[208] James of Vitri gives a sufficiently particular description of Egypt and its productions; this portion of his history is not unworthy of the perusal of the learned, and may give a just idea of the knowledge of geography and natural history of the thirteenth century.
[209] For particulars of the siege of Damietta, James of Vitri, the continuator of William of Tyre, Marin Sanut, Matthew Paris, the correspondence of Honorius in Raynaldi, Godfrey, and the Monk of Alberic may be consulted. We have examined the account attributed to Olivier, priest of Cologne, which may be found in the Gesta Dei per Francos, but this account is repeated by James of Vitri. The Arabian authors and the Chronicle of Ibn-ferat have afforded us great assistance in our labours, and have informed us of very important facts of which the Franks and their historians were ignorant.
[210] Le Père Maimbourg gives a long account of this machine, not necessary to be repeated.
[211] This priest, who was named Olivier, afterwards became bishop of Paderborn and a cardinal of St. Sabina; it is the same that signed his name to the account we have mentioned in a preceding note.
[212] Gretser, in his treaty de Cruce, says formally that the popes required the commanders of the pilgrims to take with them both agriculturists and workmen.
[213] The Chronicle of Ibn-ferat collects the judgments of all the Arabian historians upon Malek-Adel. These historians all express themselves in the same manner. The continuator of William of Tyre, who appears to have lived in the East, speaks of the pomp and of the air of majesty which were remarked in the brother of Saladin: the latter otherwise treats Malek-Adel with great severity.
[214] It is under the name of Seïf-Eddin, by corruption Saphadin, that Malek-Adel is known in our Histories of the Crusades.
[215] A Latin dissertation, by Boecler, entitled De Passagiis, may be consulted on this subject.
[216] I cannot make out who this Prince Oliver was.—Trans.
[217] In the letter by which Honorius announced to the leaders of the crusade the powers he had given to Cardinal Pelagius, his holiness expresses himself thus: Ut exercitum Domini cum humilitate præcedens, concordes in concordiâ foveat, et ad pacem revocet impacatos.