Lot 40660 – 1773 Letter (per docketing, in Italian) written in

1773 Letter (per docketing, in Italian) written in Arabic, to the Bei of Nicosia possibly from Egypt, in a large Arabic hand on a larger-than-usual (« folio » size) sheet of thick, polished laid paper. The letter was folded diagonally, with a small portion of one panel having key notes including date, addressee and subject mater in Italian (and mentioning the embargo of cotton). Incoming and outgoing letters from this period involving Cyprus are almost unknown; this letter has been in one collection, in England, for nearly 50 years, as the earliest Ottoman letter of any kind owned by the collector.