Byzanz: Pracht und Alltag

by Hirmer Verlag (Editor)

The Late Antiquity in the Byzantine Empire provided invaluable contributions in its role as mediator of cultural values and in knowledge of the antiquity. Comprising about 600 exhibits, this catalog provides an insight into everyday life and gives an overview of the "Byzantine millennium" from the founding of Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 324 to the conquest of the city by the Ottomans in 1453. Gold, silver, silk, ivory, relics - these precious possessions were the envy of the Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople. But the importance of the Christian Eastern Roman empire extends far beyond its resources. In Byzantium, the ancient world lived on unabated into the late Middle Ages. Here ancient tradition and scholarship was preserved, and here our legal system is rooted. Byzantium struck the bridge from antiquity to modern Europe and joined both the East and West. The European-styled Byzantium had connections to the Middle East and through the Silk Road to China. In the Orthodox Church, Byzantine rituals survive to this day. But how can we imagine life during the Byzantine Empire? Through magnificent and historically significant works of art, both the exhibition and this catalog illuminate the fascinating history and art of the Byzantine Empire. Computer animations of the main squares of the Byzantine Empire, such as Constantinople, Ephesus, Thessaloniki, Pergamon, the Simeon mountain near Aleppo, or the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai let the Byzantine Empire and its heritage appear in a completely new light. At the center stands the heyday of the reign of Justinian I (527-565) through the ransacking of Constantinople by the crusaders (1204). German text.

408 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2010