Pierre Gilles - The Antiquities of Constantinople

Sir,

No sooner had my Inclinations prevail’d upon me to publish this Author, but my Gratitude directed me where I should make the Dedication. These Labours are yours by many Obligations. Your Services to me demand them, you have express’d a particular Esteem for Pieces of this Kind, you have assisted me with a valuable Collection of Books in the Translation of them, and you have encourag’d the Performance by the Interest of your Friends; so that if there be any Merit in the Publication of it, ’tis you who are entitled to it.

The Knowledge of Antiquity was always look’d upon as a Study worthy the Entertainment of a Gentleman, and was never in higher Estimation among the Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain than it is now. And this Regard which the present Age pays to it, proceeds from a wise Discernment, and a proportionable Value of Things. For we never entertain our Curiosity with more Pleasure, and to better Purposes, than by looking into the Art, and Improvement, and Industry of antient Times, and by observing how they excited their Heroes and great Men to virtuous and honourable Actions by the Memorials of Statuary and Sculpture ; the silent Records of their Greatness, and the lasting History of their Glory.

The great Discoveries made of late, and publish’d by a 1 1 The Society of Antiquaries in London . Society of Gentlemen, united in the Search of Antiquity , will be lasting Monuments of their Fame in future Times, and will be look’d upon as Arguments of an ingenious Curiosity, in looking into the delectable Situations of Places, in preserving the beautiful Ruines of Antient Buildings, and in setting Chronology in a truer Light, by the Knowledge of Coins and Medals.

But, Sir, what I principally intend in this Dedication, is to do Justice to Merit, and to acquaint the World, That you never look’d upon Licentiousness, and Infidelity, to be any Part of the Character of a fine Gentleman, That Virtue does not sit odly upon Men of a superior Station, and That in you we have an Example of one, who has Prudence enough to temper the innocent Freedoms of Life with the Strictnesses of Duty, and Conduct enough to be Merry, and not Licentious, to be Sociable, and not Austere; a Deportment this, which sets off your Character beyond the most elaborate Expressions of Art, and is not to be describ’d by the most curious Statue, or the most durable Marble. I am, Sir, with very great Regard,

Your most Oblig’d ,

And most Obedient Servant ,

IT is customary upon a Translation to give some Account both of the Author, and his Writings. The Author Petrus Gyllius, as he stands enroll’d among the Men of Eminency, and Figure in polite Learning, I find to be a Native of Albi, in France. He was in great Reputation in the sixteenth Century, and was look’d upon as a Writer of so good a Taste, and so comprehensive a Genius, that there was scarce any thing in the polite Languages, which had escap’d him. As he had a particular Regard for Men of distinguished Learning, so was he equally honour’d, and esteem’d by them. Francis the First, King of France, the great Patron of Literature, and who was also a good Judge of his Abilities, sent him into Italy, and Greece, to make a Collection of all the choice Manuscripts which had never been printed, but in his Passage it was his Misfortune to be taken by the Corsairs. Some Time after, by the Application and Generosity of Cardinal d’Armanac, he was redeem’d from Slavery. The just Sense this munificent Patron had of his Merit, incited him, when my Author had finish’d more than fourty Years Travels over all Greece, Asia, and the greatest Part of Africa, in the Search of Antiquity, to receive him into his Friendship, and Family; where, while he was digesting, and methodizing his Labours for the Service of the Publick, he dy’d in the Year 1555, and in the 65 th Year of his Age .

Although it was his Intention to have published all the Learned Observations he had made in his Travels, yet he liv’d to give us only a Description of the Bosporus, Thrace, and Constantinople, with an Account of the Antiquities of each of those Places. In his Search of what was curious he was indefatigable, and had a perfect Knowledge of it in all its Parts. He had also translated into Latin Theodore ’s Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, and sixteen Books of Ælian ’s History of Animals. Petrus Belonius is highly reflected upon, in that being his Domestick, and a Companion with him in his Travels, he took the Freedom to publish several of his Works under his own Name: And indeed such a flagrant Dishonesty in acting the Plagiary in so gross a manner, was justly punish’d with the most severe Censures; since it had been Merit enough to have deserv’d the Praises of the Learned World for Publishing such valuable Pieces, with an honourable Acknowledgment of the Author of them .

I have no Occasion to vindicate the Worth and Credit of my Author, whose Fame will live, and flourish, while the Characters given him by Gronovius, Thuanus, Morreri, Tournefort, and Montfaucon are of any Weight. These Great Men have recorded him to future Times, for his deep Insight into Natural Knowledge, his unweary’d Application to the Study of Antiquity, and his great Accuracy and Exactness in Writing .

In the following Treatise, the Reader has before him a full and lively View of one of the most magnificent Cities in the Universe; stately, and beautiful in its Natural Situation, improv’d with all the Art and Advantages of fine Architecture, and furnished with the most costly Remains of Antiquity; so that New Rome, in many Instances of that Kind, may seem to excell the Old.

I hope my Author will not be thought too particular and exact in describing the several Hills and Vales, upon which Constantinople stands, when it is consider’d, that he is delineating the Finest Situation in the World.

The Manner in which he treats on this Subject is very entertaining; and his Descriptions, though with the greatest Regard to Truth, are embellish’d with a Grace and Beauty, almost Poetical. This, I look upon it, was occasion’d by the agreeable Variety of delightful Prospects and Situations, which the Subject naturally led him to describe.

The present State of Constantinople, I mean as to the Meanness and Poverty of its Buildings, is attested by all those, who have either seen, or wrote concerning it; so that ’tis not Now to be compar’d with it self, as it stood in its Antient Glory. The Turks have such an Aversion to all that is curious in Learning, or magnificent in Architecture, or valuable in Antiquity, that they have made it a Piece of Merit, for above 200 Years, to demolish, and efface every thing of that Kind; so that this Account of the Antiquities of that City given us by Gyllius, is not only the Best, but indeed the Only collective History of them .

In tracing out the Buildings of Old Byzantium, the antient Greek Historians, which he perfectly understood, were of great Service to him; this, with his own personal Observations, as residing for some Years at Constantinople, furnish’d him with Materials sufficient for the present History .