‘A tent has fallen from the sky’: the convoluted story of a balloon accident in Ottoman Bosnia in 1803
2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 60; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00263206.2023.2268009
ISSN1743-7881
Autores Tópico(s)Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
ResumoAbstractBased on the story of a balloon accident in the Bihke region of Bosnia in 1803, this article evaluates the balloon technology of the period through the life of Francesco Zambeccari, who was the aeronaut of that balloon, as well as the anxiety caused by the falling balloon both in Bosnia and the Ottoman centre, in the context of the Napoleonic threat. It first focuses on the balloon technology of the period and considers the mobility and network of relations it created by focusing on Zambeccari, a Bolognia notable. Secondly, it tries to understand how local people interpreted this event and the methods local administrators used both in managing the public's reactions and deciding what to do with the falling balloon. Thirdly, the article examines how, under the shadow of the Napoleonic threat, tensions grew steadily for the Ottoman centre which believed the falling balloon to be linked to a French military advance towards the Bosnian border.Keywords: Balloon technologyFrancesco ZambeccariOttoman EmpireBosniaBihkeNapoleonBalkans Disclosure statementThe author reports there are no competing interests to declare.Notes1 Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (BOA) Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 A, 25 Cemaziyelahir 1218/12 October 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803. Bihke is the common label for the region covering approximately present-day Bihać during the Ottoman period. Since the region is called Bihke in Ottoman official documents, I use this name to refer to its geographical borders at that time. In this study, the relevant documents in the Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (Directorate of State Archives) of Turkey were used as primary sources.2 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 A, 25 Cemaziyelahir 1218/12October 1803. This area is located in the south part of Bihać in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, within the borders of Una National Park. Račić Farm is located under the mountain range that includes Ljutoč Mountain, adjacent to the hills called Lohovsko Brdo and Gornje Lohovo. I am indebted to Aladin Husić from the Oriental Institute of Sarajevo and Behçet Loklar from the Balkan Research Institute of Trakya University for their assistance in pinpointing the modern names for places in the region mentioned in the archival documents.3 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.4 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 A, 25 Cemaziyelahir 1218/12 October 1803.5 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12004, undated; BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 123/5037, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.6 Richard Gillespie, 'Ballooning in France and Britain, 1783-1786: Aerostation and Adventurism', Isis 75, no. 3 (1984), p.249. John T. Alexander, 'Aeromania, "Fire-Balloons," and Catherine the Great's Ban of 1784', The Historian 58, no. 3 (1996), pp.497-99. For more information about the invention of the balloon see, for example Clare Brant, Balloon Madness: Flights of Imagination in Britain, 1783-1786 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017); Charles Coulston Gillispie, The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation 1783-1784 with a Word on the Importance of Ballooning for the Science of Heat and the Art of Building Railroads (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983); Michael R. Lynn, The Sublime Invention (London and New York: Routledge, 2010); L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903 (London: Longmans, 1966); C. H. Gibbs-Smith, A History of Flying, (London: B. T. Batsford, 1953).7 Mi Gyung Kim, 'Balloon Mania: News in the Air', Endeavour 28, no. 4 (2004), p.149.8 John Robbins, 'Up in the Air: Balloonomania and Scientific Performance', Eighteenth-Century Studies 48, no. 4 (2015), pp.521-22.9 Ibid. p.533.10 Richard Gillespie, 'Ballooning in France and Britain, 1783-1786: Aerostation and Adventurism', p.249; John Elfreth Watkins, 'The Modern Icarus', Scientific American 101, no. 14 (1909), p.243; Charles Dollfus, Balloons (London: Prentice-Hall International, 1962), pp.47-48.11 'Balloon Making', Scientific American, A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures 17, 21, (23 October 1869), p.258; Paul Keen, '"Balloonomania": Science and Spectacle in 1780s England', Eighteenth-Century Studies 39, no. 4 (2006), p.510.12 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812) [Francesco Zambeccari Aeronaut of Bologna (1752-1812)] (Milan: Museo Caproni Officine dIstituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche di Bergamo, 1932), p.3; L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, p.61.13 Giovanni Mazzaferro, 'Il Mercato Artistico nel Carteggio Fra Michelangelo Gualandi e Charles Lock Eastlake (1855-1865): Un'introduzione' [The Art Market in the Correspondence between Michelangelo Gualandi and Charles Lock Eastlake (1855-1865): An Introduction], MDCCC 1800 9 (2020), p.116.14 This information comes to us from the Spanish ambassador in Istanbul at that period, who applied to the Sublime Porte for his release when Zambeccari was taken prisoner by the Ottoman State. For more information, see BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8144, 27 Şevval 1203, 21 July 1789.15 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.3-4.16 Richard Herr, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton: Princeton Legacy Library, 2015), p.20.17 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.4.18 Richard Herr, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain, p.12.19 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.4.20 L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, pp.61-62.21 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.4.22 Davis P. Harding, 'The Beginning of British Aviation', The Yale University Library Gazette 20, no. 2 (1945), pp.28-29; Paul Keen, '"Balloonomania": Science and Spectacle in 1780s England', p.510; John Penny, 'Ballooning in the Bristol Region: 1784 to 1786 The Opening Chapter in the History of Local Manned Flight', p.31; Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.6.23 Mark Davies, King of All Balloons: The Adventurous Life of James Sadler, The First English Aeronaut (Stroud: Amberley Publishing, 2015), pp.34-35; Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.6. Maybe because Zambeccari's first attempt took place with no publicity, some works mention his second attempt as the first aerostatic experiment made in England. See for example, Harry Delacombe, The Boys' Book of Airships and Other Aerial Craft (London: Grant Richards, 1910), pp.9-10. Some works fail to mention the unmanned trials in England and give the name of Lunardi, who made a manned ascent over London on 15 September 1784, as the man behind first balloon trial in England. See for example, Charles Dollfus, Balloons, p.48.24 Paul Keen, '"Balloonomania": Science and Spectacle in 1780s England', p.510; Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.7.25 Davis P. Harding, 'The Beginning of British Aviation', The Yale University Library Gazette 20, no. 2 (1945), pp.28-29; Paul Keen, '"Balloonomania": Science and Spectacle in 1780s England', p.510; John Penny, 'Ballooning in the Bristol Region: 1784 to 1786 The Opening Chapter in the History of Local Manned Flight', BIAS Journal, 29 (1996), p.31.26 Mark Davies, King of All Balloons: The Adventurous Life of James Sadler, The First English Aeronaut, p.267.27 L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, p.64. Some sources mention a rivalry between Zambeccari and Lunardi, who ascended in the first manned balloon in England, during this period and state that Lunardi's achievements and the financial support that he obtained disappointed Zambeccari. For more information about those claims and unsuccessful attempts of Zambeccari, see Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.8-9.28 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.13-14, 47.29 Virginia H. Aksan, Ottoman Wars 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged (Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007), pp.160-63.30 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8144, 27 Şevval 1203/21 July 1789, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8145, undated; Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.15.31 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8144, 27 Şevval 1203/21 July 1789, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8145, undated. For more information about captives taken during the Ottoman-Russian War of 1787-1792, see for example, Will Smiley, From Slaves to Prisoners of War: The Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp.125-42; Fatma Sel Turhan, 18. Yüzyıl Osmanlı'da Savaş Esirleri [Eighteenth Century Ottoman War Captives] (Istanbul: Vadi Yayınları, 2018), pp.221-72.32 Zübeyde Güneş Yağcı and Esra Nalbant, 'İstanbul Tersane Zindanı' [The Shipyard Dungeon of Istanbul], in Feridun M. Emecen, Ali Akyıldız and Emrah Safa Gürkan (eds), Osmanlı İstanbulu IV [Ottoman Istanbul IV] (Istanbul: Istanbul 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2016), p.94. Of the three parts of Tersane/Shipyard Dungeon, the first part was allocated to the miri captives and criminals who were competent in crafts related to shipbuilding, such as carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, ropemakers or coopers. The second part, consisting of cell-shaped rooms where around 700 miri captives and criminals stayed, was reserved for prisoners who did not know any craft and the conditions were the most severe there. The third part was the dungeon hospital, which was built for the treatment of captives and criminals who were too sick to do any work. Václav Vratislav Z. Mitrovic, and Albert Henry Wratislaw, Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz: What He Saw in the Turkish Metropolis, Constantinople; Experienced in His Captivity; and after His Happy Return to His Country, Committed to Writing in the Year of Our Lord 1599 (London: Bell & Daldy, 1862), pp.125-29.33 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 15/636, undated.34 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 180/8144, 27 Şevval 1203/21 July 1789.35 BOA Ali Emiri SABH.I 2/136, undated. Although there is no date on the document, Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (Directorate of State Archives) gives the date of the document as 10 Receb 1203/6 April 1789, which means that Zambeccari was in captivity in Istanbul for more than one and a half years from September 1787 until that date.36 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.15.37 Ibid., p.3.38 Francesco Zambeccari, Descrizione della Macchina Aerostatica del Cittadino Francesco Zambeccari Destinata a Tentare il Regolamento della Medesima per l'Atmosfera [Description of the Aerostatic Machine of Citizen Francesco Zambeccari Who Attempted the Regulation of it for the Atmosphere] (Bologna: Presso i Fratelli Masi e Compagno, 1803).39 Ibid. p.3.40 Zambeccari's booklet includes nine articles which describe every part of the balloon separately and a catalogue which mentions all individual parts of a ballon. For the articles, see Zambeccari, Descrizione della Macchina Aerostatica, pp.7-28, and for the catalogue, pp.29-31.41 For more information about his marriage and the new technology that he developed by combining gas with hot air see, Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.21-25.42 L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, p.96.43 There is a material error in the sources regarding the date that the balloon fell. While Guasti and Bertarelli mistakenly give the month as September on p.30 and p.34, they correct this mistake on other pages by giving the date as 7-8 October 1803. Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.30-34. On the other hand, Rolt mistakenly gives the date as 7 October 1804. L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, p.96. Ottoman documents clearly give the date as 8 October 1803. BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 A, 25 Cemaziyelahir 1218/12 October 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.44 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.31-34; L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, pp.97-98.45 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.40-42. Detailed information about this journey can be found in Cesare Bianchetti, 'Relazione dell' Esperienza Aereo-Statica Eseguita in Bologna li XXII Agosto MDCCCIV' [Report of the Aerial-Static Experience Carried out in Bologna on 22 August 1804], in Mescolanze Filologiche (Bologna, 1804).46 Timina Caproni Guasti, Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), pp.46-51; L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, p.98.47 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.53.48 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.49 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.50 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 123/5037, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.51 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12004, undated.52 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 123/5037, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.53 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 123/5037, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803, BOA HAT 218/12004, undated.54 Timina Caproni Guasti and Achille Bertarelli, Francesco Zambeccari Aeronauta Bologna (1752-1812), p.35.55 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 123/5037, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803, BOA HAT 218/12004, undated.56 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12004, undated.57 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.58 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7262, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226 B, 17 Receb 1218/2 November 1803.59 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12004, undated, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226, 18 Receb 1218/1 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7262, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.60 David Gates, The Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815 (London: Arnold, 1997), pp.6-8; John D. Grainger, The British Navy in the Mediterranean (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017), p.157.61 Gunther Rothenberg, The Napoleonic Wars (London: Cassell, 1999), pp.64, 74-75.62 Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), pp.385-86.63 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226, 18 Receb 1218/1 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7262, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.64 Vesna Miović, 'Diplomatic Relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Dubrovnik', in Gábor Kármán and Lovro Kunčević (eds), The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013), p.188; Lovro Kunčević, 'Janus-Faced Sovereignty: The International Status of the Ragusan Republic in the Early Modern Period', in Gábor Kármán and Lovro Kunčević (eds), The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, p.92.65 Ruža Radoš Ćurić, 'Dealing with Ottoman Outlaws from Land and Sea: Case Studies of Dubrovnik (1746–1748)', in Gábor Kármán (ed.), Tributaries and Peripheries of the Ottoman Empire, pp.303-04.66 Metin Ziya Köse, Osmanlı Devleti ve Dubrovnik İlişkileri 1500-1600 Doğu Akdeniz'de Casuslar ve Tacirler [Relations between the Ottoman Empire and Dubrovnik 1500-1600: Spies and Traders in the Eastern Mediterranean] (Istanbul: Giza Yayınları, 2009), pp.19-22.67 From the mid-fifteenth century onwards, after the Dubrovnik Republic became a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, the city had been headed by the rector/knez, who was appointed by the Dubrovnik Senate. The Senate elected three of its members for rectorial duty and those elected members performed this duty for a two-month period during which each of them held the position alternately for a week. Damir Grubiša, 'Forms of Government in the Renaissance: Uniqueness of the Dubrovnik Model', Politička Misao 47, no. 5 (2010), p.174.68 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226, 18 Receb 1218/1 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7262, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 171/7352, undated.69 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 171/7352, undated.70 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7226, 18 Receb 1218/1 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7262, 19 Şaban 1218/4 December 1803.71 Stjepan Ćosić, 'The Fall of the Dubrovnik Republic and the Establishment of the French Administration in Dubrovnik in 1808 and 1809', Dubrovnik Annals 2 (1998), pp.56-57.72 Diletta D'Andrea, 'Great Britain and the Mediterranean Islands in the Napoleonic Wars – The "Insular Strategy" of Gould Francis Leckie', Journal of Mediterranean Studies 16, no. 1/2 (2006), pp.79-80.73 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 165/6864, 1 Zilhicce 1218/13 March 1804.74 David Gates, The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815, p.15.75 Charles Esdaile, Napoleon's Wars An International History, 1803-1815 (London: Penguin, 2008), pp.2-3.76 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7228, undated.77 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12007, undated, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12027, 20 Receb 1218/5 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 218/12029, 18 Şevval 1218/31 January 1804, BOA Cevdet Hariciye 101/5047, 5 Ramazan 1218/19 December 1803.78 BOA Cevdet Hariciye 101/5047, 5 Ramazan 1218/19 December 1803.79 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 215/11799, 05 Ramazan 1218/19 December 1803.80 BOA Cevdet Dahiliye, Evahir-i Şaban 1218/6-15 December 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 A, 10 Şevval 1218/23 January 1804, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 B, 3 Şaban 1218/18 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 C, 6 Şevval 1218/19 January 1804.81 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 165/6895, 24 Receb 1218/9 November 1803.82 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 B, 3 Şaban 1218/18 November 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 C, 6 Şevval 1218/19 January 1804.83 Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History, p.175.84 BOA Cevdet Dahiliye, Evahir-i Şaban 1218/6-15 December 1803, BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 216/11885, 12 Şevval 1218/25 January 1804.85 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 170/7221 B, 3 Şaban 1218/18 November 1803.86 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 169/7177, 7 Muharrem 1218/29 April 1803.87 BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun 244/13767, 18 Şevval 1218/31 January 1804.88 İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılıoğlu, 'Arşiv Vesikalarına Göre Yedi Ada Cumhuriyeti' [The Republic of the Seven Islands according to Archival Documents], Belleten I, no. 3-4 (1937), pp.627-647; K. E. Fleming, The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), pp.101-105.89 For more information about Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, see for example, Juan Ricardo Cole, Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (New York, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Irene A. Bierman, Napoleon in Egypt (Reading: Ithaca, 2003).
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