Historiographical texts of the 15th century

he next period until the final subjection of the Byzantine empire to the Ottomans in 1453, is covered historically by the work of four other historians who lived in the 15th century.

The most important work was the Apodeixeis Historion("Evidence of Histories") by Laonikos Chalkokondyles, which, in ten books, deals with events between the years 1298 and 1463 and especially with the fall of Constantinople and the expansion of the Turks.

The second historian was one Doukas whose first name is not known. Neither do we know the title of his work, because it survives in only one manuscript, whose first and last pages (where this information usually appears) are missing. The first part of his history fragmentarily covers some basic landmarks in Byzantine history: the reigns of Constantine the Great, Justinian I, Alexios I Komnenos and the expansion of the Turks into Asia Minor and Europe. He subsequently describes very vividly the common Byzantine-Turkish history from 1341 to the fall of the City and the struggles of the enfeebled Byzantine empire against the Turks and the Italian maritime republics.

Michael Kritoboulos wrote his Historiai in an archaising style, imitating that of Thucydides. He deals with the history not of the Byzantine, but of the Ottoman Empire, covering events from 1451 to 1467 and dedicates this work to sultan Mehmed II. Finally, the work of the historian George Sphrantzes has survived in two different versions. The first is the Chronicon Minus ("minor chronicle") which is a series of notes of an autobiographical nature, in other words a sort of personal diary with information on events that occurred during Sphrantzes' lifetime, that is from 1413 to 1477. The second work is the Chronicon Maius ("major chronicle"), which is an expanded version of the Chronicon Minus written from memory and dealing with the events that took place between 1258 and 1478.