Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204

Harvard University Press
edited by Henry Maguire
ISBN: 0884022420
price: $63.00   hardcover

The imperial court in Constantinople has been central to theoutsider's vision of Byzantium. However, in spite of its fame inliterature and scholarship, there have been few attempts toanalyze the Byzantine court in its entirety as a phenomenon. Thestudies in this volume aim to provide a unified composition bypresenting Byzantine courtly life in all its interconnectedfacets. One important theme that unites these studies is theattention paid to describing the effects of a change in thesocial makeup of the court during this period and the reflectionof these changes in art and architecture. These changes in socialcomposition, mentality, and material culture of the courtdemonstrate that, as in so many other aspects of Byzantinecivilization, the image of permanence and immutability projectedby the forms of palace life was more apparent than real. As thisnew work shows, behind the golden facade of ceremony, rhetoric,and art, there was constant development and renewal.