For Pleasure and Profit: The Recreational and Fiscal Exploitation of animals in Lusignan and Venetian Cyprus (1192–1570)

This paper discusses the recreational and fiscal exploitation of animals in the secular society of Lusignan Cyprus. Recreational exploitation involved hunting animals, an activity practised predominantly by the Cypriot nobility but also involving other ethnic groups and social classes. Fiscal exploitation involved the taxation of animals by the Cypriot crown and the Venetian administration of Cyprus that succeeded it. This tax, called the marechausée came into existence during the later period of Lusignan rule and was continued by the Venetians. These distinct but nonetheless interconnected aspects of exploiting animals on Cyprus will be examined in separate sections, the first dealing with hunting and the second with a particular form of taxation.