The Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner: Catalan expansion in the Mediterranean in the XIIIth-XIVth centuries and the Great Catalan Company

Chronicles, that have different writing methods and characteristics in different periods, have been among the most productive sources for historians as they provide a collective view about the events of the period, especially the political ones. With the inspiration we get from the Annales School, the Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner which provides a great help in comprehending the Mediterranean history more fully, will be translated and analyzed and Catalan expansion in the Mediterranean, the main subject of the Chronicle, will be examined. The importance of the Ramon Muntaner Chronicle for us derives from the Catalan Company, that Muntaner states as the occasion for his writing. The Catalan Company, which came to Anatolia as an aid to Byzantium at the beginning of the XIVth century, occupies a special stage in the history of our country as it is a part of the process of shaping the region on the eve of a new age. In this respect, with the present work, we hope to contribute to Mediterranean and Anatolian history studies, thanks to the present Chronicle, the witness of the period in which we have relatively limited resources.