ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes Giambattista Toderini's transliteration of Arab, Persian and Ottoman terms and names. He presents some information on the musical instruments played by Turks and an essay on their music–to the best of his ability–in Western notation. The Letteratura Turchesca has to be considered in the wider context of relations between Venice and Constantinople. In the wider context of eighteenth-century curiosity for the turcherie, and a general interest in travel chronicles, the Letteratura Turchesca arrived as a solid point of reference that was more and more appreciated as a first-hand source of information on Ottoman culture. The chapter concludes with two engravings that became very famous: the first of a long-necked lute tanbur, with its fretting and its immanent musical system and second of a piece called Concerto Turco Nominato Izia Semaisi, which is the well-known Hicaz Son Yuruk Semai that concludes Mevlevi ayin.
