Our 15th-century traveller dodges catastrophe on the Mediterranean and drops in on late-imperial Constantinople, where there's plenty of seafood and the roots of Pedro's family tree.
Geoffrey's Crusade 3: One Alexius After Another
This is part three of my Fourth Crusade series. It's got emperors, fires, and first hand accounts of the taking of Constantinople. Hope you enjoy it! (MP3)
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Sources:
Geoffrey de Villehardouin. Memoirs or Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople, translated by Frank T. Marzials. J.M. Dent, 1908.
Three Old French Chronicles Of The Crusades: The History Of The Holy War; The History Of Them That Took Constantinople; The Chronicle Of Reims, translated by Edward Noble Stone. University Of Washington Publications In The Social Sciences, 1939.
O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, translated by Harry J. Magoulias. Wayne State University Press, 1984.
Madden, Thomas F. Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Madden, Thomas F. Venice: A New History. Viking, 2012.
Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Viking, 1995.
Queller, Donald E. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 1201-1204. Leicester University Press, 1978.
Marco and the Polos 1: From Venice to the World
The journey of Venice's most famous merchant and traveller begins today, but we won't see much of him in this episode. We'll look at Venice in the early 13th century and touch on the 4th crusade, Mediterranean-Asian trade, and the Pax Mongolica, before following the other Polos, Niccolo and Maffeo, east on their own little adventure. Enjoy!
(MP3)
If you like what you hear, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.
Sources:
The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian, translated by Willam Marsden, edited by Thomas Wright. George Bell & Sons, 1907.
The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck, translated by Peter Jackson. The Hakluyt Society, 1990.
Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol. III, translated and edited by Henry Yule and Henri Cordier. London, 1916.
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Ackroyd, Peter. Venice: Pure City. Chatto & Windus, 2009.
Ciociltan, Virgil. The Mongols and the Black Sea Trade in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Brill Academic, 2012.
Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World. Yale University Press, 1999.
Madden, Thomas F. Venice: A New History. Viking, 2012.
Olschki, Leonardo. Marco Polo's Asia. University of California Press, 1960.