Simon Fitzsimmons of the Franciscan Order set out from Clonmel in Ireland in the spring of 1322 with his friend und companion Hugh the Illuminator, and were ”seized by a desire to follow the naked Christ in the way of poverty and to run and wander religiously in the course of a most devout pilgrimage to the Holy Land.” They travelled through northern Wales to London which he describes as the most famous and richest of all cities within the sun’s orbit, to
Canterbury, Dover, Wissant, Amiens, Paris, Beaune, Lyon, Avignon, Nice, Genoa, Bobbio, Piacenza, Parma, Mantua, Verona und Vicenza to Venice. There they boarded a merchant vessel for the Holy Land which stopped on its way in Pula, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Ulcinj, Durrës, Corfu, Cephalonia and Crete, where they were first to record the presence of Gypsies on the island, before reaching Alexandria.
Much of Simon’s travel narrative, known as the Itinerarium Svmonis
Semeonis ab Hybernia ad Terram Sanctam, deals with their experiences in Egypt where Friar Hugh died und where Simon provides much information of interest on Islam und the Libello de doctrina Machometi (the book of the doctrine of Mohammed). From Egypt, Simon carried on alone through Gaza to Jerusalem to visit the holy shrines. At this point the narrative, now
preserved in a manuscript (No. 407) in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge U.K., breaks off.
The ‘Itinerary’ of Simon Fitzsimons was first published in Cambridge in 1778 in a now rare edition by James Nasmith under the title Itinerarium Symonis Simeonis et Hugonis Illuminatoris ad Terram Sanctam. It has been edited subsequently by Mario Esposito and Eugene Hoade.
The ‘Itinerary’ contains a wealth of information on matters as varied as customs
inspections and procedures, costumes, coinage, raw materials und products of the countries visited and of course on churches and holy sites. On his brief stay on the Albanian coast, Simon records the following impressions:
”Et inde post dies aliquot recedentes, transivimus per Dulcynam civitatem, que est regis Rassie, et navigavimus Durachiam, civitatem olim famosam et in mari et in terra potentem, et imperatori Grecorum subjectam, nunc autem principi Romanye fratri regis Jerusalem predicti, que est in provincia Albanie. Ubi sciendum [est] quod Albanya est provincia inter Sclavoniam et Romaniam, per se linguam habens, quam nuper predicus rex Rassie scismaticus suo dominio subjugavit. Ipsi enim Albaneses scismatici sunt, Grecorum utentes ritu et eisdem habitu et gestu
in omnibus conformes. Nam Greci raro vel nunquam utuntur caputio, sed capello albo quasi plano in parte anteriori humiliato et in posteriori elevato, ut eorum crines intuentium oculis luculentius appareant, quoniam in crinium longitudine et pucritudine summe gloriantur; Sclavy vero, de quibus superius dictum est, tamen capello albo oblongo et rotundo, in cujus summitate nobiles pennam longam figunt, qua facilius a rusticis et villanis distingui valeant atque cognosci.
Ipsa autem civitas est in murorum ambitu amplissima et in edificiis vilis et exigua, quia quondam terre motu fuerat funditus eversa, et in ejus eversione ditissimi ejus cives et inhabitores propriis palatiis fuerant, ut dicitur, bene xxiii milia, et mortui sunt. Nunc autem in populo est sterilis, qui et est ritu, habitu et lingua divisus. Inhabitatur enim Latinis, Grecis, Judeis perfidis, et barbaris
Albanensibus. Apud quos currunt turonenses parvi et quibus xi valent unum Venetum grossum, et currunt tantum valentes per totam Romaniam. Et distat a Ragusia per CC miliaria. Et inde flantibus secundis ventis, transeuntes per Belonam castrum imperatoris Grecorum, et per Corfu insulam, in qua est civitas nomine Corfu regis Jerusalem prefati, que distat a Durachia per C
miliaria...”
”And then after spending a few days, we passed through the city of Ulcinj, which belongs to the King of Rascia, and sailed to Durrës, a city once famous and mighty by land and sea. subject to the Emperor of the Greeks but now belonging to the Prince of Romania, the brother of the aforementioned King of Jerusalem, [this city] being in the province of Albania. It should be known that Albania is a province between Slavonia and Romania, having a language of its own and which the aforementioned schismatic King of Rascia has subjected to his rule. For the
Albanians themselves are schismatics, using the rites of the Greeks and are entirely like them in their dress and manner. For the Greeks rarely if ever wear the cowl, but rather a white hat lowered almost flat to the front and raised at the back so that their hair, the length and beauty of which they are extremely proud, may appear more attractive to the eyes of the beholder. The Slavs on the other hand, of whom mention was made above, wear a white hat, oblong and round,
on the top of which their nobles stick a big feather in order to be distinguished and recognized more easily by the peasants and common people. The city itself is very extensive in the circuit of its walls, but small and unpretentious in its buildings because it was once razed to the ground by an earthquake, and in the destruction, its wealthiest citizens and inhabitants were buried beneath
their own palaces and indeed a good 24,000 are reported to have died. It us now sparsely populated and divided in religion, customs and language. For it is inhabited by Latins, Greeks, perfidious Jews and barbaric Albanians. In use among them are small tournois coins of which eleven are worth one Venetian grosso. They are in use at this rate in all of Romania. This city is
200 miles from Dubrovnik. And then, taking advantage of favourable winds, we continued to Vlora, a fortress of the Emperor of the Greeks, and to the island of Corfu on which there is a city called Corfu belonging to the aforementioned King of Jerusalem, this place being two hundred miles from Durres.”
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