Book Description

The monastery of Esphigmenou is one of the oldest monasteries of Mount Athos, founded in the 10th century. The present volume comprises one hundred and five Greek documents kept in its post-Byzantine archive from the years 1527 to 1801. The content of the documents pertains to a variety of topics, such as internal affairs of the monastery, issues related to its dependencies, as well as the relations between the Athonite monasteries. The documents are primary sources valuable for the study of the history of Mount Athos, and generally the economic and ecclesiastical history of the period of Ottoman occupation. The edition includes a physical description of each document, a detailed account of its content (“regeste”), the incipit, related bibliography, and a commentary on the most important points of interest. The work is followed by an index of documents by type (patriarchal, monastic, private, etc) and a general index that includes the names of people, places, monasteries, institutions, economic terms, etc.