Chalcocondyles, Laonicus

▪ Byzantine historian

also spelled  Laonicus Chalcondyles  or  Laonikos Chalkokondyles 

born c. 1423, Athens, Greece, Byzantine Empire [now in Greece]

died 1490?

      Byzantine historian, the author of the valuable work Historiarum demonstrationes (“Demonstrations of History”).

      Chalcocondyles came of a distinguished Athenian family and was educated at the Palaeologan court at Mistra in the Peloponnese. His history is prefaced by a survey of the Greek role in world affairs and a discussion of the relationship between Greeks and Romans. It treats the years 1298–1463 in more detail, describing the decline of the Byzantine Empire and its conquest by the Ottomans. Its information on Manuel II includes his experiences when traveling in western European countries in search of aid against the Turks. Chalcocondyles was a great admirer of Herodotus and roused the interest of contemporary Italian humanists in that ancient historian. He strove for objectivity and, in spite of some inaccuracies and the interpolation of far-fetched anecdotes, is one of the most valuable of the later Greek historians.

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