The French-Ottoman Capitulations of 1569

Selim II, Ottoman Sultan. Articles accordez par le Grand Seigneur [Selim] en faveur du Roy & de ses subjects à mesire Claude du Bourg, Chevalier, sieur de Guerine conseillier du Roy & Tresorier de France, pour la liberté & seureté du trafficq, commerce & passage es pais & mers du Levant.

€ 4.500,00

Rare copy of the 12-leaf variant (instead of 8 leaves) of the 1569 Capitulations between Charles IX of France and Sultan Selim II, in Domenico Oliveri's translation. Negotiated by Guillaume de Grandchamp de Grantrie, French ambassador to the Sublime Porte from 1566 to 1570, it allowed the Kingdom of France to recover ships and goods previously confiscated by the Ottoman Empire in order to recover a large debt owed by Charles IX to the Portuguese Sephardi diplomat, banker, and politician in Ottoman service Joseph Nasi (1524-79).

France had a long history of diplomatic relations with the Sublime Porte, the first Capitulations dating back to 1517, when the new Ottoman rulers of Egypt upheld a treaty between France and the Mamluk Sultanate from 1500. In 1535, Suleiman the Magnificent signed Capitulations concerning the trade of French goods in the Ottoman Empire and granting extraterritorial legal rights to the French consuls that allowed them to exercise jurisdiction over disputes arising with French merchants instead of the local Islamic Sharia courts. This was followed by the long-lasting Franco-Ottoman Alliance forged by Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent in 1536 that was unprecedented in Europe.

With a minor stain over several pages. Well preserved.