The book offered to the reader is dedicated to the history of the Black Sea region, the shores of which in the Middle Ages were a crossroads of different civilizations, a busy trade bridge between the West and the East, a zone of confrontation between Byzantium, the world of the steppes, increasingly subordinated to Islamic culture, and the Italian maritime republics, primarily Genoa and Venice, which were actively making their way to markets throughout the Mediterranean. The peak of these contacts falls on the XIII - XV centuries, forming, as it were, the chronological center of the book. Its geographical center is two key regions - North-Eastern Anatolia (Pontus) and the Azov region. The sea routes of the Mediterranean ended there and the caravan routes of the East began. The Azov region and Crimea (with the main cities of Caffa and Tana, on the site of modern Feodosia and Azov) - Trebizond - Constantinople formed a kind of triangle, on the sides of which there were sea routes, waves of Western European colonization and lines of tension in the struggle for political hegemony in the region.

Contents: IntroductionOutline of the history of Pontus from antiquity to the formation of the Empire of Trebizond Formation of the Empire of Trebizond / 1204–1215 / Trebizond Empire and Byzantium Trebizond Empire and Russian lands Culture of the Trebizond Empire Italian trade in Trebizond and its impact on the economy of the late Byzantine city Taxation of Italian trade and volume of trade that in the cities of the Southern and South-Eastern Black Sea region (XIV - mid-XV centuries) On the trade privileges of the Italian maritime republics in the Empire of Trebizond Venetian-Trebizond conflict of 1374–1376. and an unknown peace treaty of 1376. Genoese notary in the Empire of Trebizond: Guirardo di San DonatoBetween West and East. The crisis of the mid-14th century: an underestimated turn? The Black Sea region in the 15th century based on materials from the collection Diversorum, Filze of the Secret Archive of GenoaThe emergence of TanaFrom Tana to Urgench. These difficult roads of the Middle AgesCivil status and ethnic composition of the population of the Italian trading posts of the Black Sea region in the 14th–15th centuries. New data on the Orthodox parish in Azov in the 14th–15th centuries. Documents on the history of the Venetian trading post of Tana in the second half of the 14th century. Summary Index of proper names and geographical names< /p>