Prester John 3: The Fifth Crusade

Attack on tower near Damietta by members of the Fifth Crusade - From the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris

The crusaders make their way first to Acre and then to Damietta. Perhaps someone would be along to help them soon?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

• Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Edited by Jessalynn Bird, et al. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

• The Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century. Edited by E.J. Mylod, et al. Routledge, 2016.

• Brownworth, Lars. In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades. Crux Publishing Ltd, 2017.

• Cassidy-Welch, Megan. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade. Penn State University Press, 2019.

• Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

• Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

• Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ Or Lord of the World? Catholic University of America Press, 1994.

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Prester John 2.5: Papal Correspondence

Pope Alexander III and the Ambassador - Spinello Aretino

A shorter episode, on a letter from Pope Alexander III to Prester John.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

• Pope Alexander III (1159–81): The Art of Survival. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

• Rachewiltz, Igor de. Papal Envoys to the Great Khans. Stanford University Press, 1971.

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Prester John 2: Where From and What For

Prester John comfortably enthroned in East Africa - Detail from the Queen Mary Atlas, MS 5415 A British Library

On the many fantastic additions to the Letter of Prester John (Dragons! Strange Bakeries! Etc!), and on the theories around it.

Sources:

• Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

• Nowell, Charles E. "The Historical Prester John." Speculum 28, no. 3 (1953).

• Romm, James S. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought Geography, Exploration, and Fiction. Princeton University Press, 2019.

• Wang, I-Chun. "Alexander the Great, Prester John, Strabo of Amasia, and Wonders of the East." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.5 (2012).

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Prester John 1: The Letter

From "Le Livre des Merveilles", 15th century. From the Gallica Digital Library. (Wikimedia)

The legend in its early forms: the arrival in Rome of a patriarch from the east, the chronicles of Otto of Freising, and that famous "letter."

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• Otto of Freising, Chronicon, ed. G.H. Pertz, MGH SSRG (Hanover: Hahn, 1867), VII, 33, (pp. 334-35), translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962). Accessed at Fordham University Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

• Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

• Baring-Gould, Sabine. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. Roberts Brothers, 1867.

• Heng, Geraldine. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

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Ibn Fadlan 2: A Letter from the Caliph

The envoys of Byzantine Emperor Michael II are received by Omurtag the Bulgar ruler - Wikicommons

Ahmad ibn Fadlan carries on to his cash-poor appointment with the Volga Bulgars. There's talk of funerals, cultural differences, and threats of death. 10th century diplomacy could be hard.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Mission to the Volga, translated by James E. Montgomery. New York University Press, 2017.

• Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North, translated and with an introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. Penguin, 2012.

• Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, edited by Josef W. Meri. Routledge, 2005.

• Bukharaev, Ravil. Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons. Routledge, 2014.

• Curta, Florin. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

• Hansen, Valerie. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began. Simon and Schuster, 2020.

• Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cosimo Classics, 2010.

• Romano, John F. Medieval Travel and Travelers: A Reader. University of Toronto Press, 2020.

• Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1973.

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Geoffrey's Crusade 4: Simon and the Seven Thieves

This one will be a bit of a side step in the Fourth Crusade story. This is a story of furta sacra, or sacred theft, following the fall of Constantinople, and of one theft in particular. This the story of Saint Simon and how he came to Venice. (MP3)

The medieval Christmas card Kickstarter which I mentioned can be found here.

If you like what you hear and would like to chip in, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

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.

• Perry, David M. Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Penn State Press, 2015.

• Perry, David M. “The Translatio Symonensis and the Seven Thieves: A Venetian Fourth Crusade Furta Sacra Narrative and the Looting of Constantinople."

• Queller, Donald E. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 1201-1204.  Leicester University Press, 1978.

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Edward Webbe: His Trials, Travels, and Job Application

Edward Webbe was, maybe, a 16th-Century adventurer who moved in and out of captivity and other forms of trouble. His troubles took him from Elizabethan England to Muscovy, Crimea, Constantinople, Italy, and possibly to Persia and the lands of Prester John. On the way, there will be slavery, warfare, unicorns, and one man's quest for gainful employment. Thanks for listening! 

(MP3) 

If you like what you hear, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here

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The Battle of the Three Kings: The Doomed King Sebastian

The doomed King Sebastian lands in Morocco, and I take a moment from the Dallam timeline for a mini-episode. Thanks for listening! 

(MP3)

If you like what you hear, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here..

Sources for Dallam series:

• Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, edited by J. Theodore Bent. Hakluyt Society, 1893.
• Andrews, Kenneth. Trade, Plunder, and Settlement. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Brotton, Jerry. The Sultan and the Queen. Viking, 2016. 
• Dallam, Thomas. The Sultan's Organ: London to Constantinople in 1599 and Adventures on the Way, translated by John Mole. Fortune, 2012.
• Finkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. Basic Books, 2007.
• Jardine, Lisa. “Gloriana Rules the Waves: or, the Advantage of Being Excommunicated (and a Woman).” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society No. 14 (2004): 209–22.
• Jenkinson, Anthony, et al. Early Voyages and Travels to Russia and Persia. Hakluyt Society, 1886.
• Maclean, Gerald. The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• Mayes, Stanley. An Organ for the Sultan. Putnam, 1956.
• Pedani, Maria Pia. "Safiye's household and Venetian diplomacy." Turcica, no. 32 (2000): pp. 9–32.
• Sanderson, John. The Travels of John Sanderson in the Levant 1584-1602, edited by Sir William Foster. Hakluyt Society, 1931.
• Somerset, Anne. Elizabeth I. Anchor, 2010.
• Vlami, Despina. Trading with the Ottomans: The Levant Company in the Middle East. I.B.Tauris, 2015.
• Willan, Thomas Stuart. Studies in Elizabethan Foreign Trade. Manchester University Press, 1959.
• Wood, Alfred C. A History of the Levant Company. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 2006.

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