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of the Tartars), (ii) the already-mentioned trampling of the olive-branch-
bearing maidens, (iii) the affirmation, by Timur, when questioned about his
harshness, that he is the wrath of God, (iv) the comparison to Hannibal, and
(v) the dating of the events to 1398. While the latter point could be merely
coincidental – the compiler simply having inserted the material at a point
deemed reasonable – the others should be present in some form or another
in a putative source. If no such source exists, then we must assume either
that it has been lost or that there has been a work of synthesis at some point,
where points from various accounts were combined.
Pedro Mexia’s work, first published in 1543 in Spanish but reprinted
and translated on numerous occasions, has been of great interest to literary
scholars, since Christopher Marlowe’s tamburlaine the Great (1587/1588)
can be traced back to it.18 The silva (‘forestʼ, i.e. literary miscellany) is a col-
lection of many stories, that of Timur being just one among many. They
are not provided with dates, such only being normal practice in works
which present themselves as history. Mexia describes his sources, the prin-
cipal of which for the section under consideration seems to be an Italian
work by Andrea Cambini (d. 1527) entitled Della origine de turci (1529).19
Cambini himself remarks that his information is based on that provided
by Pope Pius II.20 A comparison of these three works shows that in the step
between Cambini and Mexia an important detail, namely the comparison
of Timur to Hannibal, drops out. This effectively rules out Mexia’s work,
or any of its derivatives, from being the direct source of Oddverjaannáll’s
entry.
The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster (1488–1552) first appeared just
a year after Mexia’s silva, but was subsequently reissued and translated on
numerous occasions. Münster was a Lutheran, employed at the University
of Basel from 1529 until his death, and his Cosmographia describes the en
18 See Thomas C. Izard, “The Principal Source for Marlowe’s tamburlaine,” MLn 58 (1943):
411–17; see also Leslie Spence, “The Influence of Marlowe’s Sources on tamburlaine,”
Modern Philology (1926): 181–99; Leslie Spence, “Tamburlaine and Marlowe,” PMLA 42
(1927): 604–22; Hugh G. Dick, “tamburlaine Sources Once More,” studies in Philology 46
(1949): 154–66.
19 Pedro Mexia, silva de varia lección (Madrid: Matheo de Espinosa y Arteaga, 1673), 197.
20 Andrea Cambini, Libro d’Andrea Cambini della origine de turci et imperio delli Ottomanni
([Florence]: [Heredi di Philippo di Giunta], 1529), 2.
TIMUR, ‘THE WRATH OF GODʼ