This is the first full English translation of Marino Sanudo Torsello's Secreta fidelium Crucis, a piece of crusading propaganda following the fall of Acre in 1291, written between 1300 and 1321 and based on the translation edited by Jacques Bongars in 1611. With references to 13th-century Mediterranean history, especially Louis IX of France and Charles of Anjou, it contains a vast amount of cartographical, ethnographical, geographical and nautical information, with unique insights into events and personalities not only in Outremer, but in Western Europe.

This is the first full translation of Marino Sanudo Torsello's Secreta fidelium Crucis to be made into English. The work itself is a piece of crusading propaganda following the fall of Acre in 1291, written between 1300 and 1321, but it includes much of historical relevance along with interesting observations on the early history of Jerusalem and the Crusader Kingdom. The translation is based upon the text edited by Jacques Bongars in 1611. There is an introduction that contextualises the book, its author, his sources and his audience. The notes provide essential information to clarify internal textual references and allusions, as well as the role of Biblical references in Sanudo's grand design. The index is designed to make this detailed text usable and accessible. In this, his major work, Sanudo advocated the conquest of Egypt as the means to regain Jerusalem for the Latins and worked through his points with considerable detail alongside references to 13th-century Mediterranean history, especially involving Louis IX of France and Charles of Anjou, king of Naples. Books I and II give considerable detailed discussion of the concept, plan and costs of his proposed crusade. Book III provides an outline history of the crusades and the crusader states. It is derived from a wide-reading of other sources especially of William of Tyre, and, for events after 1184 on the Eracles, the letters of James of Vitry, and Sanudo's own experiences in the east. Throughout, the work contains a staggering amount of cartographical, ethnographical, geographical, and nautical information, as well as numerous unique insights into historical events and personalities of the late 13th century, not only in Outremer but in Western Europe.

Examines how Armenia has been represented and "imagined" in texts from two periods in its history: the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century. Today most people who think of Armenia associate it with the genocide of 1915, the struggle Armenians waged after the First World War to reclaim their ancient lands in Anatolia, a struggle complicated by centuries of subordination to the Ottomans, by persistent Russian efforts to exert influence and claim territory, and by Western indecision manifested in plentiful words but few deeds. This book, however, tells a different story: one of geo-political importance, strength, struggle, and diminishment, narrated in texts largely created by and for Europeans and Americans. It asks how the West imagined, described, and presented Armenia over time in historical and fictional accounts during two periods of close Armenian-Western contact. The first period spans the twelfth to fourteenth centuries; it examines a variety of texts, including the travel narratives of Marco Polo and John Mandeville, William of Tyre's Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, and romances such as King of Tars, Bevis of Hampton and Le Roman de Mélusine. The second period is rooted in events during the nineteenth-century American missionary movement. It engages with a variety of popular and widely disseminated texts - books, pamphlets, newspapers - written and published in the United States from 1830 to the mid-1890s, detailing the encounters between the missionaries and the Armenians, frequently in the voices of women.

Offers the first book-length study of the Roman Catholic church's practice of embargoing trade outside of Christendom in the period c. 1150 to c. 1550, particularly examining the influence of the papacy on the state.

In the medieval world, geographical knowledge was influenced by religious ideas and beliefs. Whereas this point is well analysed for the Latin-Christian world, the religious character of the Arabic-Islamic geographic tradition has not yet been scrutinised in detail. This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge. Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.

This book, unlike most studies dealing with the Crusaders' voyages by sea across the Mediterranean and their arrival at the shores of the Levant, looks at this feat from a seaman's point of view. To this end, it examines the types of ships, the sails and rigging that were used at the time, drawing on the author's personal experience and knowledge of the wind regime of the region. It also tackles the problems of transporting cargo, humans and horses, and the management of large fleets and their navigational difficulties. The book also deals with the question of landing on the flat coast of Palestine. It looks into the connection between seaside Crusader castles and the sea at their foot, taking as a case study the mooring basin below the Apollonia-Arsuf castle. This examination includes under-water digging and sub-bottom profiling using special equipment, and reveals interesting finds which call for further research. --Publisher's website.

The internal diversity in Europe in the Middle Ages created communities with parallel interests across political divides. The links between these groups and their mobility across the Continent, creating international communities bound together by religion, profession, trade, skill or craft, are highlighted in the five chapters of this book.