The Chronicle of the Morea is a long 14th-century history text, of which four versions are extant: in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Greek

Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...

 (in verse), Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 and Aragonese

Aragonese language

Aragonese is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon, Spain...

. More than 9,000 lines long, the Chronicle narrates events of the Franks

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

' establishment of feudalism

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 in mainland Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. West European Crusaders settled in the Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...

 (called Morea

Morea

The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...

 at the time) following the Fourth Crusade

Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...

. The period covered in the Chronicle was 1204 to 1292 (or later, depending on the version). It gives significant details on the civic organization of the Principality of Achaia.

The extant texts of the Chronicle of the Morea

The Greek text is the only text written in verse. The French, Italian and Aragonese texts are written in prose.

Greek text

The verses of the Greek text are written in a 15-syllable political verse

Political verse

Political verse , also known as Decapentasyllabic verse is a metric form in Modern Greek poetry. It is an iambic verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine period...

. The verses are accented but not rhymed. It is written in the spoken Greek of the time, with the inclusion of several French words.

There are two parallel Greek texts, as well as three copies:

• Ms Havniensis 57 (14th–15th century, in Copenhagen
  Copenhagen
  Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
  
  ) 9219 verses
  • Ms Taurinensis B.II.I, library of Turin
    Turin
    Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
    
    , closely related to the Copenhagen text
• Ms Parisinus graecus 2898 (15th–16th century, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
  Bibliothèque nationale de France
  The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
  
  , Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  ) 8191 verses
  • Ms Parisinus graecus 2753 and
  • Ms Bern 509 grec, both copies of the Paris version.

The oldest text is that held in Copenhagen, the language of which is more archaic. The Parisian, more recent, text is simpler in language and has fewer foreign words. The transcriber omitted several anti-Hellenic references, so the overall text expressed less contempt of Greeks.

The difference of about one century between the Copenhagen and Parisian version shows a considerable number of linguistic differences due to the rapid evolution of the Greek language. The text of the Copenhagen version describes events until 1292.

French text

• Royal Library of Belgium
  Royal Library of Belgium
  The Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most important cultural institutions in Belgium. The library has a history that goes back to the age of the Dukes of Burgundy...
  
   No 15702

This text is known under the title: "The Book of the Conquest of Constantinople and
the Empire of Roumania and the country of the Principality of Morea", since in the incipit

Incipit

Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...

, it is indicated "C'est le livre de la conqueste de Constantinople et de l'empire de Romanie, et dou pays de la princée de la Morée"

There are also other copies of the French text:

• • National Library, Paris
    Paris
    Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
    
    , No. 2753
  • University Library of Bern, No.509

Information in this text reaches until the year 1304.

Italian text

• Cronaca di Morea, is a summary that was compiled later than the previous texts and contains several mistakes. Its source is the text found in the Greek manuscript held in Turin.

Aragonese text

• Libro de los fechos et conquistas del principado de la Morea, was compiled at the end of the 14th century (around 1395), from the Greek version and other later sources, at the request of the Grand Master Jean Fernandez de Heredia of the Knights of St. John
  Knights Hospitaller
  The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
  
  . It covers events to 1393.

Which text is the original? Which version came out first?

It appears that the original text of the Chronicle of the Morea has been lost. Although the Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

ese and Italian texts have been clearly identified as later texts, there is no widely accepted consensus on the priority of the Greek of French text.

The Author

The author of the original text of the chronicle appears to be a Franc or a gasmoule

Gasmouloi

The Gasmouloi or Vasmouloi were the descendants of mixed Byzantine Greek and "Latin" unions during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire...

(a French-Greek, born from a mixed French-Greek marriage, the word seems to have an etymology from garçon (boy) and mule). He appeared to admire the Franks (Crusaders) and have contempt of the local population and the Roman Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

. Notably, the author respects the citizenship of the Byzantine Greeks

Byzantine Greeks

Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire, centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor , Cyprus and the large urban centres of the Near East...

, calling them Romans (Ρωμαῖοι) (especially in verses 1720-1738).

The significance of the Chronicle

The Chronicle is famous in spite of certain historical inaccuracies because of its lively description of life in the feudal community and because of the character of the language which reflects the rapid transition from Medieval to Modern Greek.

Polet explains that since the author admired the Franks and had contempt for the Byzantine culture, the Chronicle of Morea did not become part of popular culture and history after the Franks left the Peloponnese.

Numerous administrative laws and practices of the Principality of Achaia are mentioned in the Chronicle, making it a significant source on the Frankish period in Greece.

Language of the Chronicle

Since the year of the Fall of Constantinople, 1453, marks the symbolic boundary between Medieval

Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...

 and Modern Greek

Modern Greek

Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...

, the Chronicle of the Morea is generally classified under Medieval Greek. However, the Chronicle of the Morea, along with the Ptochoprodromic poems and acritic songs

Acritic songs

The Acritic songs are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged in the Byzantine Empire probably in the 9th century. The songs celebrated the exploits of the Akrites, the frontier guards defending the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire. The historical background was the almost...

 are considered as the beginnings of modern Greek literature

Modern Greek literature

Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears of Greeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine literature, the compilers of the New Testament, or, of course, the...

. They are classified as part of both "Byzantine / medieval vernacular" and "(early) modern Greek" literature.

The first editions in print

The first printed edition of the Chronicle was published in 1840 by J.A. Buchon. It contained the Greek text from Paris.

Buchon named the book Βιβλίον της κουγκέστας του Μωραίως (Book of the conquest of Morea), a different title than the text. The second printed edition of the Chronicle was that of the Greek text from Copenhagen, published by Buchon in 1845. In 1889 John Schmitt published both texts of the Copenhagen and Paris manuscripts side by side.

The first text

The book begins with a prologue of 1302 verses. The first three verses are:

I will tell a tale to thee rehearse, a tale of import mighty

And if attention you do lend, I hope the tale will please you

T'is how the Frank by arms did gain the realm of fair Morea