Cotovicus (Kootwyck, Cotwyck or Cootwijk) was a doctor of jurisprudence at the University of Utrecht. The author prepared his ‘Synopsis’ of Venetian history from Gasparo Contarini’s De magistratibus & republica Venetorum. He travelled to the Holy Land in the late 1590s, following the familiar pilgrim route via Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus. His observations on Cyprus are of special importance because he visited the island only 30 years after the Ottoman conquest and he gave many details of agriculture and daily life. A Dutch translation appeared in 1620.
Itinerarivm Hierosolymitanvm Et Syriacvm; In Qvo Variarvm Gentivm Mores Et Institvta; Insularum, Regionum, Vrbium situs, unà ex prisci recentiorisq[ue] sæculi usu; unà cum euentis, quæ Auctori terrâ mariq[ue] acciderunt, dilucidè recensentur. Accessit Synopsis Reipublicæ Venet[æ] Avctore Ioanne Cotovico Vltraiectino I.V.D. & Milit.Hierosolymitano. Antverpiæ, Apud Hieronymum Verdussium, in via vulgò de Cammerstraet, sub signo rubri Leonis. M. DC. XIX.