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Title: When the Going was Good
Subtitle: Francesco Coste Piry in Europe and (Perhaps) Elsewhere
Author(s): ROTA, Giorgio
Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes
Volume: 41    Date: 2022   
Pages: 567-576
DOI: 10.2143/REA.41.0.3291903

Abstract :
This article engages with an obscure figure who appeared in Vienna in 1676 after, as he himself alleged, having travelled several years through Asia and Europe. Although he was clearly born as a Muslim, but with an Armenian Christian mother, we know him under the Christian name of Francesco Coste Piry, since he claimed to have been baptised in Portugal. The few facts and statements contained in a petition addressed by Francesco to Emperor Leopold I are checked against the background of primary sources and scholarly literature alike. At the same time, the article offers a reading of this character within the frame of categories well represented in the seventeenth century, that is, the convert/renegade, the adventurer and the impostor.

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