Tag: Byzantium

Breastfeeding and Mothering in Antiquity and Early Byzantium


Free Download Stavroula Constantinou, "Breastfeeding and Mothering in Antiquity and Early Byzantium "
English | ISBN: 1032208759 | 2023 | 272 pages | EPUB | 7 MB
This volume offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary, and intercultural examination of the lactating woman – biological mother and othermother – in antiquity and early Byzantium. Adopting methodologies and knowledge deriving from a variety of disciplines, the volume’s contributors investigate the close interrelationship between a woman and her lactating breasts, as well as the social, ideological, theological, and medical meanings and uses of motherhood, childbirth, and breastfeeding, along with their visual and literary representations.

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The Art of Dining in Medieval Byzantium


Free Download Lara Frentrop, "The Art of Dining in Medieval Byzantium "
English | ISBN: 0367860015 | 2023 | 188 pages | EPUB, PDF | 6 MB + 15 MB
Thousands of intact ceramic bowls and plates as well as fragments made in the medieval Byzantine empire survive to this day. Decorated with figural and non-figural imagery applied in a variety of techniques and adorned with colourful paints and glazes, the vessels can tell us much about those who owned them and those who looked at them. In addition to innumerable ceramic vessels, a handful of precious metal bowls and plates survive from the period. Together, these objects make up the art of dining in medieval Byzantium. This art of dining was effervescent, at turns irreverent and deadly serious, visually stunning and fun. It is suggestive of ways in which those viewing the objects used a quotidian and biologically necessary (f)act – that of eating – to reflect on their lives and deaths, their aspirations and their realities.

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The Art of Dining in Medieval Byzantium


Free Download Lara Frentrop, "The Art of Dining in Medieval Byzantium "
English | ISBN: 0367860015 | 2023 | 188 pages | EPUB, PDF | 6 MB + 15 MB
Thousands of intact ceramic bowls and plates as well as fragments made in the medieval Byzantine empire survive to this day. Decorated with figural and non-figural imagery applied in a variety of techniques and adorned with colourful paints and glazes, the vessels can tell us much about those who owned them and those who looked at them. In addition to innumerable ceramic vessels, a handful of precious metal bowls and plates survive from the period. Together, these objects make up the art of dining in medieval Byzantium. This art of dining was effervescent, at turns irreverent and deadly serious, visually stunning and fun. It is suggestive of ways in which those viewing the objects used a quotidian and biologically necessary (f)act – that of eating – to reflect on their lives and deaths, their aspirations and their realities.

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History and Literature of Byzantium in the 9th-10th Centuries


Free Download Athanasios Markopoulos, "History and Literature of Byzantium in the 9th-10th Centuries "
English | ISBN: 0860789381 | 2004 | 372 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
The studies reprinted here deal with the Byzantine empire between the 9th and 11th centuries, with a focus on the period of the Macedonian dynasty, and include four translated into English for this volume. They reflect both historical and prosopographical concerns, but Professor Markopoulos’s principle interest is in the analysis of literary works and texts. This he combines with the examination of the ideological context of the period, as shaped in the reigns of Basil I and Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, and the investigation of gender issues and other approaches. The close analysis of the texts shows how, after the close of Iconoclasm, new styles of writing and new attitudes towards the writing of history emerged, for instance in the use of mythological themes, which exemplify the changing intellectual concerns of the time.

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Medieval Siege Weapons (2) Byzantium, the Islamic World & India AD 476-1526


Free Download Sam Thompson, "Medieval Siege Weapons (2): Byzantium, the Islamic World & India AD 476-1526"
English | 2003 | pages: 51 | ISBN: 1841764590 | PDF | 13,0 mb
When it came to non-gunpowder machine development, the medieval period was one of the most inventive in military history. During this era, the pre-existing military-technological traditions from the ancient worlds were brought together. Three civilisations were primarily responsible for this evolution: the Late-Roman or Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World, and latterly the Mongol ‘World Empire’. This book examines the resulting stone-throwing machines from torsion ‘energy storage’ systems, to manpowered and counterbalance sling devices, rockets and others.

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Epigram, Art, and Devotion in Later Byzantium


Free Download Ivan Drpić, "Epigram, Art, and Devotion in Later Byzantium"
English | 2016 | pages: 512 | ISBN: 1107151511, 1316606090 | PDF | 45,0 mb
This book explores the nexus of art, personal piety, and self-representation in the last centuries of Byzantium. Spanning the period from around 1100 to around 1450, it focuses upon the evidence of verse inscriptions, or epigrams, on works of art. Epigrammatic poetry, Professor Drpić argues, constitutes a critical – if largely neglected – source for reconstructing aesthetic and socio-cultural discourses that informed the making, use, and perception of art in the Byzantine world. Bringing together art-historical and literary modes of analysis, the book examines epigrams and other related texts alongside an array of objects, including icons, reliquaries, ecclesiastical textiles, mosaics, and entire church buildings. By attending to such diverse topics as devotional self-fashioning, the aesthetics of adornment, sacred giving, and the erotics of the icon, this study offers a penetrating and highly original account of Byzantine art and its place in Byzantine society and religious life.

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The Lost World of Byzantium [Audiobook]


Free Download The Lost World of Byzantium (Audiobook)
English | ASIN: B0CDY3GXWL | 2023 | 12 hours and 29 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 353 MB
Author: Jonathan Harris
Narrator: Gareth Richards

For more than a millennium, the Byzantine Empire presided over the juncture between East and West, as well as the transition from the classical to the modern world. Rather than recounting the standard chronology of emperors and battles, leading Byzantium scholar Jonathan Harris focuses on a succession of archetypal figures, families, places, and events. Harris’s introduction presents a civilization rich in contrasts, combining orthodox Christianity with paganism, and classical Greek learning with Roman power. Though frequently assailed by numerous armies, Byzantium survived by dint of its unorthodox foreign policy. Over time, its sumptuous art and architecture flourished, helping to establish a deep sense of Byzantine identity in its people. Synthesizing a wealth of sources to cover all major aspects of the empire’s social, political, military, religious, cultural, and artistic history, Harris’s study illuminates the heart of Byzantine civilization and explores its remarkable and lasting influence on the modern world.

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The Virgin Mary in Byzantium, c.400-1000 Hymns, Homilies and Hagiography


Free Download The Virgin Mary in Byzantium, c.400-1000: Hymns, Homilies and Hagiography by Mary B. Cunningham
English | November 11, 2021 | ISBN: 110884569X | 290 pages | PDF | 7.73 Mb
The Virgin Mary assumed a position of central importance in Byzantium. This book examines her portrayal in liturgical texts during the first six centuries of Byzantine history. Focusing on three main literary genres that celebrated this holy figure, it highlights the ways in which writers adapted their messages for different audiences. Mary is portrayed variously as defender of the imperial city, Constantinople, virginal Mother of God, and ascetic disciple of Christ. Preachers, hymnographers, and hagiographers used rhetoric to enhance Mary’s powerful status in Eastern Christian society, depicting her as virgin and mother, warrior and ascetic, human and semi-divine being. Their paradoxical statements were based on the fundamental mystery that Mary embodied: she was the mother of Christ, the Word of God, who provided him with the human nature that he assumed in his incarnation. Dr Cunningham’s authoritative study makes a major contribution to the history of Christianity.

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