Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 73-74. (Budapest, 1975)
TANULMÁNYOK - Schultheisz Emil—Tardy Lajos: Egy reneszánsz-korbeli orvosdiplomata (angol nyelven)
In Iván Nagy's and Albert Nyáry's collection of documents 18 there is a document in Latin entitled "The Latin translation of the letter of Husun Hassan sent to King Matthias around 1472". 19 It says that the ambassador of His Majesty Uzun Hasan appeared before Constantius de Sarra, a notary in Kaffa, asking him to translate word by word and authentically from Persian into Latin his letter of credence received from his master, leaving out nothing from or adding nothing to the original. The notary met his wish through the intervention of an Armenian interpreter named Coratolli. The address of Matthias shows an Oriental abundance of epithets: "I humbly speak to you Matthias, King of Hungary, as one addresses a mighty Lord, whose authority, the authority of an outstanding and wise Lord, is obeyed by everyone, as the mighty Lord of Lords is being obeyed. I speak to you from my heart, as to my true friend." Isaac's letter of credence calls on Matthias that he and the other Christian rulers "come and join us, take action, gather their armies, unite them as our good friends and European allies, and march on the Turkish Sultan. I am also starting from here to drive this man from his throne. I trust that by the grace and mercy of God this will succeed according to our hopes and wishes. We beg God that His allmightyness carry these plans of us to a favourable conclusion and avert all obstacles." This was delivered from the Mohammedan ruler to the Christian kings by the Jewish envoy and court physician. The letter of credence addressed to the Doge of Venice differs from the one written to King Matthias and another to Stefan eel Mare, the Voivode of Moldavia, both in tone and in structure. In the two latter cases the contact was on the stage of the ceremonial establishment of relations, while with Venice the tone reflected an established and warm friendship. This latter document did not bear the mark of de Sarra's notarian services. The text shows that the translator, probably of Oriental origin, had difficulties with his task and his solutions were not always successful. After an address similar to the above mentioned Uzun Hasan affirms that "we are bound to You by friendship and love. .. it is becoming that your envoys and messengers continuously sojourn with us and inform us of the developments." Then he gives an account of his conquests, adding that all that "was achieved not by force or by domineering, but by goodness and rightness, and we have put all our perfidious enemies to shame, thanks and glory be to God the Most High." Then he continues that one great and powerful enemy is still to be defeated, this is the Turkish Sultan. The conclusion of his letter is also written in an easy, direct manner: "I intend to tell you many other things, but our doctor of medicine, whom we send you as a man of wise speech, our adherent Isaac, the great doctor, in whom we have great trust, will put before you everything in the right manner and in all details, in conformity with our instructions, Whatever inner and 18 Magyar diplomácziai emlékek Mátyás király korából. (Hungarian Diplomatic Relics from the Age of King Matthias.) Vol. IV. Budapest, 1878. 18 Ibid, 293—295 pp. Cf. Minorsky VI.: The Middle East in Western Politics in the 13th —17th centuries. In: Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. Vol. XXVII. P. IV, op. cit., 114—115 pp.
