A Venetian Spy’s Account of the War of Candia

This text is an eyewitness account of the crucial first five years of the War of Candia (1645–1669), also known as the Cretan War and Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War: the war between the Republic of Venice and her allies against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States. It is a primary source for the longest Mediterranean conflict of the early modern age.

Composed by Emmanuel Mormori, a hitherto obscure Greek Cretan nobleman, the text is accompanied by an extensive introduction focusing on the author, who appears to have been a Venetian intelligence agent in Ottoman-conquered Chania (in Crete), and, for a period of five years, became key to the Venetian war effort. The volume includes a dossier of documents illuminating this figure, culled from the collections of the State Archive of Venice.

Kiril Petkov is Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, USA. He has published several monographs and source editions in the field.