Domenico's Istanbul
Trans. & ed. MJL Austin

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Ottoman Impressions
by Jason Goodwin

From a review in Cornucopia 24

Modern readers are apt to sigh when they turn from Busbecq's letters to artless contemporary accounts, but Domenico’s rather stilted descriptions take up only about a quarter of Domenico’s Istanbul, and the rest is a hugely enjoyable commentary by the late Michael Austin ­ the sort of inspired monologue a great expert might give his fellows towards the end of a pleasant outing on the Bosphorus.

Among many other things, he uses Domenico to demonstrate how little we may ever actually know about life in the imperial harem. “Besides those who, according to their tastes, identified themselves breathlessly with the lustful Sultan or his ravished slaves, there were men of learning to whom it was vexing that there should exist an area of activity, related to the ruler of a powerful empire, to which they were denied the slightest access.”

Domenico Hierosolimitano himself led two lives, the earlier as a Jewish physician to Murat III, the later as a Catholic scholar in papal Rome.