GIORGIO, FRANTZE. - Byzantine historian, born in 1401 at Lemnos, died in 1479 at Corfu. He was in the service of the despot Costantino as a diplomatic envoy abroad and as governor of several cities. When Costantino became emperor (Costantino XI), G. departed on a long mission to Iberia, from which he returned at the beginning of 1452. He was then proposed for the dignity of logothetes, which he probably did not accept. During the fall of Costantinopoli he fought valiantly and was taken prisoner. Once freed, he went to the Peloponneso and later to Corfu, where, like his wife, he embraced the monastic state.
Two important works have been attributed to G., the Chronicon minus, which recounts Byzantine history from 1413 to 1477, and the Chronicon maius, which, besides containing the former, albeit interpolated, adds a prologue, a Byzantine history from 1258 to 1402, and a Turkish history down to Maometto II. Recently R. Loenertz (Autour du Chronicon maius attribué à G. Phr., in Miscellanea Mercati, III, Vaticano 1946, pp. 273-311) has maintained the thesis that seems more probable, namely that the Chronicon maius is not by G. but a compilation made in the 16th century by Macario Melissene, metropolitan of Monembasia.