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Byzantium
MEDIEVAL HISTORY
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ARCHIVE - BIBLIOGRAPHY - BYZANTIUM (SPOILER THREAD)
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William DalrympleThis does look amazing and I think I will try to read it myself. Thank you so much for your review of it .
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by Procopius (no photo available)Synopsis:
Procopius, born at Caesarea in Palestine late in the 5th century, became a lawyer. In 527 CE he was made legal adviser and secretary of Belisarius, commander against the Persians, and went with Belisarius again in 533 against the Vandals and in 535 against the Ostrogoths. Sometime after 540 he returned to Constantinople. He may have been that Procopius who was prefect of Constantinople in 562, but the date of his death (after 558) is unknown.
Procopius's History of the Wars in 8 books recounts the Persian Wars of emperors Justinus and Justinian down to 550 (2 books); the Vandalic War and after-events in Africa 532–546 (2 books); the Gothic War against the Ostrogoths in Sicily and Italy 536–552 (3 books); and a sketch of events to 554 (1 book). The whole consists largely of military history, with much information about peoples and places as well, and about special events. He was a diligent, careful, judicious narrator of facts and developments and shows good powers of description. He is just to the empire's enemies and boldly criticises emperor Justinian. Other works by Procopius are the Anecdota or Secret History—vehement attacks on Justinian, Theodora, and others; and The Buildings of Justinian (down to 558 CE) including roads and bridges as well as churches, forts, hospitals, and so on in various parts of the empire.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Procopius is in seven volumes.
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(last edited Dec 29, 2011 07:35PM)
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Cyril MangoSynopsis:
The prevailing view of Byzantine authors is that their art was highly true to nature. A perusal of the texts collected here will confirm this statement...To us, such views appear rather perplexing, for we regard Byzantine art as being abstract rather than naturalistic, and we expect to find in the written sources some reflection of our judgment.
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by Averil Cameron (no photo available)Synopsis:
In this new evaluation of Procopius, Professor Cameron emphasises the essential unity of the three works and, startin with the 'minor' ones, deomstrates their intimate connection with the Wars.
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by Glen Warren BowersockSynopsis:
Over the past century, exploration and serendipity have uncovered mosaic after mosaic in the Near East—maps, historical images, mythical figures, and religious scenes that constitute an immense treasure of new testimony from antiquity. The stories these mosaics tell unfold in this brief, richly informed book by a preeminent scholar of the classical world.
G. W. Bowersock considers these mosaics a critical part of the documentation of the region's ancient culture, as expressive as texts, inscriptions on stone, and architectural remains. In their complex language, often marred by time, neglect, and deliberate defacement, he finds historical evidence, illustrations of literary and mythological tradition, religious icons, and monuments to civic pride. Eloquently evoking a shared vision of a world beyond the boundaries of individual cities, the mosaics attest to a persistent tradition of Greek taste that could embrace Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in a fundamentally Semitic land, and they suggest the extent to which these three monotheistic religions could themselves embrace Hellenism.
With copious color illustrations, Bowersock's efforts return us to Syrian Antioch, Arabia, Jewish and Samaritan settlements in Palestine, the Palmyrene empire in Syria, and the Nabataean kingdom in Jordan, and show us the overlay of Hellenism introduced by Alexander the Great as well as Roman customs imported by the imperial legions and governors. Attending to one of the most evocative languages of the ages, his work reveals a complex fusion of cultures and religions that speaks to us across time.
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by Eunice Dauterman MaguireSynopsis:
A winged centaur with the spotted body of a leopard playing a lute; a naked man with an animal head; a goat-footed Pan; a four-bodied lion; sphinxes, and hippocamps. Few would associate these forms of art with the Byzantine era, a period dominated by religious art. However, an art of strikingly secular expression was not only common to Byzantine culture, but also key to defining it.
In Other Icons, Eunice Dauterman Maguire and Henry Maguire offer the first comprehensive view of this "unofficial" Byzantine art, demonstrating the role it played and its dialogue with traditional Christian Byzantine art. This beautifully illustrated book creates an entirely new understanding of the whole of Byzantine art and culture.
With its wide-ranging examples, the book vividly demonstrates how the surprise of this "profane" art is not only in its subjects of mythic creatures, exotic imagery, and eroticism, but also in the ubiquity and beauty of their placement--within churches and without, woven into silk, illuminated on manuscripts, engraved into pottery, painted in frescoes, and taking life in marble, bone, and ivory.
By presenting and exploring this profane art for the first time in a scholarly book in English, Other Icons will change the way we look at the art of an entire era.
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Book of the Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna
by Agnellus of RavennaSynopsis:
Agnellus' Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis (Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna), written in the ninth century, is an essential source for the study of Italian history from the fourth to the ninth centuries. Agnellus seems to have been a well-born priest in the church of Ravenna, and his work is strongly colored by his personal experiences. He wrote the book to demonstrate two strongly-held opinions. One was the apostolicity and independence of the Ravennate archbishopric; the other was the moral decline of recent bishops and their erosion of clerical rights. Using the framework of a series of biographies of the bishops of his see, Agnellus presents his highly idiosyncratic view of history. The work is filled with anecdotes, miracle stories, and mini-sermons, as well as information about historical events and artistic and architectural patronage, all of which have made it an invaluable source for those interested in early medieval Italy.
Ravenna's heyday was in the fifth through eighth centuries, when it was the capital first of the western Roman empire, then of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and finally of the Byzantine exarchate of Italy. By the time Agnellus was writing, the city and its leaders were struggling to maintain power and prestige in the new Carolingian regime. Agnellus' work is usually used as a source of information about the more illustrious past, and it has been especially useful to art historians who investigate the remarkable monuments that still survive in Ravenna. However, it also provides crucial information about the Carolingian world in which Agnellus lived, a time when the marvels of Ravenna were being copied or literally carried off by emperors who sought to recreate Ravenna's imperial splendor.
This translation makes this fascinating text accessible for the first time to an English-speaking audience. A substantial introduction to Agnellus and his composition of the text is included along with a full bibliography.
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by John MoorheadSynopsis:
The career of Theoderic the Ostrogoth is one of the great success stories of antiquity. From being a ruler of a barbarian people wandering around the Balkans, he became king in Italy (493-526) and established one of the most powerful of the post-Roman states.
Due to its ample documentation, the Italy of Theoderic allows detailed examination of a period on the frontiers of ancient and medieval, Roman and barbarian. And due to his success in attracting the attention of some of the major literary figures of the time, new light is cast on Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Ennodius when they are
considered in the context of their connections with the government.
Yet Theoderic's reign, so praised by contemporaries, ended amid tension and discord. In this study, Moorhead considers whether the principles with which he governed brought about the impermanence of his achievement.
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by S.J.B. BarnishSynopsis:
Cassiodorus (c.485–585), Roman senator and consul, served in various high offices from c.505 to c.538, under the kings of the Ostrogoths, who had inherited the imperial administration of Italy. For long periods the Goths’ chief publicist, he compiled the state papers he had drafted, as their regime crumbled under Byzantine attack. This selection is the first translation to appear since 1886.
" ... excellent and invaluable ..."—Classical Review
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Books mentioned in this topic
Cassiodorus: Variae (Translated Texts for Historians, 12) (other topics)Theoderic in Italy (other topics)
The Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna (Medieval Texts in Translation (other topics)
Other Icons: Art and Power in Byzantine Secular Culture (other topics)
Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
S.J.B. Barnish (other topics)John Moorhead (other topics)
Testy McTesterson (other topics)
Eunice Dauterman Maguire (other topics)
Glen W. Bowersock (other topics)
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Judith Herrin calls the book The Buildings; but I only found this in Goodreads called On Buildings and Of the Buildings of Justinian
Synopsis:
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