Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7
created: This entry is taken from Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7 written
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: la; la
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https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/343

Caesaream

, and

Caesarea

are directly attested at Marino Sanudo the Elder, Secrets for Those Faithful to the Cross 3.12.7. This passage was written ca. 1306-1321 C.E. possibly in Aegean Greece. 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.

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.

[Ed. Bongars 1611] [Minor corr. (punctuation, spelling)]

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.

[Adapted from Lock 2011]

Works Cited

[...] 3.12.7 222
[...] 351

[Ascalon (Ashkelon)

Bethsan (Scythopolis, Beisan, Beth She’an)

Ptolomayda (Ptolemaïs, Acco, Accho, Acre, Akko)

Rama (Ramla)]

[Baybars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt (Bendocdar, Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baibars al-Bunduqdari, الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري‎)

Knights Hospitaller

Knights Templar

Oliver de Termes

St. Nicholas of xxx]

[Crusades

Geography

Government and Law

Islamic History

Medieval History

Military]