Primary Sources of the Medieval Black Sea

Note: This bibliography is a work in progress. We welcome suggestions regarding relevant sources. Please email them to: medievalblackseaproject@gmail.com. Reproduction of the entirety or of portions of this bibliography (or other use in publications) should be acknowledged with citation of https://medievalblackseaproject.princeton.edu and the date of access.

Edited Literary Texts

Antiquity

See Wyles, Rosie. “Fragmentary Greek Tragedies Set in the Black Sea.” Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture Around the Black Sea, edited by David Braund, Edith Hall, and Rosie Wyles: 252–66. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2019.

c. 525-c. 456 BCE Aeschylus, Argo (or Oarsmen); Oreithyia; Phineus; Prometheus Unbound

c. 497-405 BCE Sophocles, Chryses; Colchian Women; Drummers; Phineus (A and B); Phrixus; Root-cutters; Scythians

c. 480-c. 406 Euripides, Phrixus (A and B)

12-13 Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto

The Byzantine Empire

Anthologies

Wilson, Nigel. An Anthology of Byzantine Prose. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1971.

Brubaker, L. and J. Haldon. Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (c. 680-850): The Sources: An Annotated Survey. Aldershot, 2001.

Specific Sources

400s/500s Ghazar P’arpec’i’, History of the Armenians

History of the Armenians, translated by Robert Bedrosian. New York, NY: Sources of the Armenian Tradition, 1985.

540-553 Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars

Procopius, Works, 7 volumes, edited by H. B. Dewing.Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press: 1914-1940.

c. 550 Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History

Prokopios, The Secret History, translated by Anthony Kaldellis. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing: 2010.

c. 550s Procopius of Caesarea, Buildings

Procopius, Buildings of Justinian, translated by G. Downey and edited by Henry Dewing. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press: 1940.

c. 551 Jordanes, Gothic History

Jordanes, Romana et Getica, edited by Theodor Mommsen. MGH Auctores antiquissimi Vol. 5.1 Berlin (1882).

Jordanes, The Gothic History of Jordanes, translated by C. C. Mierow. Princeton, Princeton University Press 1915.

642-1265 Prosopography of the Byzantine World

Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Berlin, De Gruyter: 1998-.

700s/800s George of Amastris, The Life of St. George of Amastris

George of Amastris. 2001. The Life of St. George of Amastris, translated by David Jenkins, Stefanos Alexopoulos, David Bachrach, Jonathan Couser, Sarah Davis, Darin Hayton, Andrea Sterk, 1-20 (see especially 7-13).South Bend: University of Notre Dame.

c. 880s-960s Nicetas David Paphlagon, Laudatio S. Hyacinthi Amastreni

Nicetas David Paphlagon, Laudatio S. Hyacinthi Amastreni. PG 105, cols 417-40.

c. 880s-960s Nicetas David Paphlagon, Life of Patriarch Ignatius

Nicetas David Paphlagon, Life of Patriarch Ignatius, edited and translated by A. Smithies with notes by J. M. Duffy. Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: 2013.

c. 900s-1000s Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints

“St. Nino and the Conversion of Georgia,” “David of Garesja.” In Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, translated by David Marshall Land, 13-19, 81-93. Oxford: The Alden Press, 1976.

c. 950 Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio, edited and translated by G. Moravcsik and R. J. H. Jenkins, 2nd edition. Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: 2012.

Late 1000s Psellos, Chronographia

Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine rulers; the Chronographia. translated, with an introd., by E.R.A. Sewter. Baltimore, Penguin Books: 1966.

c. 1261-1282 Georgios Pachymeres, Michael Palaeologus

“Georgios Pachymeres, Michael Palaeologus, v.xxx.” In Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents Translated with Introductions and Notes, edited and translated by Robert S. Lopez and Irving W. Raymond, with a foreword and bibliography by Olivia Remie Constable, 126-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

1300s Michael Panaretos and Bessarion

Panaretos, Michael and Bessarion, 2019. Two Works on Trebizond, edited and translated by Scott Kennedy, 93-115. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

1300s Nikephoros Gregoras and Gregory Palamas

Gregoras, Nikephoros; Gregory Palamas. 2023. “A Scythian Woman and her Byzantine Slaves;” “The theologian Gregory Palamas speaks about his captivity among the Turks.” In Mobility and Migration in Byzantium: A Sourcebook, edited by Claudia Rapp, et al.,83-89. Göttingen: V&R Unipress.

Early Western Eurasian Empires (Huns, Avars, Turks, and Others)

Anthologies

Kim, Hyun Jin, Frederik Juliaan Vervaet, Selim Ferruh Adal, eds. Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Contact and Exchange between the Graeco-Roman World, Inner Asia and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Specific Sources

448 Priscus, description of the court of Attila the Hun

Priscus. Readings in European History, translated by J. H. Robinson: 46-49. Boston: Ginn, 1905.

578 Flavius Cresconius Corippus, In Praise of Justin the Younger

Flavius Cresconius Corippus. In laudem Iustini Augusti minoris, edited with translation and commentary by Averil Cameron. London: Athlone Press, 1976.

Late 500s Menander the Guardsman

R.C. Blockley. The History of Menander the Guardsman: Introductory Essay, Text, Translation and Historiographical Notes. Liverpool: Cairns, 1985.

Early 600s Theophylact Simocatta

The History of Theophylact Simocatta: An English Translation with Introduction and Notes. Michael and Mary Whitby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

600s Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD

Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD, translated with notes and introduction by Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989.

Caliphates

Anthologies

Haydar Dughlat, Mirzar. Classical Writings of the Medieval Islamic World: Persian Histories of the Mongol Dynasties, translated and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston. London: I.B. Tauris, 2012.

Specific Sources

c. 870 Ibn Khurradadhbih, Kitab al-masalik wa-al-mamalik

Ibn Khurradadhbih. Kitab al-masalik wa-al-mamalik/ Liber viarum et regnorum, edited and translated by M. J. de Goeje. Bibliotheca geographorum arabicorum, Vol. 6. Leiden: E. J. Brill (1889).

Ibn-Khordadbeh. Le libre des routes et des provinces, translated and annotated by C. Barbier de Meynard. Paris: Impr. Impériale, 1865.

c. 900 Ibn Rusta, Kitab al-a ‘laq al-nafisa

Ibn Rusta. Les atour précieux, translated by Gaston Wiet. Cairo: Publications de la Société de géographie d’Égypte, 1955.

c. 900 Ibn al-Faqih, Kitab al-buldan

Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamad̲ānī. Abrégé du livre des pays, translated by Henri Massé. Damascus: Institut français de Damas, 1973.

921-922 Ibn Fadlan, Mission to the Volga

Two Arabic Travel Books: Accounts of China and India, edited and translated by J. E. Montgomery: 165-297. New York: New York University Press, 2014.

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North., translated by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. London: Penguin, 2012.

Late 10th c. An Arab Ambassador in Constantinople

H. Amedroz, “An Embassy from Bagdad to the Emperor Basil II.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (1914): 921-25.

1216 Ibn Isfandiyar, History of Tabaristan

Ibn Isfandiyar. An Abridged Translation of the History of Tabaristan: Compiled about A.H. 613 (A.D. 1216) by Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Isfandiyʹar, Based on the India Office MS. Compared with Two MSS. in the British Museum, by Edward G. Browne, translated by Edward G. Browne. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1905.

1325-1354 Ibn Battuta, Travels

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354. Edited and translated by H.A.R. Gibb, Vol. 2, 413-517. New York: Routledge, 2016.

Jalal ad-Din Rumi. “The True Mosque;” “Ignorance;” “All Religions are One.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Fordham University. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1250rumi-masnavi.asp [last accessed 21st August 2024]

Mamluks

1281 Treaty Between Al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn and Michael VIII Palaeologus

“The Treaty Between Al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn and Michael VIII Palaeologus: 680/1281.” In Early Mamluk Diplomacy, 1260-1290. Treaties of Baybars and Qalāwūn with Christian Rulers, edited and translated by P. M. Holt, 118–128.Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.

1400s Ibn Tagrhi Birdi. “The Early Life of Baybars.”

Ibn Tagrhi Birdi. “The Early Life of Baybars.” Translated by Hannah Barker from Jamāl al-Dīn Yusūf Ibn Taghrī Birdī, Al-Manhal al-ṣāfī wa-al-mustawfā ba’d al-wāfī, edited by Muḥammad Muḥammad Amīn and Saʻīd ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ ʻĀshūr, Cairo: Al-Hayʼah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1986, III: 447-467 (no. 717). https://medievalslavery.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/source-the-early-life-of-baybars/. [last accessed 21st August 2024].

Slavs

Anthologies

See Fordham University, medieval sources here

Specific Sources

c. 850 Bavarian Geographer, Description of Cities and Lands on the North Bank of the Danube,

Bavarian Geographer. Description of Cities and Lands on the North Bank of the Danube, edited by Erwin Herrmann. Slawisch-germanische Beziehungen im südostdeutschen Raum Munich: R. Lerche, 1965.

862-885 Life of Constantine and Life of Methodios

“The Life of Constantine-Cyril” and/or “The Life of Methodios.” In Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes, translated by Marvin Kantor, 23-96, 97-138. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1983.

1008/9 Bruno of Querfurt, Letter to Henry II

Bulgaria

Anthologies

See Fordham University, medieval sources here

Petkov, Kiril. The Voices of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century: The Records of a Bygone Culture. Leiden: Brill, 2008.

Pavlikianov, Cyril. Medieval Slavic Acts from Mount Athos 1230-1734: Bulgarian and Serbian Acts from the Monasteries of Karakallou, Kastamonitou St. Paul, Vatopedi and Xenophontos: Moldavian and Wallachian Slavic Acts from the Monasteries of Docheiariou, Kastamonitou and Zographou: Critical Edition and Commentary of the Texts. Sofia : “Sv. Kliment Ochridski” University Press, 2018.

Specific Sources

811 Chronicle of 811 – Emperor Nikephoros leaves his bones in Bulgaria

I. Dujcev (ed.), Travaux et Mémoires 1 (1965): see 205-54, 210-16.

Late 800s Court Law for the People (Zakón Súdnyi Liúdem)

H. W. Dewey and A. M. Kleimola, eds. Zakon Sudnyj Ljudem (Court Law for the People). Ann Arbor: Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1977.

Late 1200s Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (Ljetopis’ Popa Dukljanina)

Šišić, Ferdo, ed. Letopis Popa Dukljanina (Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja). Beograd-Zagreb: Srpska kraljevska akademija, 1928.

1337 Sofia Psalter

1355-1365 Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander

The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, translated by Ekaterina Dimitrova. London: British Library, 1994.

1360 Tomić Psalter

Axinia Dzurova, Tomic Psalter. Monumenta slavico-byzantina et mediaevalia europensia Vol I , Kliment Ohridski University Press, Sofia, 1990. Facsimile edition in two volumes.

Rus’ Kingdom

Anthologies

See Christian Raffensperger’s list 

The Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (Полное собрание русских летописей; aka PSRL), assembled by the Archaeographical Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1828-1907.

Likhachev, S. ed. Biblioteka literatury drevnei Rusi, Vol. 4, St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1997-.

Zhitiia sv. Georgiia Amastridskogo, ed. V. G. Vasil’evskii, Russko-Vizantiiskiie issledovaniia, vyp. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1983; reprint: Trudy, vyp. 3. Petrograd, 1915:1-71.

Paul Hollingsworth, Hagiography of Kievan Rusʹ. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Specific Sources

852-c. 1100 The Russian Primary Chronicle

Povest’ vremennykh let, translated by D. S. Likhachev. Sankt-Peterburg: Izd-vo “Azbuka”: Knizhnyĭ klub “Terra”, 1997.

The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text, translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953.

Online source: http://sites.utoronto.ca/elul/English/218/PVL-selections.pdf

c. 1050s Ilarion, Sermon on Law and Grace

Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’, translated with commentary by Simon Franklin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

c. 1062 Grigorij the Philosopher, Homilies on All the Days of the Week

The Edificatory Prose of Kievan Rusʹ, translated by William R. Veder with an introduction by Anatolij A. Turilov. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.

1076 Izbornik

The Edificatory Prose of Kievan Rusʹ, translated by William R. Veder with an introduction by Anatolij A. Turilov. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.

1147 Klim Smoljatic, Epistle to Foma

Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’, translated with commentary by Simon Franklin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

1100s Kirill of Turov, allegorical lessons and sermons

Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’, translated with commentary by Simon Franklin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

1200s Kievo-Pecherskii paterik

Kievo-Pecherskii paterik, edited by L. A. Ol’shevskaia. In Biblioteka literatury drevnei Rusi, Vol. 4, edited by S. Likhachev. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1997.

The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery, translated by Muriel Heppell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.

1400s “Discourse on the Slavonic Books, translated to the Russian soil: A juxtaposition between St. Vladimir and St. Cyril”

Codex Slovenicus Rerum Grammaticarum, edited by V. Jagic. Berlin, 1896: 308-310

Materialy po isstorrii vozniknoveniia drevneishei slavianskoi pis’mennosti, edited by P. Lavrov. Paris, 1966: 173-174.

Sources about the Rus’

Early 1000s Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicle

Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronica, edited by J. M. Lappenberg, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores. Vol. 3. Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Aulici Hahniani, 1839. [reprinted Leipzig: Verlag Karl W. Hiersemann, 1925].

1075 Lambert of Hersefeld

“Lamberti Hersfeldensis Annales.” ed. V. Cl. Lud. Frid. Hasse, Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores Vol. 5. Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Avlici Hahniani, 1844.

Mid-1100s Annalista Saxo

Annalista Saxo, ed. George Pertz. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores Vol. 3. Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Avlici Hahniani, 1839.

Early 1200s Chronicle of Henry of Livonia

Henricus Lettus, Heinrici Chronicion Lyvoniae, edited by Wilhelm Arndt. Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1874.

Henricus Lettus, The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, translated by James A. Brundage. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

c. 1220 Fagrskinna

Fagrskinna, edited by C. R. Unger and P. A. Munch.Christiania: Trykt hos P. T. Malling, 1847.

Early 1200s Historia Norwegiae

Historia Norwegie, edited by Inger Ekrem and Lars Boje Mortensen, translated by Peter Fisher. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen: 2003.

The Vikings

Sources About the Vikings

871-899 Anglo Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, translated and edited by M.J. Swanton. London: J.M. Dent, 1996.

1000s Bernold of St. Blasien, Chronicle

Eleventh–Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles, translated and edited by I. S. Robinson. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008.

1073-1076 Adam of Bremen, The History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen,

Adam of Bremen, The History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, translated with an introduction and notes by Francis J. Tschan; with a new introduction and selected bibliography by Timothy Reuter. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

1082 Bruno de Bello Saxonico, History of the Saxon War

Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores: Vol. 5, edited by George Pertz. Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Avlici Hahniani, 1844.

431-1131 The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131)

The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131),edited and translated by Mac Airt, Seán and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, DIAS: Dublin, 1983.

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/index.html

The Mongols

Anthologies

Rossabi, Morris, ed. The Mongols and Global History: A Norton Documents Reader, New York: W.W. Norton, 2011.

Di Cosmo, Nicola and Dalizhabu Bao, eds.. Manchu-Mongol Relations on the Eve of the Qing Conquest: A Documentary History. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Dawson, Christopher, ed. Mission to Asia: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, translated by a nun of Stanbrook Abbey. London: Sheed and Ward, 1980.

Specific Sources

Cheng-wou tsʻin-tcheng lou, Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan

Cheng-wou tsʻin-tcheng lou, Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan, translated and annotated by Paul Pelliot et Louis Hambis. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1951-.

c. 1227 Secret History of the Mongols

Waley, Arthur. The Secret History of the Mongols: And Other Pieces. London: Allen & Unwin, 1963.

Travel Accounts of the Black Sea Region

12-13 Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto

1106-7 Abbot Daniel, Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The Library of the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, Vol. IV. New York: AMS Press, 1971.

1200-1232 Anthony of Novgorod, Pilgrim’s Book

De Khitrowo, B, ed.. Itinéraires Russes en Orient. Geneva: Imprimerie Jules-Guillaume Fick, 1889.

1253-1255 William of Rubruck, Travels 

William of Rubruck. The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55, as Narrated by Himself, with Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian de Carpine, translated from the Latin and edited, with an introductory notice, by William Woodville Rockhill. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1900.

  • On the Black Sea, Tartars: 40-88
  • Alans: 88-90

c. 1300 Marco Polo, Travels

Polo, Marco. The Description of the World, translated by Sharon Kinoshita. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2016: 1-14, 70-92, 132-7.

c. 1330s Pegolotti, merchant manual

Pegolotti, Francesco Balducci. 2011. “Cathay and the Way Thither.” In The Mongols and Global History: A Norton Documents Reader, edited by Morris Rossabi. New York: W.W. Norton.

1435-1439 Pero Tafur, Travels

Pero Tafur. Travels and Adventures 1435-1439, translated and edited with an introduction by Malcolm Letts. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2007.

  • Mamluks: 68-80
  • Constantinople, shipwreck, fight between Catalans and Genoese, Pera: 110-125
  • Adrianople, Black Sea: 126-130
  • Trebizond, Kaffa, slave market, etc.: 131-137

1476 Giosafat Barbaro and Abrogio Contarini, Travels to Tana and Persia

Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini. Travels to Tana and Persia, translated from the Italian by William Thomas, clerk of the Council to Edward VI, and by S.A. Roy, esq.; and edited, with an introduction, by Lord Stanley of Alderley. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1873.

  • On Tana: 1-36
  • On Tatars: 102-103
  • On lower Russia, desert of Tatary, Caffa: 111-116
  • On Fasso: 118

Slavery in the Medieval Black Sea

1360 “Acts of Child Sale in the Black Sea”

“Acts of Child Sale in the Black Sea,” (Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Cancelleria inferiore, Notai, b.19, N.7, reg. 2, fols. 21v, 23r-v, items 125, 135, 141), translated from the Latin by Hannah Barker.  https://medievalslavery.org/russia-and-central-asia/source-acts-of-child-sale-in-the-black-sea/ [last accessed 21st August 2024].

After 1387 Hans Schiltberger

Schiltberger, Hans. “Entering Slavery.” Translated by Kathryn Greenberg and Hannah Barker from Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch, edited by Valentin Langmantel, 2-7, 30-31 (sections 1-2 and 18). Tübingen: Literrarischer Verein in Stuttgart, 1885. https://medievalslavery.org/europe/source-hans-schiltbergers-slave-narrative/source-entering-slavery/ [last accessed 21st August 2024].

1400s Ibn Tagrhi Birdi. “The Early Life of Baybars.”

Ibn Tagrhi Birdi. “The Early Life of Baybars.” Translated by Hannah Barker from Jamāl al-Dīn Yusūf Ibn Taghrī Birdī, Al-Manhal al-ṣāfī wa-al-mustawfā ba’d al-wāfī, edited by Muḥammad Muḥammad Amīn and Saʻīd ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ ʻĀshūr, Cairo: Al-Hayʼah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1986, III: 447-467 (no. 717). https://medievalslavery.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/source-the-early-life-of-baybars/. [last accessed 21st August 2024].

The Black Death in the Medieval Black Sea

After 1346 Two fourteenth-century Greek descriptions

Bartsocas, Christos S. “Two Fourteenth-Century Greek Descriptions of the ‘Black Death.’” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 21/4 (1966): 394–400.

c. 1348 Gabriele De’ Mussi, Istoria de Morbo sive Mortalitate quae fuit Anno Dni MCCCXLVIII 

De’ Mussi, Gabriele. “Historia de Morbo.” In The Black Death, edited by Rosemary Horrox, 14-26. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1994.

Edited Archival Records

Genoese Cities on the Black Sea

1281- 1290 — Bratianu, G., ed. Actes des notaires génois de Péra et de Caffa de la fin du treizième siècle (1281-1290). București, Académie Roumaine, 1927.

1289-1290 — Balard, Michel, ed. and trans. Gênes et l’Outremer. 1. Les actes de Caffa du notaire Lamberto di Sambuceto (1289-1290): (Documents et recherches sur l’économie des pays byzantins, islamiques et slaves et leurs relations commerciales au Moyen Âge, XII). Paris-La Haye, 1973.

1300s — Balbi, G. and S. Raiteri, eds. Notai Genovesi in Oltremare: Atti rogati a Caffa e a Licostomo (Sec. XIV), Genoa, 1973.

1300s-1400s — Alvaro, M. G., A. Assini, L. Balletto, and E. Basso, eds. “Notai genovesi in Oltremare. Atti redatti a Caffa ed in altre località del Mar Nero nei secoli XIV e XV.” Причероморье в Скредние Века, X (2018).

1389-1390 — Balletto, L., ed. “Pera genovese negli atti del notaio Donato di Chiavari (1389-1390).” Atti dell’Accademia Ligure di Scienze e Lettere XLVI (1989): 457-472.

1408-1490 — Roccatagliata, A., ed. Notai Genovesi in Oltremare. Atti rogati a Pera e Mitilene, Tomo I. Pera, 1408-1490, Genova, 1982. (Collana storica di fonti e studi diretta da Geo Pistarino, 34/1).

1453 — Roccatagliata, A., “Notai genovesi in oltremare: Atti rogati a Pera (1453).” Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, nuova serie. XXXIX/1 (1999): 101-160.

1454-1460 — Roccatagliata, A., Notai Genovesi in Oltremare. Atti rogati a Pera e Mitilene, Tomo II. Mitilene, 1454-1460. Genova, 1982. (Collana storica di fonti e studi diretta da Geo Pistarino, 34/2).

Venetian Cities on the Black Sea

1360 “Acts of Child Sale in the Black Sea”

“Acts of Child Sale in the Black Sea,” (Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Cancelleria inferiore, Notai, b.19, N.7, reg. 2, fols. 21v, 23r-v, items 125, 135, 141), translated from the Latin by Hannah Barker.  https://medievalslavery.org/russia-and-central-asia/source-acts-of-child-sale-in-the-black-sea/ [last accessed 21st August 2024].

1403-1408 – De’ Colli, S., ed. Moretto Bon (1403-1408): Moretto Bon, notaio in Venezia, Trebisonda e Tana (1403-1408). Venice: Comitato per la publicazione delle fonti relative alla storia di Venezia, 1950.

Venetian Cities on the Aegean

1204-1209 Treaty of Sapienza

Nanetti, Andrea, ed. Στις απαρχες του θαλασσιου κρατους της Βενετιας : Κορωνη και Μεθωνη, 1204-1209 : κριτικη εκδοση, μεταφραση και σχολισμος της Συνθηκης της Σαπιεντζας. = At the origins of the Venetian sea state : Coron and Modon, 1204-1209: critical edition, translation and commentary of the Treaty of Sapienza, translated by Nicholas Coureas. Athens: Institouto Historikōn Ereunōn / Ethniko Hidryma Ereunōn, 2018.

Manuscript Sources

1100s-1200s — Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Lat. Z. 549 (=1597)
Subject: Codex Cumanus; language dictionary made in Crimea, incl. Tartar language and Petrarch’s poems, see wiki; Marciana copy is from 1303
Digitized: Yes

c. 1330s — London, British Library, Additional 27695; London, British Library, Additional 28441; London, British Library, Egerton 3127; London, British Library, Egerton 3781; Florence, Museo del Bargello, MS. inv. 2065;  Cleveland, Museum of Art, Wade Fund, MS. n. 1953.152
Subject: Codex Cocharelli; made in Genoa by merchant family with ties to Crimea, depicts siege of Tripoli and iconography drawn from Mongols (acc. to Ittai Weinryb); see article
Digitized: Partially yes: Add. 27695; Eg. 3127; Eg. 3781; Cleveland

1337— St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, Laurentian Codex 1337
Subject: Laurentian Codex; earliest surviving dated Russian chronicle, see wiki
Digitized: Yes

1400s — Radziwiłł Chronicle, an illuminated Russian chronicle

1400-1420s — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fr. 2810
Subject: Marco Polo, Odoric, Mandeville, etc.; highly illustrated, on Ghengis Khan, see e.g. f. 197r, 198v, 199v, 200v, 201v, etc., on Tartars, see e.g. 206r
Digitized: Yes

1425-1450 — London, British Library, Harley 3954
Subject; Mandeville; illustrated, on Tartars, see f. 24v; palace of Khan f. 46v
Digitized: Yes (partially)