Acknowledgements
At its crucial stage (2013–2015) the research was greatly helped by a financial support in the form of a grant from the Polish National Science Centre (UMO-2012/05/B/HS2/04011), which allowed for the intensification of field research and archival and library queries.
I am deeply grateful to the authorities of the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University, in particular to its Deans, Professor Jan Święch and Professor Stanisław Sroka, for financing the translation of the book.
This book would not be possible without the help and support I received from many people. I would like to heartily thank Professor Piotr Skubiszewski for his warm-hearted suggestions at the stage of formulating the preliminary subject and scope of the study, and for his incessant interest in the progress of my research. During my research visits to Turkey, especially in Istanbul, I was given all-embracing help by Professor Aygül Ağır, a historian of architecture from the Istanbul Technical University; during the visits to Crimea – by an archaeologist Dr Serhiy Zelenko from the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev; and in Saint Petersburg – by Dr Yuriy Pyatnitskiy, an art historian from The State Hermitage Museum. I owe gratitude to Dr Aleksandr Dzhanov (National Sanctuary Complex “Sophia of Kiev”, Kiev) and Dr Hasan Sercan Sağlam (formerly Politecnico di Milano; currently Kadir Has Üniversitesi, Istanbul) for their valuable substantive help (mainly at the stage of preparing the English version of the book), and in particular for bibliographic suggestions, photographs, and comments. I would also like to thank the latter for his inspiring suggestions expressed during our “research” walks through former Pera.
My separate thanks are extended to the anonymous reviewer who expended a considerable amount of work, time, and kindness in reading my English manuscript and for his remarks from which I have greatly benefited; to Piotr Godlewski for his excellent translation and Aeddan Shaw’s work proofreading the manuscript; and to Tomasz Pasteczka for reading the Polish manuscript, his helpful comments, redrawings and preparation of indexes (the index of place names and subjects – together with Małgorzata Maruszak). I would also like to thank Marcella Mulder for the long-term contact that led to this book being accepted for publication, and Ester Lels for her work in producing it.
In addition, I also received valuable help from the following persons (in alphabetical order): Dr Svetlana Adaksina (Deputy Director of The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg), Dr Gianluca Ameri (Università degli Studi di Genova), Professor Michele Bacci (Universität Freiburg), rev. Simon Bayan (Library of Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna), Dr Ioanna Bitha (head of the Research Center for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art of the Academy of Athens, Athens), Dr Nicla Buonasorte (Galata Museo del Mare, curator of Museo Navale di Pegli, Genoa), Dr Ioanna Christoforaki (Research Center for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art of the Academy of Athens, Athens), Dr Francesca De Cupis (La Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici per la Liguria, Genoa), Professor Clario Di Fabio (Università degli Studi di Genova), Dr Patrick Donabédian (Université d’Aix-Marseille), Dr Anastasia Drandaki (curator of the Byzantine Collection in the Benaki Museum, Athens), late Professor Giuseppe Felloni (Università degli Studi di Genova), Professor Julian Gardner (University of Warwick), Nousha Hariri and P. G. D. Kiers (London), Dr Giustina Olgiati (Archivio di Stato di Genova), Dr Muzaffer Özgüleş (previously İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi; currently Alanya HEP Üniversitesi), Professor Valeria Polonio (Università degli Studi di Genova), Dr Adelmo Taddei (curator of Museo di Sant’Agostino in Genoa), Nenad Vukićević (srpskoblago.org), Professor Stephan Westphalen (Universität Heidelberg) and rev. Dariusz Wiśniewski (formerly Sent Antuan Kilisesi, Istanbul).
Finally, I would like to thank my mother Danuta for the inspiration to undertake research on Genoese Black Sea colonies, for our trips to Turkey, for her immense help and her unwavering support and advice. I am also grateful to my brother Łukasz, to Tomasz Dyląg, Małgorzata Rzychoń, and Józef Skrabski for their readiness to share the burden of our trips to the Black Sea coasts.
I owe a separate debt of gratitude to my wife Anna – for her patience, help, heart, and care.