Frankish Greece Research Articles

Getting in Touch with Troy in Fifteenth-Century France: The First Prose Version of the Roman de Troie in the Manuscript F°26 of the Abbey of Maredsous

Abstract This paper considers how the codex as a medium, specifically via its illustration and layout, translates into material forms the literary and textual choices of the texts it transmits in order to make its version of the Troy story tangible, and thus intelligible for its medieval readers. It takes as an example the first prose version of the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-Maure, probably composed in the last quarter of the thirteenthcentury in Frankish Greece, and focuses more specifically on a late manuscript of Prose 1, recently rediscovered, the manuscript F°26 from the Abbey of Maredsous (Belgium), made almost two centuries later, c. 1450, in the Burgundian Netherlands. This paper argues that this codex, in its specific context of production and within its textual and visual traditions, allow its audience to come into contact with the long-lost city of Troy, and the narrative that evokes it.

Charalambos Bouras, Byzantine Athens, 10th-12th Centuries / Nickephoros I. Tsougarakis et al. A Companion to Latin Greece / Joanita Vroom, Medieval and Post-Medieval Ceramics in the Eastern Mediterranean / Joanita Vroom et al., Medieval Masterchef

Both the Bouras and Tsougarakis books are splendid introductions to their respective periods, Bouras on Middle Byzantine Athens, and the Tsougarakis-Lock edited volume on Frankish Greece. But the prices surely rule out owning a hard-copy of either book for almost all interested readers. At least Routledge offers a cheap online-version as a reasonable alternative access. Brill’s policy of matching online price to hard copy is quite unfathomable.
 Charalambos Bouras, who died in 2016 shortly before this volume on Athens appeared, was a giant in the field of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Architecture, and this volume bears ample witness to his mastery of the monuments, and in particular of their historical context. It was first published by the Benaki Museum in 2010, but has been revised for this new Routledge edition. It is a fine accompaniment to his earlier excellent introduction to the architecture of Greece as a whole from Early Byzantine to the Early Modern era, published bilingually by the leading Athens publisher Melissa (Bouras 2006). This final work covers in immense detail the architectural record of Athens from the 6th through to the end of the 12th centuries AD, although very little indeed can be said of the first Byzantine period – the Early Byzantine, from the later 7th to the mid-9th centuries. At its core is a careful catalogue of some forty churches which can be assigned to the Middle Byzantine period (late 9th to the end of the 12th centuries).

Discovering a Hospitaller Order in Frankish Greece: The Order of St James in the Principality of Achaia

Abstract The Hospital of St James in Andravida, a mixed house of male and female religious in the capital of the Principality of Achaia, has long been known to historians of Frankish Greece, but recent publications allow us to identify the institution as the head of an entire hospitaller order, founded by Prince Geoffrey I of Villehardouin. This helps explain Geoffrey II’s desire to incorporate St James into the military-hospitaller Teutonic Order, initiating a long struggle within and over St James that involved the papacy and that, understandably, has not been examined closely until now. The saga ended under Prince William II with the incorporation of St James into the Templar Order instead, although with the dissolution of the latter St James came into the hands of the Hospitallers. This paper tells the history of this newly discovered Order of St James from 1209/1210 until its absorption into the Templars in 1246.

The Cistercian Mission in Transylvania

Abstract Just before 1200 and just after 1240 two Cistercian abbeys, first a male house at Cârța, not far from Sibiu (Sancta Maria in Kerz), and then a nunnery in Brașov (Sancta Katherina), were established in Transylvania, a borderland of the territories ruled by the Hungarian crown inhabited by Eastern-rite Christians, especially Romanians. Conventionally, often following the model of older historiography on Frankish Greece, modern scholars have understood the arrival of the Cistercian Order in this remote area as an effort at conversion initiated by the papal see. Reassessing older evidence within a new historiographical paradigm and adding newly discovered documentary sources, this paper argues instead that the Cistercian mission in Transylvania was tied to local factors, cultural, social, and economic, and thus the White Monks endured as long as their cooperation with the elite of the German colonists in southern Transylvania remained fruitful. In the light of the evidence, and similar to parallel developments in Frankish Greece, neither ethnic conflict nor a desire to convert non-Latins played a determining role in the historical evolution of the Cistercian presence in Transylvania.

Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Saint George in the Eastern Mediterranean under the Latinokratia (13th–14th Centuries) and His Mythification in the Crown of Aragon

The cult of St George in the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the most extraordinary examples of cohabitation among different religious communities. For a long time, Greek Orthodox, Latins, and Muslims shared shrines dedicated to the Cappadocian warrior in very different places. This phenomenon touches on two aspects of the cult—the intercultural and the transcultural—that should be considered separately. My paper mainly focuses on the cross-cultural value of the cult and the iconography of St George in continental and insular Greece during the Latinokratia (13th–14th centuries). In this area, we face the same phenomenon with similar contradictions to those found in Turkey or Palestine, where George was shared by different communities, but could also serve to strengthen the identity of a particular ethnic group. Venetians, Franks, Genoese, Catalans, and Greeks (Ῥωμαῖοι) sought the protection of St George, and in this process, they tried to physically or figuratively appropriate his image. However, in order to gain a better understanding of the peculiar situation in Frankish-Palaiologian Greece, it is necessary first to analyze the use of images of St George by the Palaiologian dynasty (1261–1453). Later, we will consider this in relation to the cult and the depiction of the saint on a series of artworks and monuments in Frankish and Catalan Greece. The latter enables us to more precisely interrogate the significance of the former cult of St George in the Crown of Aragon and assess the consequences of the rulership of Greece for the flourishing of his iconography in Late Gothic art.

Anne Van Arsdall and Helen Moody, eds. and trans., The Old French “Chronicle of Morea”: An Account of Frankish Greece after the Fourth Crusade. (Crusade Texts in Translation 28.) Farnham, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. $149.95. ISBN: 978-0-754631-52-1.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsAnne Van Arsdall and Helen Moody, eds. and trans., The Old French “Chronicle of Morea”: An Account of Frankish Greece after the Fourth Crusade. (Crusade Texts in Translation 28.) Farnham, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. $149.95. ISBN: 978-0-754631-52-1.Teresa ShawcrossTeresa ShawcrossPrinceton University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 93, Number 3July 2018 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/698677 Views: 77Total views on this site Copyright 2018 by the Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Were There Reforms in the Order of the Temple?

Were There Reforms in the Order of the Temple? The downfall of the Templars in the early fourteenth century has on occasion been explained as a consequence of the Order’s supposed inability to reform, particularly when compared to the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights. However, a close reading of the Templars’ normative texts (rule and statutes) suggests that the Order implemented timely administrative and disciplinary reforms throughout its history. Secondly, the thirteenth- century papal registers indicate that the pontiffs viewed the Brothers as suitable reformers for ecclesiastical institutions deemed to be in need of both spiritual and temporal renewal, for example in Italy and Frankish Greece. Thirdly, according to the post-1307 records of the trial against the Order, particularly those from Cyprus and the British Isles where torture was not (or hardly ever) used during the respective proceedings, the Brothers rejected the accusations leveled against them, arguing that such errors, had they existed, would have been addressed by the Order, and emphasizing that their allegedly objectionable practices were, in fact, in full accordance with normative texts sanctioned by both the Order and the papal curia. Given the Templars’ near unequivocal deference to the pope and the latter’s historically proactive role in promoting the Order, the Brothers ultimately may have looked to the pontiff (albeit in vain) to bring about those reforms that he would have deemed necessary.

Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, 1207–post 1239

A fresh look at the few sources concerning Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, within the context of the recently revised history of the rule of Count Maio on the island, reveals that this first Latin bishop was a relative of the count who had an eventful and colourful rule lasting over 32 years. This chronological survey of Benedetto’s tenure illustrates the transition from a Greek to a Latin episcopacy in Frankish Greece, the restructuring of the Church following the Fourth Lateran Council, the shifting allegiances of the secular powers, and finally the problems caused by the frequently unlettered and scandalous resident prelates who ruled during the first decades after the Fourth Crusade: Benedetto was accused of simony, ignorance, negligence and sexual incontinence.

Nikolaos G. Chrissis, Crusading in Frankish Greece, A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204-1282

Nikolaos G. Chrissis, Crusading in Frankish Greece, A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204-1282

Pope Innocent III, the Fourth Lateran Council, and Frankish Greece and Cyprus

Although the union between the Latin and Greek Churches was one of Pope Innocent III's career-long ambitions, the limited provisions made by the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council regarding the eastern Churches have led most historians to assume that by the end of his pontificate this matter had been relegated to one of secondary importance and was treated only as an afterthought during the council. By collecting and re-examining the surviving sources, this article shows that considerable time and energy was in fact spent during the council in regulating the affairs of the Churches of former Byzantine lands. The ensuing decisions and legislation formed the basis of the organisation of the Church in much of the Greco-Latin East for at least another three centuries.

Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr, editors. Contact and Conflict in Frankish Greece and the Aegean, 1204–1453: Crusade, Religion and Trade between Latins, Greeks and Turks

Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr, editors. Contact and Conflict in Frankish Greece and the Aegean, 1204–1453: Crusade, Religion and Trade between Latins, Greeks and Turks

Monasteries on the Borders of Medieval Europe: Conflict and Cultural Interaction ed. by Emilia Jamroziak and Karen Stöber (review)

Monasteries on the Borders of Medieval Europe: Conflict and Cultural Interaction. Edited by Emilia Jamroziak and Karen Stober. [Italia Sacra: Medieval Church Studies, Vol. 28.] (Turnhout: Brepols. 2014. Pp. x, 274. euro80,00. ISBN 9782-503-5435-6.)This dynamic and interdisciplinary collection has its origins in the Leeds Medieval Congress of 2008 and offers a fresh to frontier scholarship. It explores the experiences of religious communities in border areas across Europe in the high and later Middle Ages and considers how their experiences were different from those of their counterparts in the hinterlands. The essays represent a wide geographical spread and include studies on Scandinavia, Poland, Britain, and Frankish Greece. Although monastic, canonical, and mendicant houses are considered, analysis is restricted to male communities, for the additional conditions that affected religious women require that they have their own systematic approach (p. 3).Monasteries on the Borders seeks to examine all aspects of the frontier experience to understand better the roles that these houses played in their localities; the challenges they faced; and their negotiation of political, cultural, and linguistic landscapes. Whereas previous scholarship has tended to focus on the potential problems experienced in frontier zones, these essays consider the possible benefits that might result for both the communities and their neighbors. The collection opens with an editorial introduction, which includes a lucid historiographical discussion of frontiers, and introduces the aims and key themes of this publication. The ten essays are divided into two groups to represent two important types of frontier monastic experience-conflict and acculturation. A bibliography follows each contribution and there is a common index at the end.The first section-Conflict and its Resolution-considers the various conflicts that these frontier houses faced in their differing environments. This commences with a fascinating account by Brian Golding of two incidents involving the transfer of relics across the border from Wales to the Benedictine abbey of Shrewsbury: a relic of St. Winifred in 1138 and bones of St. Beuno in 1338. Golding argues that both acts need to be understood within the conditions of contemporary frontier politics. Thus, the first was a carefully negotiated act in volatile times when the Anglo-Welsh border was fluid-a currency in uncertain times and likely orchestrated by Gruffudd, prince of Gwynedd (p. …

Contact and conflict in Frankish Greece and the Aegean, 1204–1453. Crusade, religion and trade between Latins, Greeks and Turks. Edited by Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr. (Crusades. Subsidia, 5.) Pp. xix+232 incl. 3 maps. Farnham–Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2014. £70. 978 1 4094 3926 4

Contact and conflict in Frankish Greece and the Aegean, 1204–1453. Crusade, religion and trade between Latins, Greeks and Turks. Edited by Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr. (Crusades. Subsidia, 5.) Pp. xix+232 incl. 3 maps. Farnham–Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2014. £70. 978 1 4094 3926 4

The Myth of the White Monks’ “Mission to the Orthodox”: Innocent III, the Cistercians, and the Greeks

In the early thirteenth century, numerous Cistercian monasteries were founded in the former Byzantine territories conquered in the context of the Fourth Crusade. According to the standard narrative, put forth in the 1970s, Pope Innocent III sent the Cistercians on a “mission to the Orthodox,” but the mission was a failure, because the White Monks soon abandoned almost all of their houses in Frankish Greece and Constantinople without having “converted” the Greeks. In the light of recent research on the aftermath of 1204 and on the Cistercian Order, this paper argues that the Frankish rulers took the initiative to found Cistercian monasteries in the Greek East for the same reason that they did so in the Latin West: to cater to the Latin rite aristocracy. This Cistercian mission was a success, since the Cistercian establishments in Greece generally existed as long as the Western nobility survived to patronize and protect them. There is no evidence that Innocent intended the Cistercians to be missionaries in Romania since, contrary to a once common assumption, the papacy did not view the Greeks as requiring the same kind of missionary activity that was deemed necessary in lands inhabited by pagans or heretics.

The Myth of the White Monks' “Mission to the Orthodox”: Innocent III, the Cistercians, and the Greeks

In the early thirteenth century, numerous Cistercian monasteries were founded in the former Byzantine territories conquered in the context of the Fourth Crusade. According to the standard narrative, put forth in the 1970s, Pope Innocent III sent the Cistercians on a “mission to the Orthodox,” but the mission was a failure, because the White Monks soon abandoned almost all of their houses in Frankish Greece and Constantinople without having “converted” the Greeks. In the light of recent research on the aftermath of 1204 and on the Cistercian Order, this paper argues that the Frankish rulers took the initiative to found Cistercian monasteries in the Greek East for the same reason that they did so in the Latin West: to cater to the Latin rite aristocracy. This Cistercian mission was a success, since the Cistercian establishments in Greece generally existed as long as the Western nobility survived to patronize and protect them. There is no evidence that Innocent intended the Cistercians to be missionaries in Romania since, contrary to a once common assumption, the papacy did not view the Greeks as requiring the same kind of missionary activity that was deemed necessary in lands inhabited by pagans or heretics.

Of burning monks, unidentified churches and the last Cistercian foundation in the East: Our Lady of Camina in the principality of Achaia

The existence of the monastic church of Camina in Frankish Morea has long been noted by historians of Frankish Greece, but its history has never been thoroughly investigated and its location remains unknown. Moreover, some of the documents pertaining to this church have not been published while others have been published in faulty editions that have obscured their full significance. In the present study the surviving documents are edited and the church's history is reconstructed and its location identified. It is suggested that some of the original Benedictine inhabitants of Camina were the only Latin religious to have been burnt at the stake for heresy in medieval Greece. It is also argued that Camina was the last Cistercian abbey to be founded in the Latin East, and that it may be identified as the present monastery of Our Lady of Blachernae near Glarenza (Killini).

Crusading in Frankish Greece. A study of Byzantine-Western relations and attitudes, 1204–1282. By Nikolaos G. Chrissis. (Medieval Church Studies, 22.) Pp. xlii+338 incl. 7 maps. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. €90. 978 2 503 53423 7

Crusading in Frankish Greece. A study of Byzantine-Western relations and attitudes, 1204–1282. By Nikolaos G. Chrissis. (Medieval Church Studies, 22.) Pp. xlii+338 incl. 7 maps. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. €90. 978 2 503 53423 7 - Volume 65 Issue 3

Nikolaos G. Chrissis. Crusading in Frankish Greece: A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204–1282.

On April 12, 1204, the desperate soldiers of the troubled Fourth Crusade succeeded where armies of Arabs, Persians, and Slavs had previously failed: they captured the ancient city of Constantinople. Although the crusade had been launched to shatter the Muslim hold on Jerusalem, it ended by looting the greatest Christian city in the world. Amid the broken ruins of the Byzantine Empire, the western crusaders proceeded to build a new state, referred to by modern historians as the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It was a pitiful thing, struggling for survival in the treacherous Balkans for nearly six decades before collapsing with a whimper. The Latin Empire (1204–1261) has long remained understudied, traditionally appealing neither to medievalists nor to Byzantinists. Strangely, it has also attracted little interest among crusade historians, despite the wide diversification of the field in the past twenty years. In this book, Nikolaos G. Chrissis seeks to correct this oversight by focusing his attention on the crusaders' shifting agenda for Greece during the thirteenth century. The Latin Empire, he points out, was a crusader state no less than others in Syria, the Baltic, and Iberia. It thus requires examination as a crusade destination before it can be set into the larger ideology of contemporary crusading. In this regard, Chrissis aspires to do for the Latin Empire what Jonathan Phillips did for the Latin East in his Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations between the Latin East and the West, 1119–1187 (1996).

Crusading in Frankish Greece: A Study of Byzantine– Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204–1282 by Nikolaos G. Chrissis (review)

Review(s) of: Crusading in Frankish Greece: A study of byzantine-Western relations and attitudes, 1204-1282 (Medieval church studies, 22), by Chrissis, Nikolaos G., Turnhout, Brepols, 2013, hardback, pp. xlii, 338, 1 b/w table, 7 b/w line art, R.R.P. 90.00, ISBN 9782503534237.

Re-inventing the Homeland in the Historiography of Frankish Greece: The Fourth Crusade and the Legend of the Trojan War

AbstractA close reading of Western texts belonging to the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries reveals the process by which the legend of the Trojan War came to be associated with the conquest of Constantinople. After 1204, attempts in the Morea to re-work Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie attest to gradual changes in the relationship of the Frankish conquerors with their territories in the former Byzantine Empire, but also with their lands of origin. A parallel ideological transformation may be shown to have occurred within the Byzantine tradition. This evidence sheds light on the Late Medieval contexts in which were composed the Iliad of Constantine Hermoniakos, the anonymous Πόλεμος τῆς Τρωάδος, the Byzantine Iliad and Achilleid.