SELİM II

SELYM II OTHOMAN. XII ROY DES TURCS. V EMPEREUR CREE. A CONSTANTINOBLE EN SEPTEMB. 1566 ET DE SON AAGE. XLIII.

A MON SOUVERAIN SEIGNEUR LE DUC DE LORRAINE.

c. 1650

Engraving, 12,5 x 9 cm.

SELIM II (SARI/SARHOŞ SELİM) (1524-1574), son of Suleiman the Magnificent known as “Selim the Drunkard”…Among his few successes was the capture of Cyprus in 1571, but the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto the same year has been pinpointed as the beginning of the slow decline of the Empire…

This is a copy of the lifetime portrait published by Antonio Lafreri in Rome…