Brill's seriesThe Medieval Mediterranean has established itself as the main forum for studies exploring all aspects of the Mediterranean world during a period of 1000 years. In the medieval period, the Mediterranean experienced a multiplicity of developments in social, political and economic structures, and in populations, religions and cultures. The centuries between the Late Roman world of the fourth and fifth century and the early modern, "Braudelian," Mediterranean of the sixteenth century were characterised by sweeping changes, including the establishment of post-Roman kingdoms in the...

The Byzantine world underwent a remarkable recovery of intellectual energy in the period following the recovery of Constantinople in 1261. The reaction of the emperors and their entourage of well-educated high officials to their political disasters was a deliberate revival of the glories of ancient Greek culture. The main subject of this book is the preservation and dissemination by this learned elite of such ancient literature, philosophy and science as still survived then, the development of editorial techniques which resulted in more complete and less corrupt texts, and their improvement...

This illustrated book is a coherently conceived collection of interdisciplinary essays by distinguished authors on the city of Rome and its contacts with western Christendom in the early Middle Ages (c. 500-1000 AD). The first part integrates historical, archaeological, numismatic and art historical approaches to studying the transition of the city of Rome from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and offers groundbreaking new analyses of selected sites and problems. Attention is given to the economic, social, religious and cultural history of the city. In the second part of the volume historical,...

The papers in this volumes consider literacy, education and manuscript transmission in Byzantium and its neighbouring worlds, areas which to date have received surprisingly little sustained scholarly treatment among Byzantinists. Contributions include an overview, survey papers and individual case studies, many of which draw on recently discovered or rarely consulted sources: literary sources include astrological texts, saints' lives and florilegia as well as documentary texts, art and archaeological evidence. The contributors' fields reflect the interdisciplinary scope of this volume,...

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Crown of Aragon was among the most active powers of the Mediterranean world. This volume examines the attempt by its ruling dynasty to 'rationalize' its court so as to expand the monarchy's ability to gather and deploy resources in support of royal ambitions. Because change in medieval institutions, however, is based as much on exigency and personality as on political theory and program, this volume also focuses on the way in which the processes of transformation functioned at a human level. The book explores the quotidian operations of the...

This book is a biography of Pope Innocent III. Avoiding the many scholarly controversies concerning the pope, it offers a concise and balanced portrait of the man and his pontificate. Its chronological organization-unusual in biographies of Innocent-enables the reader to see how the pope was usually dealing with many different subjects at the same time, and that the events in one aspect of his life could influence his views of other topics. This structure, together with the thorough documentation, can provide new insights even for scholars well-versed in his pontificate. Written in clear,...

This volume, in honour of Professor Elena Lourie, focuses on various areas of interaction between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the late medieval Crown of Aragon and its environs. The articles deal with topics such as war, military campaigns, government, politics, and economics, relations between scholars of the different faiths and their sources, sexual relations and the politics of conversion, mythology and music. Other articles touch on issues such as vassalage, mercenaries, fiscal politics, communal politics and the inquisition. This book presents a mosaic of studies written by three...

In honouring the memory of Nicolas Oikonomides the contributors offer a group of Greek texts and translations which reflect the wide interests of Byzantine authors and the varied genres to which they devoted their talents. Within its pages one finds an ekphrasis of Christopher of Mitylene, military speeches of Constantine VII, letters of Michael Psellos, an historical narrative regarding Empress Helena and the Finding of the Cross, two teaching texts, and a lengthy instructional manual, accompanied by a reprint of the original Brill Greek text, on withstanding a siege.

This book deals with popular Orthodoxy during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, approaching the material from a historical and anthropological perspective. The discussion takes as its starting point a letter of Leo Allatios, the seventeenth-century author and scriptor of the Vatican Library.The early chapters of the book focus on Allatios and the western intellectual background in which the work was written, while later chapters consider popular beliefs and practices surrounding childstealing demons, revenants, spirits of place and popular healing.
Thisbook provides the first detailed...

This volume consists of 19 studies by leading historians of the Mamluks. Drawing on primary Arabic sources, the studies discuss central political, military, urban, social, administrative, economic, financial and religious aspects of the Mamluk Empire that was established in 1250 by Mamluks (manumitted military slaves, mostly Turks and Circassians). It was a Sunni orthodox state that had a formidable military, a developed and sophisticated economy, a centralized Arab bureaucracy and prestigious religious and educational institutions. There are special articles about Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem,...