Depopulation in the Aegean Islands and the Turkish Conquest

Abstract

Antonio Di Millo is the author of an Isolario of which several copies have come down to us. Of these, two dated respectively (A) 1587 and (B) 1591 are preserved in the British Museum and a third (C) of 1590 in the Marciana at Venice. Two other copies, cited by Uzielli as existing at the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Biblioteca Municipale at Venice, seem to be no longer known at the libraries in question. The greater part of the text of the work consists of practical directions for navigators and traders, including generally a note on the population, and occasionally on the staple products of the island under discussion. The rare notes on local history are, as will be seen, of some value. The text of the three copies shews considerable variations, many notes being peculiar to each. The B.M. (A) and Marciana copies seem to be autograph: in the B.M. (B) this is true only of the maps. The author is mentioned as Antonius Meliensis by Leunclavius, who met him acting as pilot on a ship returning from Constantinople in 1585: this shows that he was actively engaged in his profession shortly before the first compilation of his Isolario and the note in (C) on Patmos shews that he was quite up to date in 1590. Millo is said by Leunclavius to have been a native of Melos and Greek by parentage.