Descriptio Europae Orientalis

The Descriptio Europae Orientalis ('Description of Eastern Europe') is an anonymous Latin geographical treatise written in France in the spring of 1308.

[5] The countries covered in the Descriptio are Albania, Bohemia, Bulgaria, Halych (Ruthenia), Hungary, Poland, Serbia (Rascia) and the Byzantine Empire.

His written sources included texts like the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais, the Flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient of Hayton of Korykos.

[1] Although the text gives a geographically accurate description of Eastern Europe, it is often based on myths or hearsay, and the author does not seem to have used local historical documents to write it.

[6] Also, the chronicle describes the territories that the Hungarians could potentially conquer, so that the Hungarian kingdom could claim them:"If Lord Charles were in possession of the Greek [Byzantine] empire, having made an alliance with the King of Hungary (...) he could easily seize and subjugate all the heretic and barbarian peoples who occupy so rich and beautiful a territory as wrongful possessors.