Ioannis Canani de Constantinopolitana Obsidione Relatio

About this book

This volume fills the need for a new critical edition and linguistic study of John Kananos' account of the siege of Constantinople in 1422. New research on the manuscriptshas produceda new stemma codicum and shown that the oldest witness of this narrative, Vat. gr. 579 (ff. 355r - 364v), was written in Constantinople and belonged to the prolific scribe Phlamules Kontostephanos, who also provided the copy with atitle in which the name of John Kananos is mentioned for the first time. The philological approach adopted hereexplains contradictionsamong the manuscripts and Kananos' peculiar vernacularisms andreveals a surprisingly realistic and elaborate Greek. The accompanyingEnglish translation, a chapter on the language of Kananos, and a complete thesaurus make this volume a valuable contribution to the study of late Byzantine literature.0.