A Latin Look at Famagusta: Fragmentary Remains and Some Venetian Heraldic Shields

Since antiquity, the islands of the Mediterranean basin have hosted the trade, supply and settlement of peoples from diverse cultures.* During the period spanning the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, two islands in particular were of primary importance in the exchange between East and West, between the Christian and Islamic cultures: Sicily, and the more self-contained Cyprus. Both stood at commercial crossroads, and that in turn had repercussions for their political stability. If the first was considered the pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea, coveted by France and Spain, Cyprus, against the backdrop of a new Islamic expansion, found itself in a difficult equilibrium, torn between the ambitions of the Genoese, the Catalans and the Venetians. On this historical stage, it was the royal Lusignan dynasty that, with an increasingly uncertain touch, sought to maintain a delicate balance by attempting to hold these competing powers in check.