ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the collections of liturgical vessels and portable devotional objects in the churches of the Venetian ‘quarters’ in the eastern Mediterranean cities until the Ottoman conquest. It is not possible to identify the silverware, textiles, books and icons owned by these communities today, nevertheless an insight into the entity of these collections is offered by numerous archival documents preserved in Venice. The purpose of these charts being mainly practical, the authors have sometimes specified the function of the objects, but not their appearance. Thanks to these documents, however, it is possible to infer the provenance of some of the artefacts, and to understand that, while some were certainly imported from the homeland, others were made or purchased from local workshops. The Venetian settlement on the island of Negroponte has been selected as a major case study.
