{"title":"Books by Judith Herrin","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141031026","title":"Byzantium","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor a thousand years an extraordinary empire made possible Europe’s transition to the modern world: Byzantium. An audacious and resilient but now little known society, it combined orthodox Christianity with paganism, classical Greek learning with Roman power, to produce a great and creative civilization which for centuries held in check the armies of Islam. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJudith Herrin’s concise and compelling book replaces the standard chronological approach of most histories of Byzantium. Instead, each short chapter is focused on a theme, such as a building (the great church of Hagia Sophia), a clash over religion (iconoclasm), sex and power (the role of eunuchs), an outstanding Byzantine individual (the historian Anna Komnene), a symbol of civilization (the fork), a battle for territory (the crusades). In this way she makes accessible and understandable the grand sweeps of Byzantine history, from the founding of its magnificent capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 330, to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201439170738,"sku":"9780141031026","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141031026_9558b49f-4edf-4795-9bfa-e4743181ff76.jpg?v=1786011624"},{"product_id":"9780241954454","title":"Ravenna","description":"'\u003cb\u003eMagisterial - an outstanding book that shines a bright light one of the most important, interesting and under-studied cities in European history. A masterpiece.\u003c\/b\u003e' Peter Frankopan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A wonderful new history of the Mediterranean from the fifth to eighth centuries through a lens focussed on Ravenna, gracefully and clearly written, which reconceptualises what was 'East' and what was 'West'.\u003c\/b\u003e' Caroline Goodson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eA masterwork by one of our greatest historians of Byzantium and early Christianity. Judith Herrin tells a story that is at once gripping and authoritative and full of wonderful detail about every element in the life of Ravenna. Impossible to put down.\u003c\/b\u003e' David Freedberg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 402 AD, after invading tribes broke through the Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan, the young Emperor Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small, easy defendable city in the Po estuary - Ravenna. From then until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this engrossing account Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the pivot between East and West; and the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile Ravenna's palaces have crumbled, its churches have survived. In them, Catholic Romans and Arian Goths competed to produce an unrivalled concentration of spectacular mosaics, many of which still astonish visitors today. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs, and drawing on the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries, \u003ci\u003eRavenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe\u003c\/i\u003e brings the early Middle Ages to life through the history of this dazzling city.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201673494706,"sku":"9780241954454","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241954454.jpg?v=1786012366"},{"product_id":"unrivalled-influence-women-and-empire-in-byzantium","title":"Unrivalled Influence – Women and Empire in Byzantium","description":"Unrivalled Influence explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Written by one of the world's foremost historians of the Byzantine millennium, this landmark book evokes the complex and exotic world of Byzantium's women, from empresses and saints to uneducated rural widows. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, Judith Herrin sheds light on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters. She looks at women's interactions with eunuchs, the in-between gender in Byzantine society, and shows how women defended their rights to hold land. Herrin describes how they controlled their inheritances, participated in urban crowds demanding the dismissal of corrupt officials, followed the processions of holy icons and relics, and marked religious feasts with liturgical celebrations, market activity, and holiday pleasures.   The vivid portraits that emerge here reveal how women exerted an unrivalled influence on the patriarchal society of Byzantium, and remained active participants in the many changes that occurred throughout the empire's millennial history. Unrivalled Influence brings together Herrin's finest essays on women and gender written throughout the long span of her esteemed career. This volume includes three new essays published here for the very first time and a new general introduction by Herrin. She also provides a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into her broader views about women and Byzantium.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490234671477,"sku":"9780691166704","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691166704.jpg?v=1786442120"},{"product_id":"before-west-and-east","title":"Before West and East","description":"A revelatory new history of Byzantium that shows it was a center of global power for a thousand years, dominating the medieval world and shaping the emergence of the Latin West and the Muslim EastThe seeds of contemporary Western culture are rightly identified with Greece, Rome, and Christianity. But this cultural combination was forged across the entire Mediterranean world by the “inner Greek fire” of Byzantium long before there was a self-conscious West and East. In Before West and East, acclaimed historian Judith Herrin sets out how the thousand-year civilization of Byzantium preserved and expanded Christian belief and then withstood the Islamic explosion that it inspired. In this brief, richly illustrated history, she shows that both the Latin West and the Muslim East were founded upon the existence of Byzantium at the center of the medieval world.   Herrin reveals how the “New Rome” of Constantinople (now Istanbul) became the leading metropolis of the Middle Ages thanks to the remarkable administrative machine that ran the empire from the vast palace complex of the Palation. Strikingly, she demonstrates how Byzantium’s capacity to survive through reinvention owes much to the role of the “imperial feminine” as the wives, mothers, and sisters of emperors acted to preserve their dynasty or restore orthodoxy. She also explains why the Byzantine Empire has long been ignored, abused, and treated as the “Other”—and how this hostility became a lasting prejudice after Constantinople, then the capital of Christianity, was sacked by the Venetians in the Christian crusade of 1204.   Written in a brilliant style and featuring close to 100 color illustrations, Before West and East restores one of history’s most important empires to its rightful place.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57573186273653,"sku":"9780691255743","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691255743.jpg?v=1790608752"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-judith-herrin.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}