84 - Δορόσταμος Αθανάσιος (Dorostamos Athanasius): Nieuwste Beschryving van de Grieksche Christenen in Turkyen.. van den Heer Athanasius Dorostamus, Archimandriet des Patriarchs te Constaninopolen. Leyden, 1743

Δορόσταμος Αθανάσιος (Dorostamos Athanasius): Nieuwste Beschryving van de Grieksche Christenen in Turkyen.. van den Heer Athanasius Dorostamus, Archimandriet des Patriarchs te Constaninopolen. Leyden, 1743 First edition in Dutch. In 8vo, contemporary full vellum slightly soiled, manuscript title at spine, text clean and bright, complete the narrative [28], 395p., [60], overall in very good plus condition. One of the earliest books that boosted Philhellenism in the Netherlands. Αθανάσιος Δορόσταμος (Athanasius Dorostamus c.1690-1750) had been born in Patras and received the basic studies of that age to become a priest of the Orthodox Church during Venetian rule in Morea in the very early 18th century. He became a diaconus in Patra and in his youth travelled to Damietta in Egypt and later visited the monastery of Sina and Jerusalem. In 1715, during the recapture of Peloponnesus by the Turks, a janissary made him prisoner in Nafplio, but he finally escaped in Smyrna and from there to Constantinople where he entered the Patriarchal circles. He had been sent later as Patriarchal envoy by Patriarch Jeremias (1716-1726) in Moldavia, where he spent time in Braila and had visited the still thriving Greek communities in Crimea where he negotiated the freedom of several Orthodox Russian slaves from the raids of the Tatars.. In Moldavia he became Archimandrite and travelled extensively in the Balkans during the 1720s to settle differences between Christian bishops. He had visited Seres, Didimoticho and several other places in Macedonia and Thrace. All these journeys are described in his account.With the change in Patriarch in 1726 he lost his influence and retreated to Mount Athos where he spent several years. As a previous hard traveler he soon started to visit Greek communities in the Levant and abroad to collect money (ζητείες), mainly for the purchase of Greeks enslaved by the Turks. In 1735, this activity brought him to Berlin where he became friends with Jacob Elssner (1692-1750), a German Theologian and Counselor of the Prussian King, who convinced him to write a detailed account for the state of the Greek Christians in the Ottoman Levant. It is an extremely precious account from someone who travelled around the Levant for more than 20 years, knew perfectly the contemporary condition of the Greeks, as a Greek and had enough culture to evaluate. A significant portion of the book discusses the treatment of Greek Christians by the Turks focusing on the custom of taking Christians as slaves and the harsh conditions they faced The account has been first published in Berlin by Elssner in German, the Greek original has not survived. It is a fine travel account for 18th century Greeks in the Levant written by a Greek. Extremely Rare. References: Blackmer 546, not in Atabey