Η τελευταία Βυζαντινή Αναγέννηση

The Wiles Lectures

by Steven Runciman, Λάμπρος Καμπερίδης (Translator)

"... Η πτώση της Κωνσταντινούπολης σημείωσε όντως το τέλος μιας μακράς ιστορίας, το τέλος ενός μεγάλου πολιτισμού και λίγα μπόρεσαν να αντέξουν εκεί, εκτός από καταρρέοντα κτίρια, διαλυόμενα ψηφιδωτά, απαλειφόμενες τοιχογραφίες, και μνήμες μιας αντίληψης για τον κόσμο που δεν μπορούσε πια να διατηρηθεί... Και όμως, στη διάρκεια των τελευταίων αυτών αιώνων, μέσα στην πολιτική παρακμή και τον επιτεινόμενο ζόφο, ο πνευματικός πυρσός έφεγγε με αίγλη. Η λογιοσύνη της τελευταίας αυτής Βυζαντινής Αναγέννησης μπορεί να μη σημαίνει πολλά για μας σήμερα. Αλλά λογιοσύνη υπήρχε, γνήσια και γεμάτη ζωή: είναι άξια του σεβασμού μας..." (Steven Runciman)

Genres: History, Nonfiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 1970

About the author

A King's Scholar at Eton College, he was an exact contemporary and close friend of George Orwell. While there, they both studied French under Aldous Huxley. In 1921 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge as a history scholar and studied under J.B. Bury, becoming, as Runciman later commented, "his first, and only, student." At first the reclusive Bury tried to brush him off; then, when Runciman mentioned that he could read Russian, Bury gave him a stack of Bulgarian articles to edit, and so their relationship began. His work on the Byzantine Empire earned him a fellowship at Trinity in 1927.

After receiving a large inheritance from his grandfather, Runciman resigned his fellowship in 1938 and began travelling widely. From 1942 to 1945 he was Professor of Byzantine Art and History at Istanbul University, in Turkey, where he began the research on the Crusades which would lead to his best known work, the History of the Crusades (three volumes appearing in 1951, 1952, and 1954).

Most of Runciman's historical works deal with Byzantium and her medieval neighbours between Sicily and Syria; one exception is The White Rajahs, published in 1960, which tells the story of Sarawak, an independent nation founded on the northern coast of Borneo in 1841 by the Englishman James Brooke, and ruled by the Brooke family for more than a century.

Reviews

[Caterina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a very readable book on the Palaeologan Renaissance comprised of four lectures given in the late '60s. It requires basic knowledge on Byzantine political history, but it is such a well written, witty and often funny text that I am sure the average non-fiction reader can enjoy it too! I will definitely read some more Runciman.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profoundly readable, insightful, and concise, Runciman sheds his luminary light with his characteristic grace. Not for a casual reader, it is not inaccessible but will require both interest and background knowledge to appreciate.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although to some extent glorifying of the latest centuries of the Byzantine empire, it is still an iconic book that properly introduces an unfamiliar reader to this interesting era.

[Antonis Giannoulis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ένα ειδικευμένο σχεδόν επιστήμονικο σύγγραμμα που αν δεν έχεις ιδιαιτερο λόγο να κόπτεσαι να μάθεις για εκείνα τα χρονια μάλλον δεν θα σε συγκινήσει και ας είναι καλομελετημένο και γεμάτο πληροφορίες .

[laurentiu]

0

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good spring board to explore late Byzantine literature