UN CARTEGGIO INEDITO TRA MINISTRI. L’ARRESTO DI SIMONIDIS, LE OPERE DI MURALT, TAFEL E THOMAS

Dossier F17/3222 at the Archives Nationales de France consists of eight documents, letters in copy or original, dated between 20 January and 26 July 1856. They concern the arrest in Leipzig of Constantine Simonidis, a well-known forger, and the publication of two works, the Essai de Chronographie Byzantine (1855) by E. von Muralt and the collection of documents on the relations between Venice and Byzan- tium published in Vienna by Tafel and Thomas (1856). The period in which this cor- respondence takes place corresponds to the last phase of the Crimean War and the Congress of Paris, which sanctioned its end with the peace treaty of 30 March 1856. It shows the particular interest aroused by historical works that could provide a justification for European arrangements, looking back to earlier times and justifying con- temporary territorial claims.