Recycled Byzantine stereotypes constitute the basis of the historical evidence of medieval Vlachs

What is it about?

Much of what French chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade knew about the Vlachs is in fact based not on direct knowledge of those people, despite direct contact with them. Instead, the basis of that knowledge is the "echo chamber" of the intellectual discussions in twelfth-century Constantinople.

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Why is it important?

The current historiography of the medieval Vlachs takes both the Byzantine and the Frankish sources as "anthropological reports" in the field, without understanding the constructed nature of the rumors and stereotypes.

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