Laonikos Chalcocondyles

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Laonikos Chalko (ko) ndyles ( Middle Greek Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης * around 1430; † around 1490) was a Byzantine historian . He came from a noble family in Athens (which was then ruled by the Florentine Acciaiuoli family), where he was born around 1430. His father Georgios initially played an important role in the city administration, but was exiled to the Peloponnese with the family in 1435 . There he was tutored by Georgios Gemistos Plethon .

As a young man, Laonikos, who was fluent in Latin, entered the service of the Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. in Constantinople . However , he did not experience the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 himself. It is unclear where he stayed after that, perhaps he emigrated to Italy (where his famous relative Demetrios Chalkokondyles had also been since 1447). In recent research, however, a stay in Italy is considered to be rather unlikely.

Laonikos wrote a Greek-language historical work in ten books, which mainly tells the time of the Ottoman campaigns of conquest until 1463; the first book ends in 1398, the subsequent narrative becomes increasingly detailed. At the center of post-Byzantine universal history is the decline of Byzantium and the rise of the Ottomans . Laonikos based his description (in which excursions are also built in) closely to the ancient classics: Just as Herodotus described the Persian Wars, Laonikos wanted to tell the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium in the context of an ancient antithesis between Asia and Europe entirely in Greek Perspective. Stylistically, however, he was based on Thucydides , the work is accordingly linguistically demanding; What is irritating is that Laonikos hardly offers any time information for the sequence of events. His sources mainly included oral reports from various origins, but he seems to have hardly relied on written sources.

Editions and translations

  • Anthony Kaldellis (Ed.): Laonikos Chalkokondyles. The Histories. 2 volumes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA / London 2014. [Greek text and English translation]

literature

  • Herbert Hunger : The high-level profane literature of the Byzantines. Volume 1: Philosophy, rhetoric, epistolography, historiography, geography (= Handbook of Ancient Studies . Dept. 12: Byzantine Handbook. Part 5, Vol. 1). Beck, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-01427-5 , p. 485 ff.
  • Anthony Kaldellis: A New Herodotos. Laonikos Chalkokondyles on the Ottoman Empire, the Fall of Byzantium, and the Emergence of the West. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC 2014. [basic]

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Peter Lock: The Franks in the Aegean, 1204–1500. London / New York 1995, p. 130 f.
  2. ↑ On his life cf. short Anthony Kaldellis (Ed.): Laonikos Chalkokondyles. The Histories. Volume 1. Cambridge, MA / London 2014, pp. VII – X.
  3. ↑ Anthony Kaldellis (ed.): Laonikos Chalkokondyles. The Histories. Volume 1. Cambridge, MA / London 2014, pp. IXf.
  4. ↑ Anthony Kaldellis (ed.): Laonikos Chalkokondyles. The Histories. Volume 1. Cambridge, MA / London 2014, SX
  5. ↑ Cf. Anthony Kaldellis (ed.): Laonikos Chalkokondyles. The Histories. Volume 1. Cambridge, MA / London 2014, pp. Xff.
personal data
SURNAME Chalcocondyles, Laonikos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chalkondyles, Laonikos; Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek historian
DATE OF BIRTH around 1430
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH around 1490