This six-volume work, published between 1860 and 1890, contains a selection of documents in Greek which throw light on the history and politics of the Byzantine Empire in the Middle Ages. The editors, Franz Miklosich (1813–91), philosopher, linguist and Slovenian nationalist, and Josef (or Giuseppe) Müller (1823–95), a Greek scholar who also translated many important works by German classical historians into Italian, used as one of their sources the volumes of Greek manuscripts brought back to Vienna by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522–92), the Flemish diplomat, herbalist, and travel writer who had acted as Imperial Ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Volume 4 (published in 1871) focuses on texts relating to (and in many cases originally owned by) Orthodox churches and monasteries in Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, including details of the land and possessions with which they were endowed, and of subsequent donations by the Pious.