International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Ivayla Popova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Faculty of History, Sofia, Bulgaria; 
[e-mail]
The Image of the Other – Byzantium and the Balkans 
through the Eyes of Western Travellers of the 14
th
and 15
th
Centuries
Our communication will summarize the most intriguing information the western travellers 
and pilgrims provide us about the Balkans during the 14
th
and 15
th
century. Their accounts could be 
systemized as follows:
1. Texts providing geographical, historical and archaeological information.
2. Texts describing cities, their plans, fortifications, military warehouses, shipyards, outstanding 
buildings, water supply, aqueducts etc.
3. Texts referring to churches and monasteries, relics and holy places.
4. Texts containing data about the population of the Balkan Peninsula.
Here we shall concentrate our attention on the last issue, i.e. on texts containing data about the 
population of the Balkan Peninsula, e.g. about the local ethnic enclaves and isolated social groups, 
specific customary practices, language, religion, manufacture, costume, agriculture, trade, wine 
production, richness or poverty, lack of suitable shelter or food for the guests.

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809
We shall pay special attention to the texts written by Konrad Grünemberg (1486), Pietro 
Casola (1494), as well as to the intriguing data provided Felix Fabri, (1480 and 1483-1484), Bernard 
von Breidenbach (1483-1484), George Lengerand (1485 - 1486), Arnold von Harff (1496 – 1499), 
Anonymous German nobleman, travelled 1494. 
Most pilgrims point out that the majority of the populace was of Slavic origin or Slavic-
speaking. Another basic ethnicity the travellers comment on are the Greeks or, more precisely, the 
groups of Orthodox population speaking Greek.
Yet, some intriguing accounts refer to other minorities. For instance, Felix Fabri, Arnold von 
Harff, George Lengerand, Pietro Casola, speak of a large Jewish colony in the Venetian port of 
Modon (Methone), as well as of a gipsy settlement at its suburbs. Bernard von Breidenbach, Konrad 
Grünemberg and Dietrich von Schachten refer exclusively to the gipsy community of Modon.