The Byzantines lived in a theocratic society. They were less ready than their western contemporaries to draw the line between things spiritual and things temporal, between Church and state. This book explores some of the characteristics of that society in the age of its decline and fall between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. Though irremediably shattered by the effects of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Byzantine Empire found the will to reassert itself and to endure for another 250 years. Material recovery was hardly possible, but there was a remarkable reawakening of scholarship and of the spiritual life. The world's debt to some of the late Byzantine scholars is known to classicists and to students of the Italian Renaissance. The contribution of the latter-day saints of Byzantium, the hesychasts and scholars of the spirit, has been less publicized.

Church and Society in The Last Centuries of Byzantium

History

Nicol, Donald M.

World

Cambridge University Press

The Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the phenomenal expansion of the Ottoman Empire thereafter produced a ready market in the West for works about the origins, history and institutions of the Turks. Theodore Spandounes, himself of a Greek refugee family from Constantinople who had settled in Venice, was one of the first to publish such a work. Its final version, published in 1538, was written in Italian. This book offers the first English translation of the complete text, with a historical commentary and explanatory notes.

Theodore Spandounes: On the Origins of the Ottoman Emperors

Asia

The district of Epiros in north-western Greece became an independent province following the Fourth Crusade and the dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire by the Latins in 1204. It retained its independence despite the recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks in 1261. Each of its rulers acquired the Byzantine titles of Despot, from which the term Despotate was coined to describe their territory. They preserved their autonomy partly by seeking support from their foreign neighbours in Italy. The fortunes of Epiros were thus affected by the expansionist plans of the Angevin kings of Naples and the commercial interests of Venice. Until 1318 it was governed by direct descendants of its Byzantine founder. Thereafter it was taken over first by the Italian family of Orsini, then conquered by the Serbians, infiltrated by the Albanians, and appropriated by an Italian adventurer, Carlo Tocco. Like the rest of Byzantium and eastern Europe it was ultimately absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. The Despotate of Epiros illuminates part of Byzantine history and of the history of Greece in the Middle Ages.

The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages

Europe

Church and Society in Byzantium

This book traces the diplomatic, cultural, and commercial links between Constantinople and Venice from the foundation of the Venetian Republic to the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. It aims to show how, with the encouragement of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Venetians came to dominate first the Genoese and thereafter the whole Byzantine economy. At the same time, the author points to those important cultural and, above all, political reasons why the relationship between the two states was always inherently unstable.

Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations

Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Christian Emperor of Constantinople and Byzantium. In 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, he was last seen fighting at the city walls, but the actual circumstances of his death have remained surrounded in myth. In the years that followed it was said that he was not dead but sleeping - the 'immortal emperor' turned to marble, who would one day be awakened by an angel and drive the Turks out of his city and empire. Donald Nicol's book tells the gripping story of Constantine's life and death, and ends with an intriguing account of claims by reputed descendants of his family - some remarkably recent - to be heirs to the Byzantine throne.

The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans

Biographies & Memoirs

The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 (Second Edition)

The Byzantine empire in the last two centuries of its existence had to rebuild itself after its conquest and dismemberment by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Its emperors in exile recovered Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates their empire's struggles for survival from that date until its final conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised to take account of recent scholarship. It remains the best synthesis of the political, ecclesiastical and historical events of the period.

The Byzantine empire in the last two centuries of its existence had to rebuild itself after its conquest and dismemberment by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Its emperors in exile recovered Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates their empire's struggles for survival from that date until its final conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised to take account of recent scholarship. It remains the best synthesis of the political, ecclesiastical and historical events of the period.

Africa

This is a lively collection of ten short, annotated and illustrated biographies of aristocratic ladies of the Byzantine empire in its final years. Some were ambitious mothers; some were unhappy wives; some were nuns or scholars; one became the wife of a Turkish sultan and the stepmother of a famous son; one became the champion of the Greek refugees in Venice after the Turks had conquered Constantinople in 1453. They demonstrate the enterprise of some late Byzantine women in the male-dominated society of their time.

The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250–1500

Reference & Collections

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Books by Nicol, Donald M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nicol, Donald M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Church and Society in The Last Centuries of Byzantium

Theodore Spandounes: On the Origins of the Ottoman Emperors

The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages

Church and Society in Byzantium

The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages

Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations

The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans

The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 (Second Edition)

The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 (Second Edition)

The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250–1500