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.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction. Espionage, Loyalty, and Identity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean

The War of Candia: Transcription and Translation

Dossier:

A. Excerpt from Giovanni Antonio Muazzo, Fragmenti e memorie historiche del regno e guerra di Candia (1670)

B. Emmanuel Mormori’s Apology

C. Record of the Surrender of Canea

D. Excerpts from Memorabil historia della Città della Canea

E. Emmanuel Mormori’s Plan for Recovery of Canea

F. Emmanuel Mormori as Potential Field Operative

G. Excerpts from Dispatches of Venetian Commanders and Mormori’s Intelligence Reports

H. Zorzi Acchieli’s Denunciation of Zorzi Mormori

I. Nuptial Contract between Emmanuel Mormori and Pigi Meseri 

J. Excerpts from the Inventory of Zorzi Mormori’s Movables

Bibliography

Index of Names and Places