Venetian Crete Research Articles

Internal or External Crisis? The Venetians and Greeks in the Councils of Venetian Crete in the 14th Century

Internal or External Crisis? The Venetians and Greeks in the Councils of Venetian Crete in the 14th Century

Post-Byzantine Cretan Icon Painting: Demand and Supply Revisited

Since Manolis Chatzidakis’s pivotal publications on post-Byzantine Cretan icon painting in the 1970s, research in the field is, by now, very well established. In turn, these studies have demonstrated the contribution of Venetian Crete’s artistic production to European culture. Despite Giorgio Vasari’s condemnations of the ‘Greek style’, Byzantine icons remained popular in Renaissance Europe among Western patrons. Research on Venetian Crete has greatly benefitted from the survival of its archives, presently housed in Venice (Archivio di Stato di Venezia), an incredibly rich and invaluable source of information. One of the best-known published and referenced documents from these archives, supporting the wider popularity and dissemination of Cretan icons, is a contract offered to three Cretan painters dated 4 July 1499 concerning the production and delivery of 700 icons of the Virgin in just 42 days, by 15 August 1499, the day of the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin. This paper revisits the information the famous contract provides with the aim to scrutinise it further.

Artistic, Commercial, and Confessional Exchanges between Venetian Crete and Western Europe: The Multiple Lives of an Icon of the Virgin and Child from Harvard Art Museums

In the collections of the Harvard Art Museums there is an icon of the Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Roch. Although a typical product of Cretan icon painting of the turn of the sixteenth century, the icon stands out from similar contemporary artworks due to its unusual subject matter and materiality. The iconographic analysis of the icon places it at the intersection of the Latin and Byzantine traditions and suggests that it was intended as a votive offering against the plague, featuring one of the earliest depictions of the anti-plague saint, Roch of Montpellier in Eastern Orthodox art. Examination of the verso of the icon further underscores the Western European associations of the panel. The presence of an elaborate incised design on the back side of the icon suggests that the wooden panel originated from a reused piece of furniture, in all probability, a fifteenth-century Italian chest. With this case study as a point of reference, this article discusses the commercial, artistic, and cross-confessional exchanges that took place in the ethnically and culturally pluralistic societies of Venice and its Mediterranean colonies, including the trans-confessional spread of cults, the dissemination of artistic trends, as well as the mutual transfer of artworks and objects of prestige, such as icons and chests.

The Bay of Fraschia. Characteristics and Function in the Maritime and Shipping Activities of Venetian Crete (15th–16th Centuries)

While the role, architecture, and use of the port of Candia on Crete have been extensively studied, little is known about the island’s other ports and bays. This article considers key questions to evaluate the role of Fraschia Bay in Venetian Crete’s port system and, by extension, in Venetian shipping activities in the late fifteenth century and mainly during the sixteenth. What kind of shipping activities were carried out in Fraschia Bay - commercial (legitimate and illegitimate) or/and military? What types of ships docked there? And under what circumstances was the bay used, especially compared to the port of Candia? The analysis, based on unpublished archival documents of the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, aims to determine whether the activities carried out in the bay of Fraschia were part of the integrated port system of Candia, or whether Fraschia Bay served only as an occasional substitute. The analysis concludes that Fraschia served a complex purpose in Candia’s port system and as a substitute port at times when Candia was unsuitable, due to weather conditions or construction operations. Moreover, Fraschia Bay’s role went well beyond official mercantile shipping, since it also supported military activities and the movement of contraband.

Paolo Odorico, ed. Études byzantines et post-byzantines, Nouvelle série, Tome II (IX), La culture écrite des périphéries byzantines du Moyen-Âge à l’époque moderne

Paolo Odorico, ed. <i>Études byzantines et post-byzantines, Nouvelle série, Tome II (IX), La culture écrite des périphéries byzantines du Moyen-Âge à l’époque moderne</i>

Evidence of Dominican Imagery and Cultural Identities on Venetian Crete at the Time of the Revolt of St Titus

Abstract Current discourse on Latin imagery in rural Greek churches in Venetian Crete is habitually focused on images of St Francis. The explanations offered by scholars concerning his appearances in this context usually revolve around Francis’s perceived interconfessional appeal, but the introduction of another Latin saint from a different mendicant order into the monumental art of Byzantine character on Crete revises this picture significantly. The present article discusses images of Dominican saints found in Cretan churches of the Venetian period. With statutes promulgated in 1254 and 1256, the General Chapter of the Dominicans encouraged the veneration of Dominican saints through the dissemination of their images, and the representation of St Peter Martyr in his eponymous church in Candia clearly constitutes a visual testimony to this policy. At the same time, the portrait of St Peter Martyr in the Greek (Orthodox) church of St George in the village of Apostoloi in Pediada (in the wider Candia region) provides grounds for a discussion of cultural difference in Venetian Crete, as well as for the interaction between the Latin and Greek communities around the time of the revolt of St Titus. In my view, this representation, which is currently the only known example in a Greek church, should be re-examined in light of the prominent Venetian presence in the aforementioned region and the specificity of the local context.

Sustainable and Regenerative Development of Water Mills as an Example of Agricultural Technologies for Small Farms

Nowadays, the reuse of built agricultural/industrial heritage has been a common practice worldwide. These structures represent excellent symbols of the great agricultural/industrial past. These agricultural/hydro-technologies also serve as monuments of socio-cultural identities, especially in rural areas and on small farms. One example of a successful application of agricultural technologies for small farms is the water mill. By harnessing the water energy, they were used for traditional flour and other goods production (e.g., olive oil) and works requiring energy, with the main role in the evolution of the traditional/cultural landscape. Water mills have been used to drive a mechanical process of milling, hammering, and rolling and are a portion of the agricultural, cultural, and industrial heritage. For approximately two millennia, the vertical mill water wheel prepared the initial source of mechanical power in many regions of the world. Water mills were the first device that converted natural resources of energy into mechanical energy in order to operate some form of machinery. The preservation/management of water mills is challenging due to their long-term abandonment and the lack of information/knowledge about their value. The other obstacles that are faced in their retrofitting and/or preservation are the lack of sufficient economic incentives and complex authorizations/legislations. Sustainability and regeneration of water mills through the centuries are then reviewed for history and agricultural/industrial “archaeology”. The history of water-powered mills in prehistoric and historic times, including ancient Persia/Iran, ancient China, ancient India, the Islamic world, Venetian Crete, medieval Europe, America, and finally present times, is discussed. The outcome of this review allows the understanding of the importance of conservation, optimization, and development of water mills. It will help to know more and achieve sustainable/regenerative development for small farms with respect to water and energy crises at present and in the future.

From Slave to Wife: Manumission and Marriage in Venetian Crete

Many slaves, predominantly female, served in the households of Venetian Crete in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Freeing slaves (manumission) was also a regular occurrence. Sources from this period, including wills and court cases from Crete’s ducal court, demonstrate the marriage was often linked with the manumission of female slaves. This study looks at the reasons for this connection, arguing that marriage could be a tool of building, asserting, and defending freedwomen’s freed status, from the perspective of both masters and freedwomen. First, marriage functioned as a mechanism for establishing new or redefined social networks. Marriage could reframe the master-slave relationship into a new patron-freedwoman network, just as it also facilitated a freedwoman’s entrance into a new kin group. Second, the semiotics of late medieval marriage—including its connection to status-making and honorability—made it uniquely suited for signaling free status. Through marriage and the rhetoric of marriage, freedwomen could marshal the paternalism of former masters (and paternalistic social expectations more broadly) to their own benefit, helping themselves build free reputations and quasi- and real kin groups, and defending their freedom in the courtroom.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest

In the article “Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context” the narratives of various chronicles of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries on settlement in Cyprus in the years following the Latin conquest, from the end of the twelfth to the early thirteenth century, will be examined and compared. The details provided by the chronicles, where the information given derived from, the biases present in the various accounts, the extent to which they are accurate, especially in cases where they are corroborated or refuted by documentary evidence, will all be discussed. The chronicles that will be referred to are the thirteenth century continuation of William of Tyre, that provides the fullest account of the settlement of Latin Christians and others on Cyprus after the Latin conquest, the fifteenth century chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, the anonymous chronicle of ‘Amadi’ that is probably dateable to the early sixteenth century although for the section on thirteenth century Cypriot history it draws on earlier sources and the later sixteenth century chronicle of Florio Bustron. Furthermore, the Chorogra a and the Description of Stephen de Lusignan, two chronicles postdating the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Turks in 1570, will also be referred to on the subject of settlement in thirteenth century Cyprus. By way of comparison, the final part of the paper examined the extent to which the evidence of settlement in other Mediterranean lands derives chiefly from chronicles or from documentary sources. In conclusion, it can be stated that the various accounts of settlement on Cyprus following its cession to King Guy of Jerusalem in 1192 show differences in terms of the value of the fiefs, the geographical regions from which the settlers came and the types of properties which were granted to them. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem resembles Cyprus in that the source material for early Latin settlement is narrative, not documentary. But this is not the case for the Venetian Crete and the Hospitaller Rhodes, where the source materials recording the arrival of the first Latin settlers are wholly documentary.

Persistent Food Shortages in Venetian Crete: A First Hypothesis

This paper examines the persistent food shortages in the island of Crete under Venetian rule (1204–1669) through the prism of the monetary system of Venetian territories and in combination with the other economic policies of the Venetian empire. From the available sources and analysis, it seems that the policies of Venice which prioritised the food security of the metropolis, the financial support to the elites, and the elite-favouring monetary and taxation system were contradictory and self-defeating. In particular, the monetary structure of the colonial economy and the taxation system seem to have been forcing both Cretans and Venetian settlers to produce wine for export instead of grain despite the repeated food shortages. The parallel circulation of various high-value (white money) and low-value (black money) currencies in the same economy and the insistence of the Venetian administration to receive taxes in white money seems to have been consistently undermining the food security policy adopted by the same authorities. The paper contributes to the discussion of how parallel currencies can stabilise an economy or can create structural destabilisation propensities, depending on coeval economic structures that usually go unexamined when we examine monetary instruments.

Rena N. Lauer. Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete.

R<scp>ena</scp> N. L<scp>auer</scp>. <i>Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete</i>.

The Rhetoric of Martyrdom: Remarks on a Painted Cycle of Saint Paraskevi’s Martyrdom in Venetian Crete

The vita of Saint Paraskevi the Roman is considered a fabrication, typical of the epic passions criticised by Hippolyte Delehaye for their lack of historical value. Rhetoric takes over facts, and, therefore, this vita is constituted exclusively of hagiographic topoi. The visual transposition of Saint Paraskevi’s martyrdom, popular in the late Middle Ages, in particular in Venetian Crete, provides evidence to the artists’ perception of the rhetorical devices used in panegyrics. This can be observed in the painted narrative cycles of Palaiologan monuments, not only in the most prestigious foundations linked to the imperial capital and the well-read elites, but also in more modest programmes, such as the short cycle of Saint Paraskevi’s martyrdom painted by Michael Veneris in the village church of Melampes, in the south of Crete c. 1320. Four episodes are displayed below a Christological cycle: Paraskevi’s trial is followed by three different scenes of ordeal: she is burnt with torches, then plunged into a cauldron and into a burning furnace. The unusual structure of this cycle, which includes two uncommon episodes, echoes the cumulative effect of ekphrasis, as well as the vividness that this device brings to every episode. Additionally, a comparison is established between the saint and Christ, a process that owes much to synkrisis, enabled by the juxtaposition of the two painted cycles. However, in the Melampes cycle, the image goes beyond the text, as the painter seems to suggest an exegetic reading of the saint’s martyrdom. The theme of light and fire, present in three of the four episodes, connects Paraskevi’s deeds to the words of Christ, highlighting the salvific content of martyrdom in an appeal to the viewer’s spiritual elevation.

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete. Rena N. Lauer. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019. x + 292 pp. $69.95.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Recovering the Augustinian Convent of San Salvatore in Venetian Candia

This study investigates the place of San Salvatore in the holy topography of Venetian Candia. By focusing on the largest convent in the Augustinian Province of the Holy Land, it contributes to a better understanding of a neglected subject in mendicant scholarship, namely the Augustinian friars’ expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. This article offers a detailed reconstruction of the demolished building and its sacred space, and sheds new light on interaction among the mixed Latin-Greek population in Venetian Crete by examining icons, altars, liturgy and, in particular, the introduction of the cult of Nicholas of Tolentino.

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete by Rena N. Lauer (review)

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete by Rena N. Lauer (review)

Rena N. Lauer. Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019. 292 pp.

Rena N. Lauer. Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019. 292 pp.

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete. By Rena N. Lauer (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) 292 pp. $69.95

<i>Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete</i>. By Rena N. Lauer (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) 292 pp. $69.95

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete, written by Rena N. Lauer

Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete, written by Rena N. Lauer

Byzantine families in Venetian context: The Gavalas and Ialinas family in Venetian Crete (XIIIth-XIVth centuries)

Βυζαντινές οικογένειες σε βενετικό περιβάλλον: Οι οικογένειες Γαβαλά και Γιαλινά στη βενετική Κρήτη (13ος-14ος αι.)Οι στρατηγικές των μεγάλων βυζαντινών/ελληνικών οικογενειών στη βενετική Κρήτη κατά τον 13ο και 14ο αι. είχαν ως πρωταρχικό στόχο τη διατήρηση ή και την ισχυροποίησή τους στο νέο πολιτικό, κοινωνικό και οικονομικό περιβάλλον. Αν εξαιρέσουμε τον πλέον δυναμικό τρόπο επίτευξης του στόχου αυτού, δηλαδή τις επαναστάσεις, τότε οι κύριες στρατηγικές ήταν από τη μια οι επιγαμίες τόσο μεταξύ των οικογενειών αυτών όσο και με τις νέες βενετικές οικογένειες, και από την άλλη η αστική οικονομική δραστηριότητα. Με τον τρόπο αυτό κατόρθωσαν να διατηρήσουν ή και να ενισχύσουν την έγγειο ιδιοκτησία τους, καθώς και να αυξήσουν τον πλούτο τους. Οι ελληνικές οικογένειες επέδειξαν την απαραίτητη προσαρμοστικότητα, αν και όχι όλες στον ίδιο βαθμό. Έτσι, δεν μπορούμε να μιλάμε για ενιαία στρατηγική των μεγάλων ελληνικών οικογενειών, αλλά για στρατηγικές που υιοθετούνται από κάθε ελληνική οικογένεια ξεχωριστά, ή ακόμη και από έναν κλάδο της ίδιας οικογένειας.