L'Albanie entre Byzance et Venise (Xe-XVe s.)

Variorum
Alain Ducellier
ISBN: 0860781968
price: $132.95   hardcover

Albania remains today the least known of all the countries of Europe, and much of its history is equally obscure, something that Professor Ducellier has sought to help rectify. One major reason for this is that only rarely has Albania itself emerged as an independent state: its location on the boundary between the Greek and Latin worlds laid it open to domination by outside interests - in this period first the Byzantines, then Normans and Angevins, Venetians and Turks. Yet its strategic position also brought commercial advantages and, as the author shows, the land proved attractive to foreign merchants. He further broaches the controversial issue of the origins of the Albanian people, and explores the pressures that shaped their society.