Cyriac of Ancona at Thessaloniki

At some time in 1431, Cyriac of Ancona visited Thessaloniki, a visit that seems hitherto to have passed unnoticed by scholars who have worked on the history and monuments of that city. A brief account of his stay is to be found in the life compiled by Cyriac’s friend Francesco Scalamonti and completed in 1464. A manuscript copy of Scalamonti’s work by Felice Feliciano is preserved in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Treviso, but the only published version is of a further copy of the Treviso manuscript printed by G. Colucci in 1792. Since the account includes a reference to an otherwise unknown monument of Aemilius Paullus in Thessaloniki and also throws light on what seems to have been the earliest recorded inscription there, it has been thought worthwhile to discuss some of the points raised by the passage.