Wine, Women and Song: Entertainment in Lusignan Cyprus Nicholas Coureas (Cyprus Research Centre, Cyprus)
IN THE LUSIGNAN and Venetian periods of Cypriot history, from the thirteenth to the late sixteenth centuries, the forms of entertainment available broadly resembled those in Western Europe in the same period. In this paper entertainment involving music, dancing, taverns and prostitution will be discussed, but not hunting and martial arts such as fencing and jousting. Cyprus at this time appears to have had a lively tradition of entertainment in the ways mentioned above. These types of entertainment, not surprisingly, did not meet with universal approval, so that both the church and the legislator passed proscriptive or limiting legislation in order to put a stop to or at least minimize what were perceived to be the immoral and harmful effects of such diversions, especially but not exclusively those involving drink and women. Various forms of evidence from Cyprus records the kinds of entertainment practiced. These include chronicles, secular legislation, ecclesiastical legislation and notarial deeds. What is not included are administrative and court records, unfortunately not extant for this period of Cypriot history, that would impart information such as the incomes and outgoings of taverns or from practicing prostitution, the salaries of musicians and entertainers or legal cases involving persons engaged in various types of entertainment.
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