Biographical note

Giovanni-Tommaso Minadoi (1548? -1618) was resident physician to the Venetian legation in Syria and was subsequently Professor of Medicine at the University of Padua. Physicians in Venetian service in the Middle East traditionally sought to gather diplomatic intelligence in addition to their medical activities, and Minadoi’s appointment as medico condotto to the Venetian consuls in Aleppo provided him with important contacts and made him a valued source of political and commercial information. The English translation was made from the second Italian edition by Abraham Hartwell (1553?-1607), which was a substantially revised version of much greater length than the first edition. Hartwell was member of the Society of Antiquaries, and secretary to Archbishop Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he dedicated his translation. Rudi Matthee is John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, University of Delaware, USA. A leading international authority on the Safavid dynasty, his books include The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History (2005), Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan (I.B.Tauris 2012), The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars (with Willem Floor & Patrick Clawson, I.B.Tauris, 2013) and as co-editor (with Elena Andreeva) Russians in Iran: Diplomacy and Power in the Qajar Era and Beyond (I.B.Tauris, 2018).