Triumfos del Águila: History and Epideictic Rhetoric in Penso’s Address to Jan III Sobieski (1683)

The Battle of Vienna, at Kahlenberg Mountain, ended on 12 September 1683, in the victory against the Ottoman forces which had besieged the city for two months. The victors were the Holy Roman Empire (notionally led by the Habsburg king) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the command of King Jan III Sobieski. The swift European literary reactions to this specific historical event include a book (1683) of more than 120 pages by the Jewish author active in Livorno/Amsterdam, Josseph Penso de la Vega: Los triumphos del Aguila y eclipses de la Luna / que en reverente panegirico consagra al Invicto Rey de Polonia Don Josseph de la Vega, por la memorable victoria que alcanço contra la Potencia Ottomana su valor, librando de su formidable sitio a Vyena. Amsterdam: Jahacob de Cordova.[1]The work, which has not yet been the object of sustained analysis, is significant for reconstructing, not only the reaction to the specific historical event and its perception byHispano-Jewish or Western Sephardi readers, but also for an understanding of Penso de la Vega’s thought, aesthetic and practices of composing his literary works, and, by extension, something about the state of Sephardi culture at that time and place.