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vi Preface Mariti's later work Viaggio da Gerusalemme per le coste della Soria (Livorno, 1787). My task was nearly done when I obtained copies of the anonymous versions in French (Paris, 1791) and English (London, 1791). Both are scarce books, but even were this not so I should not regret the trouble I have taken in placing before the reader an accurate rendering of the Italian original. The French translator scarcely pretends to follow Mariti's text, and tries to cover the bareness of his author's narrative with purple patches of his own, impertinent or superfluous. The Englishman renders literally from the Frenchman, without a hint that he has never seen the Italian original. (See pp. 3, 36, 44, 55, 65, 251, &c.) I have not seen the German version by C. G. Hase, Altenburg, 1777. The Abbé Mariti arrived in Cyprus from Leghorn Feb-ruary 2, 1760, and left it on his return to Florence, October 6, 1767. His work owes little to previous writers on Cyprus : he had read Bordone, Lusignan and probably Meursius, but he relies almost entirely on his own notes of what he had seen and heard. And herein lies its value, for he is observant and conscientious. The book stands as the best account of the condition of Cyprus in the third quarter of the last century, and as such I leave it, hardly attempting by additions or corrections to bring it up to date. I have left most names of places in his own spelling, indicating in the index, which is new, their present equivalents. Turkish words appear as modern Oriental scholars would have them transcribed. The Piastre of Mariti's time was equal to 3 lire, 6 soldi, 8 danari, Florentine money, which we may reckon as 3 francs (French) or half a crown (English) of that day. The oke (now 2-f Eng. lbs.) was з| Florentine pounds: the cantar (180 Cyprus okes) was 100 rotoli of 6| Fl. lbs. (or 687^ Florentine pounds): the couza (now 9 English quarts) contained 5 Florentine fiaschi: 4 couze or 20 fiaschi making a barile. It would be well that as many as possible of the original

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