 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
|
|
Return to Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
|
|
Nicolas Mesarites |
|
The Byzantine theologian and chronicler Nicolas Mesarites (b. 1163- d. 1224) is best known for his works that record accounts of what may have been the famous burial shroud of Jesus Christ, now located in Italy and more commonly known as the Shroud of Turin. The value of Mesarites' work for students and scholars of the crusades is that he provides a minor account of the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
Mesarites' version of the crusader's attack on the city is limited, and not as valuable as the much lengthier and detailed account provided by his contemporary, the Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates. Still, along with Choniates, he was a Byzantine eyewitness to the event and for that reason his work cannot be ignored. Crusader sources for the Fourth Crusade include the accounts of Geoffroy de Villhardouin, Robert of Clari, Gunther von Pairis, and Pope Innocent III's letters.
Mesarites held several ecclesiastical offices, including sacristan of the Pharos Chapel, skeuophylax of Constantinople, Metropolitian of Ephesus, and Exarch of Asia.For more information on Mesarites' work concerning the Fourth Crusade see the article: Vasiliev, Alexander A. "Mesarites as a Source", Speculum 13:2 (1938), pg 180. |
|
|
| Fourth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
| Primary Sources of the Fourth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
| Nicetas Choniates- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
| Geoffroy de Villehardouin- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
|
| Robert of Clari- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
|
| Innocent III, Pope- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
| Byzantium- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
| Crusades Chroniclers and Authors of Primary Sources- Crusades-Encyclopedia |
|
|
| (c) Andrew Holt, May 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use. |
|