Directorium ad faciendum passagium transmarinum

The treatise proposes the conquest of the Holy Land, the Byzantine Empire and Russia and their subjection to the Catholic Church; outlines how this might be achieved; and describes how the conquered territories could be administered.

The French royal register gives him only as "a wise prelate, formerly a Dominican, and now an archbishop in the empire of Constantinople."

Charles Köhler, who edited the text, presumed that even the king of France did not know the name of the author.

[4] An early tradition ascribes the Directorium to a monk named Burcard or Brochard (Brocardus monacus),[7] usually identified with Burchard of Mount Sion.

This is untenable,[2] but was propagated by the French translation of Jean Miélot, which attributes it to Brochard l'Allemand.

[18] The fifth part discusses the possibility of negotiating treaties with the Christian but non-Catholic rulers of Byzantium and Serbia.

Here the Greeks are treated as the fathers of all heresies (including Arianism), who led the other eastern peoples astray and who have continuously betrayed and maltreated Catholics.

Michael VIII Palaiologos is called a usurper and accused of massacring the Catholics in Constantinople in 1261.

The author refers to a recent chronicle of the rulers of Serbia to accuse of them gross misdeeds.

The reigning emperor, Andronikos III, was a fool who paid tribute to the Catalans, the Tatars and the Turks.

Battering rams and scaling materials would be required, and the ships should be fitted for siege engines.

These included rams with pointed iron caps suspended from ropes so they could be swung against gates.

He claims to have seen this method employed successfully against the Turks by Martino Zaccaria, several of whose victories he witnessed.

The author himself was one of two Dominicans tasked by Pope John XXII with bringing about their union with Rome in 1318.

The idea of sailing to Cilician Armenia is rejected on account of the poor port facilities.

The author reminds his readers that the Persian khan Ghazan, expecting help from the West, had invaded Syria in 1299–1300, capturing Damascus.

[25] The eleventh part (third of the second book) describes the places which the crusade would use as centres of supply and revictualling.

The author points out that the land known in the Bible as Asia Minor and to the Greek as Anatolia had come to be known as Turkey (Turquia).

[4] Jean Miélot also made a French translation, L'Advis directif pour faire le passage d'oultremer, in 1455 for Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy.