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 5 (published in 1887) reveals the efforts of churches and monasteries to maintain their rights and status with regard to the Orthodox hierarchy, and also in the context of political upheaval: the King of Serbia and the Doge of Venice are among those involved.