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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 18

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NEOPHYTUS. W. VOX OLDEXBUHG. 13 For nnless a man shall -fall sick, and halt, neither will the physician appi}' cntting with bitterness and burning. It is manifest that had we not grievously angered our all-good Physician, and walked contrary nnto Him, He would not have been contrary disposed unto us, chastening us for onr salvation. επάγει τομην μετά πικρίας καί καύσεως· Οηλον ότι και ημείς ci μη που πολλά τον ττανά-γαθον Ιατρον ήμων παρετΓίκράναμεΐ' και πλαγίως προς αυτόν ειπψεύθημεν, ονκ αν και αϊτός πλαγίως προς ημάς οιετεθη, σωτηριω&ως καταπικραϊνων ημάς. W. VOX OLDENBURG. Wilbraudì de Oldenborg Peregrinano, a journaljif pilgrimage written in neat Latini wan first printed in 1653, and republished by J. G. M. Laurent in Peregrinatores inedü aevî quatuor, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1878. Wilbrand, Count of Oldenburg, son of Henry 11. Count of Oldenburg and Beatrix, Countess of Hallermund, wae in 1211 Canon of Hildesheim, in 1212 of Paderborn, in 1228 Bishop of Utrecht, and died July 27, 1234. He reached Acre August 25,1211, and coasting North and West came to Cory ens in Cilicia Tracheia. Of the " propositus Hermannns de Lugoune " nothing is known. Lecky, Rationalism, Vol. i. p. 24 (ed. 1807), in a note quotes Malleus Malencarum (1489) p. 522, stating that ** the incubi generally had no children, bat there were some exceptions to this rale ; for Nïder the inquisitor assures ns that the island of Cyprus was entirely peopled by their sons." Cap. xxvii. p. ISO. From Corycns, only two miles from Seleucia and the river [Seleph or Calycadnus] in which the Emperor Frederic I. Barbarossa was drowned, we took ship and crossed to Cyprus. The island is extremely fertile, and produces excellent wine. It lies near the Cyclades, but is not one of them. Its length is four days' journey, its breadth inure than two. It has high mountains. There is one archbishop, who has three suffragans. These are Latins. Bnt the Greeks, over whom thronghont this land the Latins have dominion, have thirteen bishops, of whom one is an archbishop. They all obey the Franks, and pay tribute like slaves. Whence yon can see that the Franks are the lorda of this land, whom the Greeks and Armenians obey as serfs. They ai-é^udeìn all their habits, and shabby in their dress, sacrificing chiefly to their lusts. We shall ascribe this to the wine of that country which provokes to luxury, or rather to those who drink it. It is for this reason that Venus was said to be worshipped in Cyprus. And she herself was called Cypris, as it is said, "the goddess Cypris yields to Mars, or to her own arts." For the wines of this island are so thick and rich that they are sometimes specially prepared to be eaten like honey with bread. Cyprus rears many wild asses and rams, stags and hinds : bnt it has no bears, lions or wolves, or other dangerous beasts. Let him who desires to be more fully informed concerning this land, how it was first made habitable, and how virgins were here beguiled by demons and bore them offspring, and how far those demons haunted the men who first colonised the island, study the book of the Provost Hermann of Lyon, in which that dignitary of pious memory describes fully and exactly all these things and much more abont the condition of Cyprus. Of your charity let his soul find remembrance in your prayers. We first touched land at Schema? [Keryneia] a small town but fortified, which has a castle with walls and towers. Its chief boast is its good harbour. In this district the king of Cyprus has four good castles. Note that the Emperor Henry VI. made the first lord uf this country a king, and crowned him by the hands of Conrad the chancellor. Hence it follows that the king of this land is bonnd in fealty to the Roman Emperor.

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