Companion to Byzantium

Liz James is Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex. Her books include Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (1996) and Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium (2001).

"If someday A Companion to a Companion to Byzantium is assembled, perhaps at last the histories, cultures, and experiences of Greeks and non-Greeks within the commonwealth, on both sides of the imperial border, will be combined into an integrated vision of this diverse yet interconnected world. Diversity and all the cooperation and tension which accompanied it are, after all, essential and inescapable dimensions of what it meant to be "Byzantine." (Bmcreview, 5 March 2011) "The bibliography is impressive.  The list of primary sources, with editions, is particularly useful.  The secondary sources include items published as recently as 2010.  Summing up: Highly recommended.  All research collections." (CHOICE, January 2011)"The collection ends with a 71-page bibliography. I note that this and other front and end matter (including a full list of contents, and a handy list of Byzantine rulers and key dates) is available currently as 'free content' at 'Wiley Online Library'. A subscription to this service appears to provide access to all chapters as PDF files, which would be of great benefit to those wishing to use the collection in teaching." (International History Review, January 2011)"Written by an impressive group of scholars, the 27 chapters of this companion offer their musings on the state of research in the fields considered, divided into sections on "being Byzantine," God and the world, texts, and material culture. The purpose of the chapters is not to describe the subject, but to describe its study and the current understanding and questions being brought by scholars. The result is a fascinating introduction to the topics and questions of interest in a broad field that will be of interest to the specialized reader as well as the student. Individual chapter topics include the relationship of the provinces to Constantinople, young people, the non-Chalcedonian churches, rhetoric, book culture, archaeology, and the Macedonian renaissance." (Book News Inc, November 2010)

• List of Figures ixList of Maps xiiiNotes on Contributors xvAcknowledgments xixSome Relevant Dates xxiList of Byzantine Rulers xxvList of Abbreviations xxix1. Byzantium: a Very, Very Short Introduction 1Liz James2. Writing Histories of Byzantium: the Historiography of Byzantine History 9F. K. HaarerPart I Being Byzantine 233. Economics, Trade, and “Feudalism” 25Peter Sarris4. Byzantium ?­?nConstantinople 43Paul Magdalino5. Provinces and Capital 55Catherine Holmes6. Insiders and Outsiders 67Dion C. Smythe7. Young People in Byzantium 81Cecily Hennessy8. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 93Myrto Hatzaki9. The Memory Culture of Byzantium 108Amy Papalexandrou10. Emotions in Byzantium 123Martin Hinterberger11. Having Fun in Byzantium 135Shaun TougherPart II God and the World 14712. Byzantine Views of God and the Universe 149Mary Cunningham13. Giving Gifts to God: Aspects of Patronage in Byzantine Art 161Vassiliki Dimitropoulou14. Orthodoxy and Northern Peoples: Goods, Gods and Guidelines 171Jonathan Shepard15. Christology and Heresy 187Andrew Louth16. Beyond Byzantium: the Non-Chalcedonian Churches 199Niall FinneranPart III Reading Byzantine Texts 22517. No Drama, No Poetry, No Fiction, No Readership, No Literature 227Margaret Mullett18. Rhetorical Questions 239Mary Whitby19. Text and Context in Byzantine Historiography 251Roger Scott20. Byzantine Narrative: the Form of Storytelling in Byzantium 263Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis and Ingela Nilsson21. Byzantine Book Culture 275Judith WaringPart IV Some Questions in Material Culture 28922. Archaeology 291James Crow23. Makers and Users 301Anthony Cutler24. The Limits of Byzantine Art 313Antony Eastmond25. Icons and Iconomachy 323Leslie Brubaker26. The Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Renaissance 338John Hanson27. Late and Post-Byzantine Art under Venetian Rule: Frescoes versus Icons, and Crete in the Middle 351Angeliki LymberopoulouBibliography—Primary Sources 371Bibliography 384Index 443