Οι πληροφορίες του ενετού Τζοβάν Μαρία Αντζολέλλο για τη Θράκη κατά το έτος 1470 και η σημασία τους για τη γνώση της πρώιμης οθωμανοκρατίας στο θρακικό χώρο

Abstract

After Mehmet II had seized Chalcis from the Venetians in the summer of
1470, a Venetian named Giovan Maria Angiolello was taken prisoner and conveyed
by land, together with a number of his compatriots, to the Ottoman
capital. On the way, he took the opportunity to leant something about the
towns and districts of Thrace through which he passed. Together with that of the Frenchman B. de la Broquière, who had visited the same region some
forty years earlier, the information he recorded constitutes the principal
evidence from western travellers about early Ottoman rule in Thrace and adds
considerably to the few data we have from other sources about the demographic,
economic, and cultural impact of Ottoman dominion on the region of
Thrace, as also about the importance of the urban centres, which seems in
some cases (such as Komotini and Adrianople) to have remained much the
same or to have increased after the conquest, and in others (such as Xanthi) to
have diminished in comparison to the Byzantine period.