During the last two centuries of its existence the Byzantine Empire was politically in a state of utter decadence, but, in contrast, its intellectual life has never before shone so brilliantly. In these four lectures the author discusses the leading scholars of the period, their erudition, their intense individualism, their controversies and their achievements.

For more than a thousand years, from the time of early Christian Rome until the Renaissance, the Byzantine emperors reigned over a society famed for its high refinement, deep learning, and marvelous variety. Byzantine civilization was both Greek and Oriental, Christian and Roman, European and Asiatic. From the metropolis of Constantinople its art and culture spread outward to Russia, Syria, and Italy. Indeed, Byzantium preserved the artistic heritage of classical antiquity and conveyed it to Europe, transforming it along the way with infusions of Eastern Orthodox religion and Islamic aesthetics. Thomas Mathews surveys Byzantine art within a broad cultural and historical context. Themes emerge: the role of the imperial city within the empire; the place and representation of women; urban and country life; the domestic and secular spheres and the religious and public realms of church, palace, and street. Examining art styles and motifs, Mathews gives fresh readings to icons and iconoclasm, architecture, and the decorative arts.

Byzantine Art and Renaissance Europe discusses the cultural and artistic interaction between the Byzantine east and western Europe, from the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 to the flourishing of post-Byzantine artistic workshops on Venetian Crete during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the formation of icon collections in Renaissance Italy. The contributors examine the routes by which artistic interaction may have taken place, and explore the reception of Byzantine art in western Europe, analysing why artists and patrons were interested in ideas from the other side of the cultural and religious divide. In the first chapter, Lyn Rodley outlines the development of Byzantine art in the Palaiologan era and its relations with western culture. Hans Bloemsma then re-assesses the influence of Byzantine art on early Italian painting from the point of view of changing demands regarding religious images in Italy. In the first of two chapters on Venetian Crete, Angeliki Lymberopoulou evaluates the impact of the Venetian presence on the production of fresco decorations in regional Byzantine churches on the island. The next chapter, by Diana Newall, continues the exploration of Cretan art manufactured under the Venetians, shifting the focus to the bi-cultural society of the Cretan capital Candia and the rise of the post-Byzantine icon. Kim Woods then addresses the reception of Byzantine icons in western Europe in the late Middle Ages and their role as devotional objects in the Roman Catholic Church. Finally, Rembrandt Duits examines the status of Byzantine icons as collectors’ items in early Renaissance Italy. The inventories of the Medici family and other collectors reveal an appreciation for icons among Italian patrons, which suggests that received notions of Renaissance tastes may be in need of revision. The book thus offers new perspectives and insights and re-positions late and post-Byzantine art in a broader European cultural context.

Peter Adamson presents an engaging and wide-ranging introduction to two great intellectual cultures: Byzantium and the Italian Renaissance. First he tells the story of philosophy in the Eastern Christian world, from the 8th century to the 15th century, then he explores the rebirth of philosophy in Italy in the era of Machiavelli and Galileo.

Greece Reinvented discusses the transformation of Byzantine Hellenism as the cultural elite of Byzantium, displaced to Italy, constructed it. It explores why and how Byzantine migrants such as Cardinal Bessarion, Ianus Lascaris, and Giovanni Gemisto adopted Greek personas to replace traditional Byzantine claims to the heirship of ancient Rome. In Greece Reinvented, Han Lamers shows that being Greek in the diaspora was both blessing and burden, and explores how these migrants’ newfound ‘Greekness’ enabled them to create distinctive positions for themselves while promoting group cohesion. These Greek personas reflected Latin understandings of who the Greeks ‘really’ were but sometimes also undermined Western paradigms. Greece Reinvented reveals some of the cultural tensions that bubble under the surface of the much-studied transmission of Greek learning from Byzantium to Italy.

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 buy the addition of commentaries and other innovations.

Which famous poet treasured his copy of Homer, but could never learn Greek? What prompted diplomats to circulate a speech by Demosthenes – in Latin translation – when the Turks threatened to invade Europe? Why would enthusiastic Florentines crowd a lecture on the Roman Neoplatonist Plotinus, but underestimate the importance of Plato himself? Having all but disappeared during the Middle Ages, classical Greek would recover a position of importance – eventually equal to that of classical Latin - only after a series of surprising failures, chance encounters, and false starts. This important study of the rediscovery and growing influence of classical Greek scholarship in Italy from the 14th to the early 16th centuries is brought up to date in a new edition that reflects on the recent developments in the field of classical reception studies, and contains fully up-to-date references to aid students and scholars. From a leading authority on Greek palaeography in the English-speaking world, here is a complete account of the historic rediscovery of Greek philosophy, language and literature during the Renaissance, brought up-to-date for a modern audience of classicists, historians, and students and scholars of reception studies and the Classical Tradition.

Preliminary Material /Ann Moffat -- The Publications of Robert Browning /Ian Martin -- The Controversy about Slavery reported by Aristotle, Politics, I vi, 1255a4 following /Trevor J. Saunders -- Greek Ethics after MacIntyre and the Stoic Community of Reason /A.A. Long -- The Early Pantomime Riots /E.J. Jory -- The Dark Side of the Moon /P.J. Bicknell -- An Early-Fourth-Century Female Monastic Community in Egypt? /Alanna Emmett -- Friends and Enemies of John Chrysostom /J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz -- The Holy Men and their Biographers in early Byzantium and medieval China: A preliminary comparative study in hagiography /Samuel N.C. Lieu -- Reflections upon the Theological Tractates of Boethius /John R.S. Mair -- The Poetic Achievement of George of Pisidia: A literary and historical study /J.D.C. Frendo -- Thema /J.D. Howard-Johnston -- The Life of St Athanasia of Aegina: A critical edition with introduction /Lydia Carras -- The Bath of Leo the Wise /Paul Magdalino -- Iakovos Monachos, Letter 3 /M.J. Jeffreys -- Matthaios Gabalas and his Kephalaia /Athanassios Angelou -- An Emperor without Clothes? Niccolò Niccoli under attack /M.C. Davies -- 'The Faithless Kabazitai and Scbolarioi ' /A.A.M. Bryer -- Constantine XI Palaeologus; some problems of image /Margaret Carroll -- The After-Life of the Letters of Theophylaktos Simokatta /Ann Moffatt -- Plates /Ann Moffat.