Book Description

This book publishes the Italian original and the Greek translation of two texts by Cypriot authors who narrate the fall of Famagusta to the Ottomans after a long siege in 1571. They are the reports of Alexander Podocataro, who fought among the defenders of Famagusta on the side of chief commander Marcantonio Bragadin, and of Father Agostino, prior of the Monastery of Saint Antony in the city, who stood by Marcantonio Bragadin in his final hours and martyrdom. The editor’s introduction discusses the texts and their authors and the historiographical tradition that has transmitted the two sources. The two Cypriot eye-witnesses with their texts make it possible to recapture the feelings of the besieged population and the ways the Ottoman conquest was experienced by the Cypriots themselves. The book is richly illustrated, drawing primarily on the resources of the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation.