Sources for Byzantine Art History: Volume 3, The Visual Culture of Later Byzantium (1081-c.1350)

Description

In this book the beauty and meaning of Byzantine art and its aesthetics are for the first time made accessible through the original sources. More than 150 medieval texts are translated from nine medieval languages into English, with commentaries from over seventy leading scholars. These include theories of art, discussions of patronage and understandings of iconography, practical recipes for artistic supplies, expressions of devotion, and descriptions of cities. The volume reveals the cultural plurality and the interconnectivity of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries. The first part uncovers salient aspects of Byzantine artistic production and its aesthetic reception, while the second puts a spotlight on particular ways of expressing admiration and of interpreting of the visual.

Foteini Spingou is a Research Associate in Byzantine Intellectual/Cultural History at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of a monograph on twelfth-century Byzantine poetry (forthcoming) and has penned numerous articles on collections, cultural memory, reciprocity and patronage, manuscripts, and mathematics in the medieval Europe.