Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/343
Context
Marino Sanudo the Elder of Torcello, from a wealthy and powerful Venetian
family, was a statesman and geographer who spent much of his career from the late 13th
century until his death in 1338 living and travelling abroad, particularly in the
Peloponnese and Aegean islands, Cyprus and Cilicia, Constantinople, the Levant, and Egypt,
but also in western and northern Europe. A learned and eloquent advocate for a new crusade
to the Holy Land, he wrote the voluminous Secrets for Those Faithful to the
Cross (Secreta fidelium Crucis), a strategic manual full of
economic, military, and geographic detail as well as maps, and presented different versions
of it to popes Clement V (in 1307) and John XXII (in 1321). This passage from his account of
the Holy Land records the destruction wrought by Crusaders and Muslims in the last decades
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the final capture of Caesarea by Baybars on January
26, 1265.
Text
XV. Iunii Christiani de
Ptolomayda cum Hospitalariis et Templariis exierunt ad redimendum Gerardum quendam, quem
Saraceni proditione ceperant cum multis in Rama nec reddere volebant. Et ideo iverunt usque
Ascalonam omnia vastando et comburendo; et inventos duos admiraldos occiderunt et XXVIII. ex
quadringentis, qui cum eis erant; et sine damno Dei gratiae rediere. Vicesimo Septembris
Oliversius de Termes Ptolomaydae applicuit, qui die quinta Novembris cum militia Ptolomensi,
Hospitalariis, et Templariis destruxerunt Bethsan, et plura casalia, et terram undique
comburentes, hominum ac iumentorum magnam egerunt praedam. Eodem anno XXVI. Ianuarii
Bendocdar cepit Caesaream per proditionem, cuius timore Ptolomenses
turrim molendinorum prosternunt et ecclesiam Sancti Nicolai in cimiterio.
1
Textual Note
Ed. Bongars 1611Corrigenda Note
Minor corr. (punctuation, spelling)Translation
On June 15 the
Christians departed from Ptolemaÿs with the Hospitallers and Templars to recover a certain
Gerard, whom the Saracens had captured with many others in Ramla by treachery and whom they
did not want to give back. They went as far as Ascalon, wasting and burning down everything;
and they killed two emirs they found along with 28 out of 400 who were with them; and by the
grace of God they returned home unscathed. On September 20 Oliver de Termes landed at Acre.
On November 5 he led the knights of Ptolomaÿs, the Hospitallers, and the Templars to destroy
Bethsan and many castles, and, setting land everywhere ablaze, they seized an enormous
plunder of humanity and livestock. In the same year on January 26 Bendocdar took
Caesarea by treachery. Out of their fear of him the people of
Ptolemaÿs tore down the tower of windmills and the Church of Saint Nicholas in the
cemetery.
2
Translation Note
Adapted from Lock 2011Works Cited
- 1 Marino Sanudo, Gesta Dei per Francos Sive Orientalium Expeditionum et Regni Francorum Hierosolimitani Historia 2: Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis Super Terrae Sanctae Recuperatione et Conservatione, ed. Jacques Bongars (Hanover: Wechelian, 1611), bk: 3.12.7, p: 222.
- 2 Marino Sanudo, Marino Sanudo Torsello, The Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross: Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, trans. Peter Lock, Crusade Texts in Translation 21 (London: Routledge, 2011), p: 351.
How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/343.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/343.About this Entry
Entry Title: Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife