Laskaris Kananos (or Lascaris Cananus) was a 15th-century

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

traveler to northern Europe who left an account in

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the ...

of his travels.Jerker Blomqvist, "The Geography of the Baltic as Seen by the Greeks: From Claudius Ptolemy to Laskaris Kananos", in Bettina Amden et al. (eds.), ''Noctes Atticae: 34 Articles on Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Its Nachleben'' (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002), pp. 36–51. Kananos may have traveled in 1438–1439 (possibly in connection with the

Council of Florence The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1445. It was convened in territories under the Holy Roman Empire. Italy became a venue of a Catholic ecumenical council aft ...

),Jerker Blomqvist, "The Geography of the Baltic as Seen by the Greeks: From Claudius Ptolemy to Laskaris Kananos", in Bettina Amden et al. (eds.), ''Noctes Atticae: 34 Articles on Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Its Nachleben'' (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002), pp. 36–51. or he may have been traveling in 1468 collecting

alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving. Etymology The word ''alms'' come ...

for the release of prisoners from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

.Jonathan Harris, "When Did Laskaris Kananos Travel in the Baltic Lands?", ''Byzantion'' 80 (2010), pp. 173–187. Although he has at times been identified with John Kananos,Mikhail Bibikov, "Byzantine sources for the history of Balticum and Scandinavia" [archived
nowiki>], in Ivo Volt and Janika Päll (eds.) ''Acta Societatis Morgensternianae II: Byzantino-Nordica 2004'' (Tartu University Press, 2005), pp. 12–28. there is no reason other than their surnames to equate the two obscure figures. Judging by his interest in the silver coinage minted in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and the barter trade in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, Kananos may have been a merchant. Besides Stockholm and Bergen, he visited

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

, Danzig,

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, whence he sailed to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. Kananos' surviving account is short, just three pages in the sole surviving manuscript of the 16th century (now in Vienna,

Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg#Neue Burg, Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in Innere Stadt, center of Vienna. Sin ...

, hist. gr. 113, at

folios The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book made ...

174r–175r). It may be a fragment of a once longer work. The

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

he calls the ''Venedicos Kolpos'' ("Wendish Bay"). He noted the subordination of Sweden and Norway to the king of Denmark in the

Kalmar Union The Kalmar Union was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden as designed by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Margaret of Denmark. From 1397 to 1523, it joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then in ...

, since the king lived in ''Kupanava'' (Copenhagen). He noted that the cities of

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and Revel belonged to the Archbishop of Riga and the rest of Livonia to the duke of the grand master of the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

. He refers to Iceland as inhabited by "fish-eaters" (''

ichthyophagoi Ichthyophagoi (, "fish-eaters") and Latin Ichthyophagi is the name given by ancient geographers to several ethnically unrelated Coast, coast-dwelling peoples in different parts of the world. *Herodotus (book i. c. 200) mentions three tribes of the ...

'') and identifies it with the

Thule Thule ( ; also spelled as ''Thylē'') is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, i ...

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine, Islamic, and ...

References

{{reflist 15th-century Byzantine writers 15th-century Greek writers 15th-century travel writers