Steven Runciman

This book is not a serious contribution to travel-literature. [The author has] made no attempt to interpret the way of life in the lands [he has] visited or even to describe the beauties of nature and the works of art to be found there. [His] intention is only to record [his] own experiences in a number of places to which curiosity or circumstances ... have taken [him] ... In order to give some form to these disconnected ancecdotes [the author has] arranged them alphabetically, place by place. -Prologue

This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilisation of Byzantium, and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

On March 30, 1282, the Sicilian townsfolk of Palermo slaughtered the garrison and administration of their Angevin King. The massacre came at a climatic moment of thirteenth century Mediterranean history and its background is traced in this volume.

xii, 337 p., folded map ; 23 cm.

"Sir Steven Runciman's History of the Crusades (1951-4) remains widely read and influential to this day but represents only a part of his wide-ranging, erudite and immensely readable literary activity. His early work focused on Byzantium in the tenth century (The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus) and the history of the first Bulgarian empire. Later he wrote with authority on ecclesiastical relations between the eastern and western churches (The Eastern Schism), more generally on Byzantine culture (Byzantine Style and Civilization), with forays into medieval diplomacy (The Sicilian Vespers) and British colonial society (The White Rajahs). With a diplomatic past which informed his studies, he was the doyen of Byzantine studies in Britain. This volume of essays on topics relevant to Sir Steven's interests, long planned in his honour by British Byzantinists of all generations, includes a memoir of his life and a full bibliography of his work." -- Publisher description.

Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, their story remains one of the most exciting and colorful adventures in history.