FOOTNOTES:
[351] Gibbon, ch. liii. Constantine, Vit. Basil. ch. lxxiv-lxxvi.
[352] Voyage of Benjamin of Tudela, book i. ch. v. p. 44-52.
[353] Gibbon, c. liii.
[354] Gibbon, c. lv.
[355] Gibbon, c. lv.
[356] Gibbon, c. lv.
[357] Gibbon, c. lv.
[358] There seems much doubt about the story of the invention of the mariner’s compass by Flavio Gioga, an Amalfite, in A.D. 1307. The city had ceased to have any commercial importance since its sack by the Pisans in A.D. 1137 (Sismondi, i. p. 303); while, on the other hand, Hallam shows that the compass was known as early as A.D. 1100 (Mid. Ages, iii. 394); and Wachsmuth proves that it was used in Sweden in A.D. 1250 (Ersch und Grüber’s Encycl. iii. 302). The Italian bussola, from the French boussole, comes again from the Flemish Boxel (box);—hence, probably, our term of “boxing” the compass. It was most likely a northern discovery.
[359] Hallam remarks that “it was the singular fate of this city to have filled up the interval between two periods of civilization, in neither of which she was destined to be distinguished. Scarcely known before the end of the sixth century, Amalfi ran a brilliant career as a free and trading republic, which was checked by the arms of a conqueror in the middle of the twelfth.”—Mid. Ages, iii. 300.
[360] Sismondi, Republ. Ital. du Moyen Age, i. p. 203.
[361] Cassiodor. Var. l. 12. Epist. 24.
[362] The power of Venice at this early period (A.D. 774) is well shown by the aid it gave to Charlemagne, at his request, during his siege of Pavia, of twenty-four galleons said to have carried six thousand horse and foot. This fact has been recently illustrated by Mr. W. De Gray Birch, of the MS. Room of the British Museum, who has published a contemporary leaden tablet, in which it is recorded. (Archæol. xliv. pp. 123-136. 1872.)
[363] Speaking of Timúr, Gibbon observes, “the lord of so many myriads of horse was not master of a single galley,” c. lxv.
[364] Gibbon, c. lix.
[365] Gibbon, c. lix.
[366] Gibbon, c. lx.
[367] It seems worth while to append here a note concerning the results of the principal Crusades.
First Crusade.—Preached by Peter the Hermit, and led by Robert Guiscard and Godfrey de Bouillon, chiefly against the Seljuk Turks, A.D. 1096. Jerusalem taken, A.D. 1099.
Second Crusade.—Preached by St. Bernard, and led by Louis VII. and Conrad III., A.D. 1146. Stopped by the Seljuk Turks, by their victory at Iconium (Konieh), A.D. 1147.
Third Crusade.—To avenge the capture in A.D. 1187 of Jerusalem by Saladin; and led by Frederick Barbarossa, Richard Cœur-de-Lion, and Philip of France, A.D. 1188. Results: Acre, Joppa, and Askalon taken from Saladin, A.D. 1192.
Fourth Crusade.—Led by Baldwin, Count of Flanders, with aid from Venice, A.D. 1202. Results: taking of Zara and of Constantinople, A.D. 1204.
The remaining Crusades were, comparatively, unimportant.
[368] Gibbon, ch. lxiii.
[369] So late as Chardin, four hundred sail of vessels were occupied at Caffa during forty days in the corn and fish trade. (“Voy. en Pérse,” i. pp. 46-48.) Clarke found it wholly demolished by the Russians (“Travels,” i. p. 144)—and so it is now.
[370] Gibbon, ch. lxiii.
[371] The precise era of the invention and application of gunpowder is involved in doubt, and has formed the subject of many learned disquisitions, not the least interesting of which will be found in the 1st and 2nd vols. of Bishop Watson’s “Chemical Essays.”