Marino Sanudo the Elder

• parsed from Lock (2016) and two wikipedia entries - Marino Sanudo the Elder and Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis (Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross)

Marino Sanudo the Elder (aka Marinus Sanuto dictus Torsellus) was born into a wealthy Venetian family around 1270 CE. Starting from a young age, he traveled extensively including a stint in Crusader controlled Acre just before this last major Crusader stronghold fell to the Mamluks in 1291 CE. Later travels took him to Greece, Romania, Palestine, Egypt, Armenia, Cyprus and Rhodes. For a significant part of his adulthood, Marino was a zealous advocate for a new crusade to recapture the Holy Lands. This led to the book (in Latin) Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis (Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross), first written between 1306 and 1307 and presented to Pope Clement V. The book presented a sophisticated and detailed economic and military plan to accomplish its proposed mission. Over the years, he revised and expanded his manuscript adding History and Geography with state of the art maps much of which may have been produced in collaboration with the great portolan chart (i.e. nautical charts) draughtsman Pietro Vesconte. A new version was presented to Pope John XII in 1321 and a French translation was sent to King Charles IV of France. Liber Secretorum was copied numerous times and lavishly illustrated versions were sent to influential people throughout Europe. At least eleven copies are known to survive.

Lock (2016:5) characterizes Sanudo's Latin as grammatically excellent, almost always clear in meaning, and notes that he had a wide and sometimes very technical Latin vocabulary. Lock (2016:5) also noted that his Biblical knowledge was "profound", he was well read, spoke French, and probably knew some Greek. As a Venetian merchant, Sanudo was good with numbers and Lock (2016) characterizes Sanudo as possessing an excellent degree of mathematical accuracy and precision in dealing with Roman numerals. Sanudo also seemed to be well versed and practically experienced in seafaring, military strategy, logistics, and military operations.

Only one printed Latin version of Secreta was produced, an edition edited by Jacques Bongars in 1611 in volume 2 of his Gesta Dei per Francos (Hanover). Lock (2016:16) notes that it has often been said, even before the late Joshua Prawer produced his photographic version of the text in 1972, that the Bongers edition is inadequate for modern scholarship. A critical edition of Secreta does not currently exist.

In addition to his crusade advocacy, Sanuto wrote a valuable Latin history of the Frankish principalities and Byzantium. The only surviving copy is a Venetian translation, Istoria del regno di Romania. Written between 1326 and 1333, his history provides a unique account of the reconquest of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaiologos. Sanudo also wrote a brief account of the collapse of the Latin Empire of Constantinople and the efforts of Baldwin II to promote a reconquest.

Marino Sanudo the Elder died in Venice in c. 1343 CE.

Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis (Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross) also goes by the names of istoria Hierosolymitana, Liber de expeditione Terrae Sanctae, and Opus Terrae Sanctae as well as Bongars' (1611) edition, the title of which is so long it won't be repeated here.