Browse all reviews
Authority and Power in the Medieval Church, c. 1000–c. 1500 / ed. Thomas W. Smith
Review Date: 21 October 2022
Books that manage to encapsulate something essential but often elusive quickly turn indispensable for scholars. Authority and Power in the Medieval Church is one such volume. Expertly edited by Thomas W. Smith, the collection of essays tackles one of the most profound issues of studying the Medieval Church—the interplay between authority and power as understood, articulated, and exercised by ecclesiastic actors and received by their surroundings.
Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300-1200 / eds. Kate Cooper, Conrad Leyser
Review Date: 11 August 2016
This collection of ten articles was inspired by an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Manchester in 2005 on ‘The Peace in the Feud: History and Anthropology, 1955–2005’.
Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West: Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Europe / Daniel G. König
Review Date: 14 July 2016
The Andalusian jurist Abū Bakr al-Ṭurṭūshī (d. 1126) was once asked whether or not it was permissible to eat cheese imported into Alexandria from the Christian territories along the northern coastline of the Mediterranean. The question clearly intrigued al-Ṭurṭūshī, since he went to considerable lengths to research the subject before issuing his final response.
The Alexiad of Anna Komnene: Artistic Strategy in the Making of a Myth / Penelope Buckley
Review Date: 16 October 2014
Penelope Buckley’s recent monograph, The Alexiad of Anna Komnene sets out to present the first thorough literary study of Anna Komnene’s renowned 12th-century history. As a literature specialist first and foremost, whose background is in English drama and poetry (p. 290), in many ways Buckley succeeds in her brief.
Byzantium and the Other: Relations and Exchanges / Angeliki Laiou
Review Date: 28 February 2013
This rich volume, Byzantium and the Other: Relations and Exchanges, is one of three collections of essays designed to bear testament to the legacy of the late Byzantine scholar Angeliki Laiou. The other two volumes are entitled: Women, Family and Society in Byzantium and Economic Thought and Economic Life in Byzantium.
The End of Byzantium / Michael Angold
Review Date: 01 February 2011
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 has always interested historians. It has produced one undoubted classic in the shape of Sir Steven Runciman’s The Fall of Constantinople 1453.
Beauty and the Male Body in Byzantium: Perceptions and Representations in Art and Text
Review Date: 01 May 2010
The product of extensive fieldwork, Beauty and the Male Body in Byzantium; Perceptions and Representations in Art and Text is a revised version of an already polished PhD thesis submitted under the title ‘Unveiling Male Beauty: Perception and Representation in Byzantine Imagery and the Texts from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Centuries’ at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, in 2004.
George Akropolites: The History / ed. Ruth Macrides
Review Date: 01 April 2008
The History of George Akropolites describes an exceptional period in Byzantine history, between the loss of Constantinople to the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the reconquest of the city by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261.
Byzantine Style, Religion and Civilization: In Honour of Sir Steven Runciman / ed. Elizabeth M. Jeffreys
Review Date: 01 May 2007
The first, main title of this volume might seem to promise too little or too much—either a very superficial work of generalization, or a heterogeneous assortment of broadly grouped pieces too diverse and disparate to cohere.