The History Book Club discussion

Hello Everyone,

For the week of December 19th - January 1st, we are reading approximately the next 20 pages of Byzantium by Judith Herrin.

The third and fourth week's reading assignments are:

Week Three: December 19th - December 25th:

Chapter 5: The Church of Hagia Sophia 50
Chapter 6: The Ravenna Mosaics 61

Week Four: December 25th - January 1st (no assignments - time off for holiday celebrations and religious holidays) - This gives everybody time off and time to spend with their family - of course all of the other threads here on the site are open 24x7.

We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.

This book was kicked off on December 5th. We look forward to your participation. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library, or on your Kindle. This weekly thread will be opened up on December 18th or late December 19th.

There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to get started and/or to post.

Welcome,

~Bentley


TO ALWAYS SEE ALL WEEKS' THREADS SELECT VIEW ALL

by Judith Herrin

REMEMBER NO SPOILERS ON THE WEEKLY NON SPOILER THREADS

Notes:

It is always a tremendous help when you quote specifically from the book itself and reference the chapter and page numbers when responding. The text itself helps folks know what you are referencing and makes things clear.

Citations:

If an author or book is mentioned other than the book and author being discussed, citations must be included according to our guidelines. Also, when citing other sources, please provide credit where credit is due and/or the link. There is no need to re-cite the author and the book we are discussing however.

If you need help - here is a thread called the Mechanics of the Board which will show you how:

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


Glossary

Remember there is a glossary thread where ancillary information is placed by the moderator. This is also a thread where additional information can be placed by the group members regarding the subject matter being discussed.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Remember folks that these chapters are all part of the first seven chapters which belong to Part I - Foundations of Byzantium.

Judith Herrin covers a lot of ground in these pages and a thousand years. Please remember what the author is trying to accomplish with these pages and this book as you continue your journey:

Judith Herrin stated:

"This brings me back to the question of form. In Shakespeare's London, the bezant and caviar were equally familiar: a gold coin named after Byzantium and the fish roe consumed in such quantities by its inhabitants. In such indirect ways, the heritage of Byzantium can be found in unexpected places.

This book attempts to show why.

Rather than follow the pattern of numerous earlier introduction and studies, I decided to select particular events, monuments and individuals characteristic of Byzantium and to explore them within the framework that observes the basic divisions of Byzantine history.

The first seven chapters are devoted to essential subjects such as the city of Constantinople, law or orthodoxy, and range right across the Byzantine millennium. Other chapters overlap if they approach the same events from different perspectives.

My chief problem has been one of exclusion, for it is hard to leave out so many rich examples and intriguing details.

I can only provide a selection of meze, a dish of starters.

The recommended further reading, at the end of the book may encourage many additional, fuller courses. Here I try to answer the question posed by the builders at King's, and to explain why we should all know more about Byzantine history."

Summary and Overview

Chapter Five - "The Church of the Hagia Sophia"

This chapter focused its intent on the history of the church of the Hagia Sophia, its artifacts, its building and form, the architectural design and engineering of the domes.

Chapter Six - "The Ravenna Mosaics"

This chapter focused its intent on the Ravenna Mosaics and the history and the story of the mosaics themselves.

Caviar

Judith Herrin mentions caviar in her introduction and states that this fish roe was consumed in quantities by the inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire.

In looking up the origins of caviar, I came across the following:

The Origin of Caviar

The earliest documentation on the origins of caviar has always been shrouded in history, although references to caviar in literature and art date back almost as far as the 400 million-year-old history of the sturgeon itself. It has been suggested that by 2,400 BC, ancient coast-hugging Egyptians and Phoenicians had learned to salt and pickle fish eggs to make them last through war, famine or long sea-crossing voyages. Facts supporting that the ancient Egyptians knew about caviar can be seen at the bas-reliefs at Necropolis near the Sakkara Pyramids that portray fisherman catching fish and removing their eggs.

The ancient Greeks – like the ancient Egyptians centuries before - were no strangers to caviar. According to some of the more esoteric writings of Aristotle, lavish Greek banquets usually end with a brass horn section fanfare announcing the arrival of heaping platters of caviar garnished with flowers.

On caviar’s Oriental origins, some scholars’ claim that it was the Turkish who first coined the word “khavyar” from which the English term caviar originates. While others suggest that the term caviar has a Persian origin – “chav-jar” – which translates loosely as “cake of power” or “piece of power” due to the Persians’ widespread belief in the curative and strength-giving properties of caviar. The first written record of the word “khavyar” dates back to the 1240s from the writings of Batu Khan - Genghis Khan’s grandson - long before the word first appeared in English print in 1591.

Before being well documented in Europe, caviar consumption probably started there during the Middle Ages. Although not known for the qualitative aspect of their culinary tastes, Medieval English society considers sturgeon-sourced caviar as haute cuisine. King Edward II proclaimed the sturgeon as a “royal fish” and made a decree that all sturgeon caught in England belonged to the imperial treasury and must be surrendered to the monarch or gentry.

During the Middle Ages, many countries’ sovereigns had claimed exclusive sturgeon and caviar rights. In Russia, China, Denmark, and France, as well as England, most prevailing laws states that: “fishermen had to offer the catch to the sovereign”, often for fixed rewards. While in Russia and Hungary, the sections of rivers considered suitable for fishing the great sturgeon – the beluga, as we know it – were subject to special royal grants. Later on, the Francophone Larousse Gastronomique Cites la Dictionnaire du Commerce mentioned the dish as well in 1741.

Source: Hub Pages

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Bezant

Judith Herrin referred to the gold coin named after Byzantium as the bezant.

From Wikipedia:

Bezant is a medieval term for a gold coin from the Byzantine Empire, which term is derived from the Greek name Βυζάντιον ("Byzántion") for the relatively minor city which in the 4th c. became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, renamed Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. The Byzantine Empire was a major source of gold coins since the time of Constantine.

History
Source: Wikipedia

Gold coins were not commonly minted in early medieval Western Europe, silver and bronze being the currency of choice, but they did circulate there in small numbers, originating in the Mediterranean region. Typically gold coins were used when payments had some special ritual significance, or to show a sign of respect. Byzantine gold coins, in particular, were highly prized, as were the later Islamic ones. These gold coins were commonly called bezants, taken from the word Byzantium, the Latinized form of the original Greek name (Βυζάντιον, Byzántion) of the capital, Constantinople, where the gold coins typically came from and were associated with, since the time of Constantine I. The first "bezants" were Byzantine solidi. Later, the term also referred to gold dinars minted in the Islamic Caliphates, themselves modelled on the solidus.
The term "Bezant" was used by Venetians to refer to the Egyptian gold dinar and Marco Polo referred to the bezant in the account of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the Yuan Empire.[1] His descriptions were based on the conversion of 1 bezant = 20 groats = 133⅓ tornesel.[1]
Gold coinage was re-introduced to Europe in 1252 when the city of Florence began minting gold coins known as florins.

Bezants in Heraldry
Source: Wikipedia

In heraldry, bezants are deemed a category of the roundel, of tincture or, that is to say they appear as gold discs. Their name as a charge comes from the name of the coin. As with many charges in heraldry, the crusading era supplied many motifs, and it may have been whilst on crusade that many Western European knights first came into contact with Byzantine gold coins, and were perhaps struck with their fine quality and purity. During the Fourth Crusade the city of Constantinople, anciently Byzantium, was sacked by the Western Christian forces in 1204, ostensibly due to the non-payment by the Emperor of his share of the costs of the expedition. During this sacking of the richest city of Europe the gold bezant would have been very much in evidence, many of the knights no doubt having helped themselves very liberally to the booty. This event took place at the very dawn of the widespread adoption of armourials by the knightly class, and thus it may have been an obvious symbol for many returned crusaders to use in their new arms. A "field" or "bordure" semé with (strewn with, lit. "sown" with, as scattered seed) bezants is termed bezantée





Duchy of Cornwall banner diplaying the 15 bezants which has come to represent Cornwall

Source url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezant

Meze

Judith Herrin mentions meze as if the term originated within the Byzantine Empire; but to my way of thinking, this word seems to carry more Turkish or Persian overtones. From what I have read and it is very confusing; the Greeks claim it came from the Byzantines, the Turks claim the Greeks were occupied by the Ottomans and that is how much of its food and the term originated; the Persians seem also to have a leg to stand on related to the origin of meze. If the Byzantines were the creators of this term, it certainly was a compilation of a melting pot of influences. Oh yes, and don't forget the Anatolians? They also claim this term.

Regarding Meze:

Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served in the Mediterranean and Middle East as dinner or lunch, with or without drinks.

In Levantine cuisines and in the Caucasus region, meze is served at the beginning of all large-scale meals.

The word is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and comes from the Turkish meze 'taste, flavour, smack, relish', borrowed from Persian (maze 'taste, snack' < mazidan 'to taste'). The English word was probably borrowed from the Greek version. When not accompanied by alcohol, meze is known in the Arab world as muqabbilat.

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Folks, we have plenty of time with these next chapters going through the holiday season. But I have opened it up to you today.

https://www.google.com/search?q=raven...

this is suppose to be a link to images of the mosaics at ravenna

Patricrk; we thank you for the spectacular link to the images of the mosaics at Ravenna; they are still absolutely beautiful.

Reading this first chapter, I couldn't help but think about the power of the church. The emperor built this large church (Hagia Sophia) and it must have been quite a site if you are a commoner. They also built a special door where the bishop and emperor come through.

It is these elements that helped create Protestantism where you feel closer to God, not through hierarchy and cathedrals, but through your self. I kept imagining a Quaker house of worship and the Hagia Sophia. Just some random thoughts.

Interesting viewpoint. It is funny but I feel nothing (no awe, no appreciation of much of anything when I go into one of the Protestant churches). Yet when I go into any of the Italian or French churches for that matter; the spiritual awe is palpitating. I guess it gets me in the mood (lol).

The special door (I am not sure that this was necessary). The Quakers felt that way about all life - simplicity.

You make a good point - different strokes for different folks.

I profess my ignorance and need everyone's help. On page 52, mid page, there is a passage about the ARAB conquest of Persia. Who or what is an ARAB in the seventh century?

Jim wrote: "I profess my ignorance and need everyone's help. On page 52, mid page, there is a passage about the ARAB conquest of Persia. Who or what is an ARAB in the seventh century?"

I believe they are primarily Arabic speaking tribes on the Sinai peninsula. However, after Muhammad's death (632), they begin to expand rapidly.

Jim wrote: "I profess my ignorance and need everyone's help. On page 52, mid page, there is a passage about the ARAB conquest of Persia. Who or what is an ARAB in the seventh century?"

These are the people who were (are) living in the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc). While many Arab genes spread outside the original area, the bulk of the populations in the conquered areas genetically remained the same as before but became "Arabs" by culture assimilation.

The chapter dedicated to Hagia Sophia is tremendously good in details I forgot or even didn't know during the visit, which makes it more valuable. It's interesting how much one building can say about its builders!
Ravenna mosaics would be also splendid to see, thanks to Patricrk for the link. Regarding the chapter, it surprised me to see that so-called barbarians weren't so... barbaric. I always (I don't know why actually!) imagined Goths as bearded brutes, but Herrin made it definitely hard to imagine Theoderic like that :-)
One thing bothers me though, Herrin mentions so many emperors and rulers at once, I shall need to copy the pages with their chronology, so to always have it by my side while reading.

Wow, a thousand years, just amazing!

Unfortunately Laurence your book ad was found on the same link. We do not allow ads. I will try to add the photo by itself.

Laurence stated as quoted:

Hagia Sophia is, to me, the greatest building in the world. 1,000 years older than St Peter's, its only rival is the Taj Mahal, a building which was never the physical seat of power of two opposing religions.

Hagia Sophia was, for Sunni Islam & before 1453 Christian Orthodoxy. It was the seat of the last Caliph of Islam too and Attaturk's act turning it into a museum was one of critical symbolic acts of the 20th century.

One of the key goals of Islamic fundamentalism for the last seventy years has been the resurrection of the Caliphate.



Hagia Sophia July 2011 with ruins of Constantine's Great Palace in the foreground

Apologies...I didn't spot the thumbnail in the corner when I linked! Not deliberate, I assure you.

Here is the photo caption: Hagia Sophia July 2011 with ruins of Constantine's Great Palace in the foreground.

Thank you Laurence; I will add it above.

Great picture. I think it says something that it was built next to Constantine palace.

Yes, that is what I take from the caption.

Ruins of Constantine's Palace; Topkapi Palace was built over it

I took the caption from a noticeboard the Turkish authorites have in place at an entrance to the palace site.

They are developing a walk-over facility, which you can just about make out in the picture. It is likely to be one of the main attractions in that area when it opens.

The palace would have extended all over that hill, from the Hippodrome and Hagia Sophia down to the Bosphorus and around to the Sea of Marmara, where the palace had its own port. The locations of each palace section is still in dispute. I have seen the area in the picture described in a map as where the Roman/Byzantine Senate house was, after it was transferred, officially, from Rome in 325.

Great informative post Laurence, thank you.

Due to these two chapters Istanbul was raised several spots on my 'to visit' list. As was Ravenna for that matter but that city will be part of our Italy trip next year anyways.

The Hagia Sophia has always been a building I found very interesting. When friends visited it I couldn't stop asking them questions about it. Byzantium answered a few of these as well.

Yes Singleton, this book has actually put a visit to Turkey on the map for me.

I have to agree that this book is causing me to add Turkey to my bucket list. I too am struggling with the volume of time covered in each chapter. It seems hard to comprehend, but I keep hoping things will come together as the book progresses.

I did find it quite interesting how the Eastern empire strategically worked with the Goths and others to focus their conquests in the West. It seems to have elevated Byzantium while throwing the West into further chaos (maybe helping lead to the Dark Ages). I had no idea the level of international politics at the time.

I think with a book such as this - you have to sample whatever you can and keep moving along.

Wow, thanks for sharing those great pictures, everyone.

While reading these chapters, I was very grateful for the plates in the book and how Herrin consistently referenced them. Without pictures, I would have been even more lost. I'd never heard of Hagia Sophia before, for example, and it wasn't until I saw the picture that I began to understand the magnificence of what was being discussed. Notice that I say, "began to understand", since I'm sure that actually being there would mean much more.

I like the various references throughout the book to how different historical items came to light. Such as on page 59: "The Secret History is so called because it remained unpublished in his lifetime and was only discovered in the seventeenth century in a manuscript in Rome." Something of a miracle that is survived, huh.

For anyone, like me, who said, "Who in the world is Averil Cameron?" while reading page 59, wikipedia says she is a professor of late antique and byzantine history at Oxford. Again, would it really have been a problem to add the words "Byzantine scholar" before Cameron's name?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averil_C...

Elizabeth, great comments and astute observations. Herrin is guilty herself of many "abstruse anecdotes" - familiar to her and to scholars but not to the lay person. Nonetheless, she gets us to look up these references and we learn something in the process.

And I am glad that you liked the images I added and the ones added by some of the other group members like Laurence and Patricrk especially. These photos add a lot.

Thank you for the link on Averil Cameron.

Interesting chapters, though I lost some focus in the Ravenna chapter. (Thanks for the link, Patricrk.)

RE: Hagia Sophia, the info about the special entrances and seating for the Patriarch & emperor was a reminder to me that construction on this scale, even of a worship space, is often about power - who has it & who doesn't. (This first hit me powerfully when I was in Mexico City and saw the cathedral in Mexico City - built in the exact spot where the Aztecs'principal temple had been. Who's in & who's out!)

Mary Ellen wrote: "Interesting chapters, though I lost some focus in the Ravenna chapter. (Thanks for the link, Patricrk.)

RE: Hagia Sophia, the info about the special entrances and seating for the Patriarch & emp..."

The power of special entrances has not been lost. Napolean had one for the chapel of the Invalid in Paris (or at least the guide said he did). Are members only entrances at museums part of that tradition?

And all those "red carpets" continue the tradition, too! :)

Basilica di San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Church or Basilica of San Vitale — styled an "ecclesiastical basilica" in the Roman Catholic Church, though it is not of architectural basilica form — is the most famous monument of Ravenna, Italy and is one of the most important examples of Byzantine Art and architecture in western Europe. The building is one of eight Ravenna structures inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The church was begun by Bishop Ecclesius in 527, when Ravenna was under the rule of the Ostrogoths, and completed by the 27th Bishop of Ravenna, Maximian in 548 during the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. The architect of this church is unknown, but he was certainly among the best architects of his time. The church has an octagonal plan. The building combines Roman elements (the dome, shape of doorways, stepped towers) with Byzantine (polygonal apse, capitals, narrow bricks, etc). However, the church is most famous for its wealth of Byzantine mosaics, the largest and best preserved outside of Constantinople itself. The church is of extreme importance in Byzantine art, as it is the only major church from the period of Emperor Justinian to survive virtually intact to the present day; furthermore, it is thought to reflect the design of the Byzantine Imperial Palace Audience Chamber, of which nothing at all survives. According to legend, the church was erected on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Vitalis. However, there is some confusion as to whether this is the Saint Vitalis of Milan, or the Saint Vitale whose body was discovered together with that of Saint Agricola, by Saint Ambrose in Bologna in 393. The construction of the church was sponsored by a Greek banker, Iulianus Argentarius, of whom very little is known, except that he also sponsored the construction of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe at around the same time. The final cost amounted to 26,000 gold pieces. The true sponsor may have been the Byzantine Emperor, who used such church construction projects as propaganda and as a way of speeding the incorporation of new territory into the Empire.

Interior

The central section is surrounded by two superposed ambulatories. The upper one, the matrimoneum, was reserved for married women. A series of mosaics in the lunettes above the triforia, depict sacrifices from the Old Testament : the story of Abraham and Melchizedek, and the Sacrifice of Isaac; the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, Jeremiah and Isaiah, representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the story of Abel and Cain. A pair of angels, holding a medallion with a cross, crowns each lunette. On the side walls the corners, next to the mullioned windows, have mosaics of the Four Evangelists, under their symbols (angel, lion, bull and eagle), and dressed in white. Especially the portrayal of the lion is remarkable in its feral ferocity. The cross-ribbed vault in the presbytery is richly ornamented with mosaic festoons of leaves, fruit and flowers, converging on a crown encircling the Lamb of God. The crown is supported by four angels, and every surface is covered with a profusion of flowers, stars, birds and animals, including many peacocks. Above the arch, on both sides, two angels hold a disc and beside them a representation of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They symbolize the human race (Jerusalem representing the Jews, and Bethlehem the Gentiles). All these mosaics are executed in the Hellenistic-Roman tradition : lively and imaginative, with rich colours and a certain perspective, and with a vivid depiction of the landscape, plants and birds. They were finished when Ravenna was still under Gothic rule. The apse is flanked by two chapels, the prothesis and the diaconicon, typical for Byzantine architecture. Inside, the intrados of the great triumphal arch is decorated with fifteen mosaic medallions, depicting Jesus Christ, the twelve Apostles and Saint Gervasius and Saint Protasius, the sons of Saint Vitale.

The absidal mosaics

The theophany was began in 525 under bishop Ecclesius. It has a great gold fascia with twining flowers, birds, and horns of plenty. Jesus Christ appears, seated on a blue globe in the summit of the vault, robed in purple, with his right hand offering the martyr's crown to Saint Vitale. On the left, Bishop Ecclesius offers a model of the church. At the foot of the apse side walls are two famous mosaic panels, executed in 548. On the left is a mosaic depicting the Emperor Justinian, clad in purple with a golden halo, standing next to court officials, Bishop Maximian, praetorian guards and deacons. The halo around his head gives him the same aspect as Christ in the dome of the apse. Justinian himself stands in the middle, with soldiers on his left and clergy on this right, emphasizing that Justinian is the leader of both church and state of his empire. He also holds a paten and is shown with a 3 day beard to show that too busy to shave since he is performing his duties as emperor. The gold background of the mosaic shows that Justinian and his entourage are inside the church and gives off an otherworldly,spiritual vibe. The figures are placed in a V shape; Justinian is placed in the front and in the middle to show his importance with Bishop Maximian on his left and lesser individuals being placed behind them. This placement can be seen through the overlapping feet of the individuals present in the mosaic. On the right side is Empress Theodora solemn and formal, with golden halo, crown and jewels, and a train of court ladies. She is almost depicted as a goddess. As opposed to the V formation of the figures in the Justinian mosaic, the mosaic with Empress Theodora shows the figures moving from left to right into the church. Theodora is seen holding the wine. These panels are almost the only surviving examples of Byzantine secular mosaic art, and offer a glimpse into the glory, splendor and pomp of the Byzantine world. The Church of San Vitale inspired the design of the church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, then was the model used by Charlemagne for his Palatine Chapel in Aachen in 805, and centuries later its dome was the inspiration for Filippo Brunelleschi in the design for the dome of the Duomo of Florence.

The Emperor Justinian (detail)

34, 35, 36, and 37 can be viewed in larger detail at the following url:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpos...

Interior Artworks

Thank you Bentley, the pictures are magnificent, and it is really thoughtful of you to provide such detailed write-ups as well!

They are all from the source that I cited in message 38. I will try to add a few more; but they are terrific and you can see why the church is a Unesco World Heritage Center/Site.

And of course you are very welcome.

Great pictures like that really help bring the chapter to life. I should go back and reread with these pictures in front of me. Not as good as seeing it myself, but much cheaper. :)

Yes, that is a great idea and I will try to add a few more from the chapters. What beautiful mosaics.