HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
uses Google technology and indexes only and selectively internet - libraries having books with free public access
 
  Previous Next  

CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 66

View PDF version of this page

LE SA IGE. BORDONE. Öl [September 16, they embarked. Our Jacques found them all ill. He took charge of his old mate Jehan dn Bos and another, and did what he could for thein, but he was no nurse and wished himself on the market place of Donai. Next day they sailed. He begins to suspect there was plague on board, and drinks freely of the Malmsey he had bought on shore. Then he too got ill, his head ached, and he stumbled about, not knowing whether it were fear or drink. He commended his soul to S. Claude and to our Lady of Weziers, to whom he promised a taper of three pounds weight, and vowed a pilgrimage to S. Adrian. This, ho thought, saved him from death. On the 18th an English priest, strong and hearty, died : he was put in the box which carried his provisions, and thrown into the sea. On the 19th another death, on the 20th two. On the 2ist Jehan du Bos died, to the satisfaction of the sailors, for they had already played away the nine -Marcelli which they got for making a red cross on the conili and throwing it into the sea; on the 24th foul winds had driven them back to Paphos, where they got wood and water. A church was visited where they sang in Latin, not far from the spot where the seven sleepers lay so long. " The town is in ruins : it was the first which the English destroyed. But on the seashore there are still two massive towers, and there was once a strong castle. A fine plain lie» around, and near the sea fields of cotton were now ripe. Beyond are high mountains covered with scrub. The air is dangerous to straugers." By November 8 the surviving pilgrims bad reached \Tenice, and on Christmas Day Jacques le Saige was again in his home at Douai.] BORDONE. Benedetto Bordone was a native of Padua, an aetronomer and geographer, and of great skill as an illuminator of MSS. He may have been the father of Julius Cessar Scaliger (ob. 1558), a seholar of more learning than taste. His Isolario, an extremely rare book, first printed at Venice in 1538, contains an account of all the islands of the world, and might well be reckoned In its day as a work of great erudition. Each island is illustrated by a map. We translate from pp. LXV, LXVI of the edition impressa in VUtegia per Nicolo d'Aristotile, deiìo Zoppino, nel mene di Giugno, nel MDXXXIIII. Towards Syria there lies no island but Cyprus, which has a circuit of 4274 miles, and its length towards N.E. and E. 200 miles. The headland which looks towards the rising ran is called by Ptolemœus Glides extreme?, but now Cape Bon Andrea : that which lies to the W. was called Drepano by the ancients, but by the people Trepano. Cape Bon Andrea is 260 miles from.Tripoli on the S.E., and from Syria on the S. 80 miles, and from the gulf of Giaccia, called by the ancients the Cilician Gates, on the N.E. and E. 130 miles. On the N. lies Cilicia, from which also it is 80 miles, and the western cape lies S. of Antiocheta, called by the ancients Antiochia, 100 miles. Such is the situation of this most noble island, which yields to no other in merit. It abounds greatly m wine, oil, wheat, barley, sugar and cotton : it produces veins of various metals, and vitriol of the greatest use in medicine. Eratosthenes says that the fields of Cyprus were so full of trees thickly set that they could not bo cultivated, nor could any human device keep the trees down, wherefore the land lay unproductive, albeit, both in the construction of many vessels, and the continuous smelting of metals, an incredible amount of wood was here consumed ; and although the island was very powerful on the seas, still in no way and by no human device could the wood be exhausted. Wherefore it was determined in their Council that every man who should cut down these trees so that the land could be

View PDF version of this page


  Previous First Next