Παρατηρήσεις στην κρητική τοπογραφία του βιβλίου του Chr. Buondelmonti : Descriptio insule Crete
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.30, 1986, pages 501-508
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501-508
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Comments on the Topography of Crete from the Book "Descriptio insule Crete" by Chr. Buondelmonti
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Articles
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The descriptions of various places and locations pertaining to the countryside of Crete in the text of the Italian traveller Chr. Buondelmonti's "Descriptio Insule Crete", have frequently caused problems because of misunderstandings mainly due to the author's misheard place names or to the incorrectinformation on such maps as were than in existence.Two remarkable recent publications of the above mentioned work byBuondelmonti, the one by M. A van Spitael (a critique) and the other by M.Aposkiti-Alexiou (a translation into modern Greek with indendifications oflocations deal with the problems of identifying what exist today with thetopography of mediaeval Crete.This article is concerned with the first part of Buondelmonti's journeythrough the interior of the island (lines 802-808 of the text according to the vanSpitael publication) where the traveller starting from the North-Easternmostpoint of Crete visits first the church of Agios Isidoros and then the ruins of theancient city of Kamara. Ms van Spitael accepts that Agios Isidoros was locatedat the tip of Cape Sammonio (modern Cape Sideros) and that Kamara was infact Praisos which Buondelmonti mistakently identifies as Kamara because ofthe incorrect placing of that city on Ptolemy's schematic map. Ms AposkitiAlexiou, on the other hand, while agreeing with Ms van Spitael about theKamara-Praisos identification, noted that Agios Isidoros was a church locatedat the spot were Toplou monastery now stands (at a distance of about 15 km tothe south of cape Sideros).In the light of new knowledge gleaned from recent excavational research atCape Sideros which uncovered the remains of a church which was in use attime of Buondelmonti's visit (1415) and from more exact translation of the textand more systematic correlation of the topographical elements in the text withwhat exist today, we can conclude that Buondelmonti undoubtedly did visit thechurch on the Cape (and not one at Toplou as and the earlier Sitian historianM. Katapotis believed) but that the ruins of an ancient city which he visitedafterwards and which he, through genuine error, calls Kamara were not thoseof Praisos but of ancient Itanos. This view was also put forward over half acentury ago by another Sitian historian N. I. Papadakis.
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