. c6.

COLLECTION LATOMUS
VOL. XLIII

Edward W. BODNAR, SJ.

Cyriacus of Ancoiia and Athens

LATOMUS
REVUE D’ÉTUDES LATINES
61, Avenue Laure,
BRUXELLES-BERCHEM
1960

r<'
 Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
Imprimi potest : William F. Maloney, S.J.,
Provincial, Maryland Province.
Imprimatur : f John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C.,
Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Droits de traduction, de reproduction et d’adaptation réservés pour tous pays.
INTRODUCTION
This stüdy began as a re-examination of two Attic inscriptions,
new fragments of which had turned up in the course of the Excava-
tions in the Athenian Agora. For the purposes of this re-examination
it was necessary to discover, if possible, precisely what Cyriacus of
Ancona had written when he copied these inscriptions in the fif-
teenth century and to what extent one may or must rely on his copies.
Because no adequate idea of Cyriacus’ reliability could be gotten
from the consideration of only two inscriptions, the epigraphical
material was expanded, but in such a way that it could be kept
under control. Thus it was decided to include all the Athenian
inscriptions of Cyriacus. Of these fifty-two inscriptions, twenty-two
are still extant, at least in fragmentary form, and it was possible
to consult squeezes of most of them.
Only a very small portion of Cyriacus’ book has survived in auto-
graph, and this part does not deal with Athens. To know what Cy­
riacus wrote when he copied the Athenian inscriptions one must
have recourse to the copies of his copies which appear over and
over again in the epigraphical manuscripts of the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, and one must try to establish a working
hypothesis as to the interrelationship of these manuscript copies.
Thus the second chapter (on the manuscripts) became a necessary
prelude to the third (on the inscriptions).
Finally, since these inscriptions were recorded by Cyriacus in
the course of his incessant wanderings, and formed a part of his
journal, it seemed, if not necessary, at least very useful, to include
with the study of the manuscripts and inscriptions, a report on his
itinerary and on the general character of his book. This is the
subject of the first chapter.
Thus, by a kind of inner necessity, this investigation, which
started out as a little exercise in academie curiosity, broadened
itself far beyond the author’s original expectations, untü it had
to be the subject of a monograph. Yet, the monograph itself is only
a specimen, an attempt to show the lines along -which a comprehen-
sive treatment of all Cyriacan data might proceed. Such a com­
plete study was the goal of two men — Giovanni Battista de Rossi
and Erich Ziebarth — neither of whom, in spite of the enormous
contributions which both made to the field of Cyriacan studies,
6 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
lived to see the goal attained. One hopes that this examination of
Cyriacus’ Athenian inscriptions may inspire similar studies of other
groups of his inscriptions until, gradually, the material for a success-
ful comprehensive treatment is at hand and manageable.
Whatever may be the value of the following pages, the author
feels that, because of them, he has come to understand and appre-
ciate what is meant by the term, « commnnity of scholars ». Indeed,
it is impossible to exaggerate the extent of the generous cooperation,
the willingness to share hard-won knowledge and to spend valuable
time researching for an unknown and unimportant graduate student,
which was encountered at every turn.
Gratitude is most heartily and willingly expressed to Professor
Antony E. Raubitschek, out of whose curiosity this monograph
was begotten : he was an active participator in every stage of its
development. Professor Benjamin D. Meritt extended to the author
during five summers the use of his office and materials at the
Institute for Advanced Study, and he kindly consented to read
the final draft through. Mr. George A. Stamires, also of the Insti­
tute, was a constant and indispensable source of Information about
the inscriptions. His fine notations in the margin of the Institute
copy of the Corpus have, in many cases, found their way into the
third chapter of this work, which he very kindly read.
A special note of thanks is due to Professor Louis Robert, who
very graciously read the entire manuscript and sent me a detailed
criticism. As a result, a numbe.r of important bibliographical notices
which had been missed are included, and several errors have been
corrected. He is, of course, not responsible for any blemishes that
remain.
Of invaluable assistance in searching out the manuscript material
was Professor Paul Oskar Kristeller, of Columbia University, who
was working at the Institute at the time when this study was begun.
Two long letters, packed with Information drawn from unpublished
documents of the Fondo Muratoriano, were received from the in-
dustrious and obliging director of the Biblioteca Estense, in Modena.
Professor Günther Klaffenbach, of the Deutsche Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Berlin, most generously provided a photostatic
copy of the Moroni edition of Cyriacus, a microfilm of the impor­
tant Hamilton manuscript, two squeezes, a photograph from the
files of the Akademie, and several encouraging letters. Another
photostatic copy of the Moroni book was acquired from the Vatican
through the kindness of Professor Robert Murray.
The director of the Biblioteca Palatina di Parma, replied promptly
and fully to questions about the Parma manuscript and went to the
trouble of copying out the long entry in the unpublished catalogue
of the manuscript collection.
The Solutions to some of the problems posed by the Parma doc­
ument were arrived at with the help of Professor Erwin Panofsky,
of the Institute for Advanced Study, whose habitual erudition is
INTRODUCTION 7
astounding. Who else, on being accosted without warning, could
reply spontaneously and with perfect assurance, that Cyriacus must
have done his copying with a pen and portable inkpot, then prove
it by producing a painting of St. John on Patmos, executed in 1415,
in which an eagle is shown holding in its beak — a portable inkpot?
A brief but intense conversation with Professor Charles Mitchell,
of the Warburg Institute, during his flying visit to Princeton in
1957, was not only a pleasure, but an immense help in confirming
certain hypotheses and correcting others.
Most Rev. Anselmo M. Albareda, O.S.B., Prefect of the Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana, searched the handwritten catalogue of the
Barberini collection, and his chiefly negativo results were confirmed
by Professor Sesto Prete, of Fordham University, who is to publish
the catalogue. Father Antonio Ferrua, S.J., kindly answered ques­
tions about the papers of De Rossi, his predecessor in the work of
editing the Christian inscriptions of Rome. Mr. Peter Topping,
Librarian of the Gennadius Library in Athens, searched among the
manuscripts of this institution for Cyriacan material.
Gratitude is also due to Mr. Tom Lyon, Librarian of Eton College,
Windsor ; Dr. E. Kastner, Director of the Herzog-August-Bibliothek,
Wolfenbüttel; Dr. Konrad Müller, Director of the Burgerbibliothek,
Bern ; Univ. Dozent Dr. Herbert Hunger, of the Oesterreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Yienna ; and Mr. Alexander P. Clark, Curator
of Manuscripts of the Firestone Library, Princeton University.
Dr. James John, of the Institute for Advanced Study, was of
frequent assistance in questions pertaining to the manuscripts, as
was Dr. Harry Avery, my fellow graduate student, in the unfamiliar
area of Byzantine bibliography. The maps and stemma were drawn
by Mrs. David McCabe, whose daughter, Anne, besides assisting
with the maps, was kind enough to read the manuscript and proofs.
NOVITIATE OF ST. ISAAC JOGUES
WERNERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nole: Books and articles which I have not seen are marked with an aster­
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Encyclopadie, respectively.
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10 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
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di Sangallo, in AM, 14 (1889), 217-228.
—•. Zum Thrasyllosmonument, in AM, 13 (1888), 383-401 and Tafel VIII.
°Riemann, O. Inscriptions grecques provenant du recueil de Cyriaqae d’Ancöne,
in BCH, 1 (1877), 81-88 ; 134-136.
Robert, Louis, Collection Froehner I, Inscriptions Grecques, Paris, 1936, pp.
142-143.
-Robert, J. and L. Revue des Études Grecques, 68 (1955), 207, n. 68 ; 71 (1958),
187-8, n. 45 ; 191-2, n. 56.
-Robinson, H. S. The Tower of the Winds and the Roman Market-place in
American Journal of Archaeology, 47 (1943), 291-305.
Rodenwaldt, G. Archaologische Anzeiger, 3 February, 1931, 328-336.
*Ross, L. Hellenika. Halle, 1846.
°Rubensohn, O., in AM, 25 (1900), 349-364 (Cyriacus in Paros).
Sabbadini, Remigio. Ciriaco d’Ancona e la sua descrizione autografa del Pelo-
ponneso trasmessa da Leonardo Botta in Miscellanea Ceriani, pp. 183-247.
14 CYRIAC US OF ANCONA AND ATHENS BIBLIOGRAPHY 15

Milan, 1910. Reprinted in Classici e Umanisti da Codici Ambrosiani. tique, 1932; Vol. II, Vie et Institutions, 1952. Cf. Index Nominum,
s.v. Cyriaque d’Ancóne.
Fontes Ambrosiani II, pp. 1-52. Florence, 1933.
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—. Giornale Storico delia Letleratura Italiana, 64 (1914), 410-412.
270-272.
0—•. Ciriaco de’ Pizzicolli, in Encyclopedia Italiana, yol. 10, p. 438.
Ziebarth, Erich. Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, 30 (1910), 306-308.
Sandys, John Edwin. A History of Classical Scholarschip, Vol. II. Cambridge,
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°Saxl, Fritz. The Classical Inscription in Renaissance Art and Politics, in
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-Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum. See under Dittenberger.
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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED FOR Chapter I
THE DOCUMENTS (1).
CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD

Abbreviation Codex
1. — Early Travels
A Angelicanus D. 4. 18
AV Antiquum Venetum Ciriaco de’ Pizzicolli was born in Ancona, most probably in the
B
year 1391, and died at Cremona, shortly after 1453. The life which
Vaticanus Barberinus latinus 2098
spanned these two uncertain dates was one of restless, roving acti-
E Etonensis 141 BI. 4. 14 (scholia in Cyriacus’ hand) vity, characterized most aptly by the words of his close friend,
Fm Marcianus latinus 10, 196 (Feliciano) Francesco Filelfo : Nunquam quiescit Kyriacus... (r).
Fv Veronensis 269 (Feliciano)
H Berolinensis Hamiltonianus 254, ff. 81-90 (Cyriacus’ hand) (1) Francisci Philelphi Epislolae, V, 23, cited on p. 356a, note 4, of what
FF Berolinensis Hamiltonianus 254 (Peter Donatus’ hand) is still the most comprehensive modern treatment of Cyriacus, G.B. De Rossi,
L Guelferbytanus Helmstadiensis 631 (lacobus Lilius) Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores, Rome, 1888,
Mb Bernensis B 42 (Marcanova) Vol. II, pp. 356-387 (hereafter referred to as « DR »). The earliest life was
Mm done by a contemporary and friend of Cyriacus, Francesco Scalamonti, who
Mutinensis a. L. 5. 15 (Marcanova)
compiled what practically amounted to an autobiography of his subject, for
Mo. Moroni’s edition of X2 although the work is written in the third person, it is put together from Cyria­
0 Vaticanus Ottobonianus 2967 (loannes Bononius) cus’ diaries and letters as well as from information supplied by relatives.
P Parmensis 1191, ff. 1-55, 57 As Scalamonti says at the end of his dedicatory epistle to Lauro Quirino (who
pü had requested the work), Vale et Kyriacum ipsum lege. This document was
Parmensis 1191, ff. 56, 58 to end
Re copied and augmented with other letters and a small collection of Cyriacan
Laurentianus 10, 77 (Alessandro Strozza)
inscriptions by Felice Feliciano, a partial contemporary of Cyriacus. This
S Mutinensis 431 (a. H. 5. 14) (Martin de Sieder) autograph manuscript of Feliciano, pulcherrimis litteris in membranis exa-
Sg Vaticanus Barberinus latinus 4424 (Sangallo) ratus (DR, p. 356a), is ms. I. 138 of the Biblioteca Capitolare of Treviso. It is
Tr Ambrosianus-Trotti 373, ff. 101-125 (autograph) currently in the process of being edited in a facsimile edition by Professor
Xi exemplar of P, Sg, Orsini Charles Mitchell, of the Warburg Institute. Girolamo Tiraboschi made a copy
X2 of the Treviso ms., and this copy was printed (without the Latin and Greek
exemplar of Mo., S.
inscriptions) by Giuseppe Colucci, Anlichita Picene, Vol. XV, Fermo, 1792,
pp. xlv-clv (hereafter referred to as « Colucci »). Tiraboschi, Storia della
letteratura Italiana, Vol. VI, Part I, Rome, 1787, pp. 155 ff., attempted a com­
(1) For full information regarding the nature, location, and history of these
documents, see Chapter 2, passim. prehensive treatment of Cyriacus based on Scalamonti and other incomplete
evidence, and his study was utilized by Colucci,pp. xiv ff., in his introduction
to the text of Scalamonti. The next complete study in point of time, Georg
Voigt, Die Wiederbelebnng des classischen Alterthums, oder das erste Jahr-
hundert des Humanismus2, Vol. I, Berlin, 1880, pp. 271-288 (third ed., 1893,
pp. 269-286), adds little to that of Tiraboschi. Theodor Mommsen, Corpus In-
scriptionum Latinarum (hereafter referred to as« CIL »), Vol. III, Berlin, 1873,
pp. xxii-xxiii, 93, 129-131, 271, had contributed much more to our knowledge
2
 18 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Born into a family of prominent Italian merchants, Cyriacus of
Ancona, as we shall call him hereafter, had ample opportunity for
travel, and seized his first chance at the age of nine, when he ac-
companied his grandfather to Yenice. By the time he was thirteen
he had seen Samnium, Campania, Apulia, Lucania, and Calabria.
A pair of journeys in the period 1412-1414 brought him twice to
Egypt and Sicily, as well as to Asia, Cyprus, Campania, and Dal-
matia, and in 1417 he returned to Yenice, Sicily and Dalmatia.
Cyriacus first visited Athens in 1436, but before he set eyes on
the Parthenon, he had been to Constantinople (1418 and 1425)
and Bome (1424, 1432-1434) and had scoured most of Italy (1). In
the eastern Mediterranean hehad visited Chios (1425), Rhodes, Syria,
Cyprus, the Aegean islands, Macedonia and Thrace (1426-1430), the
Hellespont, Cyzicus, Nicaea, Chalcedon, Lesbos, Pergamum, Cyme,
Smyrna, Phocaea, and Chios (1431), and in 1435 he had journeyed
to Egypt by way of the Adriatic, Illyria, and Crete.
Why did he wait so long to see Athens, and why did he linger
there only sixteen days? According to Professor MacKendrick,
«... It is significant of the Renaissance attitude toward Greek culture
that Cyriac postponed so long his first visit to Athens, and apparently
always regarded, as modern Greeks do too, Byzantium and Alexandria
as more significant centers than that sleepy little university town... » (2).
Perhaps this attitude may be more accurately classified as Byzan-
tine, but it was correctly mirrored by the men of the Renaissance.
The great Roman Empire of the East was technically still in exist-
of Cyriacus through his study of the epigraphical codices of the fifteenth
century. This work he continued in the Index Auctorum, s.v. Cyriacus, of
Vols. IX-X (1883), pp. xxxvi-xxxviii. Henzen and De Rossi, CIL, VI, 1876,
pp. xl-xli, had meanwhile studied Cyriacus’ Roman inscriptions. After DR,
and very much dependent on him (though with some corrections made on the
basis of subsequent discoveries) was Erich Ziebarth, Cyriacus von Ancona
als Begründer der Inschriftenforschung in Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische
Allerlum, 9, I (1902), pp. 214-226. Ziebarth’s treatment is followed closely
by Paul MacKendkick, A Renaissance Odyssey, the Life of Cyriac of Ancona
in Classica et Medievalia, 13 (1952), pp. 131-145. Other, more specialized
studies will be mentioned in their appropriate places.
(1) Fano and Rimini in 1423; Tuscany and Umbria in 1425; Siena
and Florence in 1432 ; Pisa, Florence, Fiesole, Bologna, Modena, Reggio in
Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Pavia, Milan, Dertona, Brescia, Verona, Mantua,
and Genoa in 1433 ; Tarracina, Literno, Sessa Aurunca, Capua, Naples, Puteoli,
Benevento, Sicily, Taranto in 1434; Piceno (Fermo, Macerata), Ravenna,
Bologna, Modena, Mantua, Verona, Padua, Ferrara, Atria, Pesaro, Fano, Ur-
bino in 1435. For a synopsis of Cyriacus’ travels, with dates, see DR, pp. 385-
387. He treats these early journeys on pp. 356-363.
(2) MacKendrick, p. 138.
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 19
ence, though it was on its last legs and was to die officially in 1453.
Constantinople was still the residence of the Emperor, whereas Athens
was a mere Venetian duchy in Cyriacus’ day and had been in the
previous century a private kingdom of some Catalan mercenaries (l).
At first, Cyriacus had travelled because it was in his blood, for
to commercial houses like that of his relatives in Ancona, of the
Contarini in Yenice, and of the Giustiniani in Genoa, the Mediter­
ranean was indeed mare nostrum. For them there was neither Christian
nor Turk, but only buyer and seller, and it is not in the least sur-
prising tp learn that Cyriacus managed to maintain the most cor-
dial relations throughout his life with such diverse personalities as
the Turkish sultans, the Byzantine emperors, the Popes, the Holy
Roman Emperor, the King of Naples, the Genoese governor of
Chios, the Venetian Contarini, and the members of the circle of
humanists, among them his most generous patrons, Cosimo di Me­
dici and Francesco Filelfo. It was a consummate feat of balancing
which enabled him, with a Turkish safe-conduct from the Sultan in
his pocket (2), to agitate continually for the reunion of the churches
and a crusade against the Turks. And it is most characteristic of
the man that almost the last word we have of his whereabouts
is in the Turkish camp on the Hellespont just before the capture
of Constantinople, where he is reading to the Sultan out of Diogenes
Laertius, Herodotus, Livy, Quintus Curtius, the chronicles of the
Popes, emperors, kings of France, and Lombards (3).
But even his first journeys as a child had produced in Cyriacus
a curiosity about the strange ruins of another world which every-
where met his eyes in Italy. By 1417, although he had never learned
Latin, he was having Ovid’s Fasti copied (*). In the following year
he was taking down Latin and Greek inscriptions in Constantinople.
This hobby of recording inscriptions which he could not read con­
tinued during his stay at Pola (1418 or 1419), just as later (1435)
he copied inscriptions written in « Phoenician characters» while
visiting Egypt (6).
However, it was not until he was thirty years old that he decided
once and for all to put at the service of antiquarian research all
(1) Kenneth M. Setton, Catalan Domination of Athens, 1311-1388 (The
Medieval Academy of America), Cambridge, Mass., 1948 (hereafter referred
to as « Catalans. »).
(2) Colucci, p. CLV.
(3) Cf. below, p. 66 and note 4 on p. 66-7.
(4) DR, pp. 356-357 and 385. It is said that at the age of thirteen he
translated the Latin Bible into Italian, but this hardly seems possible. Zie­
barth, p. 215, and MacKendrick, p. 133, repeat this story.
(5) These copies of hieroglyphic documents are now lost. Cf. DR, p. 362.
DR, p. 357, thinks that Cyriacus must have known the rudiments of both Latin
and Greek before 1421.
20 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
the resources of his ars mercatoria. For it was in the year 1421 that
Cardinal Gabriel Condulmieri undertook to reconstruct the famous
old harbor at Ancona, and Cyriacus was chosen to supervise the
finances of this operation. They became fast friends, a great stroke
of fortune for Cyriacus, for in just ten years Condulmieri was to be
elevated to the Papal throne as Pope Eugenius IV. But of more
immediate impact on his life was the closer study of the inscription
on the triumphal arch of Trajan (1) which he made at this time.
There dawned on him the realization that inscriptions are important
historical documents contemporaneous to the events themselves
and thus of incomparable value for the reconstruction of history,
and he resolved on a career of gathering such evidence (12). Such an
important part did this triumphal inscription play in his own in-
tellectual history, that he used it as a kind of Identification, a touch-
stone of genuineness, when he made excerpts for his friends : the
text from Ancona was generally there at the beginning, no matter
what the nature of the other inscriptions was (3).
For the first time, then, he set himself to the formal study of Latin,
although actually his approach was not very formal at all. For,
characteristically, he did not start at the beginning, with grammar,
but contracted with the wandering scholar, Tommaso Seneca of
Camerino, for lessons in the sixth book of the Aeneid. And it was
a merchant’s transaction, too, for he paid for the instruction in
kind, by teaching Dante to Tommaso. Because of this impatience
his Latin was never very good, although he wrote in it continually
from now on, and it is hard to say whether his erstwhile friend,
Poggio Bracchiolini, was more offended by the content or by the
style of a letter which Cyriacus wrote in 1435 criticizing Poggio’s
defense of Scipio Africanus and republicanism against Caesar and
monarchy. The wounded humanist wrote to their mutual friend,
Leonardo Bruni:
« Oblata est mihi, mi Leonarde, insulsi ac ridiculi hominis, tibi vero
notissimi C. A. epistula quaedam scripta ad te : quam stultus ille ac
mente xnops caesaream appellat ... videns [ego] et vesaniam hominis,
verbosam loquacitatem et impudentiam scribendi ... Graeca plurima la-
tinis mixta, verba inepta, latinitas mala, constructio inconcinna, sen-
sus nullus ... quod stultus ille quem nunquam ne verbo quidem offendi :
petulanter ac proterve in me impetum faciat ... qui [Cyriacus] in latino
sermone saepissime ut puerulus labitur ... insanum me, dementem,
temerarium existimat, quod videor sentire contra institutorem ut ait
monarchiae: quam necessariam putat ad regimen gentium: laudans
Imperatores, et rem p. Romanorum vituperans ... Fingit somniasse
(1) CIL, IX, 5894.
(2) DR, p. 357.
(3) DR, pp. 375b-376a. Cf. below, p. 55, note 2,
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 21
sese redeuntem e Graecia... Numquam quicquam verius aut scribere,
aut loqui potuit C. quam se somniare, cum scribit, aut loquitur. ...
Haec vero post risum ad retundendam illius petulantiam ad te scripsi:
ut tu quoque rideas, si epistolam quam circumferre ad ostentationem
coeperit, ad te destinavit » (1).
In 1424 Cyriacus spent forty days in Rome as the guest of Car­
dinal Condulmieri, and it seems that it was at this time that he
began to keep a book, which he referred to as his Commentaria (2).
On his way back to Ancona Cyriacus copied Tuscan and Umbrian
inscriptions into the book, which already contained the fruits of
his observations in Rome and perhaps also the so-called Sylloge
Signoriliana, a collection of Roman inscriptions which had been
(1) Poggii Flörentini Opera, Strassburg, 1513, fol. 125, cited by Paul Maas,
Ein Notizbuch des Cyriacus von Ancona aas dem Jahre 1436 in Beitrage zur
Forschung. Studiën und Mitteilungen aus dem Antiquariat Jacques Rosenthal,
München, I. Folge, Heft I (1913), pp. 13-14. The rough draft of the letter
which evoked this cry of pain from Poggio is found in the manuscript with
which Maas’ article is concerned : an autograph of Cyriacus which was at that
time in the possession of Jacques Rosenthal and which contains the non-
inscriptional entries of Cyriacus’ diary for the Greek trip of 1435-36. The
letter, which runs from f. 6 to f. IS^, is not published in its entirety by Maas,
but there are generous excerpts. Hereafter the article will be referred to
as « Maas », and the manuscript as « R ».
(2) The expression comes from the so-called Itinerarium, a long letter
written to Pope Eugenius IV in 1441. There were two verslons of this letter.
One, a rough draft, though undoubtedly by Cyriacus, is a very turgid and
boastful, but confused account of his travels up to the year 1435, where it
breaks off abruptly. Cyriacus obviously thought b etter of it and started over.
This draft, which occurs in Codex Vaticanus Ottobonianus 2967 (ff. 92, paper,
written in 1498 by loannes Bononius, Canon of Lodi, and formerly owned
by the Baron de Stosch), was published by Laurentius Mehus, Kyriaci An-
conitani Itinerarium nunc primum ex ms. cod. in lucem erutum ex bibl. Mus.
clarissimique Baronis Philippi Stosch, Florence, 1742 (hereafter referred to
as « Itinerarium »), along with several other letters which occur in the same
manuscript. Cf. below, Ch. 2, pp. 97-98. The letter which was actually
sent, and which, far more subdued in tone, does not contain an « itinerary »,
exists in an autograph copy which Cyriacus sent to Cosimo di Medici, his
great patron, dated October 18, 1441 (Codex Laurentianus 80, 55). Cf. DR,
p. 361. Another copy, by Felice Feliciano, is in the Treviso codex (cf. above,
p. 17, note 1). The term Commentaria occurs in Itinerarium on pp. 23, 36,
and 37-38. I see no reason for assuming with Van Essen, pp. 295-296 (fuli
reference below, p. 22, note 7) that the Stosch ms. used by Mehus was distinct
from Cod. Vat. Ottob. 2967, which is a Stosch ms. The latter was identified by
Mommsen (CIL III, p. xx, s. v. loh. Bononius Laudensis) as both the source
of Mehus’ Itinerarium and Muratori’s schedae Stoschianae. Cf. Chapter 2, pp. 75,
77, 97-98.
 22 GYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
made by Cola di Rienzi (Nicolaus Laurentii, 1313-1354), entitled
Descriptio Urbis Romae eiusque excellentiae (1), which has come
down to us through copies derived from Cyriacus. When in 1431
Poggio issued hls own collection of Roman inscriptions (which it-
self included his copy of a ninth-century collection, the Anonymus
Einsidlensis (2), the original of which Poggio discovered in and
took from the monastery of St. Gall), Cyriacus also copied these
into his Commentaria (3), so that at times his book contained three
copies of a single inscription — one from each of the two syllogae,
and a third, often better, made directly from the stone (4).
In the year 1425 Cyriacus found his way to Constantinople en
route to Cyprus, where he was to do some business for the house
of Contarini. In the leisure afforded by a delay in passage he studied
Greek much as he had approached Latin, by learning to read Homer.
At Chios on the same journey he made another important contact,
for the island was to all intents and purposes the private preserve
of the Giustiniani family. With the governor of the island, Andreolo
Giustiniani, Cyriacus struck up a lasting friendship, with the result
that he was henceforth able to use Chios as a base for his further
explorations of the eastern Mediterranean and as a depository for
his growing supply of gems, coins, statues, and codices. Indeed,
it was at Chios that he made the first purchase of a manuscript,
a codex of the New Testament in Greek (5).
Everything went into his Commentaria — descriptions of the places
j he saw, sketches of statues, coins, and gems, passages copied out
| of manuscnpts, and inscriptions. The years 1426-1430 saw him
visiting Rhodes, Syria, Macedonia, and Thrace. About this time
he began to include copies of inscriptions in his letters to friends
at home in Italy (6).7 The book soon grew to include Asia Minor,
Lesbos, and Chios (1431), a more thorough coverage of Rome (1432-
1433), a number of Italian sites (1433-1435), Crete and Egypt
(1435) O.
(1) Cf. De Rossi, Le prime raccolte d’antiche iscrizioni compilate in Roma
tra il finir del secolo XIV, ed il cominciare del XV in Giornale Arcadico, 127
(April-June, 1852), pp. 254-355, where the entire sylloge is reconstructed. It
was later reproduced by Henzen and De Rossi in CIL, VI (1876), pp. xv-
xxvii. Cf. also DR, pp. 316-328.
(2) DR, pp. 9-33, where the sylloge is reconstructed. Cf. also CIL, VI,
pp. ix-xv.
(3) De Rossi, Giornale Arcadico, 128 (July-September, 1852), pp. 9-77,
reconstructs the Poggian sylloge. Also in CIL, VI, pp. xxviii-xl and DR,
pp. 338-342.
(4) DR, pp. 359-360.
(5) DR, pp. 357-358.
(6) DR, p. 358a.
(7) Ibid. Cf. C. C. van Essen, Cyriaque d’Ancóne en Êgypte in Mededelingen
CHAP. I ----CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 23
On 13 September, 1435, Cyriacus was back in Ancona finishing up
an account of the naval battle between the Genoese fleet and the
ships of King Alfonso of Aragon which he had witnessed off the is­
land of Ponza in August of that year (1).
2. — The Journeys of 1435-1437
It was less than two months later that he set out on a journey
which was to bring him finally to Athens. The first stage is described
in a letter to Leonardo Bruni, a rough sketch of which survives in
the author’s own hand :
« ... Nam dum exactis diebus ex Ancone Peloponensiacas oras petens
nostrum per Adriacum navigarem, crebris obsistentibus euris [sic] fla­
tibus et eois, tandem Melidea quaedam in Illyrico insula tuto placi-
dissima portu, nos diutina atque procellis aegra navigatione fessos ex-
caeperat, ex qua denique per cymbam, ut ego quod magis optabam
Illyrica litora [littora corr.] percurrerem ad .V. Iduum novembr(ium)
diem Jaderam nobihssimam Liburnorum urbem adivimus. In qua pri-
mum mihi obviam occurrentem vidi [add. corr.] Georgium Begnam ...
Et enim eo duce alia inter civitatis egregia et memoratu dignissima vidi
maritima prope moenia, insignem Meliae nobilissimae mnlieris arcam,
ubi lubicen ille aequorei numinis TPITQN mira fabraefactoris arte con-
spicitur et consculptum quod habet epigramma ... » (!).
der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, afd. Letterkunde,
n.r., 21, 12 (1958), pp. 293-306. He places the Egyptian journey in 1436, which
seems out of the question.
(1) This account still exists in the hand of its author in Codex Ambrosianus
R 93 sup., ff. 5-17v. It was published by Remigio Sabbadini as an appendix
to his Ciriaco d’Ancona e la sua descrizione autografa del Peloponneso tras-
messa da Leonardo Botta in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan, 1910, pp. 183-247.
The appendix is on pp. 243-247. This study by Sabbadini was republished
in Classici e Umanisti da Codici Ambrosiani, Fontes Ambrosiani, II, Florence,
1933, pp. 1-52, the appendix being on pp. 48-52. Another autograph copy of
the Naumachia Regia is in Rome, Biblioteca Alessandrina, ms. n. 253. Cf.
Domenico Fava, La scrittura libraria di Ciriaco d’Ancona, in Scritti di paleo-
grafia e diplomatica in honore di Vincenzo Federici Florence, 1944, p. 302 and
tav. 19. Feliciano’s copy of the Naumachia, in the Treviso ms., is printed in
Colucci, pp. C-CVII.
(2) Emphasis supplied. This is from the same letter which evoked Poggio’s
stream of vituperation (cf. above). Cited from Maas, p. 7. The letter has
two dates : November 20, 1435, from Zara in Liburnia (where the first draft
was begun), and January 30, 1436, from « Amphilochian Argos » (actually
Stratus : cf. below, p. 31, note 4) in Epirus (the date and place from which
the good copy was sent). In a later communication to Bruni he refers to this
letter as ex Epyro (below, p. 45, note 1). Cf. Maas, p. 8 and notes 1 and 2.
 24
CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Thus Cyriacus sailed from Ancona in early November bound i'or
o the Peloponnesus, bui, encountering adverse winds, made foi tin
island of Melita (Melidea). Changing bis plans to snit the elements,
he continued north to Zara (ladera), which was in Dalmatia directly
opposite Ancona. Here he put in on 9 November, 143o.
And it is at Zara that the surviving extracts from the Commen-
laria for this journey begin — with the very words of the letter
to Bruni which have been italicized in the citation given ahove .
« Epigramma laderae prope maritima Ciuitatis moenia ad arcum Me
liae nobilissimae mulieris, in quo Tubicen ille equorei Numinis, TPITQN,
suis cum insignibus mira fabrefactoris arte conspicitur ».
These Commentaria, which cover the journeys of 1435-1431) and
1437, survive, not in autograph, unfortunately, but in a seventeenth-
century printed edition made by Carlo Moroni from an earlier manu­
script which is now lost (l). From this book, from the complemen-
tary entries in Cyriacus' « day-book », and from a few letters of this
period which survive (2), it is possible to reconstruct the journey
of Cyriacus in some detail, and it seems worth while to do so here,
for Moroni’s book is rare and difficult to come by, and none of the
authors who treat the subject give a full reconstruction (3).
(1) Epigrammata reperla per Illyricum a Cyriaco Anconitano apud Libur-
niam, published without a title-page or any indication of its place of origin
or the name of its editor by Carlo Moroni in Rome ca. 1660. This edition was
made from a codex in the private collection of the elder Cardinal Francesco
Barberini, of which collection Moroni was librarian at the time. The genesis
of the book and the relationship of its manuscript source to other kindred
codices will be discussed in the next chapter. According to R. Weil, p. 348,
note 1 (full reference below, note 3) the book was reprinted under the title,
Inscriptiones seu epigrammata Graeca et Latina reperta per Illyricum a Cyriaco
Anconitano apud Liburniam, Rome, 1747. Hereafter referred to as « Mo- » or
« Moroni ».
(2) By « day-book » is meant the manuscript R, published by Maas, pp. 5-
15, and containing the parerga of the journey of 1435-36. Cf. above, p. 21,
note 1. Some of the letters are in Mo. Most of these, plus some others, occur
in Mehus, Itinerarium, pp. 56-72. Two more are to be found in G. Targioni-
Tozzetti, Relazioni d’alcuni viaggi fatti in diverse parte della Toscana2, Vol. V
(hereafter referred to as « Tozzetti »), Florence, 1773, pp. 410-415.
(3) The most generous summary is given by William Mii.ler, The Latins
in the Levant, A History of Frankish Greece (1204-1566), New York, 1908,
pp. 417-421 (hereafter referred to as « Miller »). Setton, Catalans, pp. 232-
234, is fairly detailed on the stay in Athens. For the section of the trip which
extended from Arta in Epirus to Patras in the Peloponnesus, cf. Rudolf Weil,
Oeniadae, Ein Beitrag zur nordgriechischen Reise des Cyriacus von Ancona
(1436) in Beitrage zur Biicherkunde und Philologie August Wilmanns zum 25.
CHAP. I ---- - CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD
25
(a) Dalmatia and Epirus (1435)
As we have seen just above, Cyriacus arrived in Zara on 9 Novem­
ber after returning by way of the island of Melita from an unsuccess-
ful attempt to reach the Peloponnesus. Here he stayed until 26
November with a friend, Georgius Begna, and made excursions to
the nearby sites of Nona and Nedinum ('j. It was here, on 20 No­
vember, that he began his first draft of the « Caesarean » letter to
Leonardo Bruni (12).
On 26 November he arrived at the island of Curzola (Corcyra
Nigra) after sailing from Zara past Trau (Tragurium) and the island
of Lesina (Lezina, Pharia). Adverse winds kept him here three days.
On 29 November he crossed over to the mainland, to a promontory
opposite Curzola (perhaps Capo di Sabioncello), then, on the next
day, moved on down the promontory to a scopulum religiosum,
on which was a Franciscan church of the Blessed Virgin :
« Scripsi ad te, vir optume Georgi, ex Corcyra caerulea insula, & anti-
quissima ceruorum sede, eodem quo ad eam venimus die. Sed continuo
obsistente nobis aduerso, & infestissimis fluctibus crebrescente Euro,
in ea per triduum inuito consedimus quarto sed .H. [abbreviation for
« enim »] die ad in conspectu que Insulae Promontorium Dalmatiae
pauperrimum Cerere Baccho, sed opulentissimum, remorum vi naui-
gauimus. In quo & ad binum morati diem taedio tandem fessi diuersa
in salo saxa, & loca per inculta lustrauimus. Demum prid. Kalend.
Decembr. scopulum meliorem adiuimus. Ibi primum aedem Beatae
Virgin! sacram vidimus. In qua non pauci religiosissimi viri castissi-
Marz 1903 gewidmet, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 341-354 (hereafter referred to as
« Weil »). Mommsen, CIL, III, pp. 93, and 271, treats the epigraphically
important stops along the Balkan peninsula, and it is frequently helpful to
consult his comments on the individual inscriptions themselves. DR, pp.
363-364, is wrong in making three journeys out of two and in extending them
over three years instead of two. In this he was misled by a disorder which
exists in the entries of Mo., as we shall see later. The final entries in Mo., which
belong to a later (1448) tour of the Peloponnesus, were wrongly attributed
by DR to the year 1438. Cf. below, pp. 55 ff., p. 57, note 1, p. 60, note 2 and
p. 61, note 1.
(1) Mo., nn. 1-25 ; n. 1 was originally accompanied by a sketch, but this
was lacking in Mo.’s exemplar, for he says, Sed deest icon in Originali. Inscrip­
tions nn. 24 and 25, from Trau, were copied from the note-books of a friend
in Zara. Cf. Mommsen’s theory of the Tragurinus, a hypothetical codex from
Which Cyriacus is thought to have borrowed, in CIL, III, pp. 271-272 and our
Chapter 2, pp. 101 ff. For the CIL, CIG or IG numbers which correspond to
the Moroni numbers see Table I, pp. 186-191.
(2) Cf. above, page 20-21 and 21, note 1.
PLATE I CHAP. I — CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 27

mum Seraphici Ordinem seruant. Equis quum ibidem ad primam diei

boram allaberemur, solemnem Andreae felicissimi Apostoli diem cele-
bratam audiuimus. Sed vt non me meis totum inexpertem curis viderer,
> hoe ad porticum aedis in angulo claustri atque rotundissimo lapide Epi-
gramma optumis insculptum litteris inueni. Vt hoe amicitiae tuae loco
rescribendum curaui. ... Ex praelibato religioso scopulo. Kalend. De-
cembr. 1435. K. vbique tuus » (r).

The following account, whose date, 15 November, is impossible,

seems to disagree in some details with that oü the letter which we
have just cited:
« Posteaquam ex ladera, postero quo ad Te scripsimus die concessi-
mus, Care Andr., nudius tertius adversis sepe reluctantibus Euris, re-
morum vi perluctante, Traguriae Phariaeque demum superatis, & post-
habitis Insulis, tandem in Eunotrium illud Promontorium Cucyrae In-
sulae in conspectu venimus, ubi postquam incolumes conscendimus ...;
sed in nos Eolo crebrescente adverso, dum per dies Promontorium in-
colare coacti ..., vetustum hoe in lapillo comperimus Epigramma ...
Hodie Ragusium terrestri itinere pergam — Ex eodem 17. Kal.
Decemb. Interim vero mutatis Eolis mutavimus & consilium, vela ad
sequentem diem itineri coepto dare —- & sic per mare iter nostrum
capiemus. Ego interea —• exigua devectus navicula — ad Cucyram ip-
sam exiguam Civiculam veni — Scopulum ad quemdam proximum Civi-
tati me contuli, ubi Aedem Divae Mariae Virgin! sacram vidimus, in
qua Religiosi plerique Monachi, Optimum Seraphici Francisci Ordinem
severa quadam Religione servare videntur —- ad Claustrum Monasterii,
hoe mihi de more scrutanti, Deus ipse noster obtulit Epigramma ... » (1
2).

On 7 December he was sailing off the Dalmatian coast prope Juleam

faucem, on the way to Cattari and Ulcini (3). Proceeding down the
coast past Durazzo (Dyrrhachium) on 21 December to Capo Lin-
guetta, then along the cape past Chimara, he intended to put in
at Corfu (Corcyra) and to celebrate Christmas in the town of Cas-

(1) Mo., p. 3 ; Itinerarium, pp. 56-57. Written on 1 December to Georgius

Begna.
(2) Letter to Andreolo Giustiniani, Tozzetti, pp. 410-413. At variance
with both these accounts (as far as dates are concerned) is a letter of Cyriacus
to « Franciscus and Crassus »(written in Arta on the 29th of December), which
States that he left Zara on 29 November and arrived at the scopulum on the
30th. In all three letters the same inscription (CIL, III, 3071 ; Mo., n. 30)
is given and associated with the Franciscan church. I have chosen the account
in the letter to Begna because it seems more circumstantial and orderly, but
I cannot explain the divergences in the other two narratives. The letter to
« Franciscus and Crassus » is in Itinerarium, p. 58 f.
(3) Itinerarium, p. 59 f. Mo., nn. 31 and 32 are inscriptions from Cattari.
 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
28
siope. However, a plague on the island prevented him from landing,
so on 26 December he put in across the way, at Butrinto (Buthro-
tum), on the mainland. Thence, passing Parga (Barga), he con-
tinued down the coast of Epirus, rounded the promontory opposite
Actium, and sailed into the Ambracian Gulf, whence he proceeded
up the Arachthus river to the Capital of Epirus, Arta (Ambracia),
called by Cyriacus « Arechthea Acarnana». Here was the court of
the Neapolitan Prince of Epirus, Carlo II. Tocco, whom Cyriacus
calls « King of the Epirotes ». From Arta he wrote on 29 December :
« ... At enim post aliquot dies quiescente ponto exivimus [i.e. e scopulo
religioso]. Inde ad VII. Idus Decembres, quo die dum nostrum ad iter
remorum vi per aequora veheremur, Juleam prope faucem quaternas
Venetum onerarias trirernes e Syria remeantes vidimus diversas aroma-
tum species afferentes. Inde Catharum, Ulciniumque venimus, & tan­
dem amisso Dyrrachio XII. Kal. Januarias Chimerium superavimus, quod
nobile apud Epirum Neptuni Promontorium vestibulum ad Illyrici sinus
fauces nautae Linguam vocant. Sed iterum in nos euro tumescente adverso
proximum ad quemdam proporticulum servatam ex undis ïbiremem occuli-
mus.... Inde... linquimus Linguae porticulum, & nostrum per iter Orientem
versus Chimeri montis littora radimus. Inde per noctem Cassiopepolim
Corcyrae Insulae civitatem vetustate dirutam praeterivimus, atque sponte
Corcyra(m) civitatem ipsam, quam pestifero morbo laborantem audi-
vimus, longe praeterlinquendam curavimus, & VII. Kal. Januarias Bo-
throtum antiquam in Epiro Trojani Heleni urbem venimus, ibique
natalem humanati Jovis diem, quoniam apud Cassiopen, ut optavimus,
colere ad sacram Almae Virginis aedem nequivimus, nautico more cele-
bravimus. Provehimur inde remis, & nostrum ad iter die, noctuque
placidi Neptuni liquidum sulcando campum Dodonaea secus littora
Bargam, Phanarium Arnatiumque vidimus, & ad quintum denique
Kalendas Januari! diem Dodonaeam ipsam venimus magnam, & nobi-
lissimam Sylvam, ubi insignem prope Nicopolim vetustissimam civita­
tem, & antiquissima procul vidimus magni vestigia Jovis. Postero qui-
dem die prope Arachthi fluvii ostia amoeno superato remis ad IX. mi-
liaria amne ... Acarnaniam tandem Arachtheam civitatem ipsam in
ripa, quam tanto petivimus cursu, convenimus optimo juvante Jove.
Ubi postquam consedimus, primarios inter quam primum vidimus
spendidissimum [sic] juvenem Karolum praeclarae Neopolitanae Domus
Tocchi generosissimam prolem, & inclytum Epirotarum, atque Serenis-
simum Regem ... »f1).
(1) Itinerarium, pp. 59-64. It is the same letter to Franciscus (Scalamonti?,
Filelfo?) and Crassus which we noted above (p. 27, note 2). Sent from Arta,
December 29th.
Carlo II was the nephew ol Carlo I, who died July 4, 1429. Carlo II was
Duke of Leukas and Zacynthos, vassel of King Ladislao of Naples, who had
seized Anatolia, Acarnania, and Aetolia in 1405 and all Epirus in 1418 after
CHAP. I---------- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 29
As we shall see, Arta was one of Cyriacus’ favorite ports of call.
Here, as always, he studied the antiquities :
« Sed postquam magnam perambulavimus urbem, vidimus Acarnaniae
vetustissimae civitatis egregias architectorum operibus portas, ac in-
gentia magnis, immanibusque congesta lapidibus moenia, statuasque
arte conspicuas, & allatura vobis quinque nobilissima atticis litteris
epigrammata » f1).
On the next day, 30 December, he entered several inscriptions and
a sketch of the ancient walls of Arta into hls book (2).
(b) Arta to Eretria (1436)
During his stay at Arta he visited the Byzantine town of Rogus,
which he called « Astacora», with the son of Giorgio Ragnarolo
of Pesaro, Prince Carlo’s secretary. This was on 10 January, 1436.
The next day he wrote to Giorgio declaring his intention of visiting
Nicopolis and The temple of Zeus at Dodona (which he mistakenly
thought was in the vicinity of Nicopolis) before returning to Arta :
« Heri quo a te decessimus ..., Astacora, quam incolae rogum vocant,
incolumes venimus iuuante Deo. ... Sed postquam monumenta vete­
ram conspectare placuerat, vidimus Oppidana circum vetustissima
moenia lapidibus mira magnitudine, & diuersa architectorum arte con-
spicua. ... Ego que caua trabe per amnem ad Dodoneum louem, Nico­
polim que vado, & inde ad te me statim conuersurum scias, optimo vo-
lente loue. ... Ex arce Regia III. Id. lanuar. 1436 »(3).
the assassination of the Albanian, Mauriskos. His title was deanÓTrjg 'Po)/j.a.wjv
and his wife (the daughter of Duke Nerio I Acciajuoli of Athens) was fiaai-
Xiaoa 'Pcüfjlatcov. His seat was sometimes in Cephallenia, Arta, and Leukas,
sometimes in loannina. His relations with the court of Florence were espe-
cially good, and Italian merchants were received in his court. When Carlo I
died, he left only bastards, i.e. Memnon, Heracles, Turnus, and Orlando, so
there was a struggle for the throne. The bastards called in the Turks, who
in 1430 held Thessalonike. The Turks besieged and took loannina on Oc-
tober 9, 1430. Thus Carlo II ruled still only the deOTtoreta of Arta and was
tributary to the Turks. He died in October, 1448, and in 1449 Arta also feil.
E. Ziebarth, ’FDiEiQCDTMa Xoovixd, 1 (1926), p. 113. For details see ’lwdv-
vov 'Poj/tavov, IIeqI rov deonoTarov rfjg ’HtieÏqov, Kéoxvoa, 1895.
(1) Itinerarium, p. 64.
(2) Mo., nn. 26-29, 33-38.
(3) Mo., p. 4. He enclosed a sketch of the walls of Rogus, but again Mo­
roni says, Deest icon in Originali. William Leake, Travels in Northern Greece,
Vol. IV, London, 1835, p. 255 f., locates the ruins of Rogus on the bank of
the river of St. George : « ... The remains are those of a fortified town of the
 CHAP. I ---- GYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 31

On 12 January he saw Nicopolis and « Dodona»:

« Ad pridie Idus lanuarij 1436 vidimus Nicopolim, magnam in Epiro
Ciuitatem, & ex cocto latere moenia vetustate diruta : vidique Dodonaei
louis delubrum multa collapsum vetustate, circum undique vidimus
marmorea ingentia, atque ornatissima aedificia »l1).

Back in Arta, on 18 January, he wrote a dedication of his Naumachia

Regia to Karolo serenissimo Epirotarum regi (2).
Soon afterwards he was on his way south, and on 24 January
he saw the town of Fidokastro (Ambracus), which he identified
erroneously as Ambracia :
« ... Vidimus in Epiro ad maritimas oras Ambraciam Ciuitatem magnam,
magnis circumdatamlapidibus,& vetustate magna ex parte collapsam » (3).

Proceeding southward along the road which skirts the eastern shore
of the Ambracian Gulf, he came to Stratus, a town near the Ache-
lous river about sixty miles from its mouth. Cyriacus misnamed it
Amphilochian Argos. This was on 30 January :
« ... venimus Argos Amphilochium in finibus Epiri iuxta Acheloum
£1. quam incolae Gerouiliam vocant, quae magna Ciuitas habet ingentes
muros in circuitu quadrangulari ad VIII. milliaria spatio. Et per me­
dium Ciuitatis murum habens tres aequales distantia portas. In parte
meridionali Ciuitatis moenia, paruas habent XIIII. portas, magnas autem
binas in angulo ad partem Occidentalem, columnas confractas innumeras
habens p. VI. diametri. idque vocant incolae Pyrgon Achilleos. Est
sita ad ostia fl. Acheloi circa milliaria lx.» (4).

Byzantine empire, built upon Hellenic foundations, and composed in part

of materials of ancient times. ... The Hellenic remains seem from Polybius
to have belonged to a town named Charadra. ... ». For another letter written
on 11 January, 1436, see Itin., pp. 66-67.
(1) Mo., p. 4. This is accompanied by a sketch which also occurs in the sketch-
book of Giuliano and Francesco Giambekti da San Gallo, Codex Vaticanus
Barberinianus Latinus, 4424, f. 28T, which has been published in a facsimile
edition by Christian Huelsen, II libro di Giuliano da Sangallo..., Leipzig, 1910,
Vol. I, facsimiles ; Vol. II, text. It will be referred to hereafter as Sg. The
relation of Sg to Mo. will be discussed in the next chapter. Here it will suf-
fice to say that many of the sketches which appear in Mo. occur also in Sg,
and some of those which are missing in Mo. (with or without the designation,
Deest icon in Originali) can be found in Sg. Mo. accompanies the drawing
with an inscription, n. 39. For Cyriacus’ confusion about Dodona, see Weid,
p. 349.

(2) Codex Ambrosianus, R. 93, f. 18. Cf. above, p. 23 and note 1.

(3) Mo., p. 4. Weid, p. 350.
(4) Mo., p. 5, top. The identification of Stratus was made by L. Heuzey,
Le Mont Olympe et 1‘Acarnanie, Paris, 1856, p. 331f. See also Emil Reisch,
 32 cyriacus of ancona and athens
He then travelled downstream to Palaio-Mani (Cassiope), in the
district of Manina (1). On 2 Februari/ he copied into his « day-book »
a passage from the liturgy of that day, hut we do not know where
he was at the time (z). The journey down the Achelous river finally
brought Cyriacus to Trikardo-Kastro, the old Oeniadae, which he
mistakenly identified with ancient Alyzia. This was on 7 February :
«... vidimus in Epiro prope Acheloi fl. ostia Ciuitatem magnam, &
vetustissimam Azyleam, quam incolae Trigardon vocant, moenibus
vndique, lapidibus magnis, atque mirabili architectura munitam. habet
duas arces turritas in angulis, & in medio ciuitatis theatrum XXX.
gradibus altitudinis, portum ad meridiem in conspectu Itaci Insulae,
& antra in Vrbe duo profundis, & altissimis ex integro saxo rupis mu-
nita, & elaborata manu mira artif. *. (3).
The next entry, which has an impossible date (31 January), is for
« Bozichista », a name otherwise unknown, hut the location is prob-
ably Pieuron (4). Thence he proceeded to nearby Calydon, which
Cyriacus says was called Artos in his day. This was on 8 February :
« ... in Aetolia vidi Vrbem ingentem Calydona, quam hodie vulgus
Arton vocat, sitam secus mare ad III. miliar. in Corinthio sinu procul
Naupactum ad mil. XXY. positam in alto monte, habe(n)tem in summi-
tate turritam arcem, ingentes portas, moenia circum magnis edita la­
pidibus, & magnas per vrbem hinc inde conlapsas, & semidirutas do­
mos, quas inter Basilicam nobilissimam vidi magnis lapidibus editam
cum circulari aedificio diuersis ornato figuris. Continet spatio Ciuitas
omnis circiter mil. XII » (6).
We next find him in Patras, which is across the way in the Pelo-
ponnesus, on 27 February. Here he copied a larger number of in-
Die Zeichnungen des Cyriacus im Codex Barberini des Giuliano di San Gallo
in AM, 14 (1889), p. 220, note 3. For a description of the ruins of Stratus,
which are accurately described by Cyriacus, see Weil, pp. 350-351. A sketch
of a wall in which are set two inscriptions is given by Mo., n. 40 and Sg, f. 28v.
The inscriptions are in IG, IX, I2, 414. The village on the site of old Stratus is
called Surovigli, which is Cyriacus’ Gerouilia. For the archaeology of Stratus
see F. Courby and Ch. Picard, .Recherches archéologiques ü Stratos d’Acarnanie,
Paris, 1924. I am indebted to Prof. Louis Robert for this reference.
(1) Mo., p. 5. Weil, p. 351.
(2) R, f. 19r-v. Maas, p. 8 and note 3.
(3.) Mo., p. 5, and n. 41, which is a sketch. The same passage and drawing
occur in.Sg, f., 28v. Cf. Reisch, ibid. For a description of the ruins of Oenia­
dae and a comparison with Cyriacus’ account, see Weil, pp. 341-347 and 351r352.
(4) Mo., p. 5 and. n. 42,. which is a sketch. Same passage and drawing in
Sg, f. 28'’. Cf. Weil, pp. 352-353.
(5) Mo., p. 6 and n. 43, a sketch which also occurs in Sg., f. 28v. Cf. Weil,
p. 353. Mo., n. .44 is an inscription from the site.
33
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD
scriptions than usual and described a wondrous cave beneath the
church of St. Andrew :
« Ad aedem Andreae Apostoli SS. nomine Demetrij vidimus mirabile
antrum sub humo, quod vetustissimum fuerat, ingens, & mira architec-
torum ope monumentu(m) ex integro consculpto lapide. descendes in
eumperXVI. gradus, sub caua testudine, habens ad tetragonas parietes,
XIIII. fenestras : quaelibet continet binas ternasue, aut quaternas fune-
rales cineribus vrnas. Id enim mirabile opus, & incredibile videtur.
nam testudo ipsa omnibus cum quatuor parietibus suis, gradusque, &
pauimentum omnia ex vnico durissimo saxo, fabrefactoris arte conspi-
cua conspectantur » (l).
But soon (8 March) he is back in Achaea again, in the Yenetian
colony of Lepanto (Naupactus), then over to Vostiza (Aegium) in
the Peloponnesus, whence he recrossed the Corinthian Gulf to Cirrha,
the ancient port of Delphi, which he says the inhabitants called
« Ancona» and « Five-Saints ». The next stop was Amphissa (Sa-
lona), then a place which he calls Phocea Pythia, two miles from Del­
phi (2). On 21 March his journey brought him to Delphi, where
he lingered for six days observing the remains and copying inscrip­
tions :
« ... Delphos adueni. Vbi nam primum diruta magna ex parte ve-
tusta, atque nobilissima moenia conspexi diuersaque architectorum ope
conspicua. Exinde collapsum vndique rotundum Apollinis Templum,
& Amphitheatrum iuxta admirandum magnorum lapidum gradibus
XXXIII. & in sublimi Ciuitatis arce altissimis sub rupibus ornatissi-
mum gradibus marmoreis hippodrom. DC. p. longitudinis. Vidique con-
fractas hinc inde statuas. Epigrammataque tam Graecis quam Latinis
litteris nobilissima, ac intus, & extra per agros marmorea ingentia,
atque ornatissima sepulchra, rupesque incisas arte mirabili» (3).
(1) Mo., p. 6. The inscriptions are nn. 45-58.
(2) Naupactus : Mo., nn. 59-61. Aegium : n. 62. Cirrha : nn. 63-64. Am­
phissa : nn. 65-66. « Phocea Pythia »: nn. 67-68. From this point there is
an inversion of the proper temporal order of the entries in Mo., for a comparison
of the dates which accompany the entries in Moroni with the actual sequence
of the entries reveals that pp. 27-36, nn. 196-242, belong immediately after
n. 68. This is confirmed by a comparison of Mo. with the Codex Parmensis,
1191, ff. 1-56 (to be discussed in the next chapter), which, without giving dates,
has the entries in the proper sequence. That it was the Barberini manuscript,
and not Moroni himself, that was at fault, is clear from the fact that the Co­
dex Mutinensis of Martin de Sieder, written in 1503, preserves the identical
disorder of Mo. The proper sequence has already been pointed out by Maas
p. 5, inter alios. DR, p. 364a, who failed to recognize the fact of the disturbed
sequence, made of the displaced section a second journey to Greece, which
he dated in 1437.
(3) Mo., p. 27, top. Inscriptions, nn. 196-210. A sketch of some walls is
absent from Mo. (Deest icon), but occurs in Sg, f. 28v.
3
 34 GYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Remarking wryly on the ignorance of the contemporary Greeks,
who called Delphi by the name of Kastri & vbinam Delphi fuissent,
penitus ignorant (}), Cyriacus departed on 27 March for the town
of Stiri (Steiris) and the nearby monastery of Hosios Loukas :
« ... relictis Delphis ad nobilissimam Locae Monachi aedem adueni in
phocide iuxta Daulidem ad VIII. mil. Editam sub Oppido Stiri a Mono-
macho Imp. optimo. Ibi inueni antiquissimos Libros sacrarum litte-
rarum. Ex quibus aliqua excerpsi de Apostolorum omnium conditioni-
bus ...»(12).
This excerpt, entitled 2vval;ig rö>v xipicov dnoaxóXmv y.al ÖrjAoaig
önaig xal Önov Sxaarog avrcöv èxrjQv^e, occurs in Cyriacus’ « day-book »
where he also notes its source :
« ëyQaxpa ego. K. A. apud nobilissimam Lucae monachi aedem aeditam
a Monomacho Imp. in Phocide prope Delphos ad XX mil. ad quam veni
V. K. apriles et ea excaepi ex antiquissimo praefatae ecclesiae libro »(3).
The next stop, 28 March, was Daulis, followed by Livadia (Le-
badea) on the following day. Also on the 29th he visited Chaeronea,
which he calls Aegoschenia and which he says the natives call« Ca-
prea», after which, on the 30th, he passed through Orchomenus
and stopped over night at Thebes :
« Daulidem Ciuitatem vetustissimam veni, quam magnis vndique moe-
nibus munitam vidi. ...»
« Leuadeam antiquam, & nobilem Ciuitatem adueni. Sed vndique col-
lapsam ruinis : in ea quidem non pauca vetustatis admiranda vidi, &
inter primarias sub altissimis rupibus ad antrum secus decursus so-
noros aquarum descendentium ab alto monte, sic in viuo saxo ad fauces
antri vetustis literis inscriptum erat. ...»
«Ad eandem diem Aegoscheniam quam Capream vocant».
« ... venimus Orchomenum, antiquissimam Boeotiae Ciuitatem, diru-
tamque passim longa vetustate, & ad antiquam aedem tale Epigramma
consculptum comperi. ...»
« Eadem die venimus versus Thebas, ad puteum lapideum in amplis-
simo campo extra Thebas ad v. mil. vbi se Cadmus in serpentem trans-
formasse fertur : ... Thebas nobilissimam Boetiae Vrbem adueni. In
qua primum vetustatis, vbi ad Portam occidentalem aliquam ex anti-
quissimis moenibus partem, & inde per Ciuitatem lapides interim hinc
inde talia Epigrammata comperi. ... »(4).
(1) Mo., p. 31.
(2) Mo., p. 31 and n. 211.
(3) R, f. 22r-'\ Cf. Maas, p. 8 and note 6, where he attempts to reconcile
the divergent dates (27 March in Mo. ; 28 March in R) by the theory that
Cyriacus stopped at Stiri on the night of the 27th and visited the monastery
only briefly the next morning.
(4) Daulis : Mo., p. 32 and n. 212. Livadia : p. 32 and nn. 213-218. Chae-
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 35
On 31 March he left Thebes and travelled through Helicon to
Chalcis in Euboea, which he reached on 4 April. Next day he was
in Eretria:
« ... venimus per Heliconem ad Euripeam Chalcidem in Euboea In-
sula Ciuitatem nobilissimam, & in ea primum vidimus ad aedem Fran-
cisci super sepulchrum ornatissimum vbi Bacchanalia erat insculptum
tale Epigramma. ...»
« ... Item apud Euboeam ... vidimus Eretriam Ciuitatem magnam
secus mare, distantem ab Euripo ad XII. mil. & in ea primum conspe-
ximus- antiqua moenia circum magnis edita lapidibus, Amphitheatrum-
que in summa Ciuitatis arce, apudque tale consculptum comperi Epi­
gramma ... » t1).
(c) Athens {7-22 April, 1436)
Two days later Cyriacus saw the crumbling glory of Athens for
he first time in his thirty-six years of travelling. Let his account
peak for itself :
« ... Athenas veni. Vbi primum ingentia moenia vndique conlapsa
antiquitate conspexi, ac intus, & extra per agros incredibilia ex marmore
aedificia domosque, & sacra delubra diuersasque rerum imagines, mi-
raque fabrefactoris arte conspicuas, atque columnas immanes, sed omnia
magnis vndique conuulsa ruinis, ... »
1) Quite naturally, his eyes first fastened on the Parthenon:
« ... & quod magis adnotari placuit, extat in summa Ciuitatis arce in-
gens, & mirabile Palladis Diuae marmoreum Templum, Diuum quippe
opus Phidiae. LVIII. sublime columnis magnitudinis p. 7. diametrum
habens, ornatissimum vndique, nobilissimis Imaginibus in vtriusque
frontibus, atque parietibus insculptis, listis, & epistylijs mira fabresculp-
toris arte conspicitur » (2).
ronea : nn. 219-221. Orchomenus : n. 222. Thebes : nn. 223-233. In Liva­
dia he sketched the ruins of a temple of Juno. The sketch is not in Mo.
(Deest icon), but occurs in Sg, f. 28v. Another sketch, made in Thebes (Mo.,
n. 227, Deest icon) has been lost entirely.
(1) Chalcis : Mo., nn. 234-239. Eretria : nn. 240-242. At Eretria he sketched
the walls. This sketch does not appear in Mo., nor is there the usual Deest
icon, but we know of it because it occurs in Sg, f. 28v. In Chalcis a Greek friend,
Nicolaus Secundinos, copied some lines of Homer into Cyriacus’ « day-book »
(R, f. 23v). Nicolaus also gives the date as 4 April, 1436. Maas, p. 9.
(2) Mo., p. 37, top. In Mo. this introductory notice is separated from the
section on Athens, but we know from other sources that 1) this was the way
the Athenian diary began and 2) it served as a caption for Cyriacus’ drawing
of the Parthenon. The other sources : a) Codex Hamiltonianus Berolinensis,
PLATE III CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD
37

2) Just east of the Parthenon was the little temple of Augustus

and Rome, erected shortly after 27-6 B.G. Cyriacus copied the
inscription on it (which still exists) (1), 3) then returned to the
larger temple to take down a fourth-century A.D. inscription (also
still extant) in honor of Rufius Festius, the son of the poet Rufius
Festus Avienus, who was proconsul of Achaea some time after
372 A.D. (n. 73). 4) Next he made a sketch, for which we have
only the heading, of the ancient wall of Athens (n. 74). Descending
o, %o
from the Acropolis he turned north and 5) recorded a Hadrianic
inscription « near the western gate of the city, » probably the western
gate of the «Valerian Wall», just south of the Stoa of Attalos (2).
Crossing eastward north of the Acropolis, he found himself at
the Street of the Tripods, where 6) he copied the inscription on
the frieze of the Monument of Lysicrates, ad ornatissimas scenarum
marmoreas cathedras » (3). 7) Ad aliam gymnasii sedem exornatam

254, ff. 84T-85r, done in Cyriacus’ own hand for his friend, Pietro Donato, Bishop
of Padua, shortly after the Greek trip of which we are speaking. It contains
both the introductory notice and the sketch, b) Sg, f. 28v, which has both the
notice and the sketch ; c) Codex Parmensis, 1191 (anonymous, 15th century)
f. 25, where the Athenian section begins with the same introductory passage.
This is above a blank page : the drawing was to have been filled in later, but
never was. The passage in b) and c) is changed from the personal to the im-
personal construction and no date is given. This phenomenon, and the inter-
relationship of all these documents, will be discussed in the next chapter.
(1) Mo., n. 72. The references to Mo. for the section on Athens will be in-
cluded in the text except where a fuller foot-note is required. The Athenian
inscriptions are treated in our Chapter 3. The order in which the Athenian
items probably accurred in the Commentaria is indicated here by the numbers 1)
to 52). See also the map on p. 36 and Table xiv.
(2) Nn. 75 and 101. For the topography of Athens at this time see
Kenneth M. Setton, The Archaeology of Medieval Athens in Essays in Me-
dieval Life and Thought Presented in Honor of Auslin Patterson Evans, New
York, 1955, pp. 227-258.

A lH E a iW T V tttT OCCUHHtb
(3) N. 76. This expression has been taken to mean that Cyriacus mistook

\nbcmv-nons ano
TO
the Lysicrates monument for a theater-seat. Cf. Miller, p. 419 ; Setton,

R E rC R

SKC1CHCS O f THE
Catalans, p. 233 ; James Morton Paton, Chapters on Mediaeval and Renais­

. IH
ii* sance Visitors to Greek Lands (The American School of Classical Studies at

OCR
Athens, Gennadeion Monographs, III), Princeton, N.J., 1951, pp. 175-176.

COR
That he thought it was some sort of an ornate seat or throne is clear. But

▼
**
scenarum cannot be taken in the sense of«theater ». Cf. Du CaNge, s.v., where
the meaning given is porticus. Thus also in the case of the Thrasyllus monu­
ment, which he locates ... ad marmoream & ornatissimam scenam prope incisam
rupem..., there is question, not of an erroneous location of the theater, but of
a columned facade or porch leading to the grotto of the Panagia within, though
Setton takes this, too, as a reference to a theater-seat (ibid.). And Cyriacus’
38 GYRIAGUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
(n. 77) he saw and copied another choregic inscription which was
observed by subsequent travellers, was rediscovered in the nine-
teenth and again in the twentieth century, but has since disappeared.
It seems to have been located just east of the Theater of Dionysus,
the stage-buildings of which Cyriacus may have taken to be a gym­
nasium (l). As he came into the theater-area (which was not re-
cognized as such until the end of the eighteenth century) (2), his
eye was caught by the gleam, high on the hill, of a golden Gorgo-
neion, a medieval version of the ancient one (3), and, beneath it,
the well-known choregic monument of Thrasyllus, then used as
the entrance to the shrine of Our Lady of the Grotto. 8-10) He
copied the three inscriptions, the central one being in honor of the
father, Thrasyllus, the other two celebrating victories of his son,
Thrasycles. The three tripods had long since disappeared from
the monument: that of Thrasyllus had been replaced in the third
century A.D. by a Hellenistic statue of Dionysus. This statue Cy­
riacus sketched in its headless state, and a copy of his sketch can
be compared with the statue itself, which is now in the British
Museum (4).
11) As he descended the slope of the Acropolis again, his atten-
tion was naturally captured by the imposing tomb of Philopappus,
grandson of the last king of Commagene, which was made more
imposing by its position on the Museion Hill. Cyriacus sketched
the monument, and, in so doing, became the only person ever to
record all five of its inscriptions, two of which have disappeared
along with the complete right side of the building (6).
entry on Corinth (Mo., p. 18) demonstrates that he knew the word theatrum.
Thus he must surely have considered the « seat» to be purely monumental.
A further question, and one that does not seem susceptible of an answer at
present, is why he used the plural form.
(1) Cf. chapter 3, pp. 161-162.
(2) Cf. Walther Judeich, Topographie von Alhen\ Munich, 1931, p. 308.
(3) Cf. Paton, p. 34, note 24.
(4) Nn. 69-71. Mo. does not have the drawing, but a copy of it is in Sg, f. 29.
For the statue see A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. I, London, 1892, n. 432,
and E. Reisch, Zum Thrasyllosmonument, AM, 13 (1888), pp. 383-401.
(5) Mo. has neither the drawing nor the inscriptions nor any indication of
a lacuna in his manuscript. But a copy of the drawing is reproduced in Sg,
f. 29, and the Parmensis, f. 28v, has a page reserved for it. The Latin inscrip­
tion appears frequently in fifteenth-century epigraphical collections. The
latest publication of the monument was by Maria Santangelo, II monumento
di C. Julius Antiochos Philipappos in Atene in Annuario delta Scuola Archeo-
logica di Atene, n.s. 3-5 (1941-1943), pp. 153-253. For the inscriptions see
Chapter 3, pp. 170-171.
CHAP. I — CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 39
12) As he had approached the southeast corner of the Acropolis
along the Street of the Tripods, he had noticed to his left the gate
to Hadrian’s Athens, which still stands today. Now he walked back
to examine it more closely and to copy its inscriptions, which de-
clared the boundaries of Theseus’ and Hadrian’s cities (nn. 78-79).
13) Perhaps on another day he took an excursion out to Mt.
Lycabettus, at the foot of which lay, in two complete pieces, the
colonnade and arch from the aqueduct which was begun by Hadrian
and finished by Antoninus Pius. Into his book went a drawing,
on which he reproduced, with exact attention to line-division, the
Latin inscription, a portion of which was seen in 1861 in the royal
gardens at Athens (1).
14-22) Cyriacus’ next preoccupation was with the Olympieum,
the great temple to Olympian Zeus which had lain so long unfinished
until Hadrian had completed it. So great was Hadrian’s achieve-
ment that the claim of Zeus to the building faded long before the
emperor’s, and the gigantic Corinthian pillars were commonly de-
signated by the term, « Hadrian’s Palace »:
«... That the Olympieum was the «palace of Hadrian» was an article
of archaeological faith until the visit of Stuart and Revett in the middle
of the eighteenth century, and many travellers shared Niccolö’s belief
that the building was originally constructed on the columns » (2).
So Cyriacus too bowed to local tradition in his description of the
site :
«Ad domos Hadriani Principis marmoreis, & immanibus columnis,
sed magna ex parte collapsis. Extant vtique adhuc integris, & directis
suis cum Epistilijs c. XXI. »(3).
At one time the Olympieum had been teeming with honorary sta-
tues of Hadrian, sent in from all quarters of the empire. The in-
(1) N. 80 has only the heading for this sketch and the words, Deest icon,
and no copy of the inscription. Fortunately Cyriacus reproduced his own
drawing in the excerpts from his book which he made for Bishop Pietro Donato,
Codex Hamilt. Berol., 254, f. 85v. There is also a rough version of it in Sg,
f. 28v, and a space for it in the Parmensis at this point. This inscription also
appeared very frequently in the epigraphical codices of the fifteenth century
which relied on Cyriacan sources.
(2) Paton, p. 174. The traveller referred to is Niccolö da Martoni, an Italian
notary, who visited Athens 24 February, 1395, on his return to Italy from
the Holy Land. Excerpts from his Liber Peregrinationis pertaining to Athens
are published in Paton, pp. 30-36.
(3) Mó., n. 81, which, however, lacks the drawing or any reference to it.
The author’s own copy of it survives in the Hamiltonianus, f. 87v, and there
is a copy in Sg, f. 29.
40 GYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
scribéd bases of many of these were still there in 1436, and Cyriacus
copied eight of them (nn. 82-89). None of these stones survive today.
23) He next visited the Roman Market, whose Athena Archegetis
gate he called « another arch of Hadrian». There he found, ad
magnam parietem ex integro lapide, the famous edict of Hadrian
concerning the sale of oil, of which he copied only a small portion,
and that very inaccurately (n. 90). 24) Somewhere in the same
area he found and recorded one of the multitudinous inscribed altars
in honor of Hadrian (n. 91). The expression, ad noua moenia, seems
to designate the «Valerian Wall» of Athens, which ran roughly east
and west just north of the Roman Market (1). And indeed 25) the
next inscription, again in honor of Hadrian, is located <i at the nor-
thern gate of the city of Athens » (n. 92).
26) Returning to the area of the real arch of Hadrian, he copied
another inscribed statue-base at the church of St. Anthony (n. 93).
l he stayed two days, then, on 24 April, moved along the shore of
27) During this time he seems to have been living in the house of
a certain Antonello Ralduino on the Acropolis, for he records next
a first century A.D. inscribed base in honor of Tiberius Claudius
Novius which, now at least, is north of the Erechtheum by the Acro­
polis wall, and he says he saw it in domo Antonelli Balduini, hosp.
n. (n. 94). 28) A sepulchral inscription of uncertain location follows
(n. 95), then 29) a prytany catalogue which he found at the Hephae-
stium (he called it the «temple of Mars » (n. 96). 30) Within the
Parthenon he copied a third-century A.D. dedication ad Vrnam ...
marmoream (n. 97); 31) on the Areopagus, at the church of St.
Dionysius, an Augustan dedication (nn. 98 and 102). 32, 36, 37,
39, 40, 42,43,47, 49, 51, 52) Outside the «Valerian Wall» (in agro
Athenarum) he located and copied funereal inscriptions (nn. 99, 103,
104, 106, 107, 109, 110, 114, 116, 118, 119). 33) Somewhere also
in this vicinity he copied a metrical inscription in honor of Athena
(n. 100).
38) On the Acropolis before the Parthenon he recorded an inscribed
statue base of the fourth century B.C. which still survives (n. 105).
41) In the span of a fortification erected perhaps in the late fourth
century before the Propylaea as protection against the invasion of
Alaric, he found and copied an inscription commemorating the
donor of the gate, Flavius Septimius Marcellinus (n. 108). 44) In
the neighborhood of the theater of Dionysus, an inscription in honor
of Gaius Caesar, the « new Ares » (n. 111); 46) in the Propylaea,
a puzzling epigram (n. 113); 45, 48) in unknown locations, two
more choregic inscriptions (nn. 112 and 115) — all went into his
book. 50) Near the «Valerian Wall» he recorded what seems to be
a Roman public law for tax-farmers (n. 117).
(1) Setton, Catalans, p. 233 ; Archaeology of Mediaeval Athens, pp. 233 It-
GHAP. I —- GYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 41
(d) Piraeus to Padua (1436)
Leaving Athens on 22 April, Cyriacus went down to the Piraeus,
where he sketched two round towers, the walls, and the great marble
lion that now stands before the arsenal in Venice :
« ... relictis Athenis venimus Athenarum portum secus Pieream ve-
tustissimam Atticarum Ciuitatem penitus vetustate collapsam : sed ad
portum extant adhuc duarum rotundarum turrium aliquae partes, ac in-
gentia murorum hinc inde fundamenta extant, & ad faucem ingens mar-
moreus Leo »(v).
The same day he drew the aqueduct in Eleusis, then went on to
Nisea and Megara. At the Isthmus he sketched the walls and copied
an inscribed Byzantine Oracle, then continued to Corinth, where
the Corinthian Gulf to Sicyon :
« Bodem die venimus Eleusiam, antiquam vtique Atticarum mari-
timam Ciuitatem, & magnam, ae vndique dirutam antiquitate, haben-
tem aquaeductum per longum spatium arcuum ex coeto latere pluri-
mum, & ingenti ...»
« Ad eandem vero diem venimus Megarin Niseam maritimam Ciui­
tatem, ad cuius portum Epigramma hoe erat insculptum... »
« ... venimus Megarium, nobilem in Megara, & vetustam Ciuitatem
mediterraneam. In qua primum vidimus vetusta, & diruta vndique moe­
nia, diuersa tarnen architectorum ope praeclara... »
I «... ad Peloponensiacum Isthmom venimus, antiquis olim moenibus
| Lacedaemonum qpe clausum ; nobile quippe opus, sed longa temp. Jabe
collapsum, bifariam a lustiniano, atque Manuele Palaeologo Constantino-
politanis Principibus restitutum, & iterum per Achaemenidum genus
, dirutum. adhuc eius non paruae juinae conspectantur Insulum... »
« Ad eundem ... diem Corinthum venimus, cuius & moenia vndique
conlapsa vetustate conspexi; sed fundamenta, ac aedificia aliqua co-
lumnae, atque statuarum bases hinc inde per planitiem conspectantur,
& extant adhuc integrae ex lunonis Corinthiae templo, decem immanes
columnae suis cum magnis epistilijs, habentes diametrum quaelibet .p.
A. Epistilia vero longitudinis p. XVI. ... »
« ... venimus Sicyoniam magnam Peloponesi mediterraneam Ciuita­
tem prope Corinthum ad XII. mil. habentem Amphitheatrum maximum
Ixx. grad. altitudinis, ac magnas ex cocto latere Thermas... »(2).
(1) Mo., p. 16, bottom. The entry is preceded and followed by the words,
Deest icon. Both sketches are in Sg, f. 29v.
(2) Eleusis : Mo., p. 17 (Deest icon), sketch of aqueduct preserved in Sg,
f. 29''; Nisea and Megara : nn. 120-123 ; the sketch is missing in both Mo. and
Sg ; Isthmus : p. 17 (Deest icon) and n. 263, sketch in Sg, f. 29v ; Corinth :
p. 17, bottom, and nn. 124-128, the sketch being missing inbothMo. andSg-;
Sicyon : p. 18 and nn. 129-130.
42 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
On 27 April he arrived at Calavryta (Calabruta) after a rough,
mountainous journey, where he met the great humanist, George
Cantacuzene :
« ... per niueos Saturnei montis, & difficiles calles Calabrutam adueni,
vbi Georgium Catacuzinon, virum hac aetate graecis litteris eruditum, ac
librorum Graecorum omnigenum copiosissimum, qui mihi Herodotum
bistoricum, ac alios plerosque suos optimos, & antiquos libros accomo-
dau it » i1).
Not too far away, on the high cliffs over the Erasinos river was
the monastery of Megaspelion, which housed a famous old painting
of the Blessed Virgin traditionally attributed to St. Luke. Here
he visited on 29 April:
« ... inter praefatos colles venimus ad ingens, & mirabile antrum sub
altissimo, & integro saxo, in quo aediculam almae Virgini sacram vi-
dimus... » (12).
Then, on 30 April, he returned to Patras by way of« Aergium » (per-
haps Aegium, which is on the coast of the Corinthian Gulf near the
mouth of the river Erasinos, in the valley of which lies Calavryta) (3).
On 11 May he was back in Arta for another visit with Prince Carlo,
then went on, by way of Rogus and the Acheron river, to Leukas,
Actium, and Nicopolis (13 May) :
« ... Acarnaniam reuisi, & ad Karolum Despotem me iterum contuli.
Ad III. Idus per Astacora, & Acherontem venimus Leucatem, & vidi-
mus Action nobilem, & vetustissimam vrbem, vbi nauale ingens, & me-
morabile beUum inter AVG. CAES. ET. M. ANTONIVM, Cleopatram-
que fuit » (4).
Still in Epirus on 20 May, he was a guest at the wedding of the
daughter of Turnus, Prince Carlo’s cousin, in Orionatium :
« ... Hodie ... per nobiles, & vetustate collapsos Nicopolitanae Ciui-
tatis aquaeductus Dodoneum Orionatium venimus iuuante Deo. Vbi
Turnum ... filiae suae nuptias celebrantem inueni... (5).
The return trip offered him another opportunity to go over to
Corfu, which had been barred to him on the way down because of
the plague. This he did on 22 May :
« ... Coryphaeam Phaeacum Corcyram venimus, vbi prope antiquum
portuin vidimus vetustissimam moeniorum partem, quam Palaeopolim
incolae in hodiernum vocant» (6).
(1) Mo., p. 19.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid. (Deest icon).
(5) Mo., p. 19. Letter to Carlo from Orionatium. Also in Itinerarium,
pp. 68-70.
(6) Mo., p. 19 and nn. 131-132. (Deést icon).
CHAP. I — CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 43
Six days later, 28 May, he is across the way in Butrinto, antiquam
in Epiro Troiani Heleni Ciuitatem, and on 13 June he is back in
Corfu again (l).
On 18 June he is in Grammata, just below Capo Linguetta. The
next day he rounded the Cape and put in at Valona (Aulon), and by
the 20th he was in Apollonia, farther up the coast, where he saw
a ruined temple of Diana. Durazzo (Epidamnus, Dyrrhachium)
was visited on 15 June, and on the 28th he went, in company with
a Venetian official and a friend, to examine a wall said to have been
put up by Caesar in the war against Pompey :
« ... in Epiro admaritimum antrum, siue rupem incisam, antiquissima
ope, & pluribus Inscriptionibus insculptam, prope Neptunni promon-
torium ad Orientem p. XXV. mil. quam in hodiernum nautae Gram-
matam vocant... »
« In Macedonia ... quam in hodiernum incolae Valonam dicuntur,
apud Aulonem ad aedem Georgij Tropaeophori ad marmoream basim... »
« ... Apolloniam antiquissimam Macedonum Ciuitatem venimus, vbi
Templum Dianae vndique collapsum vetustate conspeximus. Ex quo reuer-
tentes inter herbosos campos, & per deuios tramites errantes ceruam,
quam Padus nuper occiderat inuenimus, & pro bono itineris aue duxi-
mus Aulonem ... »
« ... Ad Epidamnum Dyrachium venimus. Vbi antiqua moenia ex
cocto latere magna, ex parte conlapsa vetustate conspexi... »
«... venimus ad nobilem murum extra Dyrachium Ciuitatem ad
IIII. mil. quem C. Caesar in causa ciuilis belli fecerat ad coercendum
Pompeianum exercitum in obiecto monte. Est H. [enim] ex cocto latere
ingens longitudinis, habens latitudinis p. XIII. Et vidimus eum vna
cum Viro nobili Fabricio Loredano, apud Dyrachium pro Venetis Prae-
tore : Et Antonio Longo Camerario amico optimo nostro ... »(2).
On 1 July he put in farther up the coast at Alessio (Lissus) ; on
7 July at Scutari (Scodra); on 14 July at Rhizon (Risinium), thence
to Lesina (Pharia), an island just north of Curzola (22 July), and
over to Lissa (Issa), an island just to the west of Lesina (24 July) :
« ... venimus Lisson antiquam, & inter maritimas vltimam Dalmatiae
Ciuitatem sitam apud Drilonem fluuium ab ostijs ad III. mil. quam
vulgus in hodiernum Alexium vocat. In qua primum vidimus ingentia
moenia, magnis condita lapidibus, & diuersa architectorum arte conspi-
cua, in quibus Epigramma hoe magno in lapide consculptum inueni ... »
« ... venimus Scodram, mediterraneam Dalmatiae Ciuitatem, quam
incolae Scutarim in hodiernum vocant. Sed ibi, neque moenia, nee
aliud opus vllum vidi memoratu dignum ».
(1) Butrinto: Mo., nn. 133-134 (Deest icon). Corfu : n. 135.
(2) Grammata: Mo., nn. 136-142. Valona: n. 143. Apollonia: n. 144
(Deest icon). Durazzo : nn. 145-149.
44 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
«... venimus Rhizanam, mediterraneum vtique Dalmatiae Oppidum
quöd vulgus hodie Antiuarim vocat, & pro Metropolitana nunc loco Do-
cleae vicinae Ciuitatis habetur, nee aliquid ibi memorabile videtur ... *
« ... venimus Phariam insulam, Ciuitatem que Dalmatiae nobilem,
quae hodie vulgus Lesinanam vocat ... »
« ... venimus Issam Insulam, & egregiam vtique Dalmatiae Ciuitatem
Vbi antiqua vidimus in circuitu magnis edita lapidibus moenia, sed
magna ex parte collapsa vetustate : habet in medio nobilissimi portus,
nobile amphitheatrum; sed ipsum vtique vetustate aliqua ex parte
dirutum, in quo tale consculptum erat Epigramma ... » (1).
The end of July and the beginning of August saw Cyriacus in
the neighborhood of Salona. On 29 July he was examining the
rernains of Diocletian’s palace at Split (Spalato, Spoleto), and the
next day he went through the city of Salona itself. On 1 August
he is copying inscriptions in Trau (Tragurium) :
« ... venimus ad antiqua Salonarum Palatia, Diocletiani Caesaris opus.
Spalatum ab incolis in hodiernum dictum. Cuius egregiae architecturae
parietes promoenia Ciuitatis extant. Eius vtique in medio conspicitur
nobile louis Templum, quod nomine Beati Doimi Pontificis hodie ciues
incolunt ...»
« ... venimus Salonas insignem Dalmatiae Ciuitatem. In qua primum
nobilissima vidimus moenia, sed vndique iam solo antiquitate collapsa.
Vidimusque amphitheatrum in medio Ciuitatis ingens, atque mirabiles
aquaeductus egregiae architecturae conspicuos, statuasque arte decoras,
& immanes columnas vndique per agros dirutas, atque conuulsas im-
mensis ruinis ; quas inter Epigrammata haec Graeca, Latinaque con-
spectantur ... »
«... Tragurium venimus, egregiam Dalmatiae Ciuitatem, quae sita in mari
intra sui nominis insulam, & caeteram Dalmatiam, per binos lapideos
pontes, se ad vtrorumque latus mediam inter decurrentes euripos con­
tinet. Vbi lapides inter hinc inde Latina haec & vetusta videntur Epi­
grammata ... » (12).
August 21st found Cyriacus in Venice, whence he travelled to
Ferrara. On 29 October he copied an inscription on a well in Altinum
in the Venetian territory. After this there is no word of him until
13 March, 1437, on which day he recorded his arrival in Padua (3).
(1) Alessio : Mo., n. 150 (Deest icon). Scutari, Rhizon : p. 22. Lesina :
n. 151. Lissa: nn. 152-154 (Deest icon).
(2) Split: Mo., nn. 155-162. Salona: nn. 163-169. Trau: nn. 170-175.
(3) Venice : Mo., nn. 176-188. Ferrara : nn. 189-191. Altinum : n. 192.
Padua : nn. 193-195. Although the autograph pages (ff. 81-90 and 121'r) of the
Cod. Berol. Ham., 254 were written by Cyriacus in Padua, they could not have
been done in March of 1437, because they contain an inscription from Sparta
(Mo., n. 246), which site he did not visit until 24 September, 1437. A more
likely date forthe Hamilton autograph is 1442-1443. Cf.below, n. Aon p. 50.
GHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 45
There is a letter of Cyriacus to his friend, Leonardo Bruni, which
was written some time not long after the visits to Delphi and Athens,
to which visits he refers as having occurred nuper. The letter, un-
dated, opens with the inscription from the aqueduct of Hadrian
and Antoninus Pius in Athens, then goes on :
«... Latinam hanc Inscriptione m ex me nuper Athenis compertam,
dignissimae Spectationi Tuae hoe loco rescribendam delegi. ... Optabam
praeterea Te felicem revisere, tecumque non pauca conferre de rebus
memoratu dignissimis, meo ex hoe Itinere per Illyriam, Macedoniam,
Epyrum, Achayam, Euboiam, Peloponnesumque visis ; sed ab eo me
desiderio res haud importunae cohercent. Vale, & subsequens Atthi-
cis Utteris Epigramma, quod apud nobilem, & vetustate collapsam Del-
phorum Civitatem, aha inter comperi, utique lectitare placeat (insculp-
tum parietinis Templi Apollonis). [there follows the Greek inscription
which occurs in Moroni at n. 201] ... Desiderabam insuper abs Te cer-
tiorem fieri libellum an exceperis, quem adversus indignam Poggii nostri
Divo de Caesare opinionem integerrimo Tuo, amplissimoque iudicio
ex Epyro, hisce nuper diebus transmis!. Vale » f1).
(e) The Peloponnesus (1437)
The numeral, 1437, occurs three times on page 37 of Moroni’s
book : 1) before two Italian entries : a) 22 June, at Manfredonia
in Apulia, where he saw the ancient city of Sipontum; b) 24 June,
at Barletta (Barduli), near Cannae, the site of the colossal statue
of Heraclius :
« ... venimus Manfredoniam Apuliae Dauniae Ciuitatem inter Sipum
antiquam Vrbem, &. Gargani montis promontorium sitam, in qua nil
memorabile videtur praeter magnam ex aere squillam. vidimus & Si­
pum dirutam Ciuitatem, quam Sipatum vocant ».
« ... venimus Baroletum, nobile Apuliae Dauniae oppidum, secus lo-
nicum mare, iuxta Salpias Ciuitatem maritimam, atque Canusium medi­
terraneum oppidum. In Baroleti maritimo foro vidimus Colosseam
Herculis [sic] Imaginem aeneam magnam, quam Heradem incolae
vocant» (“).
(1) Tozzetti, pp. 414-416. The Delphic inscription is a favorite of Cyria­
cus’, for it recurs in the margin of the Strabo ms. which he possessed (cf. below,
p. 54, note 8). The libellus referred to at the end of the letter is the epistle
to Bruni, the first draft of which still exists in R (cf. above, p. 23, note 2).
It will be remembered that the letter was begun in Zara and finished during
the visit to Stratus (therefore it was ex Epyro) on his way down to Greece.
The letter which we have just cited could have been written during the winter
of 1436-1437, when Cyriacus was in northern Italy.
(2) This same Information is given in the Itinerarium, p. 25, where it is
related to a trip taken in 1434 : ... tandem per Lucaniam e Calabris Apuliam
 GHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 47
PLATE IV

2) The numeral, 1437, occurs again above the next entry, for S July,
which is for the island of Cythera. Here he sketched the walls and
a ruined temple of Vernis. On 12 July of the same year he stopped
in at Monemvasia (Epidaurus Limera), where he made a drawing
of some polygonal masonry and a square tower :
« ... Cytheream Insulam venimus, in qua Cythera antiquissimam Ciui-
tatem in alto monte, vndique collapsam vetustate vidimus. Sed ah
Thessalon'ika aliqua Ciuitatis parte moenia magnis edita lapidibus extant, & in summa
CHAUCIDICE Ciuitatis arce dirutum Veneris Templum conspicitur ... »
« ... Poloponesiacum [sic] Epidaurum venimus, quam antiquissimam
Ciuitatem veteres Monembasiam dicunt. Cuius vetustissima moenia

CAUABRlft
solo magna ex parte collapsa in hodiernum vsque diem magnis edita
lapidibus extant. In sinu Laconico, & Argolico secus Maleam promon-
torium, ad XXX mil. ... » (l).

3) The third use of the numeral, 1437, occurs over an entry for
3 August, at the island of Zante (Zacynthus), which belonged at
that time to Epirus :
« ... Zacynthum nobilem Epiri Insulam venimus, altamque sui nomi-
nis Ciuitatem ascendimus, at in ea quamuis memoranda omnia aeui
longinquitate deleta sint, tarnen & antiquae suae magnitudinis aliqua
ex parte moenia, magnis edita lapidibus conspectantur (2).

There follows an account of his journey overland from Patras

to Sparta. On 15 September, while proceeding along the coast from
Patras to Pyrgos, he was near the mouth of the Alphaeus river :
« ... dum ex Patris Lacedaemona peterem, in itinere Alpheum amnem
per tres riuulos penetrauimus, primumque Argyropotamon, secundum
Licurion, tertium Karbona vocant, quem ab ipso fonte sub viuo saxo
rapido cursu defluentem vidi, vbi Manuel Palaeologus Pyrgon Turrim,
supra aedificauit» (s).

venimus, ubi ... vidimus ... Manfredoniam ... inter dirutam Sipontum, & Gar-
gani montis promontorium sitam. Sed antea exitiales apud Cannas Baroleium
CYRIACUS JOURNE.Y vidimus oppidum, ac ingens eo ex aere simulacrum, quod Heradem sanctum
through +he incertum vulgus appellare consueverat. Inde vero me nostram ad Picenam pro-
PEL0P0NNE5U5 vinciam verti... DR, pp. 363-364, pointed out the identity of the two passages
g2 JUNE - 24 SEPTEMBER,
and assumed that Cyriacus, writing in 1441, confused the order of his journeys
1437
^JiCXTHEÏVN and attributed to 1434 a trip to Apulia which he had actually taken in 1437.
The probabilities are on the side of this interpretation, especially in view of
the fact that the entry in Moroni is dated explicitly 1437. Also, Apulia was
a logical embarkation point for the Peloponnesus, where the next entry in
Moroni finds him.
(1) Cythera: Mo., nn. 243-244. Monemvasia : n. 245. Moroni lacks the
sketches (Deest icon), but they occur in Sg, f. 29v.
(2) Mo., p. 37 (Deest icon). Not in Sg.
(3) Mo., p, 37.
48 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Proceeding along the river Alphaeus past Olympia and Megalo­
polis (strangely, he mentions neither site), Cyriacus met, near the
source of the river, the bastard, Memnon, cousin of Carlo II, who
was at this time governor of Charpigny in the Morea. To Memnon,
whom he had planned to visit in Sparta, he gave a letter and gifts
from a mutual friend, a priest named Daniël. Memnon, in turn,
gave Cyriacus the skin of a huge she-bear which he had killed, and
he acted as the traveller’s guide to Sparta:
« Memnonem vidi magnificum, & amicissimum nostrum non vbi Spar-
tanae, vt putauimus, sed ad daros Alphei fluminis fontes, collesque
inter in via lustra ad XY. K. Octobrias inueni. ... Ipse quidem me pri-
mum lubentissime vidit, tuasque Literas, & in luannem F. dona, per-
iucunde suscepit. ... Ego quidem Memnonis ductu Lacedaemona pergam,
& interim Musacchum Agogitem remitto, per quem & pellem Cherpi-
nidis vrsae, vt ipsam ab aliquo huius rei artifice curare facias ... » (').
On 2d September he reached Sparta and the medieval town of
Mistra, where he visited the Despot of the Morea, Theodore Palaeo-
logus Porphyrogenitus :
«... ad insignem Spartanorum Lacedaemonumque Vrbem venimus,
quam contra distans ad III. mil. collis, qui dicebatur Spartanus in ho-
diernum ab incolis habitatur. Cuius in vertice conditam Ciuitatem Mizy-
thratem [i.e. Mistra] ab aliqua situs, & nominis conformitate dixere.
In qua Theodorum Palaeologum Porphyrogenitum Despotem regnan-
tem vidimus. At & postquam die postero ad planiciem descendimus,
vidimus amplissimae Ciuitatis vestigia, Statuas insignes, marmoreas
columnas, & epistylia, hincinde per agros longa antiquitate collapsa.
Sed quae magis ingentia inter & ornatissima Yrbis aedificia adnotari
placuit. Vidimus adhuc magna ex parte cognibilem, egregiam, & polito
marmore Gymnasiorum scenam, cuiusce non paucae conspectantur
statuarum marmoreae bases. E quibus haec quae potui Epigrammata
Graeca descripsi (a) ».
At this point our Information gives out. We do not know when
Cyriacus left Sparta nor by what route. Since the next item in
Moroni is a new version of the Isthmus oracle, it is possible that Cy­
riacus, who had visited the Isthmus on 22 April, 1436 (3), returned
(1) Mo., p. 40, bottom : from a letter to the priest, Daniël. It occurs alter
the entries for Sparta instead of in its proper place, before them. The letter
is also published in Itinerarium, pp. 71-72.
(2) Mo., p. 37, bottom, and nn. 246-262. Theodore Palaeologus Porphyro­
genitus was the son of Emperor Manuel II and brother of Constantine. He
ruled in Mistra from 1407, succeeding Theodore I, son of the Emperor John
Palaeologus.
(3) Cf. above p. 41.
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 49
there again in 1437 and recopied the text of the oracle C1). But,
since the second version seems to be a literary elaboration of the
inscribed text, he could have copied it elsewhere — in Mistra, for
example.
3. —- Interim (1438-1444)
We next hear from Cyriacus in Ancona, 17 September, 1438,
where he is filling the office of sevir (12),3 and he is still there on
27 December of the same year, the date of a letter which he wrote
to a Lodovico Scarampo (3). During the years 1438-1439 he was
much in evidence at Florence, where the council for the reunion
of the churches was taking place. This, together with the idea of
a crusade agaïnst the Turks, was one of his pet projects. An added
attraction was the presence of Georgius Gemistus Pietho and the
great Bessarion ; indeed, Pletho’s neo-pagan, neo-Platonic seances
kept the Italian humanists in a fever of excitement during the
council (4). In 1440 he was again sevir in Ancona, during which
term of office he composed the treaty which was concluded between
(1) Mo., n. 263. This inscription occurs twice in De Sieder’s ms. — after
Mo.’s n. 123 and at the very end. The heading for the earlier version is In
moenibus ad Isthmon peloponessiacum. For the later one, the heading is the
same as in Moroni: Epigramma ad Peloponesiacum Isthmon quod oraculum
Delphis ab Apolline Pythio responsum fertur. The first version is shorter,
the second much fuller. In the Parmensis the same two headings occur, the
first between Megara and Corinth, the second mingled with the Spartan in-
scriptions of 1437. It seems likely that Cyriacus made two copies of the
same inscription, and that the first, because it seemed imperfect, was dropped
out deliberately, either by Moroni or by the writer of his manuscript. The
second copy could have been made during the trip of 1437, either in Mistra
or on his return journey after he left Mistra. This would account for its
position in Moroni, after the Spartan inscriptions, and, in Parmensis, among
them. In De Sieder it occurs after two Spartan inscriptions which Cyriacus
did not copy until 1447-8 (cf. below). On this later trip Cyriacus did in fact
go to Corinth, and could have gone over to the Isthmus; but, since there are
no vestiges of this trip in Parmensis, it is more likely that it isu survival of
the 1437 journey and that De Sieder, desiring to keep the Spartan inscrip­
tions together, changed the order. Cf. my article in AJA, 64 (1960), 165-171.
(2) Mo., pp. 41-42 : a letter to Francisco Scalamonti ex publica Anconitano-
ram Sexviratus Aula. This is followed in Moroni by a Latin translation of
the Greek inscription of the temple of Rome and Augustus in Athens (Greek
text, Mo., n. 72) and by three inscriptions from Ancona (Mo., nn. 264-266).
(3) Itinerarium, pp. 77-79.
(4) DR, pp. 364-365 ; J. E. Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship,
Vol. II, Gambridge, 1908, p. 60. For Pietho see Fraricois Masai, Pléthon et
te Platonisme de Mistra, Paris, 1956.
4
50 CYRIACUS OF ANGONA AND ATHENS
Ancona and Ragusa (1). October 8th, 1441, is the date of his letter
to Pope Eugenius IV, the letter -which goes under the name of the
Ilinerarium (2). The unsuccessful object of the letter was to obtain
for himself the position of papal legate to Africa and India. At the
beginning of 1442 he is in Ancona, but from April to July he is back
in Florence conferring with the Pope. Between August, 1442, and
March, 1443, he is scouring Tuscany, Liguria, Flaminia, and Piceno (3),
and in October, 1443, he is at the siege of Asculum with King Al-
fonso of Aragon. It was about this time that Cyriacus announced
his intention of visiting Spain (4).
4. — Return to Athens (1444)
In the same year he was back again in Illyria and Achaea, and
in February, 1444, he returned to Athens (5). This second Athenian
(1) DR, p. 365.
(2) Cf. above, note 2 on p. 21.
(3) DR, pp. 365-366. A copy of the Commentaria for this last journey was
found by P. Compagnoni and edited by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri, Com-
mentariorum Cyriaci Anconitani nova fragmenta notis illustrata, Pesaro, 1763.
This codex is now lost, as is a similar one used by Suaresius (17th century)
in his Codex Vaticanus, 9140, f. 282 ff. A contracted version exists in the
Codex Neopolitanus, V. E. 18 (15th century, anonymous). It is generally as-
sumed that this part of the Commentaria went by the title, Tuscorum atque
Ligurum, for this is the way that Suaresius speaks of it, DR, ibid. Mention is
made in it that Cyriacus copied inscriptions in the house of the Episcopus
Patavinus, i.e. Pietro Donato. Perhaps it was at this time that he wrote the
Hamilton autograph.
(4) It is a matter of dispute whether he ever got there. DR, p. 374a, thinks
he did, and that the spurious Spanish inscriptions which are attributed to him
in the syllogae of the 15th century really came from his pen ; minime deci-
piente, sed decepto fraude ludificatoris. De Rossi’s chief reason for this posi­
tion seems to he his belief that CIL, II, 149* is a joke about Cyriacus’ travel­
ling which the traveller himself did not comprehend : ... Heliodorus insanus
carthaginiensis ad extremum orbis sarcophago me hoe iussi condier ut viderem
si me quisquam insanior ad me visendum usque ad haec loca penetraverit. On
the Spanish inscriptions, see Huebner, CIL, II, pp. v-vi. If Cyriacus did go
to Spain, it could not have been until after 1448.
(5) DR, pp. 366-367. Our Information about the years 1444-1447 derives
largely from a series of letters which he wrote during this period. Most of
them are addressed to Andreolo Giustiniani, of Chios, an island which he ap-
parently used as his base of operations. The letters were transcribed and col-
lected from the autographs in the 15th century, and this collection was found
by Targioni-Tozzetti, who published them in his Relazioni d’alcuni viaggi
fatti in diverse porti delta Toscana, 1773, Vol. 5, pp. 66-69, 408-461. The
publication is in the form of generous excerpts. The ms. from which the pub-
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 51
visit produced a letter of great interest to our present inquiry. Since
it is not easy to obtain the text in print (1), it is worthwhile repro-
ducing the entire letter here. The first section is a description of
the Horologium of Andronicus, the so-called « Tower of the Winds »:
« Revisimus & Octogonam Eoliam de Marmore Aedem, octo aligeras
Ventorum imagines, suis cum insignibus mira fabrefactam arte con-
sculptas, summis angulorum parietibus habentem, & quaelibet imago
suum desuper nomen magnis Attico de more litteris habet, ut prope con-
speximus ZE&YP02. AVP. NO TOL. EYPOL. AIIHAIO THL.
BOPEAL. ATIAPK TIAS. OPA SKIAS „ (2).
lished excerpts were made is the former Codex Palatinus Florentinus, n. 49,
now the Codex Magliabecchianus Palat., 49. Another source is ms. n. 555 of
the Biblioteca Capitolare of Lucca, which contains letters to the Emperor John
and to Giuliano Cesarini. It was his failure to consult the full manuscript
collection of the letters and the Codex Lucensis, says DR, p. 366b, which caused
Mommsen to err in his attempted reconstruction of the journeys of 1444-1447
(CIL, III, pp. 129-131).
Regarding the date of Cyriacus’ arrival in Athens, we have several points
of reference. We know from his letter to the Emperor John that he navigated
the Achaean sea in February, 1444. And we know from letter n. 3 in the
Targioni-Tozzetti group, which described his stay in Athens, that he was in
Chios on 29 March, 1444. The year is not given, but the day is designated as
Kyriaceo die. Mommsen was guilty of over-subtlety in deducing that this meant
« Cyriacus’ day », which, because of Cyriacus’ devotion to Mercury, would be
Wednesday. Thus he dated the letter from Chios in 1447, when 29 March
occurred on a Wednesday, and the Athenian visit was placed in the same year.
DR, p. 367a, note 1, has shown that the expression is used a number of times
by Cyriacus to refer to Sunday, «the Lord’s day ». The 29th of March feil
on Sunday in 1444.
(1) Tozzetti, p. 439 ff. ; Michaelis, Der Rarfhenon, Leipzig, 1871, Text vol.,
p. 352 ; Curt Wachsmuth, Die Stadt Athen im Altertum, Vol. I, Leipzig, 1874,
pp. 728-730 (has all but the last sentence).
(2) The Cod. Ham. Berol, 254, f. 87, which is part of the section in Cyria­
cus’ own hand, contains faint tracés of a drawing of this monument. It is
labelled : Templum aeoli athenis in medio ci(oitatis) marmoreu(m) habe(n)s.
VIII. facies cum imaginibus ventor(um) magnis atque arte conspicuis. The names
of the same eight winds are written on the building thus :
AYP
NO TOS
EYPOS
AIIHAIO THS
AHAPK
TI
A
S
BOPEAS. OPASKIAS. ZFTYPOS
 52 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
He then speaks of the Propylaea, which at this time was incorporated
into the palace of Nerio Acciajuoli of Florence, then Prince of Athens :
« Et cum ad Nerium Acciaiolum Florentinum, & Athenarum ea tem-
pestate Principem, una cum suo Germano Nerio me contulissem, Eum
in Acropoli summa Cfvitatis Arce comperimus (1). Sed quod magis
adnotare placuit, cum Eiusdem praecellentis Aulae Nobilissimum Opus
diligentius adspexissem, vidimus eiusdem mirificam Porticum quatuor
expolitis de Marmore columnis, decemque desuper ex ordine Marmoreis
Trabibus constare. Sed postquam ad ipsam & praecipuam venimus
Aulam, sex ingentes bino ordine Columnas, trium pedum diametri lati-
tudine, Marmorea Laquearia, vigintiquatuorque terno ordine Trabes
polito utique de marmore substentabant; quaelibet vero Trabes p. 24
longitude, latitude vero 3. fuisse videntur : Et ipsae utique Nobiles
de Marmore parietes, aequa magnitudine expoliti lapidis constant, ad
quas per unicam ingentem & mirificam portam patet ingressus ».
But his chief interest was centered on the Parthenon :
« Sed potissimum eadem ipsa in praeclara Arce iterum revisere, ac
omni ex parte diligentius vestigare malueram nobilissimam illam divae
Palladis Aedem, quam solido & expolito Marmore, Phidiae mirificum
opus extitisse, Aristoteles ad Alexandrum Regem, Pliniusque noster,
& alii plerique nobiles testantur Auctores. — Exstat vero nostram ad
diem eximium illud, & mirabile Templum, Octo & L. sublime Columnis,
XII. scilicet ab utroque fronte, VI. videlicet in medio duplici ordine,
& extra parietes in lateribus, ab utraque parte XVII. numero, quae­
libet magnitudine diametri p. V. & inter ipsas hinc inde pro lateribus
Col[umnas] & praeclari parietes deambulatoria VIII. pedum amplitu-
dine constant: habent & Columnae desuper Epistilia longitudine p. VIIII.
cum dimidio, altitudine vero IIII. in quis Thessalica Centaurorum et
Above are written the Greek names of all twelve winds with their Latin trans-
lations or transliterations. In the margin another hand, probably that of
Pietro Donato, has written a quotation from Vitruvius, De Architecture,
Book I, ch. 6, section 4, on the tower built by Andronicus of Cyrrha. Sg, f. 29,
preserves a copy of the drawing. On the front of the building, above an abnor-
mally small door, is written : Templum eoli in medio ciuitatis marmorem [sic]
ornatissimumque habe(n)s. VIII. facies cu(m) imaginib(us) ue(n)tor(um) magnis
atque arte conspicuis. The names of the winds are arranged similarly to
the arrangement in the Hamilton autograph. Since the Hamilton ms. was
composed before the second trip to Athens, the drawing belongs to the first
visit, in April, 1436, but it is not possible to locate its proper position in the
sequence of entries pertaining to that sojourn.
(1) Setton, Catalans, p. 234 : « ... The Latin Castrum has become the
Acropolis for the first time, perhaps, as far as a writer of Latin is concerned,
for a thousand years, the first important use of the word in the whole of Latin
letters! ».
/
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 53
Laphitarum pugnae mirifice consculptae videntur, & in summis parietum
listis duorum fere cubitum a Cacumine discretas, Athenarum Periclis
tempore victorias Artifex ille peregregie fabrefecerat, pene decennis
Pueri staturae. In frontibus vero tota re velaminis demersione [sic]
magnis colosseisve simulachris Hominum & Equorum tam ingentis De-
lubri ornamenta, atque decora alta videntur. Cuiusce magnificentissimi
Operis figuram hisce nostris & hac tempestate per Graeciam Commen-
tariis, quod licuit reponendam curavimus » (l).
The letter concludes :
«Et hodie 4. Kal. Aprilium, fausto sereno Kyriaceoque die, apud Chyum
Asianam insignem Egeo in Pelago Insulam, & dilectissimam nobis Vr-
bem, Andreolo lustiniano Amico incomparabili nostro, & Viro rerum
omnigenarum peritissimo curiosissimoque, dignissime atque liberalis-
sime dedimus » (2).
5. — Travels in the Aegean (1444-1447)
On February 26, 1444, Cyriacus left Chalcis for Chios (3), and on
29 March of the same year he wrote the letter from Chios which we
have just cited. On 31 May he is in Adrianople with the Sultan,
and on 24 June he discussed the war against the Turks with Em-
peror John Palaeologus. This was in Pera, where he also took time
to describe the antiquities of the Thracian Bosporus (4). From July
(1) The last remark caused De Rossi (p. 367) to erect a theory of a lost sec­
tion of the Commentaria entitled per Graeciam. Mehus, Ad Ambrosii Traver-
sari ep. praef. I, p. 26, says he saw at Florence in the Marcian library of the
Dominicans a twenty-four page paper codex in quarto entitled : Inscriptiones
quaedam ex marmoreis basibus, tabulis columnarum et sepulcris ex Graecia
altatae, which may have been an epitome of the Commentaria per Graeciam,
for inserted in the midst of the Greek inscriptions was a twelve-line poem written
by Theodore Gaza of Salonike and dedicated to Cyriacus on 6 November, 1443
(cf. Olivieri, Nova Fragmenta, p. 37). De Rossi searched in vain for this
codex. He did find, however, a manuscript of Felice Feliciano of Verona at
Milan in the possession of a certain Labus. It contained on ff. 73-78 some epi-
graphical excerpts from the per Graeciam, it seems. This manuscript is un-
happily now lost (cf. Sabbadini, Miscellanea Ceriani, p. 241, note 3).
(2) During this same visit Cyriacus made sketches of the reliefs on the He-
phaesteum, rough copies of which are preserved in the Codex Monacensis
latinus, 716, written by Hartmann Schedel and containing mostly excerpts
from the Commentaria pertaining to Cyriacus’ journeys through the Cyclades
in 1445. The Identification was made by Otto Jahn in Bulletino dell’ Insti-
tuto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, 1861, pp. 191-192.
(3) As we know from a letter to Emperor John VI which is in the Codex
Lucensis, 555. See above, note 5 on p. 50-51, and DR, p. 366.
(4) DR, pp. 366, 368.
54 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
to December he scoured Thrace, Propontis, the shores of Asia
Minor, and Samothrace (1). At Mt. Athos he obtained a manuscript
of Plutarch’s Moralia which still exists (12) and made a list of the
books he saw in the monastery (3). During November and Decem­
ber he paid several visits to Thasos (4).
In January, 1445, he left Thasos for Aenum, whence he sent a
letter on 19 January. The Commentaria for April of this year per-
taining to the Cyclades are preserved in Hartmann Schedel’s copy
mentioned above (5). From July to November, 1445, Crete was
the scene of Cyriacus' activities (6).
On 29 January, 1446, he left Chios for Miletus, then went on to
Samos and Ephesus. From February to April he visited Crete,J Chios,
Lesbos, Cardamyla, Mytilene, and Phocaea. On 7 April he was
in Lydia visiting Murad II, but on the 25th he was back in Les­
bos. May 6 found him again in Phocaea, and May 11 in Thrace.
He was in Pera in August, then sailed through the Pontic Sea and
the Hellespont and returned to Constantinople December 8th (7).
On 25 January, 1447, he was still in Constantinople waiting for
the completion of a Strabo manuscript that was being copied for
him by his friend, Agallianos, a deacon (8). This same month saw
(1) Cf. Karl Lehmann, Cyriacus of Ancona, Aristotle, and Teiresias in Samo­
thrace in Hesperia, 12 (1943), pp. 115-134, Plates II-XI.
(2) Codex Vaticanus graecus, 1309 ; DR, pp. 370-371, where the number
given is 1389.
(3) Cod. Vat. gr., 1309, ff. 210v-211'', a note in the hand of a 15th-century
purchaser of the manuscript. It is reproduced in DR, p. 370b, note 1. Cf.
below, p. 70.
(4) DR, pp. 370-371. See E. Jacobs, Die Thasiaca des Cyriacus von An­
cona im Codex Vaticanus 3250, in AM, 22 (1897), pp. 113-138.
(5) DR, pp. 371-372; cf. above, note 2 on p. 53.
(6) DR, p. 372.
(7) DR, pp. 372-373.
(8) This codex now exists in two parts. Books 1-10 form the Codex Eto-
nensis, 141 ; books 11-16, Codex Laurentianus, 28, 15. Cyriacus wrote scholia
in the margin of the book, which he seems to have carried around with him
thereafter, and among these scholia are eleven inscriptions (ten of them in
the Etonensis). For an excellent discussion of this manuscript and its history
see Richard Koerster, Zur Handschriftenkunde und Geschichte der Philologie,
iv: Cyriacus von Ancona zu Strabon in Rheinisches Museum, N.F., 51 (1896),
pp. 481-491. Cf. also Erich Ziebarth, Die Strabon-Scholien des Cyriakus von
Ancona in AM, 23 (1898), pp. 196-201, and the description of the Etonensis
in Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in
the Library of Eton College, Cambridge, 1895, pp. 67 ff. During the following
winter, as he travelled the Peloponnesus, Cyriacus had his Strabo with him.
At least four of the inscriptions written in the margin belong to this trip and
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 55
him in Gallipoli. In February he visited Tenedos, Phocaea, Chios,
Imbros, Lemnos, and Ephesus. During April and May he was again
in Chios (1).
6. — Return to the Peloponnesus (1447-1448)
The Peloponnesian journey of 1447-1448 produced the only sur-
viving portion of the Commentaria in Cyriacus’ own hand. All
other autographs of Cyriacus are excerpts made from his book as
gifts for his friends, but the Codex Ambrosianus-Trotti, 373, ff. 101-
125, is a part of the book itself (2). The account is not without
there are numerous references to Strabo in the Trotti manuscript, a surviving
section of his Commentaria for this period (see below, note 2 ; p. 62-63, note 2).
At Mistra, during the winter of 1447-1448, he compared his text with that
of Georgius Gemistus Pletho, copying out excerpts from it for Pletho and fill-
ing in its lacurfae from Pletho’s text. Cf. Aubrey Diller, The Autographs of
Georgius Gemistus Pletho in Scriptorium, 10 (1956), pp. 27-41. For a parallel
instance of scholia-inscriptions see Louisa Banti, Iscrizioni di Filippi copiate
da Ciriaco Anconitano nel codice Vaticano Latino 10672 in Annuario delta
r. scuola archeologica di Atene, n. s. 1-2 (1939-1940), 213-220.
(1) DR, pp. 373-374.
(2) The Trotti manuscript was discovered and superbly published by Re-
migio Sabbadini, Ciriaco d’Ancona e la sua descrizione autografa del Pelopon-
neso trasmessa da Leonardo Botta in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan, 1910, pp.
183-243 (hereafter referred to as « Misc. Cer. »). The entire text, including
the sketches, appears on pp. 203-232. Many of the inscriptions had been un-
published previously, but later appeared in IG, V (see our Table XII,p. 202f.).
In 1933 Sabbadini’s monograph was reprinted in Classici eUmanisti daCodici
Ambrosiani, Fontes Ambrosiani, II, Florence, pp. 1-48, where the references
to IG, V, were added, but the reproductions of the sketches were left out.
See below, Chapter 2, pp. 117-118. The citations from the Trotti ms. in our
account are taken directly from the ms., not from Misc. Cer. The abbrevia-
tions of the ms. text have been expanded, however, and, although Cyriacus
has a penchant for introducing capita! letters in the middle of a word (espe-
cially B, L, R and T), this idiosyncrasy has not been reproduced in our cita­
tions. A portion of this ms. is discussed by Paul Wolters, Cyriacus in My-
kene und am Tainaron in AM, 40 (1915), 91-105.
For a time it was thought that the Codex Vaticanus, 5237, ff. 513-520, was
also a portion of the Commentaria. Also an autograph, it contains the Latin
inscription from the arch in Ancona {CIL, IX, 5894), inscriptions from Crete,
epigrams in honor of Cyriacus, and coin-legends. De Rossi noticed, however,
that the Ancona inscription was invariably placed by Cyriacus at the head
of the collections of excerpts which he made for his friends (cf. above, p. 20).
It begins the collection which he made for Bishop Donato. It is the first in­
scription in the Strabo codex. A Venetian manuscript (Codex Marcianus grae-
PLATE Y 57
CHAP. I —■ CYRIAGUS AND THE GREEK WORLD

lacunae (at least one page is missing, perhaps more), and the pages
became disordered very early, but the proper order is easily dis-
cerned, and the whole manuscript is instructive for one who is at-
tempting to understand the method and format of Cyriacus’ book (1).

The first entry is for 30 July, 1447 (f. 103):

« ... ex Laconica Leontinaria [i.e., Leondari] arce illustris thomae pa-
laeologi despotis (a) comitatus famulxs spartanos taygeti montis ad colles
venimus vbi secus antiquam & olim nobilem Lacedaemonum vrbem
fere XXX. stadijs distantem arduis in ripis situm est inexpugnabile
oppidum quod hodie onaQTopovvrjv /ivaiatQdrrjVTe [i.e., Mistra] dicunt.
Vbi Constantinum cognometo dragas ex Regia palaeologum prosapia
despotem inclytum regnantem Inuenimus (3). & apud eum Insignem
illum virum & nostro quidem aeuo graecorum doctissimum & vita mo-
ribusque & doctrina platonicos inter philosophum quoque clarum &
potissimum vt ita loquar cuius ergo venimus reuisi» (4).

cus Bessarionis, 481), which bas excerpts from Cyriacus (four Cretan inscrip-
tions), also begins with the arch. Finally, the Codex Laurentianus, 80, 22,
ff. 325-328, which contains a short collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions
of Cyriacus sent to Francesco Filelfo, also begins with the same inscription,
the study of which had launched Cyriacus’ epigraphical career. De Rossi
concluded from this evidence that Cyriacus generally began his excerpts with
this inscription : tamquam notam propriam auctoris. On this criterion, then,
the Vatican autograph must be called a collection of excerpts and not a part
of the Commentaries. DR, pp. 375b-376a.
(1) The correct order was reconstructed by Sabbadini: ff. 101, 103, 104,
123, 111, 109, 110, 107, 105, 112, 116, 122, 121, 106, 108, 120, 118, 119, 117,
113, 114, 115, 102, 124, 125. This same disorder is reflected in the excerpts
which Moroni has on pp. 42-44 : they follow the Trotti text verbatim (except
for the failure to reproduce two corrections and for the absence of one sketch,
where Moroni says : Deest icon) from the top of f. 108 through f. 109 to almost
the bottom of f. 110r, although f. 108 clearly belongs further on in the narra-
tive. Since the manuscript used by Moroni was probably very early, the dis­
order must have been introduced into the autograph even earlier. Cf. below,
p. 60 and note 2, and Chapter 2, pp. 82, 84, 86.
(2) Thomas Palaeologus was a son of Emperor Manuel II. From 1432-1460
he was Prince of Achaea with his residence at Clarentza. Cf. Misc. Cer., p.
203, note 3.
1 (3) Constantine Palaeologus, another son of Manuel II, was Despot of the
| Morea from 1428-1448 ; in 1430 he occupied Patras ; in 1443 he obtained Corinth
j and Mistra. After the death of his brother, the Emperor John VIII, on 3 October,
J 1448, he was proclaimed Emperor (6 January, 1449). He was the last Emperor
! of the Byzantines. Cf. Misc. Cer., p. 203, note 4.
(4)Georgius Gemistus Pletho, who spent his last days at the court of
Constantine in Mistra. He died in 1450. Cf. Misc. Cer., p. 203, note 5.
58 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
He also met the son of an old Athenian friend, Georgios Calcocan-
dele (or Calcondila). The son, whose name was Nicholas, was also
a humanist, egregie latinis atque graecis litteris eruditum.
On 2 August, accompanied by Nicholas, he revisited the ancient
monuments of Sparta and copied seven inscriptions (ff. 103v-104),
five of which he had recorded during hls first visit to Sparta, ten
years before (1):
«... vna comitatus dilectissimo Atheniense iuuene prefato Chalcoca-
dele. Ad antiqua & celerrima lila spartanae ciuitatis monumenta re-
uisenda venimus. cum nee equidem vidisse semel satis fuerat. iuuabat
sed usque morari. & primum antiquum & Insigne illud suum & memo-
rabile Gymnasium reuisi. solido de marmore fabraefactum & mira olim
architectorum ope conspicuum quanquam hodie Longi temporis Labe,
ac Ingnaua [sic] posterum accolarum hominum Incuria magna ex parte
collapsum atque dirutum comperimus. Sed non Longe plerasque vidi-
mus nobilium quorundam gymnasiorum principum & prefectorum In­
signes & marmoreas statuarum bases quarum eximia quae adextant
graecis & exactissimis litteris epigrammata hisce reponendum curamus »
(f. 103).
Next (f. 111) we find him in Ithome, where he describes a theater
and a hippodrome and records having seen « many remarkable mins
of houses and sacred buildings, groups of fallen columns, statue-
hases and epistyles adorned with figures, and fragments of statues ».
He copied two inscriptions, one of which he later transferred to
the margin of his Strabo manuscript (12).
On 4 October (f. lllv) he left Ithome bound for Corone, messa-
nae antiquissimae vrbis paucis extantibus nempe reliquijs ex itinere
visis, and on 9 October (f. 109) reached his destination. He notes
that Corone was one of the seven cities promised by Agamemnon
to Achilles as a dowry, though Homer called it Pedasus (3), and
that now it is a Venetian colony in charge of one Maffio Bollani (4).5
On 15 October (f. 110) he embarked for the promontory of Tae-
narum (6):
« ... messaniaco transiecto sinu, ad antiquam messaniacam pylon
venimus. quam longeui Nestoris memoranda extitisse patria, non
nullis ab autoribus memoratur. ... »
(1) Mo., nn. 251, 249, 247, 252, 246. In each case the line-division and
some of the readings differ in Mo. and in Trotti.
(2) Codex Etonensis, f. 223a.
(3) Iliad, 9, line 152.
(4) Bollani went into office at Corone 23 April, 1447 ■— one way of dating
the year of Cyriacus’ account. Cf. Misc. Cer., p. 207, note 5.
(5) For the journey on Taenarum see P. Wolters, AM, 40 (1915), 100-105.
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 59
This spot, almost a hundred stadia from the tip of the promontory,
was, of course, far from Nestor’s Pylos, but not more than five
stadia away from the shore was the ancient citadel of Vitylo, where
he met one John Palaeologus, pro spartano principe Constantino
praefectum..., who showed him the ancient materials out of which
the fortification was partialiy built and helped him to discover an
inscription of the Emperor Gordian which identified the place as
«Bitylon » (l).
He then sailed down the western coast of Taenarum ad villam
drgeam (probably the village of Dry in the eparchy of Oitylon),
where he sketched a marble statue, then, after visiting another
village (Kharia) ten stadia away (f. 107), put in near the tip of the
promontory, at Kypariso (Taenarum):
«... ad antiquas Cyparisseae nunc ab Incolis vocitatae ciuitatis reli-
quias. ... non Cyparisseam ut aiebant, quin & taenariam vetustam &
olim nobilem Laconicam coloniam extitisse [corrected from fuisse] pleri-
que Ibidem compertis inscriptionibus cognoui. ... (f. 107v) »
There follow'eleven inscriptions, three of which are still extant (2).
Nearby, at Porto Quaglio (f. 116v), he recorded a pair of inscrip­
tions, one of them written Cadmeis (i.e., Corinthian) litteris, and in-
vestigated a cave ex quo Cerberum ab Inferis divum Herculem ab-
straxisse ferunt (f. 122), noting, however, that Heraclea Perinthus,
in Thrace, had its own candidate for this distinction,
« & locum illum anno nondum exacto conspeximus, vt et superius
nostra ex nauigatione pontica memoratum est» (3).
After this he returned to « Dryea», then proceeded by land across
the peninsula to Amathea on the Laconic Gulf :
« Postea equidem dryea villa reuisa & ex ea deinde per eiusdem tae-
narii promuntorii partes, Indigenis comitatus colonis pedes, plerisque
per iter secus messaniacum sinum oiiuiferis villis inspectis, tandem per
vallem quam inter taygeti montis colles, ipsius taenarii promuntorii
(1) Ff. 109-110 occur in Mo., pp. 42-44, as noted above, but two of the
Corone inscriptions, which were on sketches, are missing, along with the Vi­
tylo inscription. The latter was later transcribed in the margin of the Strabo
ms. (Codex Etonensis, f. 222b).
(2) One of the extant inscriptions and one of the others found their way
into the margin of the Strabo manuscript (Codex Etonensis, ff. 224b and 226a).
The inscriptions are on ff. 107v, 105, 112, and 116r of the Trotti ms.
(3) This nauigatio Pontica took place at the end of 1446. DR, p. 373. He
and others (cf. references in Robert, REG, 71 [1958], p. 187, n. 45) thought
that the Heraclea mentioned was Heraclea on the Euxine Sea, but Robert
(ibid.) points out that Cyriacus copied a whole series of twelve inscriptions at
Heraclea Perinthus, on the northern coast of the Sea of Marmora, in Thrace.

60 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Laconicum a messaneaco sinu desterminantibus [sic] Isthmon facit,
Laconicum ad Littus venimus. Ybi primum paruo in cheroneso Ama-
theae ciuitatis reliquias, equidem exiguas vidimus. ... (f. 122v) ».
At the citadel of Amathea, Phlomochori (f. 121), which Cyriacus
called Colochitea, he recorded an inscription and he sketched a
sarcophagus which he found in the city itself. From Amathea he
went on up to Karyopolis and thence to Las (he called it Asinea)
(f. 121v). The next stop was Gythium :
« Ex ea nero ad diem posteram Gythion venimus egregiam olim In
Laconico Littore ciuitatem & nobile Lacedaemonum Vrbis Nauale, du-
centa ferme & XL. stadia ab ipsa spartana ciuitate disiunctum ».
At Gythium were the extensive remains of the naval station, which
Cyriacus described, along with a theater, the ruins of some build­
ings and of a bath & quas vulgum hodie ignarum menelai palatiu
appellasse comperimus (1). From Gythium he travelled north to
I Arcaseam ... villam spartanam ..., In planiciem ad orientales tay-
geti montis radices... (f. 106), thence to Mistra:
« At & Gum equidem inde gemistei platonici dilectissimi nostri gratia,
Laconicam mysithratem reuisissem, & procul ex itinere Laconicorum
ruinas nobilium quondam oppidorum animo reuoluendo considerans,
existimabam quippe quod & si nobiles antiquas illas insignes & ornatis-
simas Vrbes, undique fere per orbem collapsas penitus nostro tempore
uel deletas videre dolendum esset. aegro magis animo ferendum cense-
bam miserabilem ipsam bumani generis calamitatem, quod et non tam
grauiter conspicua illa mundi oppida. sacra ue superis mirifica templa
speciosaque simulachra. ac alia humanae quidem [f. 106v] potentiae
atque artis. eximia ornamenta a prisco suo splendore cecidisse videmus.
quam deteriorem in modum per omnes fere mundi regiones, humanam
illam priscam virtutem & animi inclytam probitatem corruisse visum,
ac ubi olim magis floruerant. magis atque magis abierant. Nam et
generosum atque inclytum illud spartanum genus. ... »
There follows a lament over the fall of Spartan probitas. The pic­
ture is not altogether black, however :
« ... natura tarnen loei non penitus defecta videtur. cum ex se quando-
que hommes gignit, suapte natura probos & ad uirtutem habiles atque
idoneos ».
The passage which follows is a demonstration of this last remark (3) :
« Namque hodie dum Arcasana ex villa ad ipsam spartanam mysi­
thratem iter haberemus, nostros inter comités, spartanum quempiam
(1) Here we lack two drawings of nobilium statuarum fragmenta, quorum
eximias binas ipsum prope theatrum hisce quoadlicuit designandum delegi, and
some of the descriptive text.
(2) It occurs also in Mo., pp. 42-43, but without the preliminary philoso-
phizing which renders its opening connective (Namque) intelligible.
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 61
vidimus iuuenem, statura proceri ac sane formosum Georgium Chiro-
donta scilicet apridenteum cognomine dictum. ipsum etenim quandoque
per silvas inter venandp, ferocem occurrentem apmm saltu dorso de-
super incumbentem. forti manu solo prosteratum [sic, corrected from
prosternatum] ferany exanimasse ferunt. ... me quoque solatii loco &
suae probitatis declarandae gratia ad cuiusdam parui fluminis ripam.
manu prendens, sub brachio ad ulteriorem amnis partem incolumem
deposuerat. & ad proximam villam, manu ferream & tridigitum Latitu-
dine virgam detorquens. diuersas in partes scidisse [corrected from scin-
disse] Conspeximus (f. 108)».
It was at this point, he says, as he approached the ruins of the
great old city, that Calliope inspired him to compose in Italian an
ode to Sparta O :
« Praeterea cum ad ipsam Spartanam arcem propinquius accederemus
& campos aurotaeque fluminis ripas atque verenda Loca vbi Lacedae­
monum ciuitas tam memoranda fuerat immensis adhuc undique con-
spersa ruinis procul attonitus aspexissem : illico Collapsam e Caelo Ca-
liopen, talia meo nomine Latio quoque nostro & Laepidissimo Idiomate
Canentem audiui».
Cyriacus seems to have stayed at Mistra during the winter of 1447-
1448. It was probably at this time that he copied into his Commen-
taria an excerpt êx rfjg tieqï töjv 'Qwwv èöcodfjg vnodéaewg (f. 120) and
part of a commentary on the Prognostica of Hippocrates (ff. 118,
119, 117) (12). Here, too, on 4 February, 1448, he composed an ac­
count of the Roman calendar for the Despot, Constantine (3). The
same winter produced an extraordinary document which is still
extant in Cyriacus’ hand. It is an account, in Greek, of the Bellum
Troianum of Dictys Cretensis, telling how, in Nero’s time, a lead
sarcophagus was unearthed by a Cretan farmer, in which he found
(1) This ode and its preface also appear in Mo., p. 43, but in the Trotti ms.
the ancient proper names are glossed between the lines in Greek.
(2) This commentary is attributed to Damaskios Philosophus in Codex
Vaticanus graecus, 2154. In Codex Laurentianus graecus, 59, 14, and in the
Codices Ambrosiani, L 30 sup., and S 19 sup., the author is given as Stephanus
the Athenian (7th century). The commentary was published by Cardinal
Angelo Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, V, cf. p. xxn-xxm. Misc. Cer., p. 223,
note 4.
(3) This exists in autograph as a binion in the Codex Marcianus, 517, ff.
129-132, and has been published by Giorgio Castellani, Un traité inédit en
grec de Cyriaque d’Ancöne in Revue des Études grecques, 9 (1896), pp. 225-230.
It is written «in various scripts, majuscule and minuscule, and various inks,
red, yellow, green » (Diller, Scriptorium, 10 [1956], p. 32). Cyriacus writes
the date thus : ££ tö tiqovóvcov (pefigovagimv evrvxèg hapTigdv xal xvQiaxfjv
fjpÉQa (sic). Now, 4 February feil on Sunday in 1448.
62 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
a document written in Phoenician script by a certain Dictys of
Crete who had fought in the Trojan War along with Idomeneus.
This was translated into Latin and the Italians have this book in
their literature. The text goes on :
oilrcog dnriyyei/.ev rjfiïv KvQiaxög ó il- ’Ayxwvog,
dvfiQ a^ioTiiarazog xai dlAco? xaXóq xdyadög, <pd-
jusvog xai atiróg eysiv rr/v ftt/HAov.
There follows a précis of the story as it was heard from Cyriacus (1).
At about the same time Cyriacus’ ode to Sparta was translated
into Greek, possibly by his friend, Pletho (2).
(1) Mo., p. 42. This identical passage, written in Cyriacus’ hand, was dis-
covered recently by Aubrey Diller in the same Codex Marcianus, 517, in which
the above-mentioned account of the Roman calendar is to be found, and on
the same kind of paper. It is on ff. 118-119 : « ... a bifolium of thick paper in
the hand, strange to say, of Ciriaco d’Ancona, with a correction by Pletho,
written doubtless in the winter of 1447-8, when Ciriaco visited Mistra. F. 118
begins with the words dyaQfji rv^Tji in yellow, then a title : "On 68irr]g XQrjg
nQwzog rdv tqcoixöv TioXepov ovvéyQayjev and text summarizing the Latin
Dictys (Hardt, Y, 119-121) ostensibly reported to the author by Ciriaco. ...
The error óöiTpg for ó óixxvg is corrected by Pletho in lines 4-5 by inserting
the words óixxvog rj. If Ciriaco was the informant and Pletho the author,
we should expect the röles reversed : Pletho in the text and Ciriaco in the
correction. Ciriaco must have had a copy of his own, for the opuscuhim lacking
the correction, was published from a lost ms. of his in ... [here Mo., p. 42, is
cited]. It occurs in the apographs of Mare., 517 and was blithely copied into
the Violarium of Eudocia (pp. 677, 16 - 679 8, ed. Flach) and figures amus-
ingly in the controversy over the authenticity of that work (RE, 11 [1907]
912 f., s.v. Eudokia). » (Diller, art. cit., pp. 30-31). The text in Mo. lacks
the dyadfji xvxrp and the title quotedby Diller. It is interesting to note that,
in an autograph copy of the Latin text of Dictys, Cyriacus spells the name of
the author: « Ditis ». See Fava, La scrittura libraria..., tav. 15. Since the
Codex Marcianus, 517, as a whole is an autograph of Georgius Gemistus Pletho,
the Greek to whom the story was related by Cyriacus must have been he, and
not Calcondila, as Sabbadini, Misc. Cer., p. 238, note 1, supposed. Why,
then, is the document in Cyriacus’ hand and not in Pletho’s? A possibility
is that Pletho dictated it to his Italian friend, who made two copies, one for
himself, one for Pletho (who later saw and corrected the mistake in the spelling
of Dictys’ name). It must have been Cyriacus’ uncorrected copy which fur-
nished the model for the version in Moroni’s exemplar. That Cyriacus was
working hard at his Greek composition at this time is attested by the opuscu-
lum on the Roman calendar (the good Greek of which may be due to Pletho’s
coaching) and by the fact that he translated into Greek his own account of
a trip to Corinth in the following April (Trotti ms., ff. 102, Latin ; 124, Greek).
(2) The attribution is now strengthened by Diller’s discoveries. For, in addi-
tion to the above-mentioned Cyriacan autographs in Pletho’s ms., there is a
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 63
The Trotti manuscript continues with a series of drawings and
inscriptions pertaining to Nauplia, which Cyriacus visited on 23
March, 1448, fausti resurrecüonis humanati iovis dieprevium, i.e.,
the day before Easter t1). From Nauplia he travelled north along
the Argive plain (f. 114V):
« ... cum nauplium reuisissem & .p. ranganum scribam iohannemque
Bendramon amicissimos, magna cum hilaritate Reuisimus, & postridie.
siquid deletae mycenarum Vrbis nostram ad diem reliquum extaret
videre desiderans, iisdem comitantibus, pleraque primum argiuo in
campo vidimus veterum Insignia monumenta & inter potiora non nullas
pulcherrimarum imaginum candenti ex marmore tabellas, olim iunonio
ex antiquissimo templo ex Insignibus polycleti vt putandum operibus,
ad posteras relligionis nostrae aedes a christicolis ornamento deduc-
tas ... (f. lltr)».
complicated relationship between Cyriacus’ text of Strabo and Pletho’s. The
same Codex Marcianus, 517, contains on f. 119 « an excerpt from Strabo, X,
449B-451B, in Ciriaco’s hand, with ten brief excerpts from Strabo, X, in Ple­
tho’s hand in the margins on 119v... ». Here Cyriacus’ readings are peculiar to
thetradition represented by his own codex of Strabo. Diller, art. cit., p. 31,
who also notes that Cyriacus' codex was a derivative of Codex A of Strabo
in books 1-9 « and in it the great lacunae of A are filled in from a jS-Strabo
in Ciriaco’s hand. As there are numerous substantial agreements with Ple­
tho’s readings in these supplements, Ciriaco must have copied them at Mistra
in 1447-8 from the Strabo that Pletho had. Unfortunately, none of the few
existing jSe-codices of Strabo appears to be the one actually used by Pletho
and Ciriaco » (ibid., p. 33).
) The full text of the Ode to Sparta in its Greek translation is to be found
in Ms. 495 of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich, 15th century, con-
taining copies of works by Pletho and Georgius Hermonymus. The attribution
of this translation to Pletho was made by Spyridon P. Lampros in an article
on this poem : ’Eniyqapipa Kvgiaxov xov ’Ayx&vog nepi xov peaaicovi-
xov Mvaxpd, in ’EnéxrjQig xov rpiXoXoyixov avXXóyov ndgvaaaog, 7 (1903),
39-48. Lampros points out a peculiar phenomenon. In Mo., p. 42, the Greek
translation is to be found, but only the translation of lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11,
and 13. Omitted are the even-numbered lines and the last three lines of the
poem. This must mean that the odd-numbered lines from 1 to 13 were written
on the verso of one page and that the even-numbered lines occurred on the
recto of the next, with the last three lines of the poem written, perhaps, on
the following verso. Cf. Lampros, art. cit., pp. 45-47, where he points out
that this manner of copying is a familiar phenomenon to those versed in Greek
palaeography. This tends to confirm my general theory that the ms. from
which Mo. was printed was copied from Cyriacus’ Commentaria at a time
when they were in a disordered state. Cf. p. 86 and pp. 115-117.
(1) Another way of dating the manuscript. Easter feil on the 24th of
March in 1448. This part of the journcy is treated by P. Wolters, AM,
40 (1915), 91-100.
 64
GYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
After recording a few inscriptions and reliefs (f. 115r), he went on
to Katsingri, which he thought was the citadel of Mycenae (f. 115v) :
« Deinde nero veteres Inter argiuas & desertas villas, vetusta mycena-
rum monumenta perquirens. lunonij deleti Jam diu delubri aliquod
vestigium autumantes, tandem non Longe ab eo, & ab argiua Vrbe non
plus ferme. vn. passuum millia distantem, in Borealem partem, & a
nauplio minus XL. stadiorum disiunctam. saxeum super & arduum
collem, mycenarum arcis Reliquias vidimus. & non nullas antiquis suis
e moenibus partes extare. ac turrium portarumque vestigia. mira qui-
dem & pulchra architectorum arte perspicua. atque nostri quoque
spectatione predigna. ad quam cum vna lisdem solertissimis Viris ad-
scendere placuisset. eiusdem muri partem In nauplium quoque spec-
tantem. hisce deponere figuratam nempe delegimus » (f. 115'').
He completed hls sketch of the walls of « Mycenae », then continued
north to Corinth, where he arrived on Wednesday (faustum mer-
curi diem), 17 April, 1448 (f. 102) :
« Cum ... e spartana arce mysethrea acrocorinthum reuisissem Inibi
Icoannem xaraxovCivöv magnificum ac regia de stirpe virum nee non
pacis bellique artibus praestantem. pro spartano rege Constantino.
Corintheae prouinciae praesidem comperimus. qui cum me ex patra
veterem nouisset amicum perquam benigne suscepit. & munifice ex
venatu rediens. magna cerui parte alijsque baud Indignis muneribus
donarat ... » (f. 102) i1).
7. — The Last Years (1448-1455?)
In September and October, 1448, Cyriacus was back in Arta to
revisit his old friend, Carlo II. While he was there, he witnessed
thepreparations for the initial battle of Hunyadi's expedition against
the Turks (12). On 30 September Carlo died and was succeeded by
(1) John Cantacuzene was made governor of Corinth on 1 September, 1446.
Cf. Misc. Cer., p. 230, note 2.
(2) There is extant a letter of Pasquale Sorgo of Ragusa to the Sicilian ca­
valier, Nicola Ansalone, which Cyriacus copied in his own hand while at Arta.
This autograph is in Codex Alexandrinus, 253 (paper, 15th century) in Rome,
ff. 13v-16 : Exemplar litt. ex Paschale de Sorgo Raguseo nobili, qui est cum
cïespote Serviae inter primores et fait in exercitu Pannonorum cum transna­
rent Danubium. Scripsit ad N. Ansalonem Siculum equitem clarissimum apud
Arachteam Acarnanum regiam (f. 13v). The letter speaks of the determination
of the Serbian despot to remain neutral, if possible. It is dated 11 September,
1448 (f. 16). Cf. Remigio Sabbadini, Giornale storico delta letteratura Italiana,
64 (1914), pp. 411-412, and Emil Jacobs, Cyriacus von Ancona und Mehem-
med II in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 30 (1929-1930), p. 197 and note 2. This
CHAP. I — CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 65
his son, Leonardo. Cyriacus stayed in Arta until 18 October, when
he left to revisit « Dodona, » which he still thought was in the vi-
cinity of Rogus :
«Ad XV Kal. novembr lucae Evangelistae SS. sacrum venereumque
diem ex eadem arachthea astaico acarnanum Regia, Karolo inclyto
principe adusque prid. Kal. Octobr. defuncto, & Leonardo regnante
regulo annuente ; uno Hermodoro nostro comitante liberto, dodoneam-
que per sylvam acheronthei ad fluminis ripas dodonem antiquam veni-
mus antiquissimo Dodonei Jovis oraculo memorabilem urbem. ... Itaque
ad arcem, quam hodie Accolae Roghum vocitant, ... ad sacram ejusdem
Evangelistae Metropolytanam aedem vetusto in loculo sacrum suum
revisimus ... » (l).
Here in the church of St. Luke he heard Mass in the Greek rite ad
pacandum ejusdem Karoli principis pientissimi Manes. How typical
of the man for whom Christ was the humanatus Juppiter (2)!
At the beginning of winter, 1448-1449, he is again on Italian soil,
as we know from a letter written by Francesco Filelfo at this time (3).
In June, 1449., he is in Rimini, whence he départs on 23 June for
Ravenna :
« ... Heri et eodem, quo a te concessimus VIII Kal. Juliarum sere-
nissimo die ... Ravennam ... venimus, ubi Mapheum Contarenum Virum
pernobilem inclitis pro Venetis Ravennatem Praetorem honorificum et
veterem nobis amicum comperimus ... » (4).
entire article (hereafter referred to as « Jacobs ») has been invaluable in re-
constructing the last few years of Cyriacus’ life. For a description by Cyriacus
of the first battle between the army of Hunyadi (Janus) and the Turks (Theucri),
see Colucci, op. cit., p. cxlvii, a letter written some time shortly after 16
September, 1448 : Scripsi ad te prid. K Aegidii hac ex parte paucis & paucos
post dies barbarum quidem relata audivimus, XVI K octobr. pannonum primas
peditum cohortes certamen cum Teucris inisse ... (Treviso ms. 483, f. 90) ».
We possess still another letter from this stay in Arta describing a royal hunt
and entitled : Venatio Actiaca regia. It is dated, « ... ad VI iduum septembrium
faustum Kyriacumque et B dei parentis M virg. almae natalicium panegyri-
cumque diem ». The feast of the Nativity of our Lady, September 8, occurred,
on a Sunday in 1448. The letter, which is in ms. 483, Treviso, ff. 121-121v,
124v, 125T, is quoted (in lts entirety?) by Ziebarth, ’IIneigcüTixa Xqovixo.,
1 (1926), pp. 114-117.
(1) Colucci, op. cit., p. ex. Cod. Tarvisinus, I, 138, f. 126.
(2) Colucci, ibid., note 164, had put this document in 1438 and DR, p. 364,
made the same mistake. Miller, Latins in the Levant, p. 424, was the first
to place it correctly in 1448. Cf. Jacobs, p. 197-198, note 3.
(3) Francisci Philelphi Epistolarum familiarium Libri XXXVII, Venice,
1502, p. 42, cited by Jacobs, p. 198, note 1.
(4) Jacobs, p. 198, note 2. The letter is in Codex Venetus Marcianus, 235
(L. VIII. XXIX) f. 182b-183a and has been printed in Nuova Raccolta d’O-
5
 66 GYRIAGUS OF ANGONA AND ATHENS
On July 8th he was at the court of Leonello d’Este in Ferrara (1),
hut soon after he departed trom Italy again, for on 31 August, 1449,
he wrote to Genoa for a safe-conduct needed on a proposed trip
to the west and south :
« ... Gum autem tantarum rerum cognitione nondum contentus con­
stituent et occiduas et haustrales provincias petere ... » (a).
From this point until 1452 there is no word of Cyriacus. It has
heen conjectured that he was in Rome for the Jubilee of 1450.
It is also possible that at this time he fulfilled his desire to visit
Spain (3).
The Chronicle of the Venetian, Giacomo Langusto, pieks up Cy­
riacus again in 1452, where, as we have already mentioned, he is
discovered in the camp of the Sultan, Mohammed II, on the Helles­
pont, just before the conquest of Constantinople :
<i Et primo diro de la qualita, et natura dei Maumethei. Ottomano come
descriue D. Jacomo Langusto Ueneto, quanto die esser formidabile a
tutta la nation christiana cum tutti li descendent!. El signor Maumetho
gran Turco, e zouene d anni 26, ben complexionato, et de corpo piu presto
grande, che mediocre de statura, nobile in ie arme, de aspetto piu presto
horrendo, che verendo, de poco riso, solerte de prudentia, et predito
de magnanima liberalita, obstinate nel proposito, audacissimo in ogni
cosa, aspirante a gloria quanto Alexandro Macedonico, ogni di se fa lezer
historie romane, et de altri da uno compagno d.° Chiriaco dAncona, et
da uno altro Italo, da questi se fa lezer Laertio, Herodoto, Liuio, Quinto
Curtio, Cronice de i papi, de imperatori, de re di Franza, de Longobardi;
usa tre lengue turcho, greco, et schiauo. Diligentemente se informa del
sito de Itallia, et de i luoghi doue capitono Anchise cum Enea et An-
thenor, doue e la sede dil papa, del Imperator, quanti regni sono in
Europa, la quale ha depenta cum li reami et prouincie. Niuna cosa cum
magior aplauso, et uolupta che el sito del mundo aprende et la scientia
di cose militar, arde di uolunta de signorizar, cauto explorator de le
cose. cum tale, et cosi fato homo habiamo a far nul Christiani»(*).
pusculi scientifici e filologici, Vol. 38, Venice, 1783, p. 132-135. DR, p. 358,
362, erroneously dated this letter to the year 1435, although Ravenna did not
become Venetian until 1441 and Maffeo Contarini did not go into office until
5 June, 1449. Jacobs cites Silvio Bernicoi.i, Governi di Ravenna e di Ro-
magna, Ravenna, 1898, p. 50.
(1) Colucci, op. cit., p. CXLIII.
(2) Genoa, Archivio di Stato, Registrum Litterarum, n. 13, f. 421* (1449),
cited by Jacobs, p. 198, note 4.
(3) DR, p. 374a.
(4) Emphasis supplied. From Zorzi Dolfin, Cronaca delle famiglie nobili
di Venezia e della stessa cittd dalla sua origine sino l’anno 1478, Codex Venetus
Marcianus Hal. Appendix, Glass. VII, n. 794, edited by Thomas, Die Erobe-
CHAP. I ---- GYRIAGUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 67
It seems at least reasonable to suppose that Cyriacus entered
Constantinople with the Sultan after its fall in 1453. Jacobs (')
makes a fairly plausible, if somewhat shaky, case from two pieces
of evidence, a sketch and a letter, that Cyriacus was in Constanti­
nople as late. as 1454. The sketch is in a Budapest manuscript which
had been in the Serai until 1877, when it was presented to the Uni-
versity Library of Budapest by Sultan Abdul Hamid. On f. 144v
is a sepia drawing of an equestrian statue which fits exactly the
description given by Procopius of the statue of Justinian which stood
in the Augusteion plaza of Constantinople (2). The emperor is dressed
as Achilles. In his left hand are the ball and the cross, while his
right hand is raised and the palm open, facing the barbarians. Above
the horse and on its haunches is the inscription : FON(S) GLORIAE
PERENNIS THEODOSI. On f. 145v of the same manuscript is
written : 1IIS Johannes Darius scripsit atramento nimphirii (??)
per ipsum Kiriaco Aconilano ad scribendum adducto. To Jacobs
this implies that the sketch was made at the behest of Cyriacus.
He assumed that Mohammed II had the statue taken down from its
tall pillar, which itself emerged out of a high, stepped mass of stones.
Now, the sketch is so detailed, says Jacobs, that it must have been
made from close up, after the statue was removed to ground level.
This would mean that Cyriacus was in Constantinople in 1453 or
1454, after the Turkish conquest. However, the separation of the
note referring to Cyriacus (f. 145v) from the sketch (f. 144v) makes it
at least doubtful that the two go together.
rung Constantinopels im Jahre 1453 aus einer venetianischen Chronik in Sit-
zungsberichte der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Mün-
chen (1868, II), pp. 1-41. The present excerpt is from f. 313 of the manu­
script and pp. 5-6 of Thomas. Jacobs, art. cit., p. 199, note 1, holds that the
chronicle of Langusto was written before the capture of Constantinople. I have
quoted at some length, both because of the fascinating detail of the picture
which Langusto draws of Mohammed II, and because the very plausibility
of the characterization lends credibility to the story.
(1) Pp. 199-201.
(2) Procopius, Buildings, I, 2, 1-12, edited in the Loeb translation of
Procopius, vol. 7, by H. B. Dewing with the collaboration of Glanvilie Dow-
ney. The frontispiece shows the sketch, and an appendix (pp. 395-398) dis-
cusses the statue. The frontispiece is taken, not from the ms. itself, but from
a photograph which was published by G. Rodenwaldt, in AA (3 February,
1931), columns 331-334. The ms. is n. 35, Aristotle’s Politics. Cf. DR, p. 374b.
The latest publication of the sketch is by Phyllis W. Lehmann, Theodosius
or Justinian : A Renaissance Drawing of a Byzantine Rider, in The Art Bul­
letin, 41 (1959), 39-57, who rejects the statue as the model of the sketch,
maintaining that it was copied from a medaillon of Theodosius the Great.
For a reply and a rebuttal, see the letters of Cyril Mango and Mrs. Leh­
mann in The jirt Bulletin, 41 (1959), 351-358.
 68 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
The second bit of evidence adduced by Jacobs for Cyriacus’ pres-
ence at Constantinople in 1454 is a letter from Francesco Filelfo,
written in Greek, to Mohammed II, asking for the ransom of bis
mother-in-law and her daughter. In the course of the letter he
says, neg! öè tovtov ó crög yga/j/xatevg y.aza f/égog naooicei na-
Qióv (1). Now, xvqICi; is a transliteration of the Turkish, küridschi
(«the mestier »), which was the epithet of the Sultan’s grandfather,
Mohammed I, who died in 1421. But it is also a « turkized » form
of xvquixóg, just as ’A/j,oioovz^rjg is a « turkized» form of ’A/.wi-
qovxiog. Jacobs will not decide whether Cyriacus was known as
Küridschi at the Turkish court or whether Filelfo transmuted the
name of his friend into a form which would please the Sultan, but
he is absolutely certain that xvQ^ig is our Cyriacus (12).
After this there is no news of Cyriacus until after his death, which
occurred some time before 6 October, 1457, the date of a letter from
Antonio Leonardi to Felice Feliciano :
« ... Multa in tuis litteris de Kiriaco nostro Anconitano scribis.
Qui utinam extaret. Nam superioribus annis natura vitae suae finem
fecit. Habeas, vir ille inter antiquos antiquissimus fuisset; Beneque
in variis rebus eruditus litteris praesertim graecis atque Latinis. Nam
opuscula ab eo edita, quae vagantur, testes sunt ... (3).
The year 1455 is now generally accepted as the approximate year
of his death, although Sabbadini, following an entry of Leonardo
Botta in the earlier part of the Trotti manuscript (f. 41), placed his
death in 1452 at Cremona (4). Cremona, at least, was right as the
place of his death, for an epigram composed in his honor says :
- O Kiriace virum veterum monumenta requirens
Ethiopes : Indos : Arabes : Theucrosque petisti
Ossa Cremona tenet; animus tarnen astra petivit
Gloria Picentum, piceni carmine habebis »(5).
Thus Cyriacus died as he had lived, a traveller, come un soldato sul
campo di battaglia (6).
(1) Jacobs, p. 201, note 1, lists the publications of this letter, none of which
were available to me. He notes that Filelfo did not leam of his relatives’
capture until January, 1454.
(2) Jacob’s interpretation of the term y.vrJ^ig was accepted by F. Babinger,
in Byzantion 21 (1951), 135-136.
(3) Colucci, op. cit., pp. CLIV-CLV.
(4) Kiriacus Anconitanus Cremone moritur anno domini MCCCCL secundo,
mense **** die ****. Botta had first written MCCCCLXII, then he crossed
out the XII and wrote: secundo. Cf. Misc. Cer., pp. 193 and 243 ; Ziebarth,
Philologische Wochenschrift, 30 (1910), col. 307, accepted Sabbadini’s dating.
(5) Emphasis supplied. From Colucci, p. cli.
(6) Misc. Cer., p. 243.
69
CHAP. I ---- CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD
8. — The Probable Fate of Cyriacus’ Book
We have seen that, for the greater part of his restless life, Cy­
riacus kept a book of Commentaria in which he wrote a diary of
his travels, descriptions of ancient sites, and snatches of ancient
and Byzantine authors, but most important for our present study,
also copies of inscriptions and sketches of ancient ruins. We know
from a contemporary, Pietro Ranzano, a Dominican friar of Palermo,
that in 1441 the book had reached three large volumes :
« ... Scrisse [Ciriaco] tante cose, e tantene rappresentö co i liniamentic
et figure, che scriue Pietro Razano molto domestico di lui haverne ueduto
tra [sic] grandi volumi scritti et lineati di propria mano di quello... » f1).
This meeting between Ranzano and Cyriacus took place in 1441
at Perugia :
«: ... donde a perfezionarsi nelle umane e buone arti passö [Ranzano]
in Perugia, di precettore servendosi nella facolta oratoria dell’ eloquen-
tissimo Tommaso Pontano. ... Correva allora 1’anno del Signore 1441,
quando egli nell’ istessa citta di Perugia conobbe Kiriaco di Ancona
nelle umane e liberali facolta peritissimo ... » (2).
This information is substantiated by the fact that Tommaso Pon­
tano was nominated chancellor of Perugia in 1440 and conducted
public lectures there (3). Cyriacus’ presence in Perugia is attested
by the inscriptions which he copied there (4). It is quite easy to
see, then, that the three volumes of 1441 could have grown easily
into six by 1455, and it is this last figure which is given by the
Spaniard, Girolamo Paoli, Vatican librarian (died, 1496) :
« ... hoe ipsi epigramma [i.e. CIL, II, 410*] alicubi fortasse Barcinone
latens vel iam perditum minime legimus, sed eins testimonium habemus
Cyriaci Anconitani epigrammatum per orbem sane diligentissimi collec-
toris, cuius ad nos sex haud parva volumina pervenerunt ...»(6).
(1) Leandro Alberti, Descrittione di lutta l’Italia, Venice, 1577, f. 285v.
(2) V. Barcellona, Memorie della vita letteraria e de’ viaggi di Pietro Ran­
zano in Opusculi di autori Siciliani, VI, Palermo, 1761, 76-77, cited in Misc.
Cer., p. 240, note 1.
(3) A. Zanelli, Tommasso Pontano in Bollettino della r. Deputazione di
storia patria per VUmbria, 11 (1905), cited in Misc. Cer., p. 240, note 2.
(4) E. Ziebarth, De cmtiquissimis inscriptionum syllogis in Ephemeris
Epigraphica, 9 (1913), 210.
(5) From a book printed in 1491 in Barcelona by Peter Michaelis, which
Ziebarth discovered at the end of Codex Guelferbytanus, 20, 11. Aug. 4t0 (for-
merly the possession of Janus Gruter), f. 169 f. Cited in Ephemeris Epigra­
phica, 9 (1913), p. 213. The book, which is entitled Barcino Hieronymi Pauli
 70 CYRIACUS OF ANCONA AND ATHENS
Where or when Paoli saw these six volumes (or whether he actually
saw them), he does not say. De Rossi (x) was of the opinion that
the Commentaria were kept by Cyriacus’ heirs at Ancona, who,
however, sold the manuscripts which the traveller had collected.
This opinion is based on a note written at the end of the Codex Vati­
caans graecus 1309, a manuscript of Plutarch’s Moralia which Cy­
riacus obtained in 1444 from a monastery on Mt. Athos. The note
(f. 210v-211v), written by the purchaser, reads :
« Kiriacus Anconitanus, a cuius nepote in Ancone librum hunc mer-
caü fuimus, dicit se magno ere emisse Plutarchum hunc et epistolas
CCLVI hic descriptas a quodam abbate cuiusdam monasterii Hyberie ...»
There follows an index of the entire codex, then :
«... Item dicit se non longe ab hoe monasterio aliud subiisse, ubi no-
bilem repperit bibliothecam, in qua dicit se legisse ... »(2).
Then comes a list of ancient manuscripts which Cyriacus saw in
the monastery. It is possible that the purchaser obtained this In­
formation by reading the Commentaria for the Thracian journey
of 1444 while he was in Ancona. It is also possible, of course, that
what he read was an excerpt from these journals made by Cyriacus,
an exercise which the traveller frequently engaged in.
The most common theory as to the fate of Cyriacus’ book has
been that of Mommsen, who deduced from the multitudinous and
widely-scattered nature of the Cyriacan influences on other fif-
teenth-century epigraphical codices that the book had been divided
up by the very princes and prelates whom Cyriacus had interested
in his work and that it had simply and literally disintegrated. De
Rossi, however, showed that it was most probably the Cyriacan
excerpts, made by the antiquarian himself for his friends and patrons,
which became so widely scattered. About the fate of the book,
he says, we know nothing (s).
Rut subsequent to De Rossi, Sabbadini built up a plausible case
for the destruction of the Commentaria in the fire which destroyed
the library of the Sforzas at Pesaro in 1514 (4). Founded by Ales-
sandro Sforza and his son, Costanzo, who were enthusiastic col­
lectors of manuscripts, it contained hundreds of volumes. Among
Barcinonensis lureconsulti ad Paulum Pompilium, was printed by Andreas
Schott, S. J., in Hispaniae Illustratae, Vol. 2, Frankfort., 1603, pp. 840-847
where it is dated Barcelona, 1491 (Ziebarth gave the date as 1490). Our
citation occurs on p. 842.
(1) DR, pp. 370 and 375.
(2) Cited from DR, p. 370, col. 2, note 1.
(3) DR, p. 376b.
(4) Misc. Cer., p. 240-241.
CHAP. I — CYRIACUS AND THE GREEK WORLD 71
the four hundred and forty one titles listed in the catalogue which
was compiled on 21 October, 1500, was a « Chiriacus », which Sab­
badini believes to have been the Commentaria of Cyriacus. There
are. many indications, he says, that the book existed somewhere
in that section of Italy known as the « Marches ». It was in Piceno
that the manuscript found by Compagnon! and edited by Olivieri
was copied, apparently from the section of the Commentaria which
was entitled Tuscorum atque Ligurum (1). And it was the Marquis
of Mantua, Lodovico Gonzaga, who wrote to Vincenzo Scalona,
his agent in Milan, on 10 February, 1461 :
« Dilecte noster. Perchè nui intendemo che ’l m.r0 che era de Sforza
se trova haver un lïbreto dove sono scripti molti epigrammati tolti a
Roma per Chiarico d’Ancona et havendoni nuy novamente facto tran-
scrivere uno hauto da Fiorenza, haveressimo a caro haver questo de Chia­
rico per far il nostro tanto piü copioso ; perhö voressimo tu pregasti da
parte nostra il prefato maestro, che in servicio ne voglia imprestare
dicto libretto, che ce ne fara piacere assai, che come l’habiamo facto
adoprar subito ge lo remandaremo, avisandolo che se ’l ge manchara
alcuno de questi epigrammati havemo nuy li faremo giongere suxo il
suo. Vedi adunche mandarcelo piü presto che puoi. Mant. X februari]
1461 » (2).
The maestro referred to in this letter was Baldo Martorello, the
first teacher of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, a native of Serra dei Conti,
also in the region of the Marches, Thus it is probable that the book
containing Roman inscriptions of Cyriacus was brought by him
from this region. Now, the Trotti manuscript, whose ff. 101-125
are a part of the lost Commentaria, is closely related to the region
of the Marches — more specifically, to Pesaro — and to the Sforzas.
For the first part of the manuscript (ff. 1-100) was written mostly
by Pandolfo Collenuccio, a native of Pesaro, and by Leonardo Botta,
a Milanese who in 1470 was ambassador of Galeazzo Maria Sforza
at Venice and from 1471 was in the service of Alessandro Sforza.
Now, Sforza was the lord of Pesaro and patron of the library. The
hands of both Botta and Collenuccio exhibit certain traits charac-
teristic of Cyriacus’ peculiar style of writing, which leads one to sus­
pect that they had some autographs of Cyriacus before their eyes.
And since the Cyriacan autograph pages of the Trotti manuscript,
ff. 101-125, are almost certainly a genuine survival of the Com­
mentaria and not a collection of excerpts, Sabbadini is of the opinion
that Botta, who was particularly interested in inscriptions, appro-
priated this part of the book for himself while he was working with
Collenuccio at Pesaro in 1471.
(1) DR, p. 365b. See above, p. 50, note 3.
(2) Alessandro Luzio and Rodolfo Renieb. in Giornale Storico delta Let-
teratüra Italiana, 16 (1890), p. 159.
72 CYRIACUS OF ANCONIA AND ATHENS
Thus, if Sabbadini’s elaborate theory is correct, the book burned
at Pesaro in the fire of 1514, and all that survived were the pages
on the Peloponnesian trip of 1447-1448 which we described earlier.
In any event, the book is gone, and all other autographs save the
Trotti pages are excerpts made by Cyriacus for friends. However,
there is a strong resemblance between the method and format of
the Trotti autograph and that exhibited by Moroni’s book, and
we hope to show in the next chapter that Moroni derives from the
original Commentaria through one intermediary, i.e., that the man­
uscript exemplar of Moroni’s book was copied directly from Cy­
riacus’ journals.
9. — Epilogue
We have tried in this chapter to present a panoramic view of
Cyriacus’ life in which only certain sections of the picture have been
enlarged, either because of their pertinence to the present study
(Athenian inscriptions) or because of the difficulty of obtaining
materials (Moroni’s book, the Jetter from Chios, the Trotti passages)
or because more recent findings needed to be brought to bear on
Dc Rossi’s excellent but dated treatment of the subject. For the
rest, we have been content to summarize his account of the years
prior to 1435 and of the incessant travels of 1443-1447. This has
been a regrettable but necessary compromise brought on by the
limitations of space, immediate subject-matter, and materials, and
we can only hope that the reader will be drawn to consult the fully
proportioned account of De Rossi.
Chapter II
THE MANUSCRIPTS
1. — The Corpus
Unlike Mommsen, Henzen, De Rossi and the other editors of the
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, the scholars who edited the In-
scriptiones Graecae and its Editio Minor have not concerned them-
selves with the epigraphical codices, although these manuscripts
are often the only witnesses of the existence, content, and condition
of many inscriptions which have not survived to our day. Whereas
the CIL abounds in long and impressive discussions of the fifteenth-
and sixteenth-century syllogae and their complicated interrelation-
ships, these same manuscripts, which contain a smaller but signifi­
cant number of Greek inscriptions, have not been given a similar
treatment in the IG. And, although the numerous manuscript
sources of each inscription and their important variants are scrupu-
lously listed by Mommsen and his colleagues, Dittenberger and Kirch-
ner refer only to previous printed works.
To probe farther back into time, the Corpus Inscriptionum Grae-
carum of Augustus Boeckh, for which there is no counterpart in Latin
epigraphy, is more generous in its bibliographical account of indi-
vidual inscriptions than are its successors, but it is evident that
Boeckh himself was not familiar with any of the humanists’ epi­
graphical codices. Thus, when he refers an inscription to Cyriacus
of Ancona, the only sources which he normally cites are Moroni C1)
and Muratori (12), although occasionally he refers to Gruter (3), Reine-
(1) Cf. chapter 1, p. 24 and passim.
(2) Lodovico Antonio Mubatori, Novus thesaurus veteram inscriptionum
in praecipuis eamndamm collectionibus hactenus praetermissarum, collectore
Ludovico Antonio Muratorio, serenissimi ducis Mutinae bibliothecae prae-
fecto, Milan, 1739-1742, 4 vols.
(3) Janus Gruteb, Inscriptiones antiquae totius orbis Romani in corpus
absolutissimum redactae cum indicibus XXV ingenio ac cura Jani Gruteri,
auspiciis Jos. Scaligeri ac M. Velseri..., Heidelberg, 1603. Reprinted with
additions by Graevius (Johann Georg Greffe or Graeve), Amsterdam, 1707.
I have seen only the Graevius edition.