Book Description

This is the fourth book in the collection “Sources of Cypriot learning and history”, which aspires to make available in modern scholarly editions unpublished or inaccessible primary sources on the intellectual life and history of Cyprus and the Cypriot diaspora in the early modern period up to 1878. The fourth volume in the collection presents a complete transcription of the register of the dead (Liber mortuorum) of the Latin community of Larnaca, Cyprus, as recorded by the parish priests of the Franciscan church in the city, Santa Maria delle Grazie. The evidence extends from 1729 to 1824 and comes from the earliest surviving such register in the archives of the church.
The evidence presented and commented upon by the editor offers an invaluable record of prosopographical data concerning the Latin community and European residents in Larnaca. The prosopographical information contained in individual entries in the register offers insights into social, economic and ethnic questions arising in the history of Cyprus in the long eighteenth century.
The usefulness to historical research of the source material published in the book is greatly enhanced by detailed indices supplied by the editor (names, professions, religious persons, religious rites, subjects relating to Larnaca, origins, places and vessels).
The imposing volume is illustrated with a 1764 map of the vicinity of Larnaca, a 1688 engraving of a view of Larnaca port and two pages from the original manuscript.