The ''Chronicle of Amadi'' or simply ''Amadi'' (or ''Istoria del regno di Cipro'', 'History of the kingdom of Cyprus') is an anonymous chronicle written around 1520 in Italian prose with some

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetians might refer to: * Masters of Venetian painting in 15th-16th centuries * ...

traits. Its one of the major sources on the Frankish

Kingdom of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (; ) was a medieval kingdom of the Crusader states that existed between 1192 and 1489. Initially ruled as an independent Christian kingdom, it was established by the French House of Lusignan after the Third Crusade. I ...

under the

Lusignan dynasty The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries dur ...

(1192-1489). The text details the

history of Cyprus Human habitation of Cyprus dates back to the Paleolithic era. Cyprus's geographic position has caused the island to be influenced by differing Eastern Mediterranean civilisations over the millennia. Periods of Cyprus's history from 1050 BC hav ...

starting from the Byzantine Emperor

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

and his wars against the

Sassanids The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

for the recovery of the Holy Cross in the seventh century to the wedding of King

John II John II may refer to: People * John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg (1455–1499) * John II Casimir Vasa of Poland (1609–1672) * John II Comyn, Lord of Badenoch (died 1302) * John II Doukas of Thessaly (1303–1318) * John II Komnenos (1087–114 ...

with

Helena Palaiologina Helena Palaiologina (; 3 February 1428 – 11 April 1458) was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family, who became Queen of Cyprus and Armenia, titular Queen consort of Jerusalem, and Princess of Antioch through her marriage to King John ...

on 3 February 1441, closely following the closing date of the 15th century Greek chronicle of

Leontios Machairas Leontios Machairas or Makhairas (Greek: Λεόντιος Μαχαιράς, French: Léonce Machéras; about 1380 - after 1432) was a historian in medieval Cyprus. The main source of information on him is his chronicle, written in the medieval Cyp ...

. Additionally, it includes a short account of the history of the crusader

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...

from its foundation onwards. The codex contains Italian excerpts and translations of a number of narrative histories from the Latin East. These include William of Tyre’s '' Eracles'', the ''

Annales de Terre Sainte Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles conta ...

'', Philip of Novara’s ''Estoire et le droit conte de la guerre qui fu entre l’empereur'', and the anonymously authored ''Chronique d’un Templier de Tyr''. The Chronicle exists in a single mid-16th century manuscript at the

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark (, but in historical documents commonly referred to as the ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and ...

in Venice (It. VI, 157 (=6895) ). Although the text is known as the Chronicle of Amadi, the Venetian Francesco Amadi (d. 1566) was not the author of the text but only the owner of the extant manuscript. There is a 19th century copy of the manuscript at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris (It. 387) commissioned by Luis de Mas Latrie. It was first published in the original Italian in 1891 by René de Mas Latrie, son of French historian Louis de Mas Latrie and in 2015 it was published in an English translation from the Italian by Nicolas Coureas and Peter Edbury.{{Cite journal, last=Nicolaou-Konnari, first=Angel, date=2015, title=The Chronicle of Amadi by Coureas, Nicholas and Edbury, Peter (review), url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/671448/summary, journal=Journal of Mediterranean Studies, language=en, volume=24, issue=1, pages=123–125, issn=2523-9465

Editions

*de Mas Latrie, R. 1891. ''Chroniques d'Amadi et de Strambaldi. Publiées par M. René de Mas Latrie. Premier partie Chronicle d'Amadi''. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. *Papadopoullos, T. (ed.) 1999. ''Francesco Amadi,'' ''Cronaca di Cipro''. Nicosia: Arch. Makarios III Foundation. *Coureas, N. & Edbury, P. 2015. ''The Chronicle of Amadi, translated from the Italian.'' Texts and Studies in the History of Cyprus LXXIV. Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre.

References

Historiography of Cyprus Italian chronicles

Editions

See also

References