160 miniature paintings of the figures of the Ottoman Court of Selim II.

A magnificent collection of original hand painted miniatures of the Court of Selim II (1524-1574), Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574. The paintings start with Selim II himself, his son and wife, and then work in descending order of importance.

First depicted are the most important inner circle of the household, including the Kizlar Agha (chief eunuch) and ceremonial positions such as carriers of the Sultan's turban, sword, and arquebus. Next are the professions within the household including the master of the stables, head cook, falconer, players of the trumpet, timpani, tambour, and oboe, and the sultans private guard and bostanji. Then the paintings progress to esteemed members of society outside the household, such as an Emir, Grand Vizier, standard bearers, and dervishes. Following them are the different branches of the military: janissaries, and soldiers of 'the Levant', Anatolia (Asia Minor), Damascus, Tunisia, and Rumelia (the Balkans). After the military are the broader members of the community of Constantinople and their costumes, including a judge, watchmen, a teacher, Turkish women and men, a Jewish merchant and his wife, Tartars, Egyptians, Persians, Moldovians, Georgians, Algerians, Indians, and Arabs. Lastly the final four paintings depict elaborate tortures, in particular impaling of various kinds.

The Kizlar Agha was a position that was officially created by Selim II's son, Murad III (1546 -1595), in 1574 and was first filled by Habeshi Mehmed Agha, an Ethiopian, in 1582. Habeshi Mehmed had been the head eunuch of the harem before this date, but only after 1582 was the term Darussaade Agasi (aka Kizlar Agha) used to refer to his position, as it denoted the change of priority over the Kapi Agasi, the head of palace personnel. The fact that the Kizlar Agha is named, and depicted in this work as dark skinned, suggests there is at least some retrospection to its creation, if not by Murad III then by a descendant in the early seventeenth century.

These miniatures were produced for a largely European market as the great and good of the major European powers started to go on Grand Tours and open up diplomatic relations with nations beyond their neighbours. This explains the French captions to our miniatures, and European language captions are a typical feature of other examples of these collectable paintings. Our collection of paintings are similar in style to the Rålamb Album of Costumes, now in the Library of Congress, which were purchased and brought back by Claes Rålamb (1622-1698), Swedish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in 1656–1658. The Rålamb paintings depict a different Emperor and key individuals of the court to our collection, and are both fewer in number and, by our reckoning, slightly later in date.

The Recueil de cent Estampes is only lacking the engraved title, which is reproduced in contemporary manuscript, and plate 74. The letterpress, explaining the plates, and the two further folding plates and sheet of engraved music are in part two, not present here, and considered a separate work.

Folio (50 x 34.5 cm); 40 leaves paginated in manuscript, each with four miniatures on paper mounted onto the recto of the leaves, with manuscript descriptions of each figure in French, a little rubbing to some of the paint and some slight water staining to the backgrounds of a few miniatures, otherwise the paintings remain bright and crisp; [with] First edition [part 1 only], contemporary manuscript facsimile title and 99 (of 100, lacking pl.74) copper engraved costume plates, 1 folding; contemporary full calf expertly rebacked and restored to style, spine in seven gilt compartments with gilt red morocco lettering piece, boards gilt rolled, all edges gilt, calf a little marked, a very good copy.

Library of Congress, number 2021668152.