Note 89 — BOOK X.

It would be difficult to give a very exact idea of the city of Constantinople as it was at the period of this crusade. Among the travellers who have described this capital at a time nearer than our own to the middle ages, we ought to remark Peter Gilles and Grelot, who saw Constantinople, the one in the reign of Francis I., and the other in the reign of Louis XIV. Their description has furnished those who came after them with many documents. Revolutions, wars, the Turks, and fires change every day the aspect of this city, which was already much altered in the times of the travellers we have named. Ducange, in his Christiana Constantinopolis, and Banduri, in his Imperium Orientale, have collected all the information of the old travellers and the Greek historians. Among modern travellers Constantinople, Ancient and Modern, by the Englishman Dallaway, and Le Voyage de la Propontide, by M. Lechavalier, may be consulted with advantage.