Carpaccio and Nauplion

Carpaccio, Harbor Drawing, composed of elements from various harbors,
including Candia and Rhodes (and I think also Nauplion).
London, British Museum m. 1897-4-10-1.

Before Europeans established colonies in Africa and Asia, they established colonies in Europe, which was closer. My interest is in the Venetian colonies (although they only used that word for Crete and Cyprus), known as the stato da mar. I grew up in a British colony -- a protectorate, really -- Nigeria, and I have come to see the stato da mar as composed of protectorates. Protectorate is a legal term. The mentality, though, is very much the same, whether protectorate or colony, and whatever the century and whatever the nationality. I have seen dozens of colonial towns in West Africa -- former German towns, Belgian, Portuguese, French, and especially British -- and nothing pictures the colonial town any more accurately than does Carpaccio.  

This 1502 painting, The Death of St. Jerome, shows perfectly the severe, undecorated center of a colonial town and though St. Jerome is supposed to have died in Bethlehem, this is a composite of the colonial centers Carpaccio would have seen along the Dalmatian (and Greek) coast. (St. Jerome came from Roman Dalmatia, from a town that might have been in today's Croatia or Slovenia or Bosnia.)  

I have been told of an article that discusses Carpaccio's travels, but as I have never been able to locate it, I have been able to indulge a fantasy that this painting shows elements of Nauplion.  It is much larger, with more and larger buildings, than Nauplion would ever have had, but there is the wall like the one Minio built along the waterfront (to which my ca. 1700 Venetian house was attached), the plateia, the residents of a monastery near the wall, a clumsy machine for loading barrels of wine onto a cart, an administrative building or two, a loggia for the merchants, the mountains of the Morea in the distance.  I suspect that Carpaccio has composed this painting, as he did the drawing at the beginning, by taking a building from each Dalmatian town he visited, and so making St. Jerome belong to all of them.

These are simply-constructed buildings (plaster over half-timbering) in bad repair -- a good bit of stato da mar correspondence concerns buildings and walls in desperate need of attention, along with a goat, a donkey, and a horse that looks as if we might have seen him in another painting.  There are also Turks, who would have been seen in Nauplion on occasion as of 1480, as well as in Dalmatian ports, and an exotic-looking animal which must have been acquired by a merchant on a trip much farther to the east.   

It has the spots and tail of a cat, say, a cheetah, but the head and front legs don't fit at all with that.  I was thinking of a pangolin, until I noticed the tail.

 The people on the balconies and under the shed roof are all clerics.  This would not have been the case in Nauplion where the administrators were hard-put to have even two Franciscans assigned. The corresponding personnel in a Venetian colonial town, in Greece or Dalmatia, would have been administrators, merchants, servants, secretaries.

This painting reminds me too of the inexorable heat and dust of the West African colonial towns, and the promise of the large markets that would fill that dusty empty space -- weekly for the Venetians, every fifth day in my Nigerian town, held at night, illuminated by small flames from the kerosense lamps made out of milk tins.  The Venetians and the Africans had regular daily markets, too.  There were specific areas for bread and vegetables and fruit and soap and medicines and dried fish, with the meat market far to one side.  At Nauplion it was outside the walls, beside the marsh, and all meat sold had to arrive on its own feet and be slaughtered in sight of a market official. 

Carpaccio has a generic shade tree, not the platan  of the Greek towns, or the mango of the West African.  The West African towns have palm trees, though not for shade.  I have no idea whether Nauplion had palms before Independence and Kapodistria, but it probably did, and I suspect Carpaccio would have seen them on the Dalmatian coast.  I see this painting as the direct and intentional antithesis of the dust-free Bellini painting of St. Mark preaching in Alexandria, but I won't get into that now.

I don't know whether Carpaccio ever got to Nauplion.  I hope so.

NOTE: You can apparently buy cloth dinner and cocktail napkins of The Funeral of St. Jerome.  I would have thought St. Jerome an unlikely accompaniment to a martini.

The bureaucracy deals with the Young Emperor and the Despot

An extraordinary diplomatic memorandum from 1418 gives a list of twenty complaints made by an ambassador of the Despotate, and twenty responses by the Venetian Signoria referring to events which involved the Palaiologos brothers, John and Theodoros. The memorandum was written on behalf of the Despot in awkward Italian: the Venetian clerk carefully reproduced the spelling and grammar of each item, and then gave the formal Latin response from the Signoria. The events had happened in 1416 when co-emperor John (Venetian sources call him “the young emperor”) was giving his brother Theodoros hands-on practice at war in the Morea. The Despotate was at war with the Prince of Achaia, and a thin strip of Achaian territory separated the Venetian territories of Methoni and Koroni.  Territorial boundaries were disrespected.  Venice had to request information from the Morea after receiving the complaint, information had to gathered and sent back, and the time lapse alone suggests the near-impossibility of handling these crises. Simultaneously, Venice was making complaints about raids into Venetian territory by the Despotate.  This memorandum is five large folio pages long, too long to quote completely, but a partial and prejudicial paraphrase will convey the general situation.

* * * * * *

[1] Despotate: What really happened in that riot is that our men were taking some of the men of the Prince (of Achaia). They insulted them, and the Despots came, and told them that . . .

Signoria: With all due respects to your ambassador, what happened is not like that. Your Despots were coming down this way to fight the Prince, and your men attacked our subjects and devastated our casale of Spanacori. They had given us warning of their coming and promised there would be no damage.

[2] Despotate: About the Albanians, the truth is that they were going to Koroni to sell a heifer, and someone told the castellan that they had stolen his goods and killed his pigs, so the castellan hanged them. Word got back. We have 6,000 armed Albanians up here -- the Despots were ready to take them to fight at Clarenza and then the news about Koroni came -- the Albanians wanted to go attack Koroni and it was all the Despots could do to prevent them!

Signoria: Our castellan didn't hang your Albanians for a cow. He hanged them for the wheat, barley, millet, cotton, clothing, wine, and other things they had been taking at knife-point from our subjects in our territory. And your Despots were not going to Clarenza: John was on the other side of the Morea at Mouchli.

[3] Despotate. About the Methoni incident, the Albanians conscientiously did not go down there to cause trouble, but to rob in the Principality. They ran into 300 soldiers who attacked, wounded several horses, and killed one of them. So they got a little excited and misbehaved.

Signoria: That's not what we heard. They came into our territory, insulted some of our people at Chinego who tried to defend themselves, then they attacked and robbed Chinego. The leader is a Greek named Koracha.

[4] Despotate. A man who lives in Methoni, a Piero Catalan, is a great friend of the Prince. He is responsible for the deaths of a number of our men because he has sold blades and crossbows to the [Principality of Achaia]. He has also provided bread and wine and supplies to the Genoese at Belvedere. He also went to Clarentza, took a number of Greeks, took them in irons to Methoni and locked them up. And then sold them to a Catalan ship.

Signoria: We have no information on this. The export of weapons from our territories is not permitted. Had we known about the sale of the Greeks, our officials would have stopped it.

[5] Despotate. One of our rebels, Lamburcho, escaped from prison and went to Nauplion where he was given refuge, then to Koroni. This violates the peace you made with the old Despot (Theodoros I).

Signoria: We have no information on this. We will look into it.

[6] Despotate. Some of your people have amazed us by trying to build fortifications on our territory. We are certain you didn't know about this.

Signoria: We have no information on this. Nor do we believe it.

[7] Despotate. We built the Hexamillion with great expense, and called our people -- top ones and little people -- to work on it, but our villani complained and decamped into your territory, and that's not right.

Signoria: Our territories are open and free to all comers who wish to live well, but if your serfs come our officials will send them back.

* * * * * *

The memorandum noted that on a previous occasion, the despotate had sent down a diplomat, Manuel Sophianos, and a certain David who inspected the damages in detail (“minute examinando”) and agreed with the Venetian estimate of loss. It also said that on this occasion the new damages did not need viewing and examination: it was just needed for the despots make restitution. The present memorandum continues for thirteen more items, providing a remarkable amount of information on aspects of life in the Morea, and dealings between the powers, and claiming attacks from Venetian territory against the Despot's people. It also makes clear that the Despotate had little effective control over its own people, whether merchant or criminal, even when it presumably had some interest in maintaining control.  

From Sathas 3: 174ff.

Remember the slaves, especially Margherita

Detail, Giovanni Bellini, Miracle of the Cross, 1500.

It is difficult to find pictures of slaves who are not black.  A hundred years after the documents in this blog, the European image of slaves was of a black African, but in the 14th and early 15th centuries, slaves were more likely to have been white -- Slavs, Greeks, Circassians, Tatars.  It is disconcerting to discover in Sally McKee's *** collection of Cretan wills that Greeks, and Greek priests, owned Greek slaves.

Almost nothing has survived from the Morea about slaves in the Byzantine-Franish-Venetian period, and what has survived has come from Methoni and Koroni.  Slaves were probably statistically insignificant in the Morea, but it is disturbing to see what a matter-of-fact process was the sale and purchase of a slave.  Most of them had been stripped of their identity by being baptizes and given a new, "Christian," name, yet in some cases someone was careful to make a record of the former name.A few names appear several times, both purchasers and slaves.  Some of the slaves here would end up in Venice.

There is not enough information to understand the prices, though  Greeks were usually the least expensive slaves. Only one of the then slaves here is a male.  The females were all wanted as "house" slaves, and whatever their other duties, would have been cooking and scrubbing and hauling water.  Studies of Mediterranean slavery have shown that buyers rarely wanted to introduce a male into the intimacy of a household.

• 1372. Alvise de Tinto, resident of Methoni, sells to Luca de Albrigo of Venice, now living in Methoni, a female slave, formerly a Tatar, of sound body, about 28, named Lucia, for 30 gold ducats.

• 1372. Pietro Bianco, tailor, resident of Methoni, sells to Francesco de Galvano, soldier in Methoni, a male slave, Tatar, about 20, named Cotulloga, for 25 gold ducats.

• 1372. Lorenzo of Ancona, merchant, resident of Methoni, sells to Nicolo Montanari, resident of Methoni, a female slave, Tatar, about 20, baptized Bona, for 28 gold ducats.

• 1373. Catellano Trevisan, resident of Methoni, sells Antonio Romano, resident of Koroni, a female slave, about 16, Tatar, baptized Zana, healthy and of sound body, virtuous, for 100 hyperpera.

• 1374. Zualle Zuliano, resident of Koroni, sells a female slave whom he bought in Candia, Tatar, named Guthlugus, now baptized Maria, of sound body, to Luca de Albrigo of Venice, now present in Koroni, for 24 gold ducats.

• 1374. Giorgio Strovilli, resident of Koroni, sells ser Manfredo de Botis, resident of Koroni, a female slave, Kali, Greek, about 14, for 22 gold ducats.

• 1374. Giovanni Bon of Venice, now in Koroni, sells Nicolo Viaro of Venice, now present in Koroni, a female slave, Tatar, now baptized * * *, about 13, of sound body, for 27 gold ducats.

• 1374. Pietro Bon of Venice, resident of Methoni, sells to Gerata, widow of Giacomelli Zanetti, now resident of Methoni, a female slave, Tatar, about 24, named Dierormuo, now baptized Agnese, for 30 gold ducats.

I don't find a document that tells me how Bon got Dieromuo back, but:

• 1374. Pietro Bon of Venice, resident of Methoni, sells to Paulo Bitturi of Benice, resident of Methoni, a female slave, Tatar, about 24, named Dierormuo, now baptized Agnese, for 31 gold ducats.

The next pair of documents give a warm feeling, until you read a further document and discover that Enrico bought a new, younger, slave girl.

• 1373 (16/9). Enrico Barbarigo of Venice, now resident of Methoni, makes you, Caterina, Tatar, my slave, free.  No one can hold you in servitude, but you will be recorded as free. Your present children and those to be born of you will remain free and in permanent liberty.

• 1373 (16/9). Giovanni Rigi of Lucca, now resident of Methoni, with my heirs, give a receipt to Caterina, my beloved wife, servant of Enrico Barbarigo, for her dowry of 200 lire di denari piccoli.  You will remain secure and quiet in perpetuity.

• 1373 (18/9). Zanobio of Florence, now resident of Methoni, sells to Enrico Barvarigo of Venice, now resident of Methoni, a female slave, Tatar, about 12, baptized Margherita.

Source: Documenta Veneta: Coroni & Methoni Rogata, Vol. 1. Andrea Nanetti (Athens, 1999).

Vade, Sta, Ambulent: my article on freeing slaves in Crete.

*** Sally McKee has a number of articles on Cretan and Mediterranean slavery.

Methoni: The marketplace

Lotto, St. Barbara, detail.

Last week, Surprised by Time looked at some of the laws in Methoni intended to maintain peace and quiet. More laws concern details of the marketplace. Monetary equivalents:*

                            1 ducat          = 130 (1424) - 175 (1457) soldi

                            1 soldo           = 4 tornesi/torneselli

                            1 hyperperon = 20 soldi/80 tornesi

                            300 soldi       = month's wages for a soldier or sailor

• 1416. Anyone who sells wine at an eating house will pay 30 hyperpera for each offense and will stay 2 months in prison and 1 day in the pillory, if a man, and if a women in place of the pillory will be led through the castello with the wine jug hanging from her neck and her offense cried out before her. If anyone is found carrying a jug or other container of wine, and the tax collector asks about it, and the said person pours it on the ground, he will pay 10 hyperpera, half to the tax collector and half to the commune.
• 1416. There are two ships here that will go to Flanders, and they want to buy corloti (a wine). No one is permitted to sell them corloti: experience has shown it does not travel well, and it will do great damage to Venice and this territory. Anyone who sells them corloti will spend a year in prison and pay 1/2 ducat for each offense. Anyone who sells corloti to anyone not from this territory, without a license from and the knowledge of the castellan, will suffer the same penalty.
• 1416. It is permitted to anyone who has herd animals (mandra) to kill young goats, sheep, pigs, and other animals for the use of his household, without paying a tax. Similarly, anyone who raises pigs in his house and kills them will not pay a tax.
• 1417. Anyone who transports wine out to the casali or anywhere in the territory without paying the tax will pay a penalty of 10 hyperpera, and double the tax. From the penalty one-third will go to the commune, one-third to the tax collector, and one third to the accuser. If the accuser is the tax collector, he will have one of the two-thirds.
• 1417. No one of any rank can buy greens or fruit in the terra (Methoni) except at the produce market at the column of the piazza, with a penalty of 1 hyperper for each offense and confiscation of the purchase. Also, no one may presume to put a hand in the sack of the seller of the produce or take any produce against his will, with the same penalty. [This had also been made a law in 1344.]
• 1428. No one of any rank may sell any quantity of grain, small or large, to any seller of bread without a license from the castellan, under penalty of losing the grain and the price of it. No seller of bread may buy any quantity of grain without a license from the castellan, under penalty of losing the grain, and the value of it, and one day in the pillory.

Lotto, St. Barbara, detail.

• 1432. Anyone, either man or woman, who sells greens at 1 soldo a bunch, that is pozi, cabbage, (horse)radishes, zevole, pastonagie, or other vegetables, from here on will sell for 1 tornese a bunch, under penalty of 5 hyperpera.
• 1440. No one may sell tallow candles except at the price of 5 soldi the pound, with 24 candles in a pound, under penalty of 20 soldi. [A pound = 301g. or 66% of a modern pound.]
• 1440. No one may salt pork, either in the fortification or the borgo or the district, without a license from the castellan. It is permitted to each person to salt for household use one or two pigs, or as much meat as would equal two pigs, and no more.
• 1444. No one should play any game of chance except in the loggias and porticos of the shops of the castello to the corner of the Memo house. There are those who play between the two gates and blaspheme God and the saints, and distract the guard, and they come to words and draw arms to the great danger of the guard. It is decreed that from here on no member of the guard can play any game of chance for any reason at the gate of the castello, if not in the loggias and porticos of the shops as far as the corner of the Memo house, under penalty of 40 soldi for each offense. This applies to the night guard as well.

Wartime affected market regulations.

• 1468. No one of any rank can take or send out of this city or borgo or district or casali of this district, any grain, wine, oil, or food, without a license from the rettori given in writing at the chancery, under penalty of losing it all, or the value, as contraband, 1/3 to go to the commune, and 2/3 to the accuser and the rettori.
• 1469. At present fish dealers have multiplied in this land who sell fish at a higher price than customary to the detriment of everyone. No one of any rank will sell a pound of fresh fish for more than 4 soldi, and little fish and bobe/pogue/gopa for more than 3 soldi a pound, under penalty of 5 hyperpera for each offence. 

* Money from Alan M. Stahl, The Venetian Tornesello: A Medieval Colonial Coinage, 1985.

Pictures from the fresco by Lorenzo Lotto, The Legend of St. Barbara, 1523-24, in the Oratorio Suardi, Trescore.

Mapping the territory, Part Two

Detached fresco, Berroia, Ag. Photida

Late 14th-early 15thC.

In March 1489, Ianni Dilalo, Vasili Pullisiano, and Nicola Capsocollo were directed by Antonio Venier and Dominico Bembo, the "magnificent and generous rettori and most worthy provedditori" of Koroni, to make a survey of the property held by Nicola Xachili that had formerly belonged to the late ser Farante Suppin. Dimitri Cutrulli, the captain of Meronada, brought them their orders and papa Dimitri Calamara wrote down the legal record.  This was part of the same survey that was discussed last week.

Nicola Xachili (that Venetian X can be pronounced as a Z or an S or an H) held land at Milopotamia -- notice the mills mentioned.  He was one of the larger landholders, owing 28 perperi* a year.  This is what he owned -- notice that single trees are counted.

*A free tavern, bordered by the public road and the mill of Calamara.

*A garden, one octava: it has 3 orange trees and 1 walnut.

*On the west a garden, one octava: it has 4 orange trees.  It borders with the garden of Calamara, and with the garden of ser Gilio Defrancheschi, and with the mill of the signoria, which borders on the public road and is held by the said Nicola Xachili.**

*A vineyard, worked by 1/2 man, produces annually 4 measures of must. It borders on the east with the field of Dimitri Palamida, on the west with the garden of ser Theofilato Cocalla, on the north with the public road, on the south with the garden of the late Zorzi Chalifa.

* A little garden, one octava. It has 7 orange trees, 3 fig trees, 1 cherry tree, 1 pomegranate, and 1 walnut. It borders on the east with the public road, on the west with the field of ser Theofilato Cocalla, on the north half with the mill of the signoria, and the other half with the mill and property of Nicodimo, and that mill borders on the public road and on the north with the field of Colafti.

* A field of one mozada. It has 6 olive trees, 3 orange trees, 1 walnut tree, and 6 fig trees.  It borders on the east with the watercourse for the mill, on the west with the field of ser Theofilato Cocalla, on the north with Colafti, on the south with the said ser Theofilato.

* * * * * *

It is striking to find cherry and walnut trees so far south.  Both this document and the one from last week suggest that land was held  in very small parcels.

Again, I would be grateful if someone could tell me how much land was contained in a mozada and an octava.

* Based on the monetary equivalents Bartolomeo Minio gave 8 years earlier: 1 ducat was the equivalent of 13 perperi & 10 soldi di tornese, while 20 soldi equalled 1 perpero.

** The mill belongs to the Venetian administration.  Xachili pays an annual rent for it and is then free to charge customers what he can get.

I am indebted to Konstantina Papakosma for these documents, which I am glad to make available to anyone else.  The originals are found in the Venetian archives, ASVe, Avogaria di Commun, Miscellanea Civil, b. 145, f. 17 et seq.

Mapping the territory, Part One

Detail from 17thC icon of Ag. Menas

Istituto Ellenico, Venice

In March 1489, Petro Charzia, Antonio Varda, and Zuan Palamida, all of Meronada, (perhaps not the three men in the icon above) made a description of the lands and landholders of the casali of Sisani and Nicolizi. The men are identified as vetrani, veterans or respected older residents who can remember land over time. The sites of Meronada, Sisani, and Nicolizi are unknown to me, but because of the mention of the casal of Griso, I am envisioning the general area as west of Koroni (there was a Grisi about where the Grizokampos that I find on GoogleMaps is now).  

Dimitri Cutrulli, the captain of Meronada, brought them their orders for the survey from the "magnificent and generous rettori and most worthy provedditori" of Koroni, that is, from Antonio Venier and Domenico Bembo, and Ianni Stachlo wrote down the legal record.  It is probably not essential to remember these names: it is essential to remember that we have this fragment of witness to their existence and their work.

There are several definitions of casali: think of them as small clusters of houses of people who are mostly paroikoi.  Small, because of needing not to walk too far to work the land. Casali are often named for, say, the head of the family.  Nicolizi may have been named for the stasio** of papa Theodoro Nicolizi who is now dead and whose property is in the hands of Marco Gambrullia.

 

The first lines give the main landholders.  Marco and Theofilato Gambrullia and Nicola Roditi are the largest, each owing 35 perperi a year.* After them are Anastassi Chithirioti for 11 perperi,  Anastassi Stassopulo for 10 perperi, and Papa Nichita Stassopulo for 15 perperi. Nothing in the list tells us how much land they had, but most of the other properties are located in relation to those of the top five.

The list is not perfectly made, and it is sometimes difficult to identify owners, but we have a detailed description of the countryside and an extraordinary number of place-names. When it lists adjacent landholdings, it tends to list them in the order of E, W, N, S. I imagine a surveyor with good aerial maps and software could make up a map recognizable to the landholders.   Here are some sample entries:

* Anastassi Stassopulo owes for his vineyard at the place called Astavara 1/2 measure of must.  The vineyard borders on a mountain on the east, on the west it borders with Nicola da Ceria, on the north it borders on the public road, on the south it borders on the public road.

* The lake where they wash the linen, called Linovrochio.  After this lake is a place called Santa Barbara.  He pays every year 6 perperi. 

* A field after Santa Barbara, Stamati Castriti holds one mozada that borders on the east with Papa Nichita Stassopulo, on the west with the public road, on the north with Dimitri Condo, on the south with the field of the Signoria, which Papa Nichita holds as abandoned land of Patea . . . [someone] owes 10 perperi.

* At Linovrochio, a field of 6 octave.  On the east it borders with Papa Nichita, on the north with Petrochili, on the south with Stamati Castriti's woodland and grazing lands.

* At Loganito a field of 1 octava.  It borders with Zorzi Deneto, that is with his olives.

* At S. Herini, a field of 1 1/2 mozada.  It borders on the east with the ruined houses of the late Cardolemi, on the west with the well of Loganito.

* At Frangata, olives and a field of 5 octave.  On the east it borders with the field of the church, on the west with Xeropotamo, on the south with the public road. 

To be continued with a second document, this listing the property of one individual.

* Based on the monetary equivalents Bartolomeo Minio gave 8 years earlier: 1 ducat was the equivalent of 13 perperi & 10 soldi di tornese, while 20 soldi equalled 1 perpero.

** Stasio = the holding of a paroikos, usually a house and nearby land. 

 

* * * * * * * * *

I am indebted to Konstantina Papakosma for these documents, which I am glad to make available to anyone else.  The originals are found in the Venetian archives, ASVe, Avogaria di Commun, Miscellanea Civil, b. 145, f. 17 et seq.

I would be indebted to anyone who could tell me about octave and mozade.

Cretan Defenses, 1502

Crete, by Piri Re'is

 From July 1500 through August 1502, Bartolomeo Minio was Venetian captain of Crete, which meant that he had primary responsibility for the defense of the island, and was second in command after the Captain General of the Fleet for the defense of the stato da mar.  In June 1502 he was finally able to make a tour of the defenses of Crete, unable to go sooner because of the pressure of the Ottoman war.  This is what has survived of his account of the fortifications, from a draft translation of the book I have coming out with John Melville Jones: The Greek Correspondence of Bartolomeo Minio: Volume 2: Dispacci from Crete, 1500-1502.

* * * * * *

14 July 1502

. . . I left here on the 19th of June to investigate various parts of this island and among other places, I was at Milopotamo¹, a fortification on the shore which is in very bad condition in every respect that can be mentioned, where a number of good people live, but I am ashamed to speak of their condition. Then I went to Rethimno where I stayed two days. I looked over that place carefully and found it to be very weak, both in its walls and its ditches, and in my opinion a small enemy fleet would cause it great fear, and harm because of its weak fortifications. Then it has a large borgo, unwalled, not protected by any ditch nor anything else, one could jump into the terra over it anywhere without getting wet feet.

I left that place and went to Bicorna², which is a fortification outside the mouth of Suda Bay on the left side. A very good fortress in bad condition, but to some extent better than Milopotamo; in truth one could without much expense have an angaria of villani³ in this area to put it in such a condition that it would not be captured by an attack from the sea, and would also be strong enough to withstand a number of shots from bombards. On the right bank of this fortress, not far away, are two streams of most abundant water, and anyone who wants to take water from these streams can be attacked from the castle. 

Then I went to Suda Bay and made the whole circuit and went to the rock of S. Nicolò which is at the mouth, guarded now and then. This island is 300 passa long and about a mile around. This island is about 275 passa from the land of the right side, 850 passa and more from the land on the left side. ⁴ On this island, in the middle, is a church with some other dwellings, and it is flat and open to all, and it is a steep place where many people could stay, I say a large number. If one wanted to block the entrance to Suda with the island, it is necessary to build two fortresses on it, one at the right bank and the other on the left, and build them low facing the sea . . . and nevertheless it would defend from the sea where one would have to put the bombards, because the sirocco and levanta⁵ batter from the sea against all. Then the middle area of the island is a spacious area, like the terraferma. . Behind Suda there is not enough drinking water for a large fleet. 

 

Then I traveled from the end of the bay of Suda to Chania by land, which is a completely flat area and really beautiful territory, about 3 miles, where I stayed two full days. I wanted to see the whole area of Chania and all the borgo, which is completely walled and seems as if it were a strong site, I found the place badly fortified, both the wall of the terra and the borgo, as well as the trenches, as all who have seen the place can well testify. I found Chania, both the terra and the borgo, very well populated and to be land well situated to be able to fortify both the terra and the borgo, . . . it is a place having value for many reasons that they can tell you. 

 

In Chania I found a man who seems to me to have great ability and great authority, by the name of Conte Franzon, who from what I have learned is a provisionato of Your Sublimity, who went everywhere with me both at Suda and the island, then we toured all of Chania, and I also took him to Bicorna. Speaking a good deal together, he seems to have a concern for its good condition and apparently has sent Your Signoria a modello of Chania.⁶ He has been most useful.

Then I went to Chisamo, a fortification very near Cape Spada⁷, a place in worse condition than the others and in a place more dangerous that, by the true God, Most Serene Prince, besides such a place could enter into the hand of the enemy to cause real harm to Your Sublimity's state. It seems to me, speaking always with my customary respect and submission toward you, that seeing this island of so great importance to your state, seeing these places in such a condition, seems to me a great shame. I inform you that I have learned from him [Franzon] that last year at Chania there was the captain of His Majesty, the King of France, at Suda, incognito, and he wanted to see the whole thing and learned such details, saying with his own mouth, “The Signoria of Venice has little care for this great island to have these places so desolate and in such bad condition, which all need to be completely fortified.” I do not enlarge beyond what was said to me. 

 

Because the Most Serene Signoria commands me in your letter that I should look well into the whole matter of Suda and also tell them my feelings and thoughts, I think I have said reasonably discreetly what I think, nor do I want to say anything else about this, but I will send in another letter a detailed account of what I think are the needs, and I will do also with good and loyal advice, and I will draw a map, so that Your Serenity will be able to make the best decision, both for Suda and for the other places . . . I will not refrainfrom telling Your Most Illustrious Signoria these few other words: the area of Sitia is of great importance because there is a good port and it is at a cape on the eastern end.

 Outside the mouth of Suda is a place most suitable for mounting arms named [- - - -⁸] that has an island in front which forms almost a port and is a spacious place. And on this same route which goes from Suda to Chania⁹ one goes by the place of Marathonisi¹⁰ at Chania, of which I have the opinion that there is no more apt place than Suda to be able to load and unload from this island I think you do not know it, because [ - - - - ¹¹] Spinalonga¹² is a spacious port for landing and so too is Sitia. It is true that the island is mountainous and in several places there are a number of quite narrow mountain passes for going from one place to another, but there is no other way to be able to pass. So as to not diminish the truth some people have the opinion that the villani could stand strong at the passes, but in my judgement they can have the opinion that pleases them, but every day one sees through experience that when they hear the name Turks they take to the mountains. But if there were a good number of people, equipped and practiced in such exercise, they could manage a good number of villani with them. I have not thought it inappropriate to say these few words and Your most illustrious Signoria will make your own most wise judgement.

1    Milopotamo is the present Panormas, between Candia and Rethymno. There is nothing to be seen of the fortification now.

2    Bicorno is a small fortification on Suda Bay.

3    Angaria of villani = required labor from paroichi, serfs.

4    275 passa is about 1512 feet, and 850 passa is about 4674 feet.

5    Sirocco: a wind out of the Sahara desert which can reach hurricane force. It leaves a coating of fine red dust in its wake. Levanta, or levanter, is a strong north-east wind often bringing rain.

6   Modello: a wooden model.

7   Chissamo, a fortified town, is the present Kissamos, at the base of the gulf formed by Capes Spada and Gramvousa, capes west of Chania.

8  The name is left blank in the manuscript, but Minio is probably referring to the small island of Souda    

      Nisida towards the mouth of the bay.

9   Suda and Chania are on opposite sides of the neck of a head-shaped peninsula that bends eastward to form

     Suda Bay.

10 Marathonisi ("fennel island"): now Marathi, a small bay and peninsula at the opening of Suda Bay.

11A short space is left in the manuscript but more than a little is missing, as the text switches abruptly from the western  

      end of Crete to the eastern end.

12 Spinalonga: a long peninsula with many inlets and outlets toward the eastern end of Crete, north of Ag. Nikolaos on Mirabella Bay; not as far east as Sitia.

For more of Bartolomeo Minio:

 Bartolomeo Minio

Columbus, Pirate

Peacemakers

Stratioti Pay

The Dividing Line

Diplomatic Expenses