Oriental Times in the West * 195 spread throughout Spain not only in translations, but also in works written in Castilian such as Viaje de Turquia, published in about 1557 – 1558 . This image comes out clearly in a dialogue between two of the characters, “Mata” and “Pedro” : Mata : Is [ the Great Turk ] well purveyed of artillery ? Pedro : Not in the past, he lacked masters to teach them, especially how to put cannons on wheels, until the Jews were expelled from Spain, who instructed them in this, as well as how to fire flintlocks, and build forts and trenches, and all other devices and arts of war, as they [ the Ottomans, before their arrival ] were no more than mere beasts . 50 Capsali had already mentioned the transfer of technology by the banished Jews, though of course he put it in a positive light . 51 As Gilles Veinstein has pointed out, the topos was employed in ways that varied according to context and author . For instance, Vicente Roca, in 1556, told how the Jews expelled fr...
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