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Lot # 753 - Frankish Greece, Naxos. Giovanni I Sanudo (1341-1362). BI Denier. Obv. Head facing. Rev. Patent cross. Malloy 129; Schl. pl. XIII, 28; Metcalf -; Papadopoli, RIN (1895), p. 464 1-2. BI. 0.43 g. 13.00 mm. RRRR. Marginal fissure of the flan. Of the highest rarity. Apparently never offered in public sale. VF. In 1027 Marco Sanudo, nephew of the venetian doge, seized Naxos, the chief island of the cyclades. He took Paros, Melos, Siphnos, Kythnos and Syros for himself and obtained the Ghisi of Tenos and Mykonos, the Quirini of Stampilia, the Barozzi of Thera and the Foscoli of Anaphe as his vassals. He received also from the emperor Henry of Constantinople the title of duke of the Aegean Sea. The Sanudo family became very important in the latin east and in the Archipelago. Marino Sanudo the Elder (c.1274-1343), the author of the Secreta Fidelium Crucis, was a descendant of this family and travelled extensively throughout the Levant at this period. Nicolò Sanudo (1323-1341) has been the first who issued coins for the archipelago. After several issues related to the domain of the reign, since neither the Angevins nor the Venetians could offer effective aid, Nicolò swore allegiance to byzantine emperor Andrincus III Palaeologus, who helped him obtain a truce with the Turks in 1332. Nicolò's Sanudo brother, Giovanni, succeeded him on his death in 1341. Giovanni obtained the suzerainty of Venice and arranged a marriage for his daughter Fiorenza with Giovanni Dalle Carceri of Euboea. At the death of Giovanni, once the rule of the duchy moved to Nicolò II dalle Carceri, the Archipelago come soon after under control of the House of Crispo and remained until 1576 when the Turks took direct control over the island.