The London Gazette, Numb. 96. Monday, October 15th to Thursday, October 18th, 1666.

The verso has two paragraphs concerning the false Messiah Sabbatai Zvi, datelined “Legorn (Livorno), Sept. 28,” reading: “Fresh news is every day brought us of the great zeal of the Jews in the Levant, to the pretended Messiah, who flock in such numbers to him that in one day no less than 8000 strangers were in the Castle where he is prisoner, to see him; that when he goes abroad (which is as oft as he pleases) he is always attended as a King, to the admiration of all sober men. All this being permitted by the Grand Signior himself, who allows him a considerable daily maintenance.” This amounts to an unwitting conflation of fact and fantasy on the part of this English correspondent (likely Charles Chillingworth, the English deputy in Livorno) relaying outdated information. While it is true that great numbers of visitors had visited Shabtai Tzvi during his imprisonment in the Tower of Gallipoli, nicknamed by his ardent followers “Migdal Oz” (Tower of Strength) and that he was given a small stipend to meet his daily needs, he was in fact kept under heavy guard and restricted from leaving his “gilded cage.” Indeed by the time this account was published in London in mid-October, Shabbetai Tzvi had already received an ultimatum by the Sultan on September 16, 1666. When presented with the choice of conversion to Islam or death, Shabbtai Tzvi chose conversion to Islam. The second paragraph reads “They have a new Prophet also risen in Scio [Chios], who declares that the 26 of the Seventh Moneth or Moon, which begins the 30th instant, all the world is to see the deliverance of the Jews.” The reference is almost certainly to a letter of Nathan of Gaza, the prophet of Shabbtai Tzvi, and written in the wake of the apostasy, resetting the date of the messianic redemption to the spring of 1667. For Nathan’s letter, See Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, pp. 720-1; Jacob Sasportas, Zizat Novel Tzvi, (1954) pp. 200-5; Abraham Epstein, REJ (1893) p.218.