I originally sent the below to Dr. Williams' email address, but it "bounced back" to me, so now I have posted it to the List. Darrel Hockley ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Darrel Hockley <ddh_regina@yahoo.ca> To: Dr. Kelsey Jackson Williams <kelsey@scotsgenealogist.com> Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2016 1:32 PM Subject: Nicholas Crispo (1392 to 1450) Hello Dr. Williams, I have been reading about Caterino Zeno, Patrician of Venice and Diplomat of the Venetian Republic and am thinking there may be a connexion to the House of Komnenos in his case. In the Wilki article on Nicholas Crispo, Lord of Syros and Patrician of Venice (1392 to 1450), it states he married in 1413 Eudokia (Valenza) Komnena. I think that Eudokia was the daughter of the Emperor Manuel III Komnenos (1364 to 1417) and that her mother may have been Gulkhan (Eudokia) of Georgia who died in May of 1395 - maybe in childbirth? >From what I have read, the Emperor Manuel had reasonable good relations with the Republic of Venice and the territories held by the Crispo family such as Syros were under Venice's authority. As a sign of this good relationship, the Emperor's daughter Eudokia would be given in marriage to Nicholas Crispo. Eudokia's and Nicholas' seventh child, Violante Crispo, born in 1427, married the Nobil Huomo Caterino Zeno, who was probably of similar age, which would have made him in his mid to late 40s when in 1471 he undertook his mission to Uzun Hassan, Padishah of Iran (1423 to 1478), husband of Theodora Komnena (c. 1438 to c. 1507). Due to Theodora's rank, is it possible that she would have been referred too in the literature as Zeno's aunt, rather than second cousin? Darrel Hockley

On 19/06/2016 5:37 AM, Darrel Hockley via wrote: > I originally sent the below to Dr. Williams' email address, but it "bounced back" to me, so now I have posted it to the List. > Darrel Hockley > > > ----- Forwarded Message ----- > From: Darrel Hockley <ddh_regina@yahoo.ca> > To: Dr. Kelsey Jackson Williams <kelsey@scotsgenealogist.com> > Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2016 1:32 PM > Subject: Nicholas Crispo (1392 to 1450) > > Hello Dr. Williams, > I have been reading about Caterino Zeno, Patrician of Venice and Diplomat of the Venetian Republic and am thinking there may be a connexion to the House of Komnenos in his case. > > In the Wilki article on Nicholas Crispo, Lord of Syros and Patrician of Venice (1392 to 1450), it states he married in 1413 Eudokia (Valenza) Komnena. I think that Eudokia was the daughter of the Emperor Manuel III Komnenos (1364 to 1417) and that her mother may have been Gulkhan (Eudokia) of Georgia who died in May of 1395 - maybe in childbirth? The likelihood of this is less than vanishingly small - the prohibition on giving the name of a parent to a child in the Byzantine world was, as far as we can tell, strictly observed by the Komnenoi in Trebizond. Since Gulkhan took the name Eudokia, this would not have been given to her daughter (if she ever had one). Even if you want to speculate that she did have a daughter, for whose existence there is no direct evidence, you will still be pushing a rock uphill to establish that this could have been her namesake. Peter Stewart