ABSTRACT
At the beginning of June 1308, the Templars who were living on Cyprus were placed under arrest. Modem scholarly descriptions of this episode all rely heavily on just one narrative source, the so-called Chronique d’Amadi. Amadi, as it is usually referred to for sake of convenience, is written in Italian and survives in a single manuscript dating from the mid-sixteenth century. This manuscript belonged to a Venetian bibliophile named Francesco Amadi – hence the name – and is now in the Marciana Library. According to Amadi, on 12 May, Amaury, in execution of the papal mandate, sent Balian of Ibelin, prince of Galilee and one of his most prominent supporters, to the Templar headquarters at Limassol. The message was that the Templars should surrender their arms and horses and accept confinement in the archbishop’s house at Nicosia.
