The end of Byzantium

Jonathan Harris, author

Yale University Press

By 1400, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire stood on the verge of destruction. Most of its territories had been lost to the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople was under close blockade. Against all odds, Byzantium lingered on for another fifty years until 1453, when the Ottomans dramatically toppled the capital's walls. During this bleak and uncertain time, ordinary Byzantines faced difficult decisions to protect their livelihoods and families against the death throes of their homeland. In this evocative and moving book, Jonathan Harris explores individual stories of diplomatic maneuverings, covert defiance, and sheer luck against a backdrop of major historical currents and offers a new perspective on the real reasons behind the fall of this extraordinarily fascinating empire.

Forrás: https://www.bookdepository.com/End-Byzantium-Jonathan-Harris/9780300187915

Monks and laymen in Byzantium 843-1118

Rosemary Morris, author

Cambridge University Press

In Byzantium monks did not form a separate caste, apart from society. They were not only loyal to their own houses or monastic leaders, but also formed part of a nexus of social, economic and spiritual relationships which bound together the 'powerful' in the middle Byzantine state. Their monasticism, unlike the Western religious 'orders', displayed a highly individualistic streak. Using hagiography, chronicles and, in particular, the archives of the Athonite monasteries, this book reassesses the role of monks in Byzantine society and examines the reasons for the flowering of the monastic life in the period from the end of iconoclasm to the beginning of the twelfth century. The first study of its kind in English, it is aimed at anyone interested in either the Western or the Byzantine early medieval religious life.

Forrás: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/monks-and-laymen-in-byzantium-8431118/EFAF213943A2F92CD1607059E8E90B71#fndtn-information

The Byzantine Saint

Sergei Hackel, editor

St Vladimir's Seminary Press

The Byzantine Saint is one of the most important contributions to the field of Byzantine hagiography in recent years. St Vladimir's Seminary Press is please to present the collection, based on papers presented by a preeminent group of scholars at a Byzantine studies conference at the University of Birmingham.

Forrás: https://www.svspress.com/byzantine-saint-the/

La fortune des grands monastères byzantins

fin du Xe-milieu du XIVe siècle

Monographies 21

Kostis Smyrls, author

ACHCByz Press

Durant l’époque considérée (fin Xe-milieu XIVesiècle), les grands monastères ont possédé une part non négligeable de la terre de l’Empire et leurs activités ont joué un rôle considérable dans l’économie. Ce livre étudie ces établissements en tant que grands propriétaires. Les archives et les règlements monastiques (typika) nous informent sur la fortune des monastères. L’acquisition de terres par les moines, surtout grâce aux donations mais aussi par achat, a conduit à une augmentation de la fortune monastique globale. Les moines s’avèrent des administrateurs efficaces de leur fortune. À partir du xiesiècle, la recherche du profit se manifeste dans nos sources, reflétant l’évolution de la mentalité économique des moines et de la société en général. La gestion vise à dégager un surplus qui est le plus souvent investi dans la terre ou dans le commerce. Les activités commerciales et financières des monastères semblent avoir été bien plus importantes que ce qu’on pensait jusqu’à présent.

Byzantine Matters

Averil Cameron, author

Princeton University Press

For many of us, Byzantium remains "byzantine"—obscure, marginal, difficult. Despite the efforts of some recent historians, prejudices still deform popular and scholarly understanding of the Byzantine civilization, often reducing it to a poor relation of Rome and the rest of the classical world. In this book, renowned historian Averil Cameron presents an original and personal view of the challenges and questions facing historians of Byzantium today.

The book explores five major themes, all subjects of controversy. "Absence" asks why Byzantium is routinely passed over, ignored, or relegated to a sphere of its own. "Empire" reinserts Byzantium into modern debates about empire, and discusses the nature of its system and its remarkable longevity. "Hellenism" confronts the question of the "Greekness" of Byzantium, and of the place of Byzantium in modern Greek consciousness. "The Realms of Gold" asks what lessons can be drawn from Byzantine visual art, and "The Very Model of Orthodoxy" challenges existing views of Byzantine Christianity.

Forrás: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10201.html

The fall of Constantinoples to the ottomans

Michael Angold, author

Routledge

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 marked the end of a thousand years of the Christian Roman Empire. Thereafter, world civilisation began a process of radical change. The West came to identify itself as Europe; the Russians were set on the path of autocracy; the Ottomans were transformed into a world power while the Greeks were left exiles in their own land. The loss of Constantinople created a void. How that void was to be filled is the subject of this book.

Forrás: https://www.bookdepository.com/Fall-Constantinople-Ottomans-Michael-Angold/9780582356122