DIPLOMACY IN POLAND-LITHUANIA 289been Joachim Strasz. The Poles frequently employed Armenians. In 1602, a
Polish envoy to Persia, one Sefer Muratowicz, surprised the Shah by speaking in
Persian. Under Zygmunt-August, whose secretary, Krzysztof Dzierzek, was sent
to study in Istambul at royal expense, a permanent tradition of oriental exper-
tise was established. Under Zygmunt III, Tomasz Zamoyski, who was a scholar
of some distinction, filled the same function.^4 Under Stanislaw-August, the
King's oriental interpreter was one Antoni Crutta, an Albanian formerly in the
Venetian service.
The spread of diplomatic activity provided the stimulus for regular postal ser-
vices. The first step seems to have been taken in 1515 at the Congress of Vienna
when the Emperor Maximilian met his two Jagiellonian relatives, Sigismund of
Poland and Wladyslaw of Bohemia and Hungary. 'Postae celerrimae' were insti-
tuted to link the royal capital of Cracow with the imperial post at Breslau in
Silesia. In 1558, the death of Bona Sforza inevitably multiplied correspondence
with the Empire and with Italy, and a permanent weekly courier service was
established in both directions between Cracow, Vienna, and Venice, managed
by one Prosper Provana. In 1568, this service was contracted out to the
Florentine Montelupi family, who thereupon settled in Cracow and, changing
their name to 'Wilczogorski', ran the Polish posts for the next century and more.
In due course, the posts were extended to Warsaw, and from Warsaw to Danzig
and Wilno, and in 1667 to Moscow. On other routes, the ancient arrangement
continued whereby diplomatic mail was consigned to bankers, merchants, or
even to casual strollers. It is interesting to note that the efficiency of the post did
not improve with time. In Provana's day, in 1558, a rider left Cracow at day-
break on Sundays, reached Vienna on the Wednesday evening, and delivered the
mail in Venice on the following Tuesday, after 10 days on the road. The 625
miles (1,125 kilometres) were covered at an average of 62 miles a day. This is
close to the 'amazing speed' of the messenger who in 1526 brought news of
Mohacs to Cracow within 8 days of the fateful battle. But the timetable of the
Venice run soon deteriorated to 15 days. In 1583, when the Montelupi redirected
their couriers through Slovenia, they cut it back for a time to 11 days. A full run
from Wilno to Rome took up to eight weeks. Amsterdam and London, which
could be reached out of Danzig in two or three weeks, were somewhat closer.
Spain, which could be contacted either via Danzig or Naples was at least three
months distant. Later on, during the Great Northern War, the post disinte-
grated almost completely. Diplomatic mail was carried by foot instead of on
horseback, and replies were not expected soon.
To protect the diplomatic mail, a number of ruses were practised. Several
copies of a letter would normally be sent to their destination by different routes,
to ensure that one at least was safely delivered. Ciphers, however, introduced
into Poland by Kallimach in the fifteenth century, were not employed on all
occasions. Pope Gregory XIII, who in 1585 was using the Republic as a staging
post for his advances to Muscovy, was said to be concerned lest his secrets be
revealed in unciphered Polish correspondence. He was not amused by the Polish