The period of Frankish/Latin rule in Greece lacks institutional recognition due to epistemological determinations that value the Byzantine Empire as the essential structure of medieval Hellenism. Despite being four centuries old, the scientific field of Frankish/Latin Greece remains undeveloped, despite the multiplication of studies and publications of sources since the last forty years.
Epistemological convention considers the φραγκοκρατία as the period during which Greek countries were subjugated to the 'Franks', an ethnonym that federates the Western nations that participated in the Crusades or ruled territories taken from the Byzantine Empire. While the movement preceded the First Crusade, as the Normans ousted the imperial power of southern Italy in 1071, Frankish-Italian domination is usually considered to extend from 1191, when Richard the Lion Heart captured Cyprus, to 1797, when Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands was abrogated. In this process, the distinction of 'nations' was not based on any tangible reality, as Westerners joined in the establishment of feudal and Latin-rite institutions, regardless of the particularities of local situations. Thus, Frankish/Latin Greece includes Greek territories that came under the control of families of French or Italian origin, Hospitallers, Venetian, Genoese, Catalan or Navarrese mercenaries, all of which were 'nations' that defended political and religious conceptions that were profoundly different from those of the Byzantine Empire.
The objective of the Φραγκικά-Frankika portal is to offer students and researchers working on French/Latin Greece digital research tools, made available according to the rules of "open science" promoted by the French School at Athens. On a collaborative basis, progressively enriched, will be available:
- Resources on the fundamental texts for the knowledge of the period; they will be presented exclusively through bibliographical notes giving information on the history and exegesis of the document.
- A map of Frankish/Latin Greece will make available archaeological and bibliographical resources associated with the monuments of the period, through a specific GIS, a kind of geographical atlas of Frankish/Latin Greece, where to each place/monument will be attached a bibliography, which can be fed from the archaeological chronicles of periodicals (BCH, ABSA, ΔΧΑΕ, RDAC...), or from the main specialized studies.
- The GIS calls for being completed with archaeological, epigraphical, prosopographical data provided from corpus in progress.
The Φραγκικά-Frankika portal is part of the activities of the programme Écrire l’histoire de la Grèce franque/Writing the History of Frankish Greece, which questions the epistemology of the discipline. It offers, in pre-publication, the studies presented at workshops and conferences dedicated to scholars who have been involved in the construction of the historiographical field. Finally, the portal keeps the video memory of the regular webinars organised by the French School at Athens, which were devoted to the presentation of recent works enriching the reflection in different fields, such as political and social history, history of institutions, history of culture and art.
The Φραγκικά-Frankika website is hosted by the École française d'Athènes, benefits from its technical and material support; the website was designed and developed by Chavdar Tzochev, with the collaboration of Laure Franceschi (head of the library), Louis Mulot (head of IT services) and the Modern and Contemporary Studies Department.
The website welcomes corrections, additions and comments, which can be sent to the contact address.
