Ralph-Johannes Lilie - Böcker

This is the first full scholarly study of the relations between Byzantium and the Crusader States of Syria and Palestine. Ralph-Johannes Lilie sets out to explore the policies and principles which shaped contacts between the Eastern Empire, the Crusader States, and the nations of Western Europe whence the Crusaders came. He traces the actions of the Byzantine Emperors in the twelfth century as they sought to keep control of the crusading armies within their territories and to maintain their positions with respect to the west, and shows how mutual suspicion and attempts at co-operation ended in downright enmity. Originally published to much acclaim in German, Byzantium and the Crusader States has been revised for the English edition by Professor Lilie, and a lucid and scholarly translation provided by J. C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings.`Lilie's book is an important one, not only because the course of relations between Greeks and Latins in the eastern Mediterranean region is discussed in a refreshingly original way, but also because all historians of the Latin East will want to consult it on points of detail.'Jonathan Riley-Smith, English Historical Review

The "Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit" is a comprehensive biographical dictionary of the eastern Mediterranean including Byzantine Italy in the early Middle Ages. It is published in two sections of five volumes documenting more than 20,000 persons in total. The first section covers the period 641-867, the second section 867-1025. In addition to the five volumes, each section includes not only a prolegomena volume, which covers the most important Byzantine and other relevant sources, but also a concluding volume containing lists of abbreviations, indices, adenda and corrigenda. Work on the second section will be finished by 2010.

Concluding the publication of the first section, this volume contains addenda and corridenda to the volumes already published, and the indexes: variants of names, sources, titles and occupations and a geographical index. The indexes allow the work to be accessed from a variety of starting points. The prosopography thus provides information not only about the persons documented but also about Byzantine society and the history of Byzantium together with that of its Eastern and Western neighbours. The whole prosopography encompasses seven volumes and over 11,500 people from the time of the approximate beginning of the Middle Byzantine period (641) up to the accession of power of the Macedonian dynasty (867).