The Latins in Greece: A Brief Introduction 21
Professor Jacoby argues that the installation of Latin rulers and the resultant
fragmentation of the Byzantine world caused a realignment towards western
demand, modifying the more introvert tendencies of the Byzantine economy.
At the same time, the influx of entrepreneurs (especially from Italy) and the
concomitant engagement with new types of financial activity provided a ben-
eficial stimulus to the economy. This, however, has to be balanced against the
lowering of the social and legal position of the Greek peasantry and the grow-
ing instability caused by the mounting Turkish advance.
The physical evidence of the increased monetisation detected by David
Jacoby is examined in Julian Baker’s study of the coinage of medieval Greece.
The study reviews the current state of research into the numismatics of
Romania and examines the typology, archaeology and use of coinage in the
area, before placing the numismatic evidence within its historical context. In
doing so, it shows that this type of evidence is not only essential in supplement-
ing the written sources of the period but can sometimes directly challenge the
received wisdom which is based mainly on narrative and literary material.
In one way or another, implicitly or explicitly, most of the chapters in this
volume deal with the interaction of Latins and Greeks in the territories in
question. As was the case with most of Europe, however, the Byzantine lands
were also home to a third ethno-religious group, namely the Jews. Professor
Jacoby’s second essay for this volume traces the history of the Jewish commu-
nities of Greece, following the conquest. After surveying the information on
the existence of Jewish communities in the various towns and territories of
Romania, the essay examines the socio-legal status of the Jews under Latin rule
and attempts to assess the effects of the Latin conquest on the Jewry of Greece.
The remaining three chapters deal with various aspects of the arts and
culture of medieval Greece. Gill Page writes on the literature of the Frankish
domains. Her examination begins with the Chansonnier du Roi, an intriguing
and rare survivor of the courtly culture that the Franks transplanted into the
Peloponnese. She then moves on to examine the most famous of the literary
products of medieval Greece, the Chronicle of the Morea. Reference has already
been made to the Chronicle, as an invaluable narrative source for the history of
Frankish Greece. The Chronicle, however, is first and foremost a piece of litera-
ture, apparently created for the edification of an audience or a readership. Its
peculiar survival in four languages (Greek, French, Italian and Aragonese) and
the apparent loss of the original text has engendered much debate as to the
work’s original function and perspective. Moreover, the existence of a Greek
version of this pro-Frankish text raises intriguing questions about the posi-
tion of the Greeks, or some Greeks within the principality. Page examines the