SURIANO, FRANCESCO - Scholar of Palestine, known for the Treatise on the Holy Land and the East, b. in Venice in 1450, d. after 1529. He went to sea from childhood and became a Franciscan at the age of twenty-five. He resided in the East from 1481 to 1484 as superior of the convent of Acre, then from 1493 to 1515, and was twice Custos of the Holy Land (1493–95 and 1512–15). He also suffered imprisonment in Cairo (1510–12) as a result of one of the Arab extortions directed against Europeans.
He took an interest in the shrines, pilgrims, and European merchants established in the East, aided by his knowledge of Greek and Arabic. The Treatise, written in 1485, revised in 1514, and printed in Venice in 1524, is rich in personal experience and is an important source for knowledge of the customs and practices of the period. S. died in old age; in 1529 he was still guardian of the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi.