Epistola Gabrielis Bethlen, Transilvanie Principis...
... ad Galgam, Sulthanum Tartarorum, An. 1621. die Aprilis Latine scripta. Ex autographo (quod a nostris interceptum, est penes Ferdinandum II. Caesarem) fideliter descripta
Antverpiae, 1621. Apud Abrahamum Verhovium. 8p.
The addressee of the fictitious letter is the Crimean Kalga (or Sultan Kalga), who is actually the deputy of the Great Khan (in the event of the Khan's death, the governor until the election of a successor). At that time, Devlet, the Khan's younger brother, held the position. According to the text, Bethlen calls on the Tatars to attack the Poles. The work was obviously intended to convince Western public opinion that the Transylvanian prince was fighting on the side of the Muslims against the Christians. The value of the volume is also enhanced by the charming woodcut on the title page, which shows the Crimean Kalga holding a sword in his left hand and a warlord's mace in his right.
The publication is not listed in national handbooks, and to our knowledge, no copy of it is preserved in our public collections (it can be found in the National Library of the Netherlands).
Modern paper.
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