The ''Passages d'outremer'' is a chronicle of the

crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

written in

Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...

by Sébastien Mamerot in 1473–1474. Drawing freely on legendary material, it covers the wars between

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

from the time of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

until 1462. Mamerot was the chaplain of Louis de Laval-Châtillon, governor of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, who commissioned the ''Passages''. It is divided into 88 chapters and covers 272

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

s in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

. Its full title is ''Passages fais oultre mer par les François contre les Turcqs et autres Sarrazins et Mores oultre marins'' ('Passages made overseas by the Franks against the Turks and other overseas Saracens and Moors'). The ''Passages d'outremer'' is conserved in three 15th-century manuscripts, all today in the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

(BnF), numbers fr. 5594, fr. 2626 and fr. 4769. A partial edition was printed at Paris by Michel Le Noir in 1518 under the title ''Les passaiges d'Oultremer faitz par les Françoys''. The manuscript BnF fr. 5594 is a masterpiece of

manuscript illumination An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and ...

by Jean Colombe, containing 66 full-page miniatures. It was finished after 1488, since it contains a copy of a letter from the Ottoman sultan

Bayezid II Bayezid II (; ; 3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid consolidated the Ottoman Empire, thwarted a pro-Safavid dynasty, Safavid rebellion and finally abdicated his throne ...

to King

Charles VIII of France Charles VIII, called the Affable (; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13. His elder sister Anne acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Du ...

dated to that year.

Editions

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{refend 1473 books 1474 books 15th-century history books 15th-century manuscripts Middle French literature French-language chronicles Crusade chronicles Charles VIII of France