| The Cretan icon painter and monk Philotheos Skouphos was active in the Venetian cause during the military operations of the first years of the Cretan War. A few years later, in Venice, he invoked his past services and present poverty to persuade the Venetian State to grant him a church or monastery on one of the Ionian Islands. On 1 August 1665 the Venetian Senate accorded him the church of Panaghia Laurentena in Zante, which he restored and decorated. At Skouphos’ subsequent request, the Senate decided to grant the church to his nephew Parthenios on his death. Skouphos’ requests and the corresponding decisions of the Venetian Senate are published in the original Italian and in Greek translation. |