The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread which is the bibliography for Byzantium.

This is also a spoiler thread.

Judith Herrin

Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion

Hello Scott, thank you for the add. Could you tell us a little bit about the above book and how it fits into the discussion on Byzantium. Also, when citing a book, we always add the book cover and then we must add the author's information: author's photo if available and always the author's link.

Here is an example for the book cited:

by Frank Schaeffer (no author's photo available on goodreads)

If you need any assistance with the citations and how we do them here, we have the Help Desk folder and a link called the Mechanics of the Board. Here is the link:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Whatever we can do to help you along, please let us know.

Sometimes if you do not see the book cover right away; look at other editions and most of the time you will find one.

Here are some books that Judith Herrin recommended in an interview.

Professor of Byzantine History at both Princeton University and King’s College London selects five books to help us understand the place of Byzantium in world civilization.

The first one was Fourteen Byzantine Rulers by Michael Psellus who was a Byzantine.

by Michael Psellus (no author's photo available)

Here is what Judith Herrin had to say on FiveBooks.

The first book on your list, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers by Michael Psellus, is an autobiographical history. What made you choose this work?

I decided that it was very important to have a book by a Byzantine, because you get a much stronger sense of the culture and the atmosphere of Byzantium by reading what an individual who lived then wrote. [Byzantium the ancient Greek city, established by colonising Greeks from Megara in 667 BC and named after king Byzantas, later, renamed as Constantinople, became the center of the Byzantine Empire, a Greek-speaking Roman Empire of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The city became Istanbul in 1930, the capital of modern Turkey.Insert by moderator: the capital of Turkey today is Ankara. This book by Michael Psellus is so fascinating that if you only read one book about Byzantium, by a Byzantine, that would be the one I’d choose.

Would you say that Psellus is typically Byzantine?

He’s a product of the 11th century when things were changing very drastically and rapidly and, in a way, frighteningly. His reaction to these changes is very specific, but at the same time he expresses them in a very delightful fashion, which I find eminently readable. He’s quite different from previous writers of Byzantium in that he inserts himself into the narrative all the time. Psellus is a terrible egotist; he can’t stop talking about all his great achievements. He is constantly referring to his own prowess and brilliance, but you can see from the jobs that he had and the way that he hung on to power and influence that he was very clever and the court continued to need his skills.

What, generally, was the Byzantine culture that Psellus represents?

Byzantium carries this very heavy inheritance from the immediate contact with Ancient Greek culture and the intellectual achievements of fifth century BC Athens. You can see how deeply rooted the pagan culture is, although overlaid with Roman, Christian and, of course, medieval influences which continue to enrich this mixture, right through the centuries. Clearly this culture changes all the time. One of the problems with studying Byzantium is that it went on for so long, over a millennium, and people think it was one static thing, but, in fact, it was changing and transforming itself every decade.

The second one on Judith Herrin's list was The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown.

by Peter Robert Lamont Brown

Here is what Judith Herrin had to say on FiveBooks:

Your next book is Peter Brown’s The World of Late Antiquity. How does this book enrich our understanding of Byzantium?

This is an extraordinary book. It was commissioned by an art history publisher, Thames and Hudson, and was to be an illustrated history of the area that Peter Brown was exploring in the 60s and 70s. Really, Late Antiquity wasn’t much of a concept before that book came out. In very few words he managed to sketch out a whole new geography which taught us that you can’t think about the rise of Christianity without looking at the fate of the old established religions like Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Manicheanism; and that the rule of the Roman Empire had to be brought into the context of Persia, the Barbarian north and followers of Islam. That there was a much wider canvas on which to study the period of the third to the sixth centuries A.D. He really put the late Roman period into perspective in a completely new way.

This concept of Late Antiquity is quite different from the old Decline and Fall approach of Gibbon.

Instead of this notion of decline and being a shadow of its previous self, the Roman world of Late Antiquity took on a much more enriched, colourful and culturally wealthy existence. Peter Brown showed very significantly that by looking at the broader world one could see that Roman ideas, in their Christian forms, were spreading all over the Empire and way beyond, as in the case of the Nestorian Christians, who made their way through Persia to China.

by Edward Gibbon

The third one on Judith Herrin's list was A History of the Eastern Roman Empire by J B Bury.

by J. B. Bury (no photo available)

Here is what Judith Herrin had to say on FiveBooks:

Did Peter Brown’s work come on the back of J B Bury’s A History of the Eastern Roman Empire, another of your favorites?

I’m sure it did, but I think Bury really belongs in the classic tradition. I have selected that work because he wrote beautifully.

Bury’s analysis of original sources is a lesson to all of us in how to read carefully and with sympathy but looking constantly for the gaps or the silences in the sources which indicate some aspect which we can’t quite understand, and which Bury was able to make sense of in a way that is important.

He produced this wonderful narrative and Peter Brown certainly has the same capacity to entice the reader along through all sorts of complicated developments by writing so well and so convincingly that you don’t want to put it down.

Bury was in a class of his own.

One of his most talented students was Steven Runciman.

I would certainly have included Runciman’s History of the Crusades if there had been room for more books because that’s a very determined style, a style that is designed to interest and excite the reader.

There’s nothing boring about Runciman or Bury. We need to cling to this tradition of stylistic excitement and clarity which frequently gets pushed aside by very detailed analysis of too much of the specifics.

by Steven Runciman

The fourth one on Judith Herrin's list was Hagarism by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook.


by Patricia Crone (no photo available) and by Michael Cook

Here is what Judith Herrin had to say on FiveBooks:

Could you tell me about your next choice: Hagarism.

Hagarism is the most exciting book I read as a young graduate.

It made sense of the rise of Islam.

Cook and Crone, the authors, looked long and hard at what non-Arabic sources tell us about the rise of Islam, and about this new prophet Mohammed.

I got to know the authors and realised how seriously they undertook this delicate job.

Islam is a living faith and there are people who interpret the written sources in Arabic, about the rise of Islam, in very particular ways. It was very difficult to find a way to make sense of the rise of Islam through non-Islamic sources which didn’t offend all these specialists. Many of them were offended.

There’s no way you can be an outsider to a living tradition like Islam today and not upset certain Muslim believers and thinkers who have got their own historical analyses and different views.

Cook and Crone shed much light on how Mohammed united the Arab tribes and of course how Byzantium was so fundamentally changed by the rise of Islam.

We are talking about an extraordinary 40-year conquest by the end of which almost two-thirds of the Empire had been lost. That was an extraordinary thing for a centralised government to have to come to terms with.

The fifth one on Judith Herrin's list was Strolling through Istanbul by Hilary Sumner Boyd and John Freely.

by Hillary Sumner-Boyd (no author's photo available)

Here is what Judith Herrin had to say on FiveBooks:

Your fifth book is Strolling through Istanbul. What sets this book apart from other guides to Istanbul?

It is a wonderfully evocative guidebook that is a great pleasure to read.

When I first went to Istanbul, in the 60s, it was newly produced and was the fullest and most complete guidebook – I was astonished by the detail.

The authors had walked around and made sense of the city in a way that was very thrilling. I strolled through these different parts of Istanbul with my copy of their book which was a joy to read. It is still a great introduction to the many layers of the city: it starts from the top layer, which is the contemporary world, and goes deeper and deeper into the past.

Has there been much historical or cultural cleansing of the city’s memories and monuments?

Yes. There was a good deal of destruction in the 20s and then there was another rather more restricted wave in the 50s when Greek merchants were more or less driven out of the bazaar.

Those two 20th century events were very damaging to the non-Turkish communities. But today there are many more Greeks visiting Istanbul and the new détente between Turkey and Armenia, which we have seen just recently, is a positive development towards a greater degree of openness, toleration and support for the minorities.

Istanbul is a very cosmopolitan city and this cosmopolitanism, which is very Byzantine, enlivens everything. Istanbul is going to be cultural capital of Europe in 2010, and the Turks are determined to make this an appreciation of their very long culture.

Byzantium will certainly get a good platform. I hope the Greek and other communities will also feel that their presence has been acknowledged as well. Istanbul has a wonderfully mixed and complex society and this should be something to cherish rather than ignore or try and remove.

"Byzantium" gives the history of a culture which most in the West know little about. "Dancing Alone" gives insight into the the branch of christianity that came out of the Byzantine Era. Eastern Orhtodoxy has as many adherents world-wide as Roman Catholism, twice as many as Protestantism. Yet, it is little known in the West, though that is changing with the recent influx of eastern Europeans to America. The book reveals a view of Christianity which inspired the Reformation, and helps Westerns understand Eastern Christianity.

Great add Scott but for these threads when mentioning any other book aside from the spotlighted one means that they need to be cited any time they are mentioned:

by Frank Schaeffer

I know you will get the hang of it and great comments on the threads. The book sounds interesting.

Source for the interviews with Judith Herrin:

The Browser - http://thebrowser.com/interviews/judi...

by Judith Herrin

The Formation of Christendom

In a lucid history of what used to be termed "the Dark Ages," Judith Herrin outlines the origins of Europe from the end of late antiquity to the coronation of Charlemagne. She shows that the clash between nascent Islam and stubborn Byzantium was the central contest that allowed "Europe" to develop, and she thereby places the rise of the West in its true Mediterranean context. Her inquiry centers on the notion of "Christendom." Instead of taking medieval beliefs for granted or separating theology from politics, she treats the faith as a material force. In a path-breaking account of the arguments over Christian doctrine, she shows how the northern sphere of the Roman world divided into two distinct and self-conscious imperial units, as the Arabs swept through the southern regions.

One of the most interesting strands of the author's argument concerns religious art and iconoclasm. Her book shows how the impact of Islam's Judaic ban on graven images precipitated both the iconoclast crisis in Constantinople and the West's unique commitment to pictorial narrative, as justified by Pope Gregory the Great.

Reviews:

"The main argument of Judith Herrin's The Formation of Christendom is that what she calls the 'initial particularity' of Europe is to be sought in the period between the fourth and the ninth centuries. . . . Herrins's scholarship is unerring, her scope is wide and her style fluent. . . . The treatment of the so-called iconoclastic controversy, the dispute over the veneration of images in Christian worship which convulsed the Byzantine world in the eighth century, is sparkling. . . . Debate about where modern Europe came from . . . will be enriched by this civilized and accomplished book."--The Economist

". . . Herrin follows some magnificent themes with the lucid dispassion of a good detective."--Thomas D'Evelyn, The Christian Science Monitor

"It is [the] binding together of distant past and immediate present which makes Judith Herrin's scholarship so exciting: she can convince the reader that the roots of Western distinctiveness really do lead all the way to forgotten episcopal meetings in small towns in Asia Minor in the fourth century."--Michael Ignatieff, The Observer

"...a learned, challenging, and gracefully written interpretation of the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages."--Robert L. Wilken, Commonweal

"Judith Herrin has produced an ambitious, learned, lucid, and instructive book."--Alexander Murray, The Times Literary Supplement

"...it will no longer be possible to hop from pagan antiquity to Carolingian Europe as if nothing had happened in between. Judith Herrin has laid her sheet of paper over the map of that 'dark' age and rubbed and rubbed until the rich web of connections and cracks has shown through."--Marina Warner, The Independent

"This is a serious and powerful book....a grand synthesis on a scale few people would dare now to attempt, ranging across diverse societies with considerable assurance."--Christopher J. Wickham, The International History Review

by Judith Herrin

Women in Purple

In the eighth and ninth centuries, three Byzantine empresses--Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora--changed history.

Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come.

In this exhilarating and highly entertaining account, one of the foremost historians of the medieval period tells the story of how these fascinating women exercised imperial sovereignty with consummate skill and sometimes ruthless tactics.

Though they gained access to the all-pervasive authority of the Byzantine ruling dynasty through marriage, all three continued to wear the imperial purple and wield tremendous power as widows.

From Constantinople, their own Queen City, the empresses undermined competitors and governed like men. They conducted diplomacy across the known world, negotiating with the likes of Charlemagne, Roman popes, and the great Arab caliph Harun al Rashid.

Vehemently rejecting the ban on holy images instituted by their male relatives, Irene and Theodora used craft and power to reverse the official iconoclasm and restore icons to their place of adoration in the Eastern Church.

In so doing, they profoundly altered the course of history. The art--and not only the art--of Byzantium, of Islam, and of the West would have been very different without them.

As Judith Herrin traces the surviving evidence, she evokes the complex and deeply religious world of Constantinople in the aftermath of Arab conquest.

She brings to life its monuments and palaces, its court ceremonies and rituals, the role of eunuchs (the "third sex"), bride shows, and the influence of warring monks and patriarchs. Based on new research and written for a general audience, Women in Purple reshapes our understanding of an empire that lasted a thousand years and splashes fresh light on the relationship of women to power.

Reviews:

"[Herrin] has succeeded in writing a scholarly study [that] opens up a new perspective on a vital period of Byzantine history, [and] one that is eminently accessible to a wider public. It is also superbly illustrated."--Michael Angold, Times Literary Supplement

"A work of remarkable scholarship. . . . Throughout her book, the author explains the court intrigues and theological debates with outstanding clarity."--Bart McDowell, WashingtonTimes

"Herrin's study provides important glimpses into medieval history as well as the daily lives and rituals of Byzantine imperial women. . . . [Her] book is the most accessible of the few currently available on this topic."--Publishers Weekly

"Throughout history, the dynastic and political role of ruler has been the prerogative of men, with some notable exceptions. In medieval Byzantium, there were three such rarities: Irene, Euphrosyne and Theodora. Gaining considerable power as emperors' wives, they continued to wield authority as widows and helped alter what is now a singular aspect of Byzantine culture its iconography. Reversing the ban on holy images that was fashionable at the time, they helped restore icons to a prominent position in Eastern Christian worship."--The Washington Post Book World

"Herrin traces the lives of three Byzantine empresses of the late eighth and early ninth centuries. . . . [She] deals with the contradictions inherent in being a female ruler and the ways in which the three women used and manipulated the structures and symbols of Byzantine power. . . . The book is lightly footnoted, has an excellent discussion of the problems of finding sources about women during this period, and is written in a clear style accessible to general readers interested in historical biography."--Choice

About Judith Herrin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_H...

Article written by Judith Herrin:

Back to the Eleventh Century?

Back to the eleventh century?

Judith Herrin, 17 November 2009

Source: Open Democracy

http://www.opendemocracy.net/judith-h...

Article written by Judith Herrin:

How did Europe begin?

Judith Herrin, 3 July 2001

Source: Open Democracy

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democrac...

What would Byzantium do?
EDWARD LUTTWAK 27th January 2010 — Issue 167
If the west really wants to fix Afghanistan, it should learn from an ancient, brutal empire

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/201...

Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century

Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai by Judith Herrin (no cover available)


Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai

A full text and English translation has been published as: Constantinople in the early eighth century: the Parastaseis syntomai chronikai, ed. & tr. Averil Cameron & Judith Herrin (Leiden, 1984).


The title of this work may be translated as brief historical notes, or expositions on Constantinople. It was written in the early eighth century, although the text is preserved in only one 11th-century manuscript (Cod. Par. gr. 1336). (For that reason, the title may not be original.) Whatever we call the parastaseis syntomoi chronikai, it belongs to a corpus of works devoted to the monuments of Constantinople, the most notorious of which is the rich and varied text known as the Patria Konstantinoupoleos, completed in c. 995-1006. (The date derives from a reference within the text to the years since Hagia Sophia was completed, which would supply either date, from the acutal completion, or the date for completion given in the Patria itself.) The Patria survives in numerous versions, containing innumerable later accretions and interpolations, such that "the normal conception of a unitary work or discrete 'text' can only be appied within limits. We should think rather of a growing body of material in which much overlap and variation is possible, and in which fidelity to the original text is far from being the prime concern." The parastaseis syntomoi chronikai, in contrast, demonstrates no accretions (besides, perhaps, its title), and as such "it is a rare source of knowledge of the late antique and early medieval city ... [which] offers intriguing insights into the cultural world of an age from which very little other literary evidence has survived." (Quotations from Cameron & Herrin, p. 1)

by A.P. Kazhdan

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium


The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium is a three-volume, comprehensive dictionary of Byzantine civilization.

The first resource of its kind in the field, it features over 5,000 entries written by an international group of eminent Byzantinists covering all aspects of life in the Byzantine world.

According to Alexander Kazhdan, editor-in-chief of the Dictionary: "Entries on patriarchy and emperors will coexist with entries on surgery and musical instruments. An entry on the cultivation of grain will not only be connected to entries on agriculture and its economics but on diet, the baking of bread, and the role of bread in this changing society."

Major entries treat such topics as agriculture, art, literature, and politics, while shorter entries examine topics that relate to Byzantium such as the history of Kiev and personalities of ancient and biblical history. Each article is followed by a bibliography, and numerous maps, tables, architectural designs, and genealogies reinforce and clarify the text.

The new Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium will be the standard research tool and reference work for Byzantinists from graduate students to advanced scholars, and an essential resource for college and school libraries. It will also be an invaluable guide for classicists, Western medievalists, Islamicists, Slavicists, art historians, religious historians, and scholars of archaeology.

by Henry Maguire (no author's photo available)

Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204

The imperial court in Constantinople has been central to the outsider's vision of Byzantium. However, in spite of its fame in literature and scholarship, there have been few attempts to analyze the Byzantine court in its entirety as a phenomenon. The studies in this volume aim to provide a unified composition by presenting Byzantine courtly life in all its interconnected facets. One important theme that unites these studies is the attention paid to describing the effects of a change in the social makeup of the court during this period and the reflection of these changes in art and architecture. These changes in social composition, mentality, and material culture of the court demonstrate that, as in so many other aspects of Byzantine civilization, the image of permanence and immutability projected by the forms of palace life was more apparent than real. As this new work shows, behind the golden facade of ceremony, rhetoric, and art, there was constant development and renewal.

Rhetoric in Byzantium

by England) Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies 2001 (Oxford

Seventeen contributions written by an international group of scholars in the fields of Byzantine and modern Greek language and literature, archaeology, ancient history, and other fields explore the ways in which rhetoric functioned in Byzantine society: as a tool for the effective communication of ideas and ideologies but at times also a barrier inhibiting the expression of real feelings and daily realities. Essays are organized into five main sections: the uses of rhetoric in Byzantium; its public uses; literature and rhetoric; rhetoric and historiography; and rhetoric and visual images. Includes quite a few good quality b&w illustrations. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II

by Fernand Braudel

The focus of Fernand Braudel's great work is the Mediterranean world in the second half of the sixteenth century, but Braudel ranges back in history to the world of Odysseus and forward to our time, moving out from the Mediterranean area to the New World and other destinations of Mediterranean traders. Braudel's scope embraces the natural world and material life, economics, demography, politics, and diplomacy.

Framing the Early Middle Ages, Europe and the Mediterranean

by Chris Wickham

In Framing the early middle ages Chris Wickham links documentary and archaeological evidence together, and creates a comparative history of the period 400-800. He sets out thematic analysis of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes: states and their funding, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are discussed region by region, in a way not attempted before. Wickham argues that, without this, the broader development of Europe and the Mediterranean cannot be properly understood.

Late Antique, Early Christian and Medieval Art: Selected Papers

by Meyer Schapiro (no photo available)

This fourth volume of Professor Meyer Schapiro's Selected Papers contains his most important writings - some well-known and others previously unpublished - on the theory and philosophy of art. Schapiro's highly lucid arguments, graceful prose, and extraordinary erudition guide readers through a rich variety of fields and issues: the roles in society of the artist and art, of the critic and criticism; the relationships between patron and artist, psychoanalysis and art, and philosophy and art. Adapting critical methods from such wide-ranging fields as anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, biology, and other sciences, Schapiro appraises fundamental semantic terms such as "organic style," "pictorial style", "field and vehicle," and "form and content"; he elucidates eclipsed intent in a well-known text by Freud on Leonardo da Vinci, in another by Heidegger on Vincent van Gogh. He reflects on the critical methodology of Bernard Berenson, and on the social philosophy of art in the writings of both Diderot and the nineteenth century French artist/historian Eugene Fromentin. Throughout all of his writings, Meyer Schapiro provides us with a means of ordering our past that is reasoned and passionate, methodical and inventive. In so doing, he revitalizes our faith in the unsurpassed importance of both critical thinking and creative independence.

Eusebius: Life of Constantine

by Eusebius

The emperor Constantine changed the world by making the Roman Empire Christian. Eusebius wrote his life and preserved his letters so that his policy would continue. This English translation is the first based on modern critical editions. Its Introduction and Commentary open up the many important issues the Life of Constantine raises.

Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium

by Liz James (no photo available)

For the first time, the collected papers in this volume present an introduction to the history of women, of men, and eunuchs--or the third sex--in Byzantium, and to the various theoretical and methodological approaches through which the topic can be examined. The contributors use evidence from both written documents and various artwork to offer a broad picture of the place of women and Byzantine society and the perceptions of women held by that society.

Women, Men and Eunuchs offers a unique and valuable exploration of the issue of gender in Byzantium, which will fascinate anyone interested in ancient and medieval history and gender studies.

Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form

by Marina Warner

Marina Warner explores the tradition of personifying liberty, justice, wisdom, charity, and other ideals and desiderata in the female form, and examines the tension between women's historic and symbolic roles. Drawing on the evidence of public art, especially sculpture, and painting, poetry, and classical mythology, she ranges over the allegorical presence of the woman in the Western tradition with a sharply observant eye and a piquant and engaging style.

The above posts complete some of the books referenced in Further Reading by the author (Introduction and Chapter One)

O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Byzantine Texts in Translation)

Review of Book on Amazon:

Choniates' book chronicles the waning years of Byzantine power, from the Commenian dynasty to the fall of Constantinople to the latin armies of the Fourth Crusade. The exceptional violence of the sack is graphically recorded by Choniates; as an eyewitness to the destruction of 1,000 years of independence at the hands of fellow 'Christians,' his words are appropiately bitter. The ethos is decidedly Old Testament. The chronicle is unexpurgated in Magoulias' translation. The earthy mixes with the mystical in several places, as in the minute description of Anna Commena's marital relations with her hisband, Bryennos, after the latter fails to make a bid for the throne against Anna's brother. (Anna is a celebrated historian in her own right, having authored the "Alexiad.") The chapters on Andronicus Commenos are almost Shakespearian, chronicling his promising rise late in life, ruthless rule, and rapid and bitter fall. The picture painted by Choniates' words of the old Emperor beaten and disfigured beyond recognition after his denouncement are truly tragic. Dr. Magoulias faithfully preserves the Eastern spirit of the Byzantine mind. Son of an Orthodox priest and fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, he is immersed in his subject, as this work shows. (I had the pleasure of attending his lectures at Wayne State University in the 1980s.) -Lloyd A. Conway

O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates: Annals of Niketas Choniates by Nicetas Choniates

(no book cover and no author's photo)

Medieval Iran and Its Neighbors

Medieval Iran & Its Neighbors by Vladimir Minorsky

(no book cover and no author's photo)

Marvasi on the Byzantines

Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs

by Nadia Maria El Cheikh

Synopsis:

This book studies the Arabic-Islamic view of Byzantium, tracing the Byzantine image as it evolved through centuries of warfare, contact, and exchanges. Including previously inaccessible material on the Arabic textual tradition on Byzantium, this investigation shows the significance of Byzantium to the Arab Muslim establishment and their appreciation of various facets of Byzantine culture and civilization. The Arabic-Islamic representation of the Byzantine Empire stretching from the reference to Byzantium in the Qur'an until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered in terms of a few salient themes. The image of Byzantium reveals itself to be complex, non-monolithic, and self-referential. Formulating an alternative appreciation to the politics of confrontation and hostility that so often underlies scholarly discourse on Muslim-Byzantine relations, this book presents the schemes developed by medieval authors to reinterpret aspects of their own history, their own self-definition, and their own view of the world.

Laying Down the Law: A Study of the Theodosian Code

by John Matthews

Synopsis:

The Theodosian Code—a collection of Roman imperial legislation of the period from Constantine the Great to Theodosius II—is a fundamental source for understanding the legal, social, economic, cultural, and religious history of the later Roman Empire. More than 2,700 of the 3,500 original texts of the Code survive, illuminating issues as wide-ranging as prison conditions and rural patronage, intestate succession, and the pork supply for the city of Rome. Yet no recent study has closely examined how the Code was prepared, and this gap has hindered accurate interpretation. Laying Down the Law offers for the first time a clear and comprehensive guide to the interpretation of the Theodosian Code. John F. Matthews, a leading authority on the late Roman Empire, examines in detail the planning, design, and publication of the Code.

Matthews sets in legal and political context the recognition in the fifth century of the need for a codification of imperial legislation, describes the editorial principles upon which the work was based, and considers how these principles affected the shape of the Code. Combining legal with historical evidence, Matthews shows the Theodosian Code in a new and more accurate light, emphasizing its importance as a prime source of information on the later Roman Empire.

About the Author:

John F. Matthews is professor of classics and history at Yale University.

Constantinople and its Hinterland

by Mango Cyril

Synopsis:

The 25 papers widen the conventional studies of the Byzantine capital from the walled city itself to the European and Asian hinterlands, discussing such aspects as the products of the land, its administration, the inhabitants, manufacturing and export, communications between the capital and the outlying territories, cultural and artistic manifestations, and the role of the sacred. Ten of the papers are in French. Distributed in the US by Ashgate.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople

by Sarah Bassett

(no author's photo available)

Synopsis:

From its foundation in the fourth century to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century, the city of Constantinople boasted a collection of antiquities unrivaled by any city of the medieval world. The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople reconstructs the collection from the time that the city was founded by Constantine the Great through the sixth-century reign of the Emperor Justinian. Drawing on medieval literary sources and, to a lesser extent, graphic and archaeological material, it identifies and describes the antiquities that were known to have stood in the city's public spaces. Individual displays of statues are analyzed as well as examined in conjunction with one another against the city's topographical setting, in an effort to understand how ancient sculpture was used to create a distinct historical identity for Constantinople.

Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art

by Maria Vassilaki

Synopsis:

A complete survey of the representation of the Virgin in Byzantine art through a wide selection of works in all media. Icons, illuminated manuscripts, ivories, metalworks, marble reliefs and textiles, dating from the 6th to the 14th century coming from the Benaki Museum in Athens and from many other major public and private collections worldwide. This is the most original and up-to-date publication on the subject, in which art-historical, historical, iconographic and theological issues are brought together for the first time in an effort to cover all aspects of the cult and representation of ... Show more A complete survey of the representation of the Virgin in Byzantine art through a wide selection of works in all media. Icons, illuminated manuscripts, ivories, metalworks, marble reliefs and textiles, dating from the 6th to the 14th century coming from the Benaki Museum in Athens and from many other major public and private collections worldwide. This is the most original and up-to-date publication on the subject, in which art-historical, historical, iconographic and theological issues are brought together for the first time in an effort to cover all aspects of the cult and representation of the Mother of God

Constantinople: City of the World's Desire

by Philip Mansel

Synopsis:

Philip Mansel's highly acclaimed history absorbingly charts the interaction between the vibrantly cosmopolitan capital of Constantinople -- the city of the world's desire -- and its ruling family. In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love affair with the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For almost five centuries Constantinople, with its enormous racial and cultural diversity, was the centre of the dramatic and often depraved story of an extraordinary dynasty.

The above complete the entries in the Further Readings section through Chapter Two.

Bentley wrote: "Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form

by Marina Warner

Marina Warner explores the traditi..."

Bentley, Marina Warner wrote a piece for the Guardian, 27Oct2011, titled : "What St. Paul could learn from Mary, the Patron Saint of the Occupy movement" * Accg to the article, Mary is depicted by herself, without the Child Jesus, as she was when she appeared to the children at La Salette, France in 1846. Mary's message then was that the faithful need one day a week off to worship her Son. Warner sees
this apparition as one of the factors leading to a 6-day work week in France. Appearing without the Child Jesus broadens her appeal to those who do not see the establishment church in a positive light.
*I could not attach this article through "add boo/author>

It is possible that goodreads does not have this article attached; that is a fascinating story. I have found the article:and boy is this apropos to our study of Byzantium and the allegory of the female form! I am placing this on week's one reading thread as well. Scott a very sharp find. Thank you from the group and me.

What St Paul's could learn from Mary, the patron of the Occupy protesters

Giles Fraser's resignation over Occupy London shows the church must engage with new forms of faith and belief

By Marina Warner
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 October 2011 14.30 ED

Giles Fraser, the canon chancellor of St Paul's who resigned yesterday morning, appears to be one of the few people within the Church of England who thinks deeply about how to apply Christian teachings to the real world – not just the protest taking place on its steps but the changing role of faith and belief in general.

I was due to meet Fraser on Tuesday. St Paul's has been holding a series of public debates about the Bible in the cathedral, and I had been asked to talk about Mary: "Teenage mother, virgin, prophet" was the provocative rubric. Jane Williams, theologian and wife to the Archbishop, would discuss the Mary of scripture, while I, a lapsed Catholic, would fill in what has happened to her cult more recently. The canon – who had spoken out in favour of the protest when the camp was first set up, and never one to shy away from strong debate – would be chairing.

As I began drafting my comments, the increasing presence of the Occupy the London Stock Exchange campers added unexpected urgency. The temple in the City had become a base to castigate the buyers and sellers over the way. There were also historical connections: Mary in modern times appears in visions to the poor, unlettered, downtrodden, to children, women, the overworked and underpaid. At La Salette in 1846, the young visionaries, when asked what the splendid Lady had told them, passed on orders that everyone should keep one day a week holy in her honour: labouring children were invoking a union rep on high to get them a day off.

More recently the Virgin Mary has undergone a change which also turns her into a symbolic patron of the Occupy movement. From being the figurehead of the long crusade against communism and the emblem of kings and fascist dictators from Europe to south America, she has evolved into a countercultural peace goddess, closer to voodoo than a traditional Madonna.

One of the most striking differences between her cult in the past and the present is that the baby has been sidelined. However much the doctrine commands the faithful to worship God through Mary and not Mary herself, almost every contemporary image I have looked at shows Mary on her own, usually standing on the moon, an apocalyptic figure of power, resplendent, blessings flowing from her hands.

The appearances of a such a figure are myriad – from the visions in Paris in 1830, which gave rise to the Miraculous Medal, to the current apparitions at the Coptic Chuch in Zeitoun, Cairo, where a radiant lady hovers over the domes in full view. Just as the Madonna of Mercy spread her cloak to shelter all who turned to her (and even covered up errant nuns' pregnancies), she's now seen as a guardian of sinners and prodigals.

A revival of religious practices is under way, not necessarily linked to belief; its advocates denounce churches for their strictures against them. Uses of symbols and rituals, relics, charms and talismans, are efflorescing: the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux were recently taken on tour, and the reliquary attracted vast crowds. The procession even entered York Minster, where the dean welcomed the relics.

Last Friday, when the cathedral shut its doors, I assumed the event would be moved to one of the dozens of other churches or halls around. Or even held on the square. But no, with only just over 24 hours to go, I had an email, huffing about "the increased fire risk and decreased access". Yet aerial views show much more space than in any tube station, cinema or theatre at rush hour: I was in Leicester Square last weekend and it made St Paul's churchyard look like the Empty Quarter.

The anti-capitalist peace camp is a communal rite, a plea for sanctuary, a pilgrimage undertaken in conviction and hope, a form of prayer, even conjuration, using masks and performance. The campers are adapting old sacramental processes to secular and political purposes, without necessarily proclaiming allegiance to a creed. They are placing their call on a historic ground, in proximity to the church where free speech has been allowed for centuries.

The situation cries out for St Paul's clergy to seize the occasion, fling open the doors and hold more and more debate – not about the Bible or Mary, but about justice, poverty and responsibility. Everyone is watching St Paul's. It's no surprise that Fraser has quit, but it is shameful that he was put in this position. He's shown courage in his stand on civil liberties, economic inequality and sexual tolerance, and he was brought in to lead the cathedral's project to develop ethics for our time. He now finds himself muzzled.

Continued silence from those remaining inside St Paul's will speak of complete moral and intellectual failure; it will forfeit the Church of England a role in shaping the national conscience. Set candles and petals floating on the sea to the goddess: you're about as likely to get an answer.



The Virgin Mary has become a symbolic patron of the Occupy movement. Photograph: Elio Ciol/Corbis

Here we go on Chapter Three:

The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: A Chronicle by George Sphrantzes 1401-1477 by George Sphrantzes

There are no author's photo available and no book cover.

This is what one Amazon reviewer stated about the book:

This is truly one of my favorite books (arcane though it is). Sphrantzes' court history is personal, immediate and very human. Unlike most Byzantine historians the reader gets a sense of the author's personality. All of the characters are well rounded with normal strengths and weaknesses. I find the story of Constantine XI last days to be very moving as he struggles to save his city from the assault of the Turks. Sphrantzes portrait shows Constantines' strength as well as his despair in those final days.
Great end notes too.


The Siege of Constantinople (1453), according to George Sphrantzes

George Sphrantzes was a courtier in the Byzantine empire, serving as an important diplomat and ambassador for several emperors. Towards the end of his life, Sphrantzes composed a chronicle, known as the Chronicon Minus, which is partly an autobiographical work. In the section republished below, the author writes about the siege of Constantinople, and about the lack of assistance the Byzantines received from their Christian neighbors.

Chapter 35:

http://www.deremilitari.org/resources...

Secret History

by Procopius

There is no author's photo.

Synopsis:

Having dutifully written the official war history of Justinian's reign, Procopius turned round and revealed in The Secret History the other faces of the leading men and women of Byzantium in the sixth century. Justinian, the great law-giver, appears as a hateful tyrant, wedded to an ex-prostitute, Theodora; and Belisarius, the brilliant general whose secretary Procopius had been, is seen as the pliable dupe of his wife Antonina, a woman as corrupt and scheming as Theodora herself.

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

by Peter Heather

Synopsis:

"The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long." "In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart." Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West

by Julia M.H. Smith

No photo available

Synopsis:

Using gender analysis to study power and culture between c. 300 and 900, this study examines the women, men and eunuchs who lived in the late Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and western European civilizations. It assesses the ways in which gender identity was established and manifested in written and material cultural forms, emphasizing the integral relationship between the masculine and feminine by exploring costume, attitudes to the body, social and political institutions and a wide range of literary genres.

Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe

by Janet L. Nelson

There is no author's photo available

No synopsis available

Chapter Four

Mystagogia

Commentary on the Divine Liturgy

by Nicholas Cabasilas

Synopsis:

Nicholas Cabasilas' Commentary on the Divine Liturgy is a remarkable product of Byzantium's last great flowering of theology. The work has long been essential reading for specialists in the fields of comparative liturgy and history of liturgy, since Cabasilas comments in detail on the Byzantine rite of his day and is able to draw comparisons with the Roman liturgy as well. The work is also invaluable for all those who wish to understand more about the theory and practice of worship in the Orthodox Church. In this edition the text of the Commentary, translated by J. M. Hussey and P. A. McNulty, has been supplemented by a brief foreword which places Cabasilas' work in its historical context. A helpful introduction by R. M. French describes the celebration of the liturgy in the Orthodox Church.

A History of the Church from Christ to Constantine

by Philip Schaff

Synopsis:

None available

The Rise of Western Christendom

by Peter Robert Lamont Brown

Synopsis:

This book offers a vivid, compelling history of the first thousand years of Christianity. For the second edition, the book has been thoroughly rewritten and expanded. It includes two new chapters, as well as an extensive preface in which the author reflects on the scholarly traditions which have influenced his work and explains his current thinking about the book's themes.

From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium

by William Dalrymple

Synopsis:

In 587 AD, two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in an arc across the entire Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. On the way, John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world finally shattered under the great eruption of Islam. More than a thousand years later, using Moschos's writings as his guide, William Dalrymple sets off to retrace their footsteps.

Dalrymple's pilgrimage takes him through a bloody civil war in eastern Turkey, the ruins of Beirut, the vicious tensions of the West Bank, and a fundamentalist uprising in southern Egypt, and it becomes an elegy to the slowly dying civilization of Eastern Christianity and to the peoples that have kept its flame alive. From the Holy Mountain is a rich and gripping bl of history and spirituality, adventure and politics, threaded through with Dalrymple's unique sense of black comedy.

St Catherine's Monastery: Sinai, Egypt - A Photographic Essay

by Helen C. Evans

Synopsis

In this book the Monastery and its buildings are presented in many newly commissioned color photographs: included are views of the richly decorated sanctuary of the sixth-century church as well as images of the world's most outstanding collection of icons. The Introduction by His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai and the essay on the Holy Monastery by Helen C. Evans augment the powerful and dramatic photographs of the site, some of them from the Monastery's archives

Chapters 3 and 4 of the books available in English and available on goodreads have now been added.