George Akropolites: The History

George Akropolites: The History

Author: Geōrgios Akropolitēs

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2007-04-19

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 0199210675

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The first English translation and study of George Akropolites' History, an essential source for 13th-century Byzantine history. Ruth Macrides discusses the author's background, social position, and relation to the tradition of Greek history writing, and provides a comprehensive guide to reading the text.


George Akropolites: The History

George Akropolites: The History

Author: Ruth Macrides

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2007-04-19

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 0191568716

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This is the first English translation and study of George Akropolites' History, the main Greek source for the history of Byzantium between 1204 and 1261. Akropolites relates what happened to Byzantium after the Latin conquest of its capital, Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. He narrates the fragmentation of the Byzantine world, describing how the newly established 'empire' in Anatolia prevailed over its foreign and Byzantine enemies to recapture the capital in 1261. Akropolites was an eyewitness to most of the events he relates and a man close to the emperors he served, and his account has therefore influenced modern perceptions of this period. It has been an essential source for all those studying the eastern Mediterranean in the thirteenth century. However, until now historians have made use of his History without knowing anything about its author. Ruth Macrides remedies this deficiency by providing a detailed guide to Akropolites' work and an analysis of its composition, which places it in the context of medieval Greek historical writing.


Colonizing Christianity

Colonizing Christianity

Author: George E. Demacopoulos

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0823284441

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“A truly extraordinary reevaluation of historical events in light of new theoretical approaches . . . groundbreaking.” —Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies Colonizing Christianity employs postcolonial critique to analyze the transformations of Greek and Latin religious identity in the wake of the Fourth Crusade. Through close readings of texts from the period of Latin occupation, this book argues that the experience of colonization splintered the Greek community over how best to respond to the Latin other while illuminating the mechanisms by which Western Christians authorized and exploited the Christian East. The experience of colonial subjugation opened permanent fissures within the Orthodox community, which struggled to develop a consistent response to aggressive demands for submission to the Roman Church. “Colonizing Christianity's analysis of a number of texts through the lens of colonial and postcolonial theory makes for useful, important, reading. There are significant stakes both for medieval historians and those committed to finding pathways of reconciliation among contemporary Christians.” —David Perry, author of Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade


Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond

Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond

Author: Sergey A. Ivanov

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2006-04-06

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 0191515140

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There are saints in Orthodox Christian culture who overturn the conventional concept of sainthood. Their conduct may be unruly and salacious, they may blaspheme and even kill - yet, mysteriously, those around them treat them with even more reverence. Such saints are called 'holy fools'. In this pioneering study Sergey A. Ivanov examines the phenomenon of holy foolery from a cultural standpoint. He identifies its prerequisites and its development in religious thought, and traces the emergence of the first hagiographic texts describing these paradoxical saints. He describes the beginnings of holy foolery in Egyptian monasteries of the fifth century, followed by its high point in the cities of Byzantium, with an eventual decline in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. He also compares the important Russian tradition of holy fools, which in some form has survived to this day.


Authority in Byzantium

Authority in Byzantium

Author: Pamela Armstrong

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1351956566

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Authority is an important concept in Byzantine culture whose myriad modes of implementation helped maintain the existence of the Byzantine state across so many centuries, binding together people from different ethnic groups, in different spheres of life and activities. Even though its significance to understanding the Byzantine world is so central, it is nonetheless imperfectly understood. The present volume brings together an international cast of scholars to explore this concept. The contributions are divided into nine sections focusing on different aspects of authority: the imperial authority of the state, how it was transmitted from the top down, from Constantinople to provincial towns, how it dealt with marginal legal issues or good medical practice; authority in the market place, whether directly concerning over-the-counter issues such as coinage, weights and measures, or the wider concerns of the activities of foreign traders; authority in the church, such as the extent to which ecclesiastical authority was inherent, or how constructs of religious authority ordered family life; the authority of knowledge revealed through imperial patronage or divine wisdom; the authority of text, though its conformity with ancient traditions, through the Holy scriptures and through the authenticity of history; exhibiting authority through images of the emperor or the Divine. The final section draws on personal experience of three great ’authorities’ within Byzantine Studies: Ostrogorsky, Beck and Browning.


Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204

Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204

Author: Judith Herrin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-17

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1317119134

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This volume of studies explores a particularly complex period in Byzantine history, the thirteenth century, from the Fourth Crusade to the recapture of Constantinople by exiled leaders from Nicaea. During this time there was no Greek state based on Constantinople and so no Byzantine Empire by traditional definition. Instead, a Venetian/Frankish alliance ruled from the capital, while many smaller states also claimed the mantle of Byzantium. Even after 1261 when the Latin Empire of Constantinople was replaced by a restored Greek state, political fragmentation persisted. This fragmentation makes the study of individuals more difficult but also more valuable than ever before, and this volume demonstrates the very considerable advances in historical understanding that may be gained from prosopographical approaches. Specialist historians of the Byzantine successor states of the period, and of their most important neighbours, here examine the self-projection and interactions of these states, combining military history and diplomacy, commercial and theological contacts, and the experiences and self-description of individuals. This wide-ranging series of articles uses a great diversity of sources - Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Latin, Persian and Serbian - to exploit the potential of the novel methodology employed and of prosopography as an additional historical tool of analysis.


Sources for Byzantine Art History: Volume 3, The Visual Culture of Later Byzantium (1081–c.1350)

Sources for Byzantine Art History: Volume 3, The Visual Culture of Later Byzantium (1081–c.1350)

Author: Foteini Spingou

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-04-21

Total Pages: 1683

ISBN-13: 1108643906

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In this book the beauty and meaning of Byzantine art and its aesthetics are for the first time made accessible through the original sources. More than 150 medieval texts are translated from nine medieval languages into English, with commentaries from over seventy leading scholars. These include theories of art, discussions of patronage and understandings of iconography, practical recipes for artistic supplies, expressions of devotion, and descriptions of cities. The volume reveals the cultural plurality and the interconnectivity of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries. The first part uncovers salient aspects of Byzantine artistic production and its aesthetic reception, while the second puts a spotlight on particular ways of expressing admiration and of interpreting of the visual.


The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople

The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople

Author: Elena N. Boeck

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-04-29

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1108187064

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Justinian's triumphal column was the tallest free-standing column of the pre-modern world and was crowned with arguably the largest metal equestrian sculpture created anywhere in the world before 1699. The Byzantine empire's bronze horseman towered over the heart of Constantinople, assumed new identities, spawned conflicting narratives, and acquired widespread international acclaim. Because all traces of Justinian's column were erased from the urban fabric of Istanbul in the sixteenth century, scholars have undervalued its astonishing agency and remarkable longevity. Its impact in visual and verbal culture was arguably among the most extensive of any Mediterranean monument. This book analyzes Byzantine, Islamic, Slavic, Crusader, and Renaissance historical accounts, medieval pilgrimages, geographic, apocalyptic and apocryphal narratives, vernacular poetry, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Italian, French, Latin, and Ottoman illustrated manuscripts, Florentine wedding chests, Venetian paintings, and Russian icons to provide an engrossing and pioneering biography of a contested medieval monument during the millennium of its life.