18 Tsougarakis
into thick volumes, or even multi-volume works towards the end of the 15th
century.47 Some include particularly useful information on the topography of
medieval Greece, tastes and fashions and local customs as well as on the condi-
tions of travel through the Aegean.
Byzantine sources also give us important insights into the history of Latin
Greece, again though with a Constantinopolitan bias. For the conquest and
its immediate aftermath, the history of Niketas Choniates provides the Greek
perspective in vivid detail.48 The history of Georgios Akropolites gives us an
insider’s view of events from the perspective of the Nicaean court, where he
was an official before taking up an administrative position in Constantinople,
once it had been re-conquered by the Greeks.49 The following period, and up
to the mid-14th century, is covered by the writings of Georgios Pachymeres
and of Nikephoros Gregoras, who were also members of the Byzantine court.50
This information can sometimes be supplemented by the correspondence of
certain high-ranking provincial Byzantine church officials, namely Michael
Choniates, metropolitan of Athens, Demetrios Chomatianos, archbishop of
Ochrid and John Apokaukos, metropolitan of Naupaktos.51
The Present Volume
Given the complexity of the history of medieval Greece and the abundance of
specialised studies on the topic, writing the political history of the Latin states
47 See for example Felix Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinatio-
nem, ed. C.D. Hassler, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1843); translated as The Wanderings of Felix Fabri,
2 vols. in 4, The Library of the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, 7–10 (London, 1892–93);
Pietro Casola, Viaggio di Pietro Casola di Gerusalemme, tratto dall’ autografo esistente
nella Biblioteca Trivulzio, ed. Giulio Porro (Milan, 1855); translated as Canon Pietro Casola’s
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year 1494, trans. Margaret Newett (Manchester, 1907).
48 Niketas Choniates, Nicetae Choniatae historia, ed. Jan-Louis van Dieten (Berlin, 1975);
translated as O, City of Byzantium, trans. Harry Magoulias (Detroit, 1984).
49 Georgios Akropolites, Opera, ed. August Heisenberg, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1903); translated in
English as The History, trans. Ruth Macrides (Oxford, 2007).
50 Georgios Pachymeres, Relations Historiques, ed. Albert Failler, 5 vols. Corpus Fontium
Historiae Byzantinae, 24 (Paris, 1984–2000); Nikephoros Gregoras, Byzantinae historiae
libri xxxvii, in pl, 148–49.
51 Michael Choniates, Μιχαήλ Ακομινάτου του Χωνιάτου τα σωζόμενα, [Michael Choniates’s
Surviving Works] ed. Spyridon Lambros, 2 vols. (Athens, 1879–1880) and Michaelis
Choniatae Epistulae, ed. Foteini Kolovou (Berlin, 2001); Demetrios Chomatianos,
Demetrii Chomateni Ponemata Diaphora, ed. Günter Prinzing, Corpus Fontium Historiae
Byzantinae, 38 (Berlin, 2002); John Apokaukos, Άπαντα Ιωάννου Απόκαυκου, [Complete
works of John Apokaukos] ed. Ieronymos Delemares (Naupactus, 2000).