CHAPTER LVIII.
[(1.)] “Lemprie; in it is a mountain that is so high, it reaches to the clouds.”—French and Italian names commencing with a vowel, commonly became transformed by the addition of the article which preceded them, and in this way, Imbro was altered during the Latin empire to Lembro, the name ordinarily given to the island, whence “Lemprie”, and Nembro of Clavijo. During a part of the 15th century, Imbros belonged to the Gattilusio, a Genoese family, and in 1430 became subject to the Greek emperor. The island is overspread with the ruins of many castles, the walls of which are covered with inscriptions and armorial bearings (Heyd, Le Colonie Commer., i, 416).—Bruun.
(1A.) The author’s statement may be taken as being the reverse of the fact, and that the clouds had descended to the mountain, for the highest point of land on the island of Imbros is only 1959 feet, an altitude altogether insignificant when compared to the mountains he must have seen in his journeys; they include the great range of the Caucasus, shewing summits at upwards of 18,000 feet, and the noble Ararat, rising nearly 15,000 feet above the plains of the Araxes. Had his course lay further to the west, Samothraky, at 5248 feet above the sea, would have excited his imagination still more.—Ed.
[(2.)] “wide, large, and thick as a mill-stone.”—The “golden discs” may have been simply of golden glass or mosion, with which the interior of the dome of St. Sophia was covered, as we are informed by Theophanes and Cedrenus, whose description refers to the present dome constructed soon after 559, the thirty-second year of the reign of Justinian.—Ed.
[(3.)] “I myself was at that same time with the king in Turkey.” After the battle of Nicopolis, Bajazet renewed the siege of Constantinople, the city being succoured by a force of 1200 men sent by Charles VI. of France, and bodies of troops from Genoa, Venice, Rhodes, and Lesbos. Marshal Boucicault withstood the siege with his little army, and on quitting the capital in 1399, the command devolved upon Chateaumorant, the emperor Manuel being absent in France, whither he had gone to ask for assistance. It was fortunate for the Greeks that Bajazet was obliged to muster the whole of his forces to enable him to encounter Timour’s legions.—Bruun.