the burlington magazine | 167 | march 2025 218 T his article presents the unpublished last testament of the Circassian noblewoman and Safavid ambassadress Teresa Sampsonia Shirley (c.1589–1668), who is thought to have been the daughter of a Circassian ruler named Isma’il Khan and was baptised as a Catholic in 1608. 1 Her husband, Sir Robert Shirley (1581–1628), was an English adventurer who served as an ambassador to Shah Abbas (1571–1629). The couple travelled extensively, visiting England, India, Portugal, Spain and Italy. She was a highly skilled linguist and is recorded on two occasions as having saved her husband’s life during their journeys together. 2 Sampsonia’s testament was found in the Archivio di Stato di Roma among death records handled by the notary Giovanni Oliverius Bonifacius. 3 It comprises two pages: the first lists the document’s ten legal witnesses (Fig.1), while the second expresses Sampsonia’s wishes for the distribution of her estate (Appendices). Here we learn, for the first time, the exact date of her death in Rome: 7th May 1668. The testament is the second known document written using her own words and contributes to a growing body of scholarship focused on her life. 4 A Safavid ambassadress in Rome: the last testament of Teresa Sampsonia Shirley Teresa Sampsonia Shirley, a Circassian noblewoman from the Safavid Empire, conducted diplomatic business across Europe alongside her husband, the English-born Safavid ambassador Robert Shirley. Her last testament, published here for the first time, provides valuable insights into her later and more modest life in Rome, where she lived after the death of her husband. by alexandria brown-hedjazi My deepest gratitude goes to Heather Hyde Minor, Patrizia Cavazzini, Paula Findlen, Emanuele Lugli, Fabio Barry, Christopher Daly and especially Tom and Libby Cohen for all of their help and support with this project. 1 Archivio di Stato di Roma, Rome, 30 Notai Capitolini, Officio 23, 1668 Maggio, fols.279v–280v. 2 See P. Tuson: ‘Scholars and Amazons: researching women travellers in the Arabian Gulf’, Liwa 5 (2013), pp.15–31, at p.19. 3 Bonifacius (also written Jo. Oliverius Bonifacius; statuto: Bonifazi Gio.Oliv.; or salvioni: Bonifazi vel Bonifacij Gio.Oliv.) worked as a notary from 1664 to 1673 in officio 16 (ex officio 24) on Via della Giulia 69 in Piazza di Pietra, Rome. For the archive of the Trenta Notari Capitolini, of which Bonifacius was a part, see R. De Vizio: Repertorio dei Notari Romani dal 1348 al 1927 dall’Elenco di Achille Francois, Rome 2011, p.85. 4 During their return to Persia from England in 1625, Sampsonia wrote a letter to Charles I pleading for Robert and another Safavid ambassador, Najdi Beg, to be granted separate ships on account of violent disagreements between them. Her request was granted and the letter is reproduced in J. Finet: Finetti Philoxenis: som choice observations of Sr. John Finett knight, and master of the ceremonies to the two last Kings, touching the reception, and precedence, the treatment and audience, the puntillios and contests of forren ambassadors in England, London 1656, p.173. For the new scholarship on Sampsonia, see B. Andrea: ‘Other Renaissances, multiple Easts, and Eurasian borderlands: Teresa Sampsonia Sherley’s journey from Persia to Poland, 1608–1611’, in J.G. Singh, ed.: A Companion to the Global Renaissance: English Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 1500–1700, London 2021; A. Bernadette: ‘The global travels of Teresa Sampsonia Sherley’s Carmelite relic’, in idem and P. Akhimie, eds: Travel and Travail: Early Modern Women, English Drama, and the Wider World, Lincoln NE 2019, pp.102–17; and C. Nocentelli: ‘Teresa Sampsonia Sherley: Amazon, traveler, and consort’, in ibid., pp.81–101. 1. Last testament of Teresa Sampsonia Shirley, showing the witness signatures and seals. 1668. (Archivio di Stato di Roma, 30 Notai Capitolini, Officio 23, 1668 Maggio, fol.279r; Photograph the author). Opposite 2. Teresa, or Teresia Sampsonia, Lady Shirley, by Anthony Van Dyck. c.1622. Oil on canvas, 214 by 129 cm. (Petworth House; © NTPL; photograph Derrick E. Witty).