16 Tsougarakis
Venetian history;38 though these sources are not of local origin and adopt a
strong Venetian perspective, they are informed by detailed knowledge of local
affairs or by insider knowledge of Venetian politics. Laurentius de Monacis in
particular, served as chancellor of Crete in the 14th century and has left us with
the most detailed account of Cretan affairs of that period.
Venetian Crete has been the other major focus of historical interest, not
only because it proved to be one of the most enduring of the Latin domin-
ions, but also because this is the one territory which has bequeathed us with
substantial diplomatic material of local origin. The treaty which surrendered
Candia to the Turks in 1669 allowed the Venetians to transport their exten-
sive Cretan archive to Venice, where it still resides, as part of the Archivio
di Stato di Venezia. Though no comparable collection has survived from the
other Venetian colonies of Greece, Venice’s own archival series have thank-
fully preserved a wealth of material relating to the Republic’s involvement
in the Levant. Since the 19th century, the Venetian archives have been mined
for the material relating to the Greek colonies, much of which has been pub-
lished in dedicated publications, such as Sathas’s Documents inédits relatifs à
l’histoire de la Grèce,39 Noiret’s Documents inédits pour servir a l’histoire de la
domination vénitienne en Crète,40 Tafel’s and Thomas’s Diplomatarium Veneto-
Levantinum41 and Thiriet’s Délibérations.42 The specifically Cretan material
from the Venetian archives continues to be published ever since Gerland’s
publication of Das Archiv des Herzogs von Kandia in 1899.43 Despite the con-
certed efforts that have been made, only a fraction of this archive has been
published and new documents of immense interest continue to come to light.
Recent years, for example, have seen the publication of Sally McKee’s col-
lection of wills and Charalambos Gasparis’s edition of land registers, both of
38 Andrea Dandolo, Chronica per extensum descripta, ed. Ester Pastorello, Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores 12 (Bologna, 1938–58); Laurentius de Monacis, Chronicon de rebus Venetis
(Venice, 1758).
39 Konstantinos N. Sathas, ed., Documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire de la Grèce au Moyen
Âge, (Μνημεία Ελληνικής Ιστορίας) 9 vols. (Paris, 1880–90).
40 Hippolyte Noiret, ed., Documents inédits pour servir à l’histoire de la domination vénitienne
en Crète de 1380 à 1485 (Paris, 1892).
41 G.L.F. Tafel and G.M. Thomas, ed., Urkunden zur älteren Handelsund Staatsgeschichte
der Republik Venedig, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1856–57; repr. Amsterdam, 1964), and especially:
G.M. Thomas, ed., Diplomatarium Veneto-Levantinum, sive acta et diplomata res Venetas
Graecas atque Levantis illustrantia, 2 vols. (Venice, 1880–99; repr. 1966).
42 Thiriet, ed., Régestes des deliberations; idem, ed., Délibérations des assemblées.
43 Ernst Gerland, ed., Das Archiv des Herzogs von Kandia im königl: Staatsarchiv zu Venedig
(Strassburg, 1899).