OTTOMAN BUILDINGS OF BUDA IN A TURKISH DRAWING OF 1684 FROM THE MARSILl-COLLECTION OF BOLOGNA

We have relatively few visual sources about Ottoman buildings and architecture in the 17th century Buda. I shall present a relatively little-known - because wrongly identified - large-size Turkish drawing portray of the unsuccessful attempt to liberale Buda in 1684. The drawing shows several Ottoman buildings and their architectural structure with Osmanli (Ottoman) inscriptions. The drawing constitutes part of the Marsili collection, which was found in the University Library of Bologna and contains the western (usually ltalian, Latin, German), and Turkish written documents, or those which were collected by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (16581730). Marsili, who spent a significant part of his life serving the emperor, fighting against the Ottomans in Hungary (practically from the siege of Vienna in 1683 to the peace treaties of Karlowitz in 1698-1699), was not only a soldier and talented, well-trained military engineer, but a passionate collector too. Having identified the inscriptions of the drawing, in comparison with the other two Turkish maps known from the era we can state that this image is significantly different from the other two Turkish works at several points. Since the maps of strategic importance showing the more important buildings and parts of the fortress, bastions, towers. gates and the important parts around the town like hills, waters (stream, lake) and the major buildings, these were most probably prepared and used tor military purposes, while the Ottoman image of the siege of Buda in 1684 was made with miniature techniques, similar to the ones used in chronicles, with drawings and in artistic nature; this is a drawing of the town and the siege without significant military value. 

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  • SORBELLI, Albano, "Lettera-Prefazione al Catalogo dei Manoscritti Orientali", Scritti lnediti di Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Bologna: Zanichelli, 1930, pp. 169-186. STOYE, John, Marsili's Europe: 1680-1730. The Life and Times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Soldier and Virtuoso, New Haven - London: Yale University Press, 1994. VERESS, Endre, "Grof Marsili Alajos Ferdinand Olasz Hadi Mernök Jelentesei es Terkepei Budavar 1684- 1686-iki Ostromairol, Visszafoglalasarol es Helyrajzarol", Budapest Regisegei, 9 (1906), pp. 103- 170.