MS 6981: From renovatio imperii to twilight of empire : Late Byzantine History and Culture (c.1250 1453) (Thursday 17:20 19:00, Seminar, 2 credits) Instructor: Niels Gaul (Room FT 504), Tel.: 327 3045 E mail: gauln@ceu.hu Office hours: Mondays 15:30 17:00 and by appointment 3 The late Byzantine or Palaiologan period as it is commonly dubbed after the then ruling dynasty, the Palaiologos clan is still the fledgling of the Byzantine millennium; unlike trendy late antiquity or the so called imperial centuries of Byzantium, it failed to attract much scholarly attention. Only a brave few fancy to study this long period of political decay in depth or detail: after all, is this still Byzantium? Or is the post 1204 polity an entirely different structure from the middle Byzantine state? On the one hand, the Palaiologan period is perceived as a period of decadence, corruption, and internal strife. On the other hand, in terms of art and learning, it has been hailed as an age of immense activity; a worthy precursor of the Italian Renaissance. Hardly ever though has there been an attempt to reconcile these apparent contradictions. Byzantium increasingly became a minor, yet efficient, player in a highly fragmented Eastern Mediterranean world: we shall emphasise parallel developments in the Serbian, Bulgarian, and Latin principalities inhabitating the formerly Byzantine space in Greece and on the Balkans, while casting our glance both east and west at the more dominating powers of the age: the rôle of the papacy, Angevins, Genoese, and Venetians will be considered as well as those of Mongols, Mamlūks, and Osmanlı. Please note that there is a parallel Byzantine text seminar dedicated to texts of the Palaiologan period (MS 6980 Verse and Prose from the Palaiologan Period) Goals of course to provide a multifaceted survey of late Byzantine history, ideology and culture in their (Eastern) Mediterranean context; to trace the reasons for the collapse of a complex system, i.e. the Byzantine polity; to offer an introduction to the sources (written and material) available to research all of the above questions, and to provide criteria of how to interpret and analyze them critically; to provide brief introductions to the following ancillary disciplines/research methodologies pertaining to the course topic and period: prosopography, numismatics, manuscript studies, diplomatics. Learning outcomes MA level: ability to form a well informed judgement about multi causal historical developments; ability to integrate multidisciplinary perspectives (multicultural understanding); ability to read primary sources in translation and secondary literature in
English critically; ability to present ideas orally and take part in discussions in English as foreign language; PhD level: ability to employ advanced intellectual skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation; ability to analyze primary sources in translation independently; ability to review and evaluate secondary literature critically; ability to present ideas orally and take part in discussions in English as foreign language. Format Two introductory lectures (in order to acquire the necessary background knowledge for further discussion) will be followed by ten sessions covering a broad spectrum of topics, reaching from social and economic via civic and intellectual history to the theological issues of the time. Starting from Constantinople and the imperial court, and applying methodologies of small state policies and chaos theory (pace Laiou), we shall work our way through various layers of society in order to decide whether Byzantium was indeed bound to fall, and if so why. Readings Mandatory reading is marked with an asterisk (*): texts will be provided on MEDEDIT (as pdfs) unless otherwise stated. D. M. Nicol, The last centuries of Byzantium, 1261 1453 (Cambridge: CUP, 2nd edn 1993) [ELTE MED]. A. E. Laiou and C. Morrisson, The Byzantine economy, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), pp. 166 230 ( Small state economics: from sometime in the thirteenth century to the fifteenth century ). M. Angold, A Byzantine government in exile: government and society under the Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204 1261 (Oxford: OUP, 1975). Sp. Vryonis, The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of Islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries (Berkeley Los Angeles London: University of California Press, 1971). Compare Id., The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of Islamization from the 11th through the 15th century: the book in the light of subsequent scholarship, 1971 98, in A. Eastmond (ed.), Eastern Approaches to Byzantium (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 1 18. (Biographical) treatments of individual emperors the qualities vary greatly, with Laiou s Constantinople and the Latins clearly leading the field (only publications in English listed): D. J. Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1261 1282: a study in Byzantine Latin relations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959). A. E. Laiou, Constantinople and the Latins: the foreign policy of Andronicus II, 1282 1328 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972). D. M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor: a biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine emperor and monk (Cambridge: CUP, 1996). J. W. Barker, Manuel II Palaeologus (1391 1425): a study in late Byzantine statesmanship (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1969). A mere sketch of John VIII Palaiologis is provided by J. Gill, Personalities of the Council of Florence (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964), pp. 104 24. D. M. Nicol, The Immortal Emperor: the life and legend of Constantine Palaiologos, last emperor of the Romans (Cambridge: CUP, 1992).
Week 1 (survey lecture cum discussion) Small state policies and complexities, I: Byzantium and its neighbours, 1204 1354 * R. J. Macrides, The New Constantine and the New Constantinople 1261?, BMGS, 6 (1980), 13 41. Cultural Exchanges, I: Looking West P. Lock, The Franks in the Aegean, 1200 1500 (London: Longman, 1995). Consult the chapters on The maritime republics in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vols 5 and 6. D. M. Nicol, Byzantium and Venice: a study of diplomatic relations (Cambridge: CUP, 1988) treat with some care! Week 2 (survey lecture cum discussion) Small state policies and complexities, II: Byzantium and its neighbours, 1354 1453 *A. Laiou, Byzantium and the neighbouring powers: small state policies and complexities, in: S. T. Brooks (ed.), Faith and Power (1261 1557): perspectives on late Byzantine art and culture (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 42 53. *A. M. Saperstein, The prediction of unpredictability: applications of the new paradigm of chaos in dynamical systems to the old problems of the stability of a system in a hostile nations, in L. Douglas Kiel and E. Elliott (eds), Chaos theory in social sciences: foundations and applications (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp. 139 155. Cultural exchanges, II: Looking East E. Zachariadou (ed.), The Ottoman emirate (1300 1389): Halcyon days in Crete I (Rethymnon: University of Crete Press, 1993). H. Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: the classical age, 1300 1600 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, various reprints). C. Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300 1650: the structure of power (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). D. Amitai Preiss and D. O. Morgan (eds), The Mongal empire & its legacy (Leiden Boston Cologne: Brill, 2000). Week 3 From centre to centres: Emperor(s) and court(s) * A. M. Talbot, The Restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993): 243 61 [JSTOR]. * D. Angelov, Imperial ideology and political thought in Byzantium, 1204 1330 (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), pp. 78 115. P. Magdalino, Pseudo Kodinos Constantinople, in Id., Studies in the history and topography of Byzantine Constantinople (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), no. XII. A. Eastmond, Art and identity in thirteenth century Byzantium: the Hagia Sophia and the empire of Trebizond (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004). Research tool presentation (numismatics; coin circulation and imperial ideology): P. Grierson, Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whitemore Collection, 5: Michael VIII to Constantine XI, 1258 1453 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1999). Cf. A. Cutler, The Virgin on the walls, in Id., Transfigurations: studies in the dynamics of Byzantine iconography (Universityersity Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1975), pp. 111 141.
Week 4 Social elites, I: aristocrats and soldiers (stratiōtai) * A. Laiou, The Byzantine aristocracy in the Palaeologan period: a study of arrested development, Viator, 4 (1973): 131 51. * A. Kazhdan, Pronoia: the history of a scholarly discussion, Mediterranean Historical Review, 10 (1995): 133 63. M. Bartusis, The late Byzantine army: arms and society, 1204 1453 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), pp. 157 90 (on the concept of pronoia). D. S. Kyritses, The Byzantine aristocracy in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1997) [microfilm]. Research tool presentation (prosopography): Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, ed. E. Trapp et al. (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1976 96) unfortunately, there is no research tool available in English language to date. Week 5 Social elites, II: patriarchs, bishops, priests A. M. Talbot (ed.), The correspondence of Athanasius I, Patriarch of Constantinople: letters to the Emperor Andronicus II, members of the imperial family, and officials. An edition, translation and commentary, CFHB, 7 = DOT, 3 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1975). * D. Angelov, Imperial ideology (cf. Week 3 ), pp. 351 416. Week 6 Religious controversy: church union(s), hesychasm * M. Angold, Byzantium and the West, in Id., Eastern Christianity, The Cambridge History of Christianity 5 (Cambridge: CUP, 2006), pp. 53 78. * D. Krausmüller, The rise of hesychasm, in ibid., pp. 101 26. Week 7 Spiritual life: lay/public piety and the power of monks J. Thomas and A. Constantinides Hero (eds), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, 5 vols (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2000), vols 3 & 4 [available online at www.doaks.org]. Archives de l Athos (Paris, 1937 ). * A. M. Talbot, Old wine in new bottles: the rewriting of saints lives in the Palaeologan period, in S. Ćurcić and D. Mouriki (eds), The Twilight of Byzantium: aspects of cultural and religious history in the late Byzantine Empire (Princeton, NJ: Dept of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, 1991), pp. 15 26. * E. Zachariadou, Mount Athos and the Ottomans, c.1350 1550, in Angold, Eastern Christianity (cf. Week 6 ), pp. 154 68. * S. Gerstel and A. M. Talbot, The culture of lay piety in Byzantium, 1054 1453, in Angold, Eastern Christianity (cf. Week 6 ), pp. 154 68. Research tool presentation (diplomatics): F. Dölger and J. Karayannopoulos, Byzantinische Diplomatik, Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft XII.3.1.1 (Munich: Beck, 1968) again, there is no research tool in English language. Week 8 Peasant life (rural economics) Archives de l Athos (Paris, 1937 ). * A. E. Laiou, The agrarian economy, thirteenth fifteenth centuries, in Ead., A. E. Laiou (ed.), The economic history of Byzantium, 3 vols (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library and Collection, 2002), pp. 311 375 (vol. 1) [http://www.doaks.org/ EconHist/EHB15.pdf, accessed on 18 Nov 2007]. A. E. Laiou, Peasant society in the late Byzantine Empire: a social and demographic study (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977). Week 9 An archipelago of cities re emerging * M. Angold, Archons and dynasts: local aristocracies and the cities of the later Byzantine Empire, in Id. (ed.), The Byzantine aristocracy, IX XIII centuries, BAR International Series 221 (Oxford: BAR, 1984), pp. 236 53. * N. Necipoğlu, Byzantium between the Ottomans and the Latins: a study of political attitudes in the late Palaiologan period, 1370 1460 (PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1990), pp. 60 180. 392 481. D. S. Kyritses, The common chrysobulls of cities and the notion of property in late Byzantium, Symmeikta, 13 (1999): 229 45. Week 10 Life in the city, I: Mesoi: merchants and craftsmen (urban economy) * K. P. Matschke, The late Byzantine urban economy, thirteenth fifteenth centuries, in: A. E. Laiou (ed.), The economic history of Byzantium, 3 vols (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2002), pp. 465 95 (vol. 2) [available online at www.doaks.org]. Laiou and Morrisson, Economy (cf. Readings ), pp. 195ff. Week 11 Life in the city, II: Gentlemen scholars and/or begging schoolmasters * F. Tinnefeld, Intellectuals in late Byzantine Thessalonike, DOP, 57 (2003): 153 72. * M. Mavroudi, Exchanges with Arabic writers during the late Byzantine period, in Brooks, Faith and Power (cf. Week 2 ), pp. 62 75. E. Fryde, The Early Palaiologan Renaissance, The Medieval Mediterranean, 27 (Leiden: Brill, 2000) use with extreme care. Research tool presentation (manuscript studies). There is nothing in English on this topic; the instructor will summarize the following recent publications: D. Bianconi, Eracle e Iolao. Aspetti della collaborazione tra copisti nell età dei Paleologi, BZ, 96 (2003): 521 58; Id., Libri e mani. Sulla formazione di alcune miscellanee dell età dei Paleologi, Segno e Testo, 2 (2004): 311 63; Id., Tessalonica nell età dei Paleologi. Le pratiche intellettuali nel riflesso della cultura scritta, Dossiers byzantins, 5 (Paris, 2005). Week 12 From the battle of Ankyra (1402) to the fall of Constantinople (1453) * S. Runciman, The fall of Constantinople 1965 (Cambridge: CUP, 1990). * E. Zachariadou, The Great Church in captivity, c.1453 1586, in Angold, Eastern Christianity (cf. Week 6 ), pp. 169 86. D. Nicolle, J. Haldon and S. Turnbull, The fall of Constantinople: the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium (Oxford New York: Osprey, 2007) [unites three studies previously published separately]. Course requirements Regular attendance (at least 75 % of the classes); active participation in class (60/67.5 %); thirty to forty five minute presentation of a chosen topic (25 %); ten minute presentation of
a research tool (7.5 %) mandatory for MA students AND/OR ten minute book review of a recent monograph published on the Palaiologan period (7.5 %) mandatory for PhD students. Knowledge of medieval Greek will be helpful but not essential to participate in this class. for PhD and MA students Topical elective