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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 197

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MORYSON. COTOVICUS. 187 COTOVICUS. loan Des Cotovicus, otlicrwise Ioliann van Kootwyck, a Doctor of Civil and Canon Law in the University of Utrecht, sailed from Venice August 2,1598, tonchi*! at Lima«sol September 12, ami sailed from Larnaca September 19 for Siclon, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. On Marcii 25,1599, now a knight of the Holy Sepulchre, lie touched again at Larnaca, and visited Nicosia and Famagosta. On Palm Sunday, April 4, lie embarked ou his return to Venice, which he reached about May 12. His preface is in the form of a pttreenesi* or letter of counsel to travellers who would " with equanimity endure, evade or overcome the dangers and discomforts, the toils and trials " of Ute journey to the Holy Places. He explains how abont the Feast of Corpus Christi pilgrims began to assemble at Venice. Retore Cyprns fell to the Turk there was at their disposal a regular service of vessels Mailing fer Jaffa. Bnt now the writer found people going in cargo boats to Alexandrctta or Tripoli, Cyprns or Alexandria, and thence to Palestine, with less comfort, more delay, and greater cost. The wonld-be pilgrim is advised first to make his will, and arrange hie worldly affairs, then to obtain at Venice the lieense of the Papal Legate, to whom lie must prove that lie can afford to spend at the very least one hundred gold pieces ou the journey. His |>assage to Cyprus will cost him six silver ducats, his monthly board ten ducats at the captain's table, six at the chief steward's. The hire of a ship from Cyprus to Jaffa costs thirty to forty gold sequins, to be divided among the passengers. There are sundry fees to be paid, for entrance into the church nine sequins, into the Holy Sepulchre itself two more, and so on. The traveller is farther advised to take a mattress with a pillow and a pair of sheets, the whole enclosed in a box six feet by three, which will serve him for a bed : four or six shirts without collars, a woollen sailor's cap, socks, handkerchiefs, towels and two pounds of soap, twenty pounds of the best biscuit, some good wine, cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs and cloves, with pomegranates, oranges and lemons, also sugar and laxative medicine. His garments must be rough and cheap, the least ornament will excite the cupidity of the Syrians. No arms must be earned, and money must be carefully hidden. In Cyprns he had better arrange for his passage to Jaffa through a consul: lie must choose a Syrian or Moorish captain, the Greeks are cheats, and lia to the Latins. On Turkish soil he had lietter call himself an Englishman, Frenchman or Venetian, not a Spaniard or German. The jonrney from Jaffa to Jerusalem is performed on asses, without bit or bridle, saddle or stirrups. Generally the pilgrimage must have been most laborious and uncomfortable. The savagery of the sailors, the smells and noises of the ship, the exactions of the natives and the insolent fanaticism of Musahnan officials, "perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils iu the sea"—on all these the writer toocliingly dwells. Une is glad that he survived to retain to his country, and tell us his story. Wo translate from the Itinertirhtm Hierowly untumi m et Synaewn, Auctore Ioamte Ootovieo, pub-lished at Antwerp in quarto Apml Hiemnymum Venìwttsium, MDCXIX, pp. 91—113. The book, which is written in diffuse but correct Latin, and quaintly illustrated with maps, sketches and plans, is the work of an observant, learned and conscientious man. Along with the epitaph to 31. A. Bragadino, the reader may like to see the inscription on the tablet at Bergamo which commemorates his fellow-hero Astone Baglione. ESTOBI BALIOSO PIOTATE ET ARHIS IXSIGXI POST CIBARISSIMA IX SALAMINI PROPUGNATONE EDITA FACI NO RA IMFIIS FŒDIFRAGI HÜSTIS G LAD IIS 1XTERFECTO BEIÎGOMATES ARM DIVI JOSEPIII MUXICIPES QUIA DUM CIVITATIS GUBERXATOB ADESSET EOS MIR1FICE DILEXERIT BT UNA DlVÜM IPSUM COLUERIT PARENTAXDUM CÜRAVERÜNT 24-2

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