Stefano Lusignan (1537–1590), also known as Étienne de Lusignan and Estienne de Lusignan, was a priest, scholar, and titular bishop of

Venetian Cyprus The island of Cyprus was an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from 1489, when the independent Kingdom of Cyprus ended, until 1570–71, when the island was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. History Acquisition Venice for centuries ...

who migrated to Italy and France.

Life

Lusignan was born in Nicosia, in

, a descendant of the royal

House of Lusignan The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries duri ...

. When he was young, Lusignan joined the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

and studied under an Armenian bishop named Ioulianos. By 1562 he was a priest and worked under two Latin bishops of Limassol,

Andrea Mocenigo Andrea Mocenigo (after 1471 – 1542), son of Lunardo, was a Venetian senator of the republic and a historian and in 1495 protonotary apostolic. He composed a work on the League of Cambrai entitled ''Belli memorabilis Cameracensis adversus Veneto ...

and Serafim Fortibraccia. By 1570, he was living in a monastery in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, in the Kingdom of Naples, where he began writing his best-known work, ''Chorograffia''. In 1571, Cyprus fell to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, and after that Lusignan spent much of his time collecting ransom money to buy the freedom of relations who had been captured. In 1572, he moved to a monastery at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, a university city in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. There, he first published his work named ''Chorograffia''. In 1575 he moved to

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, under the control of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

, and there he designed a famous map to supplement his book, dedicating it to the last Latin Archbishop of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, Filippo Mocenigo. The map was engraved by Giovanni Longo and paid for by Lusignan himself.Kitromilides, pp. 190-192 His ''Chorograffia'' and his ''Description de toute l'isle de Cypre'' include many classical sources such as Strabo,

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

and reference various ancient cities like Salamis,

Kourion Kourion ( grc, Koύριov; la, Curium) was an important ancient Greek city-state on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site. I ...

and

Amathus Amathus or Amathous ( grc, Ἀμαθοῦς) was an ancient city and one of the ancient royal cities of Cyprus until about 300 BC. Some of its impressive remains can be seen today on the southern coast in front of Agios Tychonas, about west o ...

and important mythological figures of Cyprus such as

Cinyras In Greek mythology, Cinyras (; grc, Κινύρας – ''Kinyras'') was a famous hero and king of Cyprus. Accounts vary significantly as to his genealogy and provide a variety of stories concerning him; in many sources he is associated with ...

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

and

Adonis In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. One day, Adonis was gored by ...

. In the course of his stay in Padua, Lusignan also taught Greek at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

. During a trip to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, he met the French ambassador and with his help moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1577. He lived in a monastery in

for ten years. Throughout his stay there he wrote and published many works. He was also involved in literary circles with other Cypriots, including Enrico Caterino Davila. In 1578 Pope Sixtus V appointed Lusignan as

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox ...

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

. He spent the last years of his life in

, where he died in 1590.

Publications

* ''Chorograffia: et breve historia universale dell'Isola de Cipro principiando al tempo di Noè per in sino al 1572'' (Bologna: Alessandro Benaccio, 1573) *''Histoire Contenant une Sommaire Description des Genealogies, Alliances, & gestes de tous les Princes & grans Seigneurs...'' ''Royames Hierusalem, Cypre, Armenie, & lieux circonvoisins.'' (Paris: Chez Guillaume Chaudiere, 1579) *''Description de Toute l'Isle de Cypre,'' ''et des Roys, Princes, et Seigneurs, tant Payens que Chrestiens, qui ont commandé en icelle'' (Paris: Chez Guillaume Chaudiere, 1580)

Digitised manuscripts of the Chronograffia

* Getty Research Institute has

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

copies * The John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library
Sylvia Ioannou Foundation

References

* Kitromilides, P., Κυπριακή Λογιοσύνη: 1571-1878 ( Nicosia, 2002) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lusignan, Stefano 1537 births 1590 deaths 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests University of Padua faculty Cypriot emigrants to Italy People from Nicosia Cypriot historians Cypriot non-fiction writers

Life

Publications

Digitised manuscripts of the Chronograffia

See also

References