This history is well regarded as a first hand account of the war against Persia between 1578 and 1590. Although Turkey made and retained conquests in Georgia and Azerbaijan, her own historians have criticized her for weakening not only Turkey but also Persia and Daghestan, which facilitated Russia's future expansion at their expense. The engraved map is prized for being especially detailed and accurate. Giovanni Tommaso Minadoi was an Italian physician and historian who studied at the University of Padua. He practiced in Rovigo and Venice. In 1578 Teodoro Balbi, the newly elected Consul in Syria, offered him the opportunity to travel with him to Aleppo as his personal physician. In Syria he gathered materials to write his account of the war between Sultan Murad III and Mohammad Hodabanda the Blind. He returned to Venice in 1583, but went back to Syria in 1584, remaining there for two years, during which he also spent time in Constantinople. He married Lucia Cezza di Bartolomeo in 1587, a member of one of the richest families in Rovigo. He was a colleague of Galileo Galilei, who described him as jovial, pleasant and honest. Adams M1456. Graesse IV, 533. Olschki Choix I, 1298.