TURKISH, INCLUDING: an official document (dastur) informing Mustafa Pasha of the border changes resulting from the Treaty of Passarowitz, dated beginning of Ramadan 1130 (1718), and two others with the tughra and seal of Mustafa Pasha to 'Baron de Nay-Berk' (i.e. Count Wilhelm von Neipperg), concerning the arrangements for drawing up the borders as part of the Peace of Passarowitz, dated 10 Ramadan 1130 (25 August 1718) and 28 Ramadan 1130 (25 August 1718); a translation of the Treaty of Passarowitz into Turkish; and two labels addressed to Neipperg; together with: A 5-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY EMPEROR FRANZ I OF AUSTRIA TO NEIPPERG, in French, expressing his concerns about the plague affecting his troops and complaining about the weakness of the army, Vienna, 16 August 1738, 5 pages, 4to; TWO LENGTHY AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS APPARENTLY IN THE HAND OF NEIPPERG, DETAILING EVENTS IN THE SUMMER OF 1739, a fair copy and the original draft, no date, 11 and 27 pages, folio; a letter signed by Louis Saveur, Marquis de Villeneuve (French ambassador to the Ottoman Court, 1728-1741), to Neipperg, concerning the regulation of some matters following the signing of the peace treaty, 'Au Camp du Grand Vizier',3 October 1739; two letters from the office of Count Harrach, President of the Imperial War Council, to Count Wilhelm von Neipperg, Vienna, 11 and 15 April 1739; two copies of a scribal muster report concerning the camp at Sordock, one with red wax seal, 16 August 1739; two manuscript documents, one a draft, the other a fair copy in the hand of Neipperg (?), examining points relating to the Siege of Belgrade, 12 August 1739; and eight other manuscript documents and letters, including a 23-page 'Instruction und Anweisung für den Kayserl.-Hof KriegsRaths Secretarium', no date, an extract from a letter by General Guadagni to Count Wallis, 6 September 1739, a copy of a letter by Field Marshal Lieutenant von Succow, Temesvár, 7 November 1739, and a list of expenses 'qui ont été faites chès Mons.r le Marquis de Villeneuve et les Turcs', no date; also a printed plan showing the disposition of forces at the Siege of Belgrade (1739) and two large manuscript plans relating to the same, one entitled 'Plan des Galleries et Mines du Chateau de Belgrade'; and a printed circular 'an die sämtliche incorporirte Herrer Mitgliedere und Güther-Possessores, Des Hoch-Löbl. Fränckischen Ritter-Orths Ottenwaldts', dated Heilbronn, 12 November 1738, 3 pages

...Je vous ennui petetre par cet longe letre mes je vous lu vous explique com tout net nisi et fini en vous assuron de lamitie aveque la quel je suis [sic]...

over 100 pages in all, various sizes, most of the Ottoman documents on polished Turkish paper, the Neipperg manuscripts contained loose in an old inscribed wrapper ("Aeta / den 1739 geschlossenen Belgrader Frieden betr. / Fasc. III. / Enthaltend / die Praeliminarien gedachten Friedens...und des Herrn GeneralfeldMarschall Grafen v. Neipperg Relation [?] von den Friedens-Unterhaltungen...Schriften...die alle einen Bezug auf den Belgrader-Frieden und meines Vatters Verandtwortungen hierüber haben..."), Vienna, Sordock and elsewhere, first half of the C18th

With the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz (21 July, 1718), which marked the conclusion of the Austro-Turkish and Venetian-Turkish wars (1716-1718), the Ottoman Empire's westward expansion was for a while halted in its tracks, and obliged to cede large swathes of territory in the Balkans to Austria. The loss of Belgrade by the Ottomans in 1717 (first been captured in 1521) had been particularly galling, and over twenty years later, in July 1739, the grand vizier İvaz Mehmet Pasha laid siege again to Belgrade, being joined in August of that year by the former grand vizier Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha. Fifty-one days into the siege, the Austrian commander Count Wallis sued for peace, and negotiations followed between the Ottoman Empire, one of whose representatives was Mektupçu Ragıp (the future grand vizier Koca Ragıp), and the Habsburg monarchy, represented by the Austrian general Count Wilhelm von Neipperg (1684-1774), from whom many of the present documents ultimately derive. In the ensuing Treaty of Belgrade, signed there on 18 September 1739, and which ended the Austro–Turkish War (1737–39), a compromise was finally reached (brokered by Louis Sauveur Villeneuve, the French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire) whereby Austria ceded Belgrade with, however, only the former Ottoman fortifications left in place. Neipperg was roundly condemned for his supposedly clumsy negotiations and suffered the humiliation of a court-martial, although he was later rehabilitated by Maria Theresa.
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