| Codex Marcianus Graecus VII 22 by the Cretan George Klontzas, dated to 1590, contains chronographic notes, prophecies and miniature illuminations concerning the history of Byzantium and Crete in particular. Of the material concerning the island, certain oracles of the calamities entailed by the threatened Turkish conquest are particularly interesting. The oracles are edited based on the manuscript in question and a further three versions from codices Oxoniensis Baroccianus Graecus 145, Copenhagensis Graecus 2148, Athoniensis Iberensis 686 και Palermitanus I.E.8. The texts echo the sentiments of the inhabitants of the island on the eve of the fall of Cyprus. They were incorporated early on into the corpus of oracles concerning the fate of the lands of the former Byzantine Empire, circulating in the 16th and 17th centuries. |