Documentary sources from mainland Greece in the 13th century

It is generally agreed upon that the student of Byzantine history has to rely on a limited number of sources. This is especially true in the case of one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire after 1204, the State of Epirus. Most of our information on Epirus is provided by the biased accounts of Byzantine authors who swore allegiance to Nicea, and by Latin writers. Special value in a correct re-assessment of the historical role played by the Angeloi in the reconquista of formerly Byzantine territory must therefore be assigned to authors not influenced by the Nicene propaganda, such as Bardanes, Chomatenos and Apokaukos. Due to the scanty flux of information, documentary sources from the region which have hitherto not received due attention are of considerable importance. The title assumed by the respective ruler of Epirus in his documents (6 Latin copies, 6 Greek copies and 3 originals of documents issued by the chancery of Epirus up to 1303 have survived) reflects well the ebb and tide of imperial aspirations of the Angeloi dynasty. Furthermore, the considerable number of documents transmitted in the so-called chartulary of the monasteries of Makrinitissa and Nea Petra in the vicinity of Volos, which cover a substantial part of the 13th century, provide us with valuable information on Thessaly, a region ruled by the local family of Maliasenoi initially under the suzerainty of Epirus. The project has two aims: (1) to provide the scholar with new, solid instrumenta studiorum which fill in sensible gaps of research and (2) to illustrate the centrifugal forces in the political history of mainland Greece in the 13th century with the help of the analyzed documentary sources. The envisaged outcome is to provide (1) full regesta of the documents issued by the chancery of the Angeloi (Epirus, Thessalonike) following the model of Dölger (who includes documents from the imperial chancery of Nicaea only), based on an attentive re-assessment of all available sources (historiography, epistolography, accounts of Latin authors, epigraphic material), to be published as an article; (2) a new critical edition with German translation and commentary of all documents of the Angeloi chancery which have survived in the Greek original, to be published as an article; (3) a new critical edition of the so-called chartulary of the monasteries of Makrinitissa and Nea Petra with German translation and commentary, to be published as a monograph, including a special study on the impact of the quickly changing political situation on the chancery habits of the independent or semi-independent rulers of the region (Angeloi, John Palaiologos, Alexios Sthlavos, and others). Preliminary results of (1) and (2) should be made accessible via internet as soon as available.

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, the Byzantines resistance to the Latin rule took root and developed in the border regions of the Greek language area. Out of the contests of the subsequent years, three states were born of which each one laid claim to being the sole representative of the Byzantine Empire: the Empire of the Laskarids in Asia Minor, the Empire of Trebizond ruled by the Grand Komnenoi, and Epirus under the descendants of the Angeloi. The ideological struggles among these states have provoked major research interest. Hitherto, little attention has been paid to a partial aspect of this antagonism which however is of substantial importance: the official documents issued by the aforementioned rulers and representing a highly meaningful criterion for reviewing the imperial ambitions. There are two reasons why the documentary evidence is of particular importance: the Byzantine history records are biased, and our principal sources for the history of Epirus during the first half of the 13th century consist only of two collections of letters and one collection of juridical works.The project undertook a comprehensive assessment of all the available primary sources (historical records, letters, inscriptions, official documents), yielding regesta (brief synopses) of the documents issued by Epirotic rulers during the 12051318 period. The year 1318 was chosen as the end of the period covered, because when the despot Thomas I Angelos is murdered in 1318, the Angeloi dynasty in Epirus comes to an end, and the new rulers accentuate different policy priorities. The total of 198 regesta produced furnish information on foreign policy contacts (embassies, alliances, and peace treaties) as well as on domestic administration measures (privilege-granting documents). They constitute an important working tool for studies of Epirotic history of the 13th and early 14th century. A detailed investigation of the preserved documents (Greek originals or Latin translations) brought new insights to the chancery habits of the rulers of the Epiros, thanks especially to examining their formal external and internal features (material support; ink colour, script, signatures; language). It has even been possible to ascertain similarities to earlier practice of the imperial chancery as well as deviations therefrom (attributable to the lack of well-trained office staff). Theodoros I Angelos was the ruler whose ambitions were the most pronounced: he claimed for himself alone all the rights reserved for the Byzantine emperors (such as red ink, full imperial title, self-designation of the document as chrysobullos logos, signing the prostagmata with a menologem formula).