RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY RECOMMENDED BY SPBS MEMBERS (BBBS 2009)
Recent Publications recommended by members:
Patrick Donabedian, L'age d'or de l'architecture armenienne (Editions Parentheses, Marseille 2008)
[Hilary Richardson]
The 7th volume of ÅÙÁ ÊÁÉ ÅÓÐÅÑÉÁ, journal of the Society for the Research of Relations between East and West, Athens (see website for information). Orders (for vv. 1-7) addressed to: Kardamitsa Library, Hippokratous 8 - Athens 10679-GR, e-mail: info@kardamitsa.gr, or to: T. Maniati-Kokkini (member of the Editorial Committee), Karaiskaki 9 - Pallini - Athens 15351-GR.
RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY RECOMMENDED BY SPBS MEMBERS (BBBS 2008)
Recent Publications recommended by members:
Mohamed Ben Jeddou, Vers une Etude de la Dynamique du Peuplement en Tunisie de la Protohistoire jusqu'au Haut Moyen Age. Etude Comparative de Deux Regions: Beja (Nord-Ouest) et Qlibya (Nord-Est), Vol. I: Texte, Vol. II: Catalogue, Statistiques et Illustrations, BAR International Series 1727 (I-II), Archaeopress, Oxford, 2007: out in January 2008. Covers the Roman and Late Roman (Byzantine) periods in Tunisia in great detail and demonstrates the application of Geographical Information Systems to the archaeological demography of 'late' historical periods (for an Abstract, see Theses completed).
[Professor C. Dauphin]
A.D. Lee, War in Late Antiquity (Oxford 2007),
G. Halsall, Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568 (Cambridge 2007)
P. Blaudeau, Alexandrie et Constantinople, 451-491: de l'histoire a la geo-ecclesiologie (Rome 2006)
B. Dignas and E. Winter, Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity (Cambridge 2007).
Note also that my own source book on The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (London 2002, with Sam Lieu) is now, at last, available in paperback for £20 through the Routledge website.
[Professor G. Greatrex]
RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY RECOMMENDED BY SPBS MEMBERS (BBBS 2007)
Recent Publications recommended by members:
Êëçôüñéïí in memory of Nikos Oikonomides, ed. Fl. Evangelatou-Notara & Tr. Maniati-Kokkini, Athens - Thessaloniki.
Orders addressed to: VANIAS Publications, Armenopoulou 26 – Thessaloniki 54635 – GR,
tel. +2310-218963.
LEIMWN PNEUMATIKOS / PRATUM SPIRITUALE PHOTOTYPE EDITION (COD. FLORENTINUS MEDICEUS LAURENTIANUS, PLUT. X, 3)
Edited and introduced by Eugeni D. Zashev
Published by: ‘Text-Consult, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2006
ISBN 954-90506-2-9
Pages: 352
Language: Bulgarian & Ancient Greek; Introduction and Contents in English
Address for contact: Galia Filipova, 1000 Sofia, post box 311
E-mail textconsult@abv.bg ; evgoz@abv.bg
The aim of this book is to present the most complete and relevant version, known up to now, of the work Pratum spirituale, created by the early medieval Byzantine writer John Moschus. This version is contained in a Greek manuscript from the 12th century, preserved in the library of Lorenzo Medici in Florence.
The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu
Translated from Zotenberg's Ethiopic Text
R. H. Charles, translator (1916)
Out of print for nearly a century, this volume represents the only English
translation of the work and includes an introduction by R.H. Charles.
February 2007 [1916]
ISBN 978-1-889758-87-9
For further information on this title, visit:
http://www.evolpub.com/CRE/CREseries.html#CRE4
Warwick Ball, Syria: A Historical and Architectural Guide
(new edition, Melisende Publishing, London 2006)
Nadal Canellas, Juan, La resistance d’Akindymos a Gregoire Palamas, enquete historique, avec traduction et commentaire de quatre traites edites recemment, Vol.1: Traduction, Vol.2: Commentaire historique [Spicilegium Sacrun Lovaniense 50 & 51, ISBN 90-429-1165-4, and ISBN 90-429-1166-2].
Stephen Mitchell, A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641 (Oxford 2006).
Bibliography from Geoffrey Greatrex:
L.S.B. MacCoull, ‘Menas and Thomas: Notes on the Dialogus de scientia politica’, GRBS 46 (2006), 301-13
A. Kaldellis, ‘Classicism, Barbarism, and Warfare: Prokopios and the Conservative Reaction to Later Roman Military Policy’, AJAH n.s. 3 (2006) forthcoming.
Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 6 (2006), a volume dedicated to Syriac historiography. It contains papers by R. Burgess and M. Debie (both on Eusebius), A. Al-Jadir (on dating formulae), G. Greatrex (on Pseudo-Zachariah), J. van Ginkel (on Michael the Syrian) and W. Witakowski (on Barhebraeus). Copies may be obtained from Prof. A. Harrak, csss@chass.utoronto.ca
RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY RECOMMENDED BY SPBS MEMBERS (BBBS 2006)
Recent Publications recommended by members:
Alexios G.C. Savvides, The Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond and the Pontos (A Historical Survey of the Byzantine Empire of Anatolian Hellenism (1204-1461)).
(Society for Pontic Studies Journal "Archeion Pontou" Supplement 25) Athens 2005; 282 pages (in Greek)
ISSN 1109-0871
ISBN 960-86409-2-X
(recommended by Dr. C. Matzukis)
Êëçôüñéïí in memory of Nikos Oikonomides, ed. Fl. Evangelatou- Notara & Tr. Maniati-Kokkini, Athens - Thessaloniki.
The 6th volume of «ÅÙÁ ÊÁÉ ÅÓÐÅÑÉÁ», journal of the Society for the Research of Relations between East and West, Athens (in press). Orders for vv. 1-6 addressed to: Kardamitsa Library, Hippokratous 8 - Athens 10679-GR, e-mail: info@kardamitsa.gr, or to: T. Maniati-Kokkini (member of the Editorial Committee), Karaiskaki 9 - Pallini - Athens 15351-GR, e-mail: tmaniati@arch.uoa.gr.
RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY RECOMMENDED BY SPBS MEMBERS
(BBBS 2005)
A. Kaldellis, Procopius of Caesarea. Tyranny, history and philosophy at the end of antiquity (Philadelphia, PA, 2004).
Dr. C. Matzukis recommends the following book (written in Greek):
Ïé ÁíôéäÜíåéåò ËÝîåéò óôç Í. ÅëëçíéêÞ - Repatriated Loan Words in Modern Greek by Dr Erasmia Vasmanoli, published by the University of Athens (2001)
Abstract:
Many ancient Greek words ‘travelled’ to other languages and came back to Medieval and Modern Greek in a new form or with a new meaning. The so-called ‘repatriated loans’ are categorized according to various criteria: the language through which they came back to Greek (for example through Italian and Turkish due to historical reasons and those that came back through Medieval Latin, modern French, English, German etc.) with various changes. The phonological, morphological and semantic changes of 170 words are analysed with historical references and comparisons between Greek and the languages involved.
Paul Bentley, The Man Who Came After Hyacinth Bobo, Enalios 2004, pp686, 25 euros (in Greek). (An historical novel about Pope Innocent III and the sack of Constantinople in 1204).
A Festschrift in honour of Christopher Walter, edited by Pamela Armstrong, is due to be published in 2005 (Pindar).
BOOK REVIEW
W. Eugene Kleinbauer, Antony White & Henry Matthews,
Hagia Sophia
Scala Publishers Ltd & Archaeology and Art Publications (London - Istanbul 2004), 20.5x25cm, 127pp., 73 ill., ISBN 1 85759 308 1
Hagia Sophia has captured the imagination of many a traveller, artist and photographer over the centuries. Being one of the prime attractions of Istanbul, it constitutes an obligatory stop along the visitor's trail. Yet, to this day, no comprehensive guide to this, the principal surviving monument of Byzantine architecture, has been available. Scala publishers have set out to fill the gap, having already provided us with an excellent guide book to another major Byzantine monument of the city, the Kariye Camii (by Robert Ousterhout, 2002).
Hagia Sophia is not only lavishly and abundantly illustrated with colour photographs by Tahsin Aydogmus, but its co-authors are specialists in their respective fields: the three sections which follow the brief introduction by Engin Akyurek were written by Eugene Kleinbauer (history and architecture), Antony White (mosaics) and Henry Matthews (history of the building after 1453). A short bibliography and a useful index complete the volume.
Kleinbauer's is the longest and most detailed of the three main chapters, giving lucid accounts of both the historical context and the early structural history. Contemporary sources are extensively quoted; comparisons with both earlier and later monuments, which help to understand better the building's unique character, are frequently made, stressing the innovation in ecclesiastical architecture represented by the scheme devised by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus; the building materials, architectural elements and liturgical furnishings are briefly described and commented upon (although the Justinianic brass doors of the narthex and those -later- of the Horologion are not mentioned). A third of the book's photographs belong to this section, together with a plan and an impressive isometric section especially commissioned for this publication (and based on those published in Rowland Mainstone's 1988 monograph). A few additional architectural drawings (in particular sections) would have helped to illustrate the complexity of the structure and the changes necessitated by the collapse and replacement of the first dome. Similarly, a map of Constantinople showing the location within the city and a glossary of the various technical terms (mostly Greek) used for architectural features and liturgical furnishings would have been of great use to a non-specialist audience.
White's chapter on the mosaic decoration is much more succinct, being largely restricted to a brief description of the medieval figural panels and their iconography in roughly the order in which the visitor sees them; their location within the building is very appropriately signalled on small plans of the two main levels (ground floor and gallery). What the text of this section lacks in art historical context and analysis is more than adequately compensated by the quality and number of the accompanying illustrations which include some revealing close-up views not found in other publications.
Matthews in his treatment of the post-Byzantine life of Hagia Sophia dwells on several disparate but interconnected issues: its undisputable impact on Ottoman architecture, its conversion into a mosque and then into a museum, the progressive concealment and subsequent uncovering of the figural mosaics, the various alterations and additions to the building and its furnishings and decoration (minarets, sultans' mausolea, calligraphic roundels), and the 19th-century and more recent attempts at restoration.
This is by all counts a very welcome addition to the vast bibliography on Hagia Sophia, for it plays a rather novel role: being primarily addressed to a non-specialist audience, it nevertheless provides in a few pages a scholarly introduction to the complex issues raised by its history, architecture and decoration - significant issues which are often ignored in all but the most specialised literature. What is more, it treats the building's history as a continuum, from Byzantine through Ottoman to modern times, a rather infrequent but surely valuable approach. Its more immediately obvious appeal, however, rests with the photographs: their superb quality is not matched in many other publications, and definitely in none belonging to this particular price range. This fact bestows upon the book another major role, that of an indispensable study tool. Research on many a monument and work of art frequently suffers a lot from the lack of affordable editions with decent illustrations. This is no longer the case with Hagia Sophia. Tassos Papacostas, King's College London
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