Georgios Sphrantzes

Georgios Sphrantzes ( Middle Greek Γεώργιος Σφραντζής , earlier incorrectly written Φραντζής Phrantzes ; * August 30, 1401 in Constantinople ; † between 1477 and 1479 on the island of Corfu ) was a Byzantine official and historian .

Sphrantzes wrote the so-called Chronicon Minus ("Little Chronicle"), which among other things contains a brief description of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, but is otherwise an important source for this time. Sphrantzes' biography also emerges from it. The Chronicon Maius ("Great Chronicle"), which was also attributed to him up to the 20th century, of a significantly larger size, was actually only a century after his death on the basis of u. a. of his Chronicon Minus .

Sphrantzes served the paleologists emperors in various positions; so he was chamberlain and later envoy. After the fall of Constantinople, he was captured by the Ottomans , but was later able to buy himself and his wife free. He then retired to a monastery on the island of Corfu, where he continued his work.

Work editions

• Georgii Phrantzae: Annales . In: Immanuel Bekker (ed.): Georgius Phrantzes, Ioannes Cananus, Ioannes Anagnostes (= Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae 33). Weber, Bonn 1838 (Greek and Latin).
• Marios Philippides (transl.): George Sphrantzes: The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: a chronicle. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1980.
• Riccardo Maisano ( arrangement ): Giorgio Sfranze: Cronaca (= Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae 29: Series Italica ; Scrittori Bizantini 2). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome 1990 (Greek and Italian, with Italian introduction).

literature

• Vasile Grecu: Georgios Sphrantzes . In: Byzantologická komise při Slovanském ústavu (Ed.): Byzantinoslavica. Sborník pro studium byzantsko-slovanských vztah ° u . No. 26 . Prague 1965, COBISS.SI-ID - 96995840, p. 62-73 .
• Günter Weiß : Sphrantzes, Georgios . In: Mathias Bernath , Felix von Schroeder (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . tape 4 . Munich 1981, ISBN 3-486-42421-1 , p. 158–159 ( ios-regensburg.de ).
• Marios Philippides, Walter K. Hanak: The Siege and Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Historiography, Topography and Military Studies . Ashgate, Farnham (Burlington) 2011, ISBN 978-1-4094-1064-5 , 3 A "Chronicle" and its Elaboration: Sphrantzes and Pseudo-Sphrantzes, p. 139-192 (English).
• Georgios Makris:  Sphrantzes (Phrantzes), Georgios. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 977-978.

Individual evidence