Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
(engraving from 1802)

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (also: Johann Baptista Tavernier ; * 1605 in Paris , † July 1689 in Moscow ) was a French traveler and Baron von Aubonne in Switzerland.

Life

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was born in Paris in 1605 as the son of the Protestant cartographer Gabriel Tavernier, who dealt with maps and travel guides. In this literature his son Jean-Baptiste found a lot of information and instructions for his travels through France , England , the Netherlands , Germany , Switzerland , Poland , Hungary and Italy .

Between 1628 and 1668 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier made six major trips to the Orient, Turkey , Persia and India . He made only one of the six trips by ship, all the others he made by land. He achieved fame through his diaries, in which he documented the travels in detail like no other contemporary. His best-known work, which is still published today, bears the German title "Journeys to the Riches of India / Adventurous Years with the Mughal 1641 - 1667".

Tavenier's drawing of the diamond from which the Hope Diamond was later cut.

Tavernier brought a large amount of diamonds back to Europe from his travels , including twenty stones between 30 and 50 carats . Some diamonds that Tavernier brought back from India would later become famous, such as the Hope diamond , which according to legend he is said to have broken from the statue of the Hindu god Vishnu . Tavernier rose to become the most respected diamond expert and dealer of his time at the European royal courts. At that time there was not a large diamond that he had not brought back from India or at least examined and measured for the princes.

In 1668 he sold the Blue Hope diamond to King Louis XIV of France.

He made a lot of money by trading in precious stones and in 1670 bought the Aubonne estate in Switzerland for 60,000 livres . He paid just as much for the restoration of the Aubonne Castle.

He was in contact with Job Ludolf .

His cousin, whom he sent by ship to the Orient with goods he had bought in France worth £ 222,000, betrayed him. As a result, he had to sell his Aubonne reign in 1685 to Henri Duquesne .

It is alleged that he took his seventh trip to get some money. But he died on the way in July 1689 in Moscow at the age of 84.

plant

Les six voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier, écuyer baron d'Aubonne, qu'il a fait en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes, pendant l'espace de quarante ans, & par toutes les routes que l'on peut tenir: accompagnez d'observations particulieres sur la qualité, la religion, le gouvernement, les coutumes & le commerce de chaque païs; avec les figures, le poids, & la valeur de monnoyes qui y ont court , Gervais Clouzier, Paris, 1676 (digitized version of the English edition “Travels in India”, translated and provided with a biographical sketch and commentary by Valentine Ball , edited by William Crooke : Part I , Part II )

Description of the six journeys that Johan Baptista Tavernier, Knight and Baron of Aubonne, In Türckey, Persia and India within forty years through all the roads one can take to these countries: In which different comments on the nature of religion, government, customs and actions, any country included. Including the figures, weights and the size of the coins that are practicable in these countries . JH Widerhold, Geneva, 1681 partially digitized

Recueil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers et curieux de JB Tavernier, chevalier, baron d'Aubonne. Qui n'ont point esté mis dans ses six premiers voyages. Divisé en cinq parties. Avec la relation de l'intérieur du serrail du Grand Seigneur suivant la copie imprimée à Paris, Genève , Club des libraires de France, Le cercle du bibliophile, 1970
Les six voyages de J.-B. Tavernier en Perse et aux Indes , Gérard Monfort, Paris, 2004
Les Voyages en Orient du Baron d'Aubonne , Editions Favre, 2005

literature

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert : Johann Baptist Tavernier, Freiherr von Aubonne . In: Biographies and Stories . Vol. 1. Heydek, Erlangen 1847, pp. 66–233 ( digitized version )
H. Ritter von Srbik: On the life story of the explorer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier , in: Historische Zeitschrift , 167th year 1943, p. 29
Anna Malecka, "The Great Mughal and the Orlov: One and the Same Diamond?", The Journal of Gemmology, 35 (1), 2016, pp. 56-63.
Anna Malecka, Darya-ye Nur: History and Myth of a Crown Jewel of Iran, Iranian Studies vol. 51 (2018), doi : 10.1080 / 00210862.2017.1362952

Web links

Commons : Jean-Baptiste Tavernier - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Tavernier, Johann Baptista. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 42, Leipzig 1744, column 228 f.
engl. narrative
Chateau d'Aubonne

Individual evidence

↑ Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste: Travel to the riches of India . In: Susanne Lausch and Felix Wiesinger (eds.): Old adventurous travel reports . Thienemann, Edition Erdmann, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-522-60600-4 , pp. 284 .
^ Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste: Travels in India (Translated from the original French Edition of 1676) . In: William Crooke (ed.): Old adventurous travel reports . 1 u. 2 (1925). Oxford University Press, London, Humphrey, Milford, S. 423 .

personal data
SURNAME	Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tavernier, Johann Baptista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French traveler and Baron von Aubonne in Switzerland
DATE OF BIRTH	1605
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris
DATE OF DEATH	July 1689
Place of death	Moscow

[1] Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste: Travel to the riches of India . In: Susanne Lausch and Felix Wiesinger (eds.): Old adventurous travel reports . Thienemann, Edition Erdmann, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-522-60600-4 , pp. 284 .

[2] Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste: Travels in India (Translated from the original French Edition of 1676) . In: William Crooke (ed.): Old adventurous travel reports . 1 u. 2 (1925). Oxford University Press, London, Humphrey, Milford, S. 423 .