This text is a historical memoir in which George Sphrantzes recounts his life of service to the last three Palaiologos emperors, including events from 1413 to 1477. Sphrantzes wrote in vernacular Greek, making his history an unusual example of non- classicizing fifteenth- century Greek. He occasionally makes use of Turkish and Italian words. The text does not try to conform to the stylistic conventions of a classicizing Greek history.

Sphrantzes's history is known as the Chronicon Minus. A much longer elaboration of his text is known as the Chronicon Maius. The Maius contains nearly all of Minus but expands it into a much larger text. It is now known that the Maius was composed in the sixteenth century, by Makarios Melissenos, the Metropolitan of Monemvasia. His motives for writing the Maius remain unclear. The Maius contains a more extensive account of the Palaiologos dynasty, various additions to the narrative in the Minus, a long description of the siege and conquest of Constantinople, and further details about the fall of Morea. Margaret Carroll has attempted to rehabilitate sections of the Maius dealing with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople as originating with Sphrantzes – and hence as an eyewitness. These efforts are rejected by Philippides.

Sphrantzes's chronicle, the Minus, begins with a brief prologue in which the author introduces himself, cites his birth year, and discusses the political situation of the Ottomans and the empire during his childhood. He then quickly moves to the events he personally remembered beginning in 1413. Sphrantzes carries his story down to 1477. The text includes events in Sphrantzes's family life as well as major political events. Since Sphrantzes was a diplomat involved in many of the political events of his era, his personal memoir functions as a detailed political history. The history includes accounts of his many diplomatic missions, his administrative duties in Morea, his friendship with the Emperor Constantine IX, a digression regarding a conversation between Emperor John VIII and a Jew, and the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, although the latter receives only brief treatment in the Minus.