In the fourth day of March we left Braşov (6) , a remarkable fortified town neighboring the territory of Wallachia. Our aim was to go to Târgovişte, the capital in the old days. It was there where the Greek ruler and prince Leon (7) sent his government officials (8) in order to accompany us towards the capital Bucharest (9) that is the residence and the dwelling place of the voivodes now.
Not long time before reaching the city the voivode decided to come upon me with a great number of soldiers and even with the banners of Wallachia. However I hindered this for several reasons.
Still, after we arrived in front of this big and vast walled city there came to welcome us about a hundred of country’s noblemen (which they call “boiari” (10) ). These, armed with bows, chasing towards us in a stunning assault, as if to attack (11) and then dismounting, greeted us on the behalf of the prince Leon and accompanied us riding on horseback ahead of us, up to the dwelling place.
The same evening the above mentioned prince (12) sent his Great Court Marshal / Minister of Foreign Affairs (13) to invite us to have lunch the next day. And at the proper time the boyars and the coach came and we made our way towards the palace (14) without delay.
Walking with us we were accompanied by about 200 Dalmatian (15) soldiers who were better armed and dressed than those from Transylvania.
All the roads and the market places of the city were filled with expensive goods that have been offered for sale by Italian, Greek, Romanian, Turkish or Serbian merchants.
There was such a crowd and a thickness of people so that it seemed as the whole nation from Wallachia gathered up in that place. The courtiers (16) of the palace were even more numerous, the pompous ceremonies and the great luxury in the clothing of the people and in the ornaments of the horses.
The Royal Palace was shattered due to its oldness and to the repeated changes of the princes.
The prince was waiting for me at the door of the reception hall with his high fur cap on his head, greeting me according to the Turkish custom, bowing his head and keeping his hands to his bosom.
In a higher place there were arranged two chairs: the prince offered me the one on the left, the most honorable among the barbarians (17) , still I did not consent to.
Beside the prince were sitting a few prominent Turks, as far I see arbitrators (18) / judges and advisers.
To the right were sitting the high officials of the country and of the Court, all of them adorned with sable overcoats / furs as if a holyday.
In their presence I handed over the epistle of His Majesty (19) together with good wishes in Italian and I asked to facilitate my journey through his country.
Translator of my oration was Brother Benedict from the Island of Crete, public speaker (20) of the Court. Apart from Turkish and Greek he was also acquainted with Italian, Latin and German and he spent seven years at Wittenberg studying theology.
He interpreted eloquently in Turkish and Greek what I said and vowed on the behalf of the prince and with his words that people who are experienced and versed in the language and in the customs will take me safe and sound up to the gates of Constantinople.
After the talk ended and the negotiations took place the horns and the trumpets sounded noisily in order to start the lunch.
The right side of the table was offered to me and to my companions and the left side to the prince and to his Romanians.
In front of the prince were silver vessels, in the middle ceramics carefully elaborated and enameled and at the end wooden platters and wooden bowls.
The fares / the grubs were not removed all along the lunch // and for several hours in a row they keep on adding the dishes one on top of the other so that they rose little by little in a heap like a hillock.
The wines were very tasty and of high quality and while raising the glass repeatedly the conversation between guests became more and more friendly and unhampered.
Eventually when the prince raised a tumbler and proposed His Majesty` s health a few catapults and cannons were fired with such a noise that the shattered building was quaking and even the vessels on the table were striking against each other.
The high officials (21) and the boyars of Wallachia, each and every time they raised the glasses and proposed their prince` s health and prosperity, according to their duty, they also kneeled down by turns and this is how they drank off the glass, to their knees.
In such pleasures the orations and the drinks lasted until the night, when each one came back to his house.
The next day the prince intended to accompany me for my departure with all the consideration and with an escort made up of one thousand horsemen and six hundred infantrymen.
In order to increase the pomp a red color standard of an exceptional size was placed at the head of cortege. This was sent by sultan Murad to the prince. There were also other banners of Wallachia.
The trumpets and the drums rang out in the near woods and in the neighboring forest.
On both sides the high officials and the boyars of the country were advancing, riding on Asiatic horses and dressed up with splendid clothes.
Close to the prince there were the fiddlers and a chorus of musicians who were singing passionately a ballad (22) in Romanian language.
When I asked the prince, while we were riding on horsebacks, what was the figure of trooper he could still gather up, “There are ten thousand horsemen still and two thousand of pedestrians” he replied and not without sigh and moan, saying that in the days of prince Michal (23) there were fifty thousand men in arms.
Inquiring him afterwards about the national revenue he stated that almost three hundred thousand ducats (24) are treasured up out of the taxes / tithe on fish, salt, wax, honey, on the herd of cattle and on the flock of sheep, besides this moreover from the census / quit rent that is customary to be paid in cash and besides this moreover from the special imposts.
The plentiful gold and silver mines (25) are not worked intentionally so that be sure the Turks, prompted and drawn by the multitude of riches, should not take hold of the country entirely out of the Christian hands.
He was complaining bitterly about the malice and the cunning of his subjects and about the inclination of the souls to uprising and he was telling how he defeated not such a long time ago in a sanguinary battle (26) the most important of the insurgents on the very same road we were travelling close to Bucharest. He was indicating by his hand the battle place; the graves of the dead and the crosses he erected as a token of victory (27) .
Some of the fugitive boyars had gone to Transylvania and when the prince claimed them back, the prince Rakoczy (28) did not feel like give them back, and for this reason many wrangles appeared between the two at the Sublime Porte.
For in Wallachia there is the custom, according to an old tradition, that all those who strive for princely dignity to be marked by the cutting of the right nostril, as a symbol of eternal stigmatization (29) , and for this reason to become not entitled to acquire the princely dignity.
Considering these, Matei (30) , the plotter of those uprisings (31) (who was at that time hidden in Transylvania, came to reign after Leon and now people say that he is supposed to have passed to the Poles (32) ), wanted to purchase with a lot of money the protection of prince Rakoczy.
Then after we travelled for one hour the prince asked me by all means to make a halt for a little while in a beautiful valley until we were supposed to be brought the midday meal from the coach.
During this interval the prince started to bridle his horses in great haste for the recreation game with the spear and for the fastest horse races, to stretch the bow spring with an amazing vigor, to fire off the muskets and to shoot at a target.
The high officials and the boyars imitated this skill of their prince and in a very fine contest each one was showing his ability with the weapons. Noticing this the prince, so that to add another stimulus to each man’s bravery, proved to be very generous and gifted with his own hand a small sum of golden money to those who excelled the others in their skill or talent.
Among others a nobleman from our retinue hit the target aright as well; to this one, instead of the reward, the prince gifted ten cubits of fine silk woven material that was brought in haste from Bucharest.
And when midday heat started to scorch us the prince, observing this, ordered to be arranged above us, as a token of honor and goodwill, that huge banner of Wallachia in the guise of a pavilion, in order to hinder the sun rays. We spent such a long time watching the warlike games that our lunch turned into a solemn dinner. After this was finished the prince returned to his dwelling place with his guard and his court and the carts and the high officials accompanied us as far as the bank of the Danube.
I dare say that in all the Christian world there is no other land more fertile than the soil of Wallachia.
The pastures, everywhere fruitful and rich, feed numerous flocks and herds. In the woods and in the forests there are a great number of wild beasts and birds. Wool, flax, leathers for the inhabitants are in abundance. The salt mines are rich and no one can find their end. The Danube, “Hierasus” (!) (33) and the other rivers produce fish in a larger quantity than any other country from Europe. The inhabitants breed a renowned horse breed. The bees produce honey themselves. The country is rich in metal mines and the rivers have gold sand. The vineyards are easy to be tilled and the soil is ploughed with a bundle of thorns (34) . They trade in mutually (35) with the Transylvanians, the Poles, the Turks and the Serbians and keep their currency old and unchanged. To end, they enjoy a mild climate and have an extremely healthy air.
The Danube separates Wallachia from Bulgaria and it has the same breadth as the river Elba at Hamburg, yet with a much faster flow.
At the crossing point there are on each side of the banks of the Danube not very fortified strongholds: Giurgiu and Ruse (36) …


Footnotes
(6) Kronstadt in German.
(7) King Leon, prince of Wallachia (1629-1632). He was not Greek, yet he was raised at Constantinople and he was speaking Greek.
(8) Commisarios.
(9) Bucureşti in Romanian.
(10) Boyars in English.
(11) Evidence of skill that is to be met also at the Cossacks of Timuş which came to his wedding festivities with the Romanian princess Ruxandra.
(12) Strassburg uses the words principe, vayvoda, palatinus and dominus in order to designate the prince.
(13) Aulae suae praefectum. The Great Court Marshal of the Royal Council was the boyar Mano (16. 01. 1632 – 11. 08. 1632).
(14) Curtea Veche (The Old Court).
(15) Dalmatae pretoriani. They were probably from Ragusa (nowadays Dubrovnik in Croatia).
(16) Aulae comitatus, the ceremony staff of the Royal Court.
(17) Id est to the Turks.
(18) Rerum arbitri. They came to judge the quarrels / troubles between the Romanians and the Turks.
(19) Gustav the 2nd Adolf (1611-1632).
(20) Concionator, a word sometimes translated as preacher.
(21) Magnates.
(22) Patrius.
(23) Michael: Michal the Brave (Romanian Mihai Viteazul, Mihai Bravu) was the Prince of Wallachia (1593-1601), of Transylvania (1599-1600), and of Moldavia (1600), the three Romanian principalities.
(24) Aurei.
(25) This sort of mines did not exist in Wallachia.
(26) Iusto praelio. Leon Tomsa refers to the warfare he had with the insurgent boyars commanded by agha / police prefect Matei, the future Matei Basarab. The battle took place around Bucharest, “above the vineyards”, to the south of the monastery of voivode Mihai (16/23 august 1631), about the rooms of the future Slobozia outskirts.
(27) Above the dead bodies a hillock was raised and the prince placed on February, 20th, 1632 a cross, known as The Cross of Voivode Leon, carrying a memorial inscription. The cross that was renovated in 1665 by Radu Leon is situated in the courtyard of the Slobozia church.
(28) György Rákóczi I, the prince of Transylvania (1630-1648).
(29) Infamiae notam.
(30) Matheas = agha / police prefect Matei from Brâncoveni (the future prince Matei Basarab) who in seven months time, on October 15/25, would repeat the attempt from the previous year, this time successfully, vanquishing the prince sent by the Turks, Radu Ilieş, at Plumbuita.
(31) This annotation from 1633 refers to mounting the throne of Matei Basarab on September, 1632.
(32) Unfounded hearsay.
(33) Most likely Ardesos = Argeş.
(34) Spinarumque fasciculo terram arant. The author makes confusion between the harrow and the plough.
(35) Mutua commercia.
(36) Romanian Rusciuc, Turkish Ruscuk, nowadays Ruse in Bulgaria.


In English by Lucian Bâgiu
October, 2009,
Trondheim, Norway