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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
THE GREATEST CITY IN EUROPE
The first extract is from Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela's Travels in 1160–73 and the second from Geoffroy de Villehardouin's Chronicle. Villehardouin was one of the principal captains of the Fourth Crusade. He was born about 1150, started on the Crusade in 1202, and wrote only a few years after the events which he records.
(a) Benjamin of Tudela. (Thos. Wright, Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn, 1848, p. 74.)
The circumference of the city of Constantinople is eighteen miles.…Great stir and bustle prevails at Constantinople in consequence of the conflux of many merchants, who resort thither, both by land and by sea, from all parts of the world for purposes of trade. In this respect the city is equalled only by Bagdad, the metropolis of the Mohammedans. At Constantinople is the place of worship called St Sophia, and the metropolitan seat of the pope of the Greeks, who are at variance with the pope of Rome. It contains as many altars as there are days of the year, and possesses innumerable riches, which are augmented every year by the contributions of the two islands and of the adjacent towns and villages. All the other places of worship in the whole world do not equal St Sophia in riches. It is ornamented with pillars of gold and silver, and with innumerable lamps of the same precious materials.
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