Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier , born with Paris in 1605 and died in Moscow in July 1689, is a traveller and French pioneer of the trade with the India.

Years of training

Before him, his/her Gabriel father and his uncle Melchior occupied the profession of geographer and engraver. His/her father was a merchant of geographical maps of Antwerp, taken refuge in France. In this family atmosphere, he was very early discovered the taste of the voyage. At the sixteen years age, he had already visited the England, the Netherlands and the Germany. Four years and half last with the service of the viceroy of Hungary (1624 - 1629), then one year, in 1629, with that of the duke Rethel and of his father, duke of Nevers and prince of Mantoue, gave him the practice of the courses, which was very useful later for him. He acquires also a certain military experiment with Mantoue in 1629 and Germany the following year with colonel Walter Butler, passed with the posterity at the time of the death of Wallenstein.

Voyages

In 1630, it knows, to have travelled there, the Italy, the Suisse, Germany, the Poland and Hungary, as well as the France, England and the Netherlands and speaks the principal languages about these countries. It is now eager to visit the East and, with Ratisbon, it finds the occasion to join two French fathers, Mr. de Chapes and Mr. de Saint-Liebau, who received a mission for Raising. In their company, it reaches Constantinople at the beginning of 1631 and spends eleven months there, before joining Tokat, Erzerum and Erevan in Arménie. It went at the time of this first voyage until Ispahan before taking again the road of the return by Baghdad, Alep, Alexandrette, Malta and Italy, and finally Paris which it finds in 1633.

From the five years following, one does not know large-thing of his life, but it is probably during this period that it is with the service of the house of the duke of Orleans. In September 1638, it begins a second voyage (1638 - 1643) with Alep and the Perse, and from there in India until Âgrâ and Golkonda. Its visits at the court of the Large Moghol and with the mines of Diamant S are the prelude to its following tours, during which Tavernier travelled like a merchant of high ranking, negotiating expensive jewels and other invaluable goods, and finding its main customers among the largest princes of the East. This second voyage was followed from four others. During its third (1643 - 1649), it goes until Java and returns by the Cape. In its three following voyages (1651 - 1655, 1657 - 1662, 1664 - 1668), it does not go beyond India. The details of these voyages are often obscure, but they show an excellent knowledge of the commercial routes in the East and introduce the trader, now famous, in the intimacy of greatest Indian potentates. They were also at the origin of an important fortune and a great reputation in France. Tavernier is introduced to Louis XIV, for the service of which it had made these commercial voyages. The February 16th 1669, the king decrees noble letters to him allowing him, the following year, to buy the baronnie Aubonne, close to Geneva. In 1662, it marries Madeleine Goisse, girl of a Parisian jeweller.

The author

Thus installed, benefitting from its ease and high protections, Tavernier is occupied, according to the desire of the king seems it, to publish the report of its voyages. It was not a scientific observer of the crossed regions, but, in all that refers to the trade these areas, its knowledge is vast and without equal, and can only prove its utility. It is thus put at work with the assistance of Samuel Chappuzeau, a Protestant writer, like, and writes its to him Nouvelle relation of the interior of the zérail of the Large Lord (Paris, 1675), founded on his two visits of Constantinople during its first and sixth voyages.

The Six voyages of J followed. B. Tavernier (Paris, 1676) and the complement Recueil of several relations (Paris, 1679), for which it is helped by certain Vault. This last work contains a description of the Japan, received from traders and others, and one of the Tonkin, derived from the observations of his/her Daniel brother, who had shared its second voyage and had settled with Batavia. It also contains a violent attack against the agents of the Dutch Compagnie of the Eastern Indies, with which Tavernier seems to have had more than its share of difficulties. In 1684, it goes to Berlin, with the invitation of the Great Elector, who wishes to see it organizing a trading company in the East, a project which was born never.

Voyages of Tavernier, although often reprinted and translated, have a defect: the author delivers an account full with digressions and sometimes confused. He often gives up the chronological order and leaves the place to notes describing of the routes which relate to various destinations. However, these works fill their task correctly to provide a guide to other traders, indexing all information which could be useful to them, like the currencies in progress and foreign exchange rates used, various measurements of weight and lengths, the customs and commercial rules. Voltaire did not hold in great regard the account of voyage of Tavernier and affirmed “that he hardly learns how but to know the main roads and diamonds”. But Montesquieu drew largely from this account for its Lettres Persians .

The last voyage

The last years of the life of Tavernier are badly known. Times were not favorable any more for a Protesting after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and some even think that he was imprisoned a certain time with the prison of the Bastille. The biographer Charles Joret however showed the little of probability of this assumption. That of which we are sure, it is that it left Paris for the Suisse in 1687, and that in 1689, it is of passage to Copenhagen on its way for the Perse while passing by the Russia, and that, the same year, it dies in Moscow. It proves that it was always in business connections with the East. It is known that the Great Elector of Brandebourg had invited it to go back a few years there before. But the true reason for this last voyage remains a mystery and the put forth assumptions on this subject hold of the legend. During forty years, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier traversed, like it writes it, 60 000 miles, is not less 240 000 kilometers, a record for the time. One allots to Boileau these worms to accompany a portrait by Tavernier.

From Paris to Delhi, of sleeping with the dawn,

This famous traveller ran more once:

Of India and Hydaspe it attended the kings;

And on the edges of Gange one it révère still.

In all places its virtue was its surer support;

And, although in our climates of return today

As a crowd in our eyes it presents

the rarest treasures which the sun gives birth to,

It did not bring back anything of so rare but him.

In 2005, at the time of the 400e birthday of the birth of Tavernier, the Swiss realizer Philippe Nicolet devoted a feature-length film to him the Voyages in the East of the Baron d' Aubonne . Another Switzerland, the sculptor Jacques Basler, carried out a statue life size bronzes some with the effigy of the largest traveller than knew the 17th century. It dominates the Lac Léman with Chexbres.

Publications

Six Voyages of Jean Tavernier Baptist, rider baron d' Aubonne, whom it made in Turkey, in Persia, and in the Indies, during the forty years space, & by all the roads that one can hold: accompany by particular observations on quality, the religion, the government, the habits & the trade of each feed; with the figures, the weight, & the value of monnoyes which have short there, Gervais Clouzier, Paris, 1676 Text in line 1 2 Illustrations in line 1 2
Recueil of several relations and treat singular and curious about J.B. Tavernier, knight, baron d' Aubonne. Who did not esté not put in its first six voyages. Divided into five parts. With the relation of the interior of the serrail of the Large Lord following the printed copy at Paris, Geneva , Club of the booksellers of France, the circle of the bibliophile, 1970. Text in line Illustrations in line
Six Voyages of J. - B. Tavernier in Persia and with the Indies , Gerard Monfort, Paris, 2004
Voyages in the East of the Baron d' Aubonne , Favre Editions, 2005

foreign Travellers in the Indian world

External bonds

Biographical note on the site Imago Mundi

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