There are few places in Greece which possess the combined charms of natural beauty and of historic association to the same extent as Monemvasia, The great rock which rises out of the sea near the ancient Epidauros Limera is not only one of the most picturesque sites of the Peloponnese, but has a splendid record of heroic independence, which entitles it to a high place in the list of the world's fortresses (Figs. 1, 2). Monemvasia's importance is, however, wholly mediaeval; and its history has hitherto never been written; for the painstaking brochure of the patriotic Monemvasiote deputy and ex-Minister K. Papamichalópoulos, was composed before modern research rendered it possible to draw upon the original authorities at Venice and elsewhere. In the present paper I have endeavoured to state briefly what, in the present state of Greek mediaeval studies, is known about this interesting city during the Frankish period.
1 P. 398.
2 Miklosich, und Müller, , Acta et Diplomata Graeca, Medii Aevi, ii. 287 Google Scholar; Dorótheos of Monemvasia, , Βιβλίον Ιστορικόν (ed. 1814), 397 Google Scholar.
3 Lámpros, , Μιχαὴλ Ἀκομινάτον, ii. 137 Google Scholar; Nikétas, 97, 581–92.
4 Τὸ Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως 1. 2065.
5 Ibid. ll. 2630, 2644.
6 Ibid. ll. 2765–9.
7 Ibid. ll. 2891–6; Romanós, , Γρατιανòς ζώρζης, 136 Google Scholar. The French version of the ‘Chronicle’ omits the Naxian and Cephalonian contingents.
8 Epistolae, vol. ii. p. 622; Les Registres ďInnocent IV. vol. iii. 306, 397.
9 La Grèce Continentale, p. 412; SirWyse, T., Excursion into the Peloponnesus, i. 6 Google Scholar. Cf. Mr.Tozer, in J.H.S. iv. 233–6Google Scholar.
10 Τὸ Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως 1. 1306; Le Livre de la Conqueste, p. 27.
11 Les Registres ď Urbain IV. ii. 100, 341; Τὸ Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως II. 4534, 4547, 4580, 4584, 4643, 5026, 5569, 5576.
12 Fontcs Rerum Austriacaram, Abt. ii. B. xiv. 164, 192–3, 204, 215, 220, 226, 248.
13 Antique Memorie di Cerigo, apud Sátlias, Μνημεῖα Ὲλληνικῆς—Ίστορίας vi. 301.
14 Sanudo, Istoria del Regno, apud Hopf, , Chroniques Gréco-romanes, 127 Google Scholar; Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Abt. ii. B. xiv. 181; Sansovino, , Cronologia del Mondo, fol. 185 Google Scholar; Hopf, apud Ersch und Gruber, lxxxv. 310 Google Scholar.
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16 Le Lirre de la Conqueste, 363; Libro de los Fechos, 107; Muntaner, Cronaca, ch. 117; Bartholomaeus de Neocastro and Nicolaus Specialis apud Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, xiii. 1185 Google Scholar; x. 959.
17 Chs. 199, 201.
18 Thomas, , Diplomatarium Veneto-Lerantinum, i. 127 Google Scholar.
19 Miklosich und Müller, l.c.
20 Phrantzés, 57; Manuel Palaiológos, Theodori Despoti Laudatio Funebris, apud Migne, , Patrologia Gracca, clvi. 228–9Google Scholar; Clialkokondýles, 80.
21 Misti, liii. fol. 44, 256; lvi. fol. 76 v., cited by Hopf, op. cit. lxxxvi, 79.
22 Νέος, Έλληνομνήμων, i. 269 Google Scholar; ii. 181.
23 Montfaucon, , Palaeographia Graeca, 81, 99Google Scholar; Έλληνομνήμων, 336–46.
24 Miklosich und Müller, v. 171–4; Παρνασ σός vii. 472–6.
25 Ibid. iii. 258.
26 P. 447.
27 Chalkokondyles, 476, 485; Phrantzês, 396–97; Spandugino (ed. 1551), 44–5.
28 Magno, Annali Veneti, apud Hopf, , Chroniques Gréco-romanes, 203–4Google Scholar; Pii II. Commentari, 103–104.
29 Phrantzês, 415; Magno, 204; Sáthas, vi. 95; Chalkokondýles, 556. Regina, fol. 52, 56 (for a copy of which I am indebted to Mr. Horatio F. Brown: see Appendix). The actual date is uncertain; Phrantzês and Magno give 1464, and the Venetian document above-quoted points to that year; but Malatesta's secretary in his account of the war (Sáthas, l.c.) puts it in 1463, before the siege of Corinth.
30 Sanudo, , Diarii, i. 703 Google Scholar.
31 Predelli, , Commemoriali, v. 228–30, 238–9, 241Google Scholar; Miklosich u. Muller, op. cit. iii. 293–309.
32 Sáthas, , Μνημεῖα Ἑλληνικῆς ‛Ιστορίας, iv. 230 Google Scholar; Sanuado, , Diarii, xxix. 482 Google Scholar.
33 Feyerabend, , Reyssbuch des Heyligens Lands, fol. 182 Google Scholar; Faber, , Evagatorium, iii. 314 Google Scholar. The name was so long preserved that a wine-shop in Venetian dialect was called ‘Malvasia.’
34 Sanudo, , Diarii, vii. 714 Google Scholar; xxiii. 536; xxiv. 669; xxv. 64; xxix. 402; xxxi. 227; xxxv. 363; xliv. 475; lv. 296; Νέος ῾ Ελληνομνήμων iii. 56.
35 Sanudo, , Diarii, xi. 349 Google Scholar; xxxiii. 366; Sáthas, iv. 224, 227, 229, 234; Lamansky, , Les Secrets de l'État de Venise, p. 059 Google Scholar; Feyerabend, op. cit. fol. 112.
36 Predelli, , Commemoriali, vi. 236, 238Google Scholar.
37 Paruta, , Historia Veneliana, i. 451–3Google Scholar.
38 Lami, , Deliciae Erudilorum, xv. 203 Google Scholar; Sáthas, op. cit. viii. 310–3, 320–1, 335, 344, 377–8, 441–3.
39 Ibid. 342, 413, 450, 454.
40 Ibid. 396.