PORTRAITS OF ITALIANS IN HEALTH AFFAIRS IN 19th CENTURY ISTANBUL: DR. CASTALDI, PHARMACIST A. CALLEJA, MIDWIFE MESSANI

he first European language heard by Turks settling in Anatolia after 1071 JL was the Italian of Genoese and Venetian merchants.1 While borrowing many words from each other, the cross-cultural relationships of the two com munities in commerce, maritime, politics, history and medicine continued for ages. Actually Galata, then mostly a Genoese colony, and the liveliest trade cen tre in Constantinople of the pre-modern era, had existed for years in the capital city as an autonomous administrative unit independent from the Paleologos dy nasty during the late Byzantine Empire.2 Galata was one of the oldest and most powerful colonies of the Italian city-states. When Constantinople was conquered by the Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, Italian city-states were enjoying the heyday of their influence and power in the East. Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror, 1451-1481) neither laid siege to or invaded the region, nor did he hesitate to recognize the rights and privileges of Galata's inhabitants.3 As a matter of fact, the Ottoman State, as the main successor of Eastern Roman Empire, continued all its relations with the Italian city-states, both in political and commercial transac tions as well as cultural and scientific exchanges.4 This action was quite com patible with the Ottoman style of expansion in recognizing the rights of con quered local communities by allowing them freedom in their private and social lives, commercial activities, and religious worship while protecting them with