Early Life
An Italian polyglot born in Dalmatia, Graziani had been in service to several European powers: he was an interpreter for the English diplomatic mission in the Ottoman Empire, and then an envoy of both Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo II and the Spanish Viceroy of Naples to the Porte, negotiating the release of Christian sailors captured by Barbary pirates.
The sultan awarded Graziani the title of Duke of Paros and Naxos in 1616 ; he became a close ally of the Doges and, like his predecessor and rival Radu Mihnea, a self-declared admirer of the Serenissime system of government; Graziani also married into a family of Venetian patricians.
Read more about this topic: Gaspar Graziani
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