Laonicus (Laonikos) Chalcondyles (or
Chalcocondylas, Greek: Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης) (c.
1423 –
1490) was a
Byzantine Greek scholar from
Athens. The name is probably an anagram of Nicolaos.
He was a Byzantine historian, son of Georgios and cousin of
Demetrios Chalcocondylas. After a quarrel between his father and the Florentine
dukes of Athens, he followed his family to the
Peloponnese where, according to
Kyriakos the Agonites, he lived in the court of
Constantinos Palaiologos and was taught by
George Gemistos Plethon.
After the destruction of Constantinople, he wrote his most important historical work,
Proofs of Histories (Αποδείξεις Ιστοριών) (10 books). This historical work of Laonicos Chalcondyles comprises one of the most important sources for the students of the final 150 years of Byzantine history. It covers the period from
1298-1463, describing the fall of the Greek empire and the rise of the
Ottoman Turks, which forms the centre of the narrative, down to the conquest of the
Venetians and
Mathias, king of Hungary, by
Mehmed II. The
capture of
Constantinople he rightly regarded as an historical event of far-reaching importance and compared it to the fall of
Troy. Like that of other Byzantine writers, his chronology is defective. The work also sketches other manners and civilization of
England, France and
Germany, whose assistance the Greeks sought to obtain against the Turks. For his account of earlier events he was able to obtain information from his father.
His model is
Thucydides (according to
Bekker, Herodotus), his language is tolerably pure and correct, and his style is simple and clear. The text, however, is in a very corrupt state. The archaic language he used made his texts hard to read in many parts, while the antiquarian names, with which he named people of his time, created confusion (Γεταί, Δάκες, Λίγυρες, Μυσοί, Παίονες etc). The extended use of the named 'Hellenes' (Έλληνες), which Laonicos used to describe the Byzantines contributed to the connection made between the ancient Greek civilization and the modern one.
