| The intention of Manoussos Theotokopoulos and three companions, Michael Spanopoulos, Ioannis Basatouris and Petros Karavellos, to fight on the side of Venice in the war against the Ottoman forces on the eve of Lepanto, is expressed in memoranda to the Venetian Senate and in the Senate’s subsequent decisions taken between October 1571 and January 1572. These documents, presenting the negotiations between the four Cretans and the Venetian authorities concerning the terms on which the former would be accorded four armed galleys, were discovered in the Venetian State Archives and are published in the original Italian and in Greek translation. |