The Latins in Greece: A Brief Introduction 17
which are invaluable tools for research into the administration and social his-
tory of the colony.44 Other archival collections in western Europe, such as the
archives of the Order of St John and the archives of Florence, certainly contain
much that is of interest to the historian of medieval Greece, but they have not
been as systematically studied or published as the collections of Venice. The
one exception is the papal correspondence contained in the papal registers
at the Vatican, much of which has of course been published (though some-
times only in summary). One important archival collection has, unfortunately,
been lost, with the destruction of the Angevin archive of Naples during the
Second World War, but an attempt to reconstruct its contents is being made,
with impressive results.45 Of the diplomatic sources emanating from Greece,
particular mention should be made to the Assizes of Romania (the law code
of Frankish Greece) which were codified in the mid-14th century, and must
serve as a starting point for any investigation of the social structure and legal
procedures of the Frankish territories. The text of the Assizes was published
by Georges Recoura, translated into English by Peter Topping and studied at
much more depth by David Jacoby.46
Of more limited scope, but nonetheless containing very interesting informa-
tion are the writings of pilgrims and other travellers passing through Greece,
usually on their way to the Holy Land. Pilgrimage itineraries were a well-
established and apparently widely-read genre of literature, throughout the
Middle Ages. From the 14th century onwards, there is an observable tendency
for these accounts to become much more personalised and also to describe
not just the final destination (i.e. the Holy Land) but also the journey. Though
these accounts are of limited use for the political history of the Latin states,
they are extremely interesting in that they provide us with snapshots of every-
day life in these territories from the perspectives of outsiders, thus preserving
information that local or official sources often overlook. These accounts tend
to get longer and more detailed as the Middle Ages draw to a close, turning
44 Sally McKee, ed., Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete, 1312–1420, 3 vols. (Washington
DC, 1998); Gasparis, ed., Catastici Feudorum Crete. Particular credit should also be given
to institutions such as the Comitato per le pubblicazione delle fonti relative alla storia di
Venezia, Dumbarton Oaks, the Istituto Ellenico of Venice and the Εθνικό Ἰδρυμα Ερευνών
of Athens for their efforts in publishing this archive.
45 Riccardo Filangieri et al., eds., I registri della cancelleria Angioina, 49 vols. (Naples, 1950–)
[in progress].
46 Georges Recoura, ed., Les Assises de Romanie (Paris, 1930); Peter Topping, ed., Feudal
Institutions as Revealed in the Assizes of Romania, the Law Code of Frankish Greece:
Translation of the Text of the Assizes with a Commentary on Feudal Institutions in Greece
and in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, 1949); David Jacoby, La féodalité.