Studies on the history and topography of Byzantine Constantinople /
Paul Magdalino.
- Aldershot [England] ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2007.
- 1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps ; 23 cm.
- Variorum collected studies series ; CS855 .
- Collected studies ; CS855. .
Collection of 12 essays by Paul Magdalino; 11 of which were previously published between 1987 and 2001.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- Medieval Constantinople -- Aristocratic oikoi in the tenth and eleventh regions of Constantinople -- The maritime neighbourhoods of Constantinople : commercial and residential functions, sixth to twelfth centuries -- Constantine V and the middle age of Constantinople -- Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I -- Basil I, Leo VI, and the feast of the Prophet Elijah -- The Evergetis fountain in the early thirteenth century : an ekphrasis of the paintings in the cupola -- Constantinopolitana -- The grain supply of Constantinople, ninth-twelfth centuries -- Constantinople and the "exo chorai" in the time of Balsamon -- Constantinople and the outside world -- Pseudo-Kodinos' Constantinople -- Bibliography -- Index.
Constantinople originated in 330 A.D. as the last great urban foundation of the ancient world. When it was sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 it was the greatest city of the European Middle Ages. Its transition from the one to the other was determined partly by its continuous function as an imperial capital, partly by the steady proliferation of churches, monasteries, and Christian philanthropic institutions, and partly by the widespread urban disruption and depopulation that affected what was left of the Roman Empire in the east from the sixth to the eighth centuries. The studies in the present volume examine aspects of this long and complex process as reflected in the topography, monuments, self-image and political status of medieval Constantinople. They include a revised English version of a monograph published in French ten years ago, nine reprinted articles, and two published here for the first time.