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@card

I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

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Before the treaty, a ship had to wear someone else's colours.

Another Flag

Before the treaty, a ship had to wear someone else's colours.

Card 31 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

A small boat sails a calm turquoise sea under a sail stitched from patches of different flags, crescents, crosses and stripes, with a sealed scroll tied to its mast. Until 1612 Dutch ships in Ottoman waters sailed under a French or an English flag, because the Republic had no treaty with the sultan; Cornelis Haga, who had read law at Leiden, obtained one, signed by Sultan Ahmed I on 6 July 1612, and only then did Dutch merchants sail under their own flag 1. Not painted, but the same: trade with the Orient by sea stands in stone at In den Vergulden Turk 2, and at the former Turkish honorary consulate a local resident acted for another country 3.

What it draws on · 3

Heritage Leiden and Surroundings (Atlas Blaeu)

1612

Until 1612 Dutch ships in Ottoman waters sailed under a French or an English flag, because the Republic had no treaty with the sultan. Cornelis Haga, who had read law at Leiden, obtained one at last: Sultan Ahmed I signed the capitulation on 6 July 1612, making the Republic the third nation to hold such a treaty after France and England. Haga stayed on until 1639 as the Republic's first ambassador in Constantinople. Only from then did Dutch merchants sail the Levant under their own flag.

Sources · 3
  • Nationaal Archief 1.03.01 — Directie van de Levantse Handel en de Navigatie op de Middellandse Zee
  • Gemeentearchief Schiedam — Cornelis Haga (1578-1654), pionier en diplomaat in Constantinopel
  • Ingrid van der Vlis & Hans van der Sloot, 'Cornelis Haga (1578-1654)'
In den Vergulden Turk (At the Gilded Turk)

de drie figuren

In the pediment stand three figures by the Flemish sculptor Pieter Xavery (1647 — after 1674), from left to right: Neptune, god of the sea; an Easterner in a turban, described as an Ottoman merchant and sometimes identified as Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha; and Mercury, god of commerce. Together they say one sentence: trade with the Orient, by sea. The man in the middle is the trading partner, standing between the sea and the profit.

Sources · 3
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Rijksmonumenten.nl — beschrijving van het fronton (Pieter Xavery, ca. 1673)
  • Pieter Xavery — Vlaams barokbeeldhouwer, werkzaam in de Republiek
Former Turkish Honorary Consulate

wat een honorair consul is

An honorary consul is not a posted diplomat but a local resident who represents a country alongside their own work, usually unpaid. That is why this consulate hung on a single person, and why it ended not with a decision but with a death.

Sources · 2
  • Unity — 'Honorair Consulaat Generaal Turkije in Leiden gaat dicht': sluiting omdat geen opvolger werd gevonden
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl

Shares its places with · 8

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

I'd love to know that someone came by — as a number, never a name. May I count your visit? And if an ad brought you here, may I tell that ad it worked?