Older works on Isaac Basire are Beaglehole C.H., The life and times of Dr. Isaac Basire (typescript, not published, Dartington [appr. 1950]), which we have not been able to track down, and Darnell W.N. (ed.), The correspondence of Isaac Basire (London: 1831). Darnell does not mention Bobovius as one of Basire's correspondents, but according to an anonymous, deadly, critique, entitled Remarks upon the defects and inaccuracies in 'The Reverend W.N. Darnell's Correspondence and Memoir of Dr. Basire' (London: 1831) (passim) one of Darnell's shortcomings is his limited selection of sources.

In this contribution, I will discuss two Turkish translations made by the famous Ottoman court official, Wojciech Bobowski, alias Albertus Bobovius (d. ca. 1677 CE). One is his translation of the Anglican Catechism (1654), the other his version of the Ianua linguarum by Johannes Amos Comenius (Komenský, 1592-1670), the Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian (1658). Both texts have only survived as manuscripts and neither has been studied in any depth before. I will present the texts, as well as their historical backgrounds, and shed some new light on the life of the translator as well. Bobowski / Bobovius: his life 2  My thanks are due to Dr. Jan Schmidt (Leiden University) and Dr. Bruce Privratsky (Tekirdağ, Turkey) for their useful comments, and to Dr. Corinna Vermeulen (Leiden), who edited and translated, and added editorial notes to the Latin text of the dedication in MS Glasgow, Hunterian Collection no.

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