Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Traveller / antiquarian

Cornelis van Bruyn

fl. 1683–1698 · Netherlands

Dutch traveller, active 1683–1698. Lived at Larnaca.

Life and work

  1. 19 April 1683
    Arrived at Larnaca from Alexandretta and lodged with Balthasar Sovan, French consul (also consul for England and Holland); toured the island until 26 May 1683, then left for Smyrna and Venice. Left The Hague 1 Oct 1674; returned 10 Mar 1693.

    LarnacaCobham 1908, p. 235

  2. April 1683
    At the consul's strong recommendation visited a mountain spot with bones in the rock (venerated by Greeks, candle-ends round it); with hammers and scissors extracted a bone he took for a man's radius, plus fragments and large teeth, and carried them off. Also took petrified oysters from a hill near Nicosia. (Natural fossil material, not antiquities.)

    near Cytheria (as printed)Cobham 1908, pp. 236-237

  3. May 1683
    At Paphos noted the remains of several churches, St George's used by Greeks, and three large columns standing near it, which he could not identify as church or other building; also an old castle on a hill (a ruin) and a fort on the shore.

    PaphosCobham 1908, p. 244

  4. 1698
    His Dutch travels were published at Delft in 1698, translated into French and (by 'W. T.') into English, London 1702; Cobham's extracts translate afresh from pp. 373-388 of the Cavelier folio, Paris 1714.

    DelftCobham 1908, p. 235

Sources

  1. 1.C. D. Cobham (1908). Excerpta Cypria: Materials for a History of Cyprus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Online
  2. 2.Cornelis de Bruijn (1698). Reizen door de vermaardste delen van Klein Asia. Delft.
  3. 3.E. Papuci-Władyka (ed.) (2020). Interdisciplinary Research of the Jagiellonian University in Nea Paphos UNESCO World Heritage Site (2011-2015): First Results.