Written source · French

Thevenot's collection of curious voyages

A Paris editor's anthology of travel reports and translations, 1663 to 1696, with pieces on the Crimean Tatars, the Manchu 'Tartars' who had just conquered China, and Tibet.

Full title Accounts of various curious voyages never before published or translated from Hakluyt, Purchas and other English, Dutch, Portuguese, German and Spanish travellers and from some Persian, Arabic and other oriental authors (4 parts, 1663-1672; reissued 1696)

Melchisedech Thevenot, editor

Read the 4 passages Open the original book

Melchisédech Thévenot, a Paris scholar and collector, published four parts of 'curious voyages' (1663 to 1672, reissued 1696): translations from Hakluyt, Purchas, Dutch, Portuguese and oriental writers, many printed in French for the first time. He travelled nowhere himself; each piece has its own author and route to print. For Tartary the corpus copies hold the Dominican Jean de Luca's description of the Crimean and Nogai Tatars (c. 1625), the Dutch embassy to the Manchu emperor at Peking (1656 to 1657) with Thévenot's margin notes, Jesuit reports on the Manchu conquest, and the Jesuit Grueber's overland return through Tibet. Copies: 1663 part I (T0622), 1664 (T0623) and 1696 (T0624, T0625).

How they knew: Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here: It depends on the piece: in de Luca's report 'Tartares' are the Crimean ('Percopite') and Nogai Tatars; in the China pieces 'Tartares' are the Manchus (Thévenot's 'Tartars of Kin'), now masters of China; in Grueber's account the rulers of Tibet descend from 'Tartars of Tangut'.
Why read it: A good place to see three different 'Tartaries' side by side in one seventeenth-century book: Crimean khans with walled palaces, Manchu conquerors in Peking, and a Tibetan king in a four-storey castle.
Watch out: Entirely secondhand, with each item translated at least once; part contents differ between issues. The 1663 scan (T0622) has very poor OCR with margin notes run into the text, so place names in it are often garbled.

What it says: 4 passages

Cities Bakhchysaraic. 1625

The Crimean khan's walled palaces with iron gates

Editorial contextDe Luca says the Crimean khan has five palaces (serails) and his heir two, one in the town where he lives (Bakhchysarai, spelled 'Bach* serai' on the previous page). Each covers about a mile, with a high but weak wall, iron gates and gilded, painted rooms. On the same page he notes that Caffa, bigger than Messina, was built by the Genoese and is now held by a Turkish garrison.

The King has five palaces, and the Sultan two; one in the town where he resides … Each of these palaces is about a mile round and is surrounded by a high wall, but not a strong one; the gates are of iron, and the apartments they enclose are gilded and painted inside in fine colours.
Working translation
Original wording
Le Roy a cinq Serails, & le Sultan deux; l'vn en la Ville où il fait sa residence … Chacun de ces Serails a enuiron vn mille de circuit, & est entouré d'vne haute muraille, mais peu forte; les portes en sont de fer, les appartemens qu'elles ferment sont dorez & peints au dedans de belles couleurs.

Jean de Luca, Dominican (Relation des Tartares Percopites et Nogaies, printed by Thévenot)

See the original page (p. 18)

About Crimean Tatars (the khan and the sultan, his heir)

Keep in mind

The town name after 'residence' and the other palace sites are unreadable in the OCR and are left out.

Buildings Crimeac. 1625

Crimean Tatar buildings of stone, timber and wattle

Editorial contextThe Dominican Jean de Luca, who worked in the Crimea, says the Tatars' buildings are not worth much: the best are of stone and mortar, many are of timber roofed with planks, and others are of stakes driven into the ground with branches woven between them and a straw roof. On the next page he adds round wicker summer houses on wheels, bought at market. A settled Tatar people, in short, living in ordinary villages.

Their buildings are not worth much; the best are usually made of stone and mortar; many are of wood and roofed with planks, others of stakes driven into the ground
Working translation
Original wording
Leurs Bastiments ne valent pas grand chose, les meilleurs sont faits ordinairement de pierres & de mortier; il y en a beaucoup de bois & couuerts de planches, d'autres de pieux fichez en terre

Jean de Luca, Dominican (Relation des Tartares Percopites et Nogaies, printed by Thévenot)

See the original page (p. 17)

About Crimean Tatars ('Percopites')

Keep in mind

Very poor OCR on this scan; the quoted words are clear but surrounding names are garbled.

Buildings Lhasa1661-1662 (journey); 1665 (interview)

A Tibetan king of Tartar descent in a four-storey castle

Editorial contextThe Jesuit Johann Grueber crossed the 'sands of desert Tartary', the Kokonor lake and Tangut to Lhasa. As told to a Florentine visitor in 1665, the king descends from an ancient race of Tartars of Tangut and lives at Butala (the Potala), a castle on a high mountain built like a European house, four storeys of fine architecture. The same page reports the Grand Lama worshipped as a god and said to have risen from death seven times.

The capital city of this kingdom is called Lassa; the King is named Teva, and descends from a very ancient race of the Tartars of Tangut. He lives at Butala, a castle built on a high mountain in the fashion of European houses; it has four storeys of very fine architecture.
Working translation
Original wording
La ville capitale de ce royaume s'appelle Lassa; le Roy se nomme Teva, qui descend d'une race tres-ancienne des Tartares de Tangut. Il fait sa residence à Butala, chasteau basty sur une haute montagne à la façon des maisons d'Europe; il a quatre étages de fort bonne architecture.

Johann Grueber, as reported by an unnamed Florentine interviewer (generally identified as Lorenzo Magalotti), French translation in Thévenot, 1696

See the original page

About Tibetans; the king, of the 'Tartars of Tangut'

Keep in mind

Interview notes, translated; Grueber saw Lhasa, but the reporter wrote from conversation. 'Teva' is probably the Tibetan title Depa (the regent), not a personal name.

The name Manchuria1656-1657 (report); note c. 1663-1696

'Tartars of Kin', lords of the golden mountains, now masters of China

Editorial contextIntroducing the Dutch embassy to Peking, Thévenot explains in a margin note who these new 'Tartars' are. Eastern Tartary is called Kin, 'gold', by the Chinese; its people are known as lords of the golden mountains; the country is bounded by another Tartar kingdom, Niulhan, to the north, by the Korean peninsula to the south and by a great river, the 'Linohang', to the west, and 'these Tartars are the ones who are now masters of China'.

Eastern Tartary is called Kin by the Chinese, that is to say gold; these Tartars are commonly called the lords of the golden mountains, because their countries are very rich in it.
Working translation
Original wording
La Tartarie Orientale est appellée Kin par les Chinois, c'est à dire l'or, on appelle communément ces Tartares les seigneurs des montagnes d'or, parce que leurs païs en sont fort riches.

Melchisédech Thévenot (editor's margin note)

See the original page

About Manchus ('Tartares du Kin', Eastern Tartars)

Keep in mind

Editor's gloss built on Martini and other Jesuit writers; 'Kin' is the Jin dynasty name the Manchus first used (Later Jin).

The fine print

How we know

compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.

compilation of earlier sources: includes Martini's Relation de la guerre des Tartares (Manchu conquest), the Abulfeda excerpts on Khwarazm and Transoxiana from Greaves' Latin, Bento de Goes, the Dutch embassies, Russian route to China (Voyage de Moscou a la Chine) and Tartar material from Purchas

Research notes

Entirely derivative: each piece has its own transmission (Hakluyt/Purchas translations, Greaves' Latin Abulfeda, Jesuit letters). Part contents vary between issues; a table of contents check against Camus' Memoire (1802) is needed before citing a piece by volume.
Pieces of Tartary interest include: Martini, Relation de la guerre des Tartares; Abulfeda, Description de la Chorasmie et du Mawaralnahr (Greaves); Voyage de Moscou a la Chine (Russian embassy route); Grueber and Dorville Tibet notice. Verify placement in the copies above before citation.
Further copies: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1165044; gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8728860c

Why it matters

The French gateway for Tartary material between 1663 and 1700: Thevenot printed the first French Martini on the Manchu conquest, the Abulfeda geography of Transoxiana, and the Russian overland route to China, all of which Witsen, Du Halde and Deguignes reused.

Places named

Central Asia (Khwarazm, Transoxiana); Manchuria and China; Siberia route; Tibet (Grueber-Dorville route); Persia

Peoples named

Jurchen and Manchus (incl. the Qing as a Manchu dynasty)

Manchus

Turkic and Central Asian peoples and states

Western Mongols (Oirat, Dzungar, Kalmyk)

Kalmyks

Mongols and the Mongol empire

Mongols

Manchu (Tartares); Uzbeks; Kalmyks; Mongols; Kirghiz

Keep exploring

The witness before

c. 1300 to 1320Sanudo's crusade plan: the Secrets of the Faithful of the CrossA Venetian merchant-noble's crusade treatise of c. 1321, with a history of the Tartars and advice on using them against Egypt.Part eyewitness · 11 passages

The witness after

c. 1321 to 1330Friar Jordanus's Wonders of the EastA Dominican bishop's short book of marvels from Armenia, Persia and India, c. 1330, with a hearsay chapter on the 'Great Tartar' of Cathay and the other Mongol empires.Part eyewitness · 10 passages

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