Syria was a region much frequented by
merchants and both travelogues and
their Renaissance publishers usually excluded
it from their accounts. However,
there is extensive Late Medieval travel
literature on journeys to Egypt and Syria
thanks to the texts left by the pilgrims
who went to the Holy Sepulchre. In the
following pages, I will attempt to offer
new information from atypical travellers,
such as Latin notaries public, on the
structures hosting European merchants
in cities like Alexandria and, above all,
Damascus
