Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: (7 Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

Byzantium, that dark sphere on the periphery of medieval Europe, is commonly regarded as the immutable residue of Rome's decline. In this highly original and provocative work, Alexander Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein revise this traditional image by documenting the dynamic social changes that occurred during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations  Abbreviations  Acknowledgments  Introduction  I. BACKGROUND: FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES  Restructuring the Empire: The Seventh Century  Reconsolidation: The Ninth and Tenth Centuries  II. DECENTRALIZATION AND "FEUDALIZATION" OF THE BYZANTINE STATE  Decentralization  Urban Evolution in the Provinces: Archaeological and Literary Evidence  Urban Evolution in the Provinces: Arts and Crafts  Urban Economy and Institutions  "Feudalization" of the Byzantine Social Structure  The Nature of the Byzantine Estate  The Nature of the Byzantine Nobility  Changes in the Social Character of the Byzantine Aristocracy  Changes in the Bureaucracy  III. POPULAR AND ARISTOCRATIC CULTURAL TRENDS  Popular Tendencies in Byzantine Society  Changes in the Daily Regime: Dress, Diet, and Diversion  Popular Elements in Literature  Popular Features in Religious Life  The "Aristocratization" of Culture  The Byzantine Family  Search for Legitimacy: The Importance of Lineage  The Creation of an Aristocratic Ideal  Image of the Ideal Ruler  Epitome of Aristocracy: Digenis Akritas  IV. THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE  The Educational System  Academic Institutions  Academic Politics  Intellectuals in Society  The Assimilation of the Classical Tradition  Byzantium and the Authors of Antiquity  The Byzantine Reading of Classical Literature  Art and Antiquity  Law  Byzantine Science  Intimations of Rationalism: Theology and Ideology  Rationalism and the Imperial Ideal  v. BYZANTIUM AND ALIEN CULTURES  Traditional Attitudes Toward "Barbarians"  Contact with Alien Cultures: The Frontier Zone  Contact with Alien Cultures: The Center  Breakdown of Some of the Traditional Barriers  Effects of Foreign Influence  Unbreachable Barriers  VI. MAN IN LITERATURE AND ART  Artist, Audience, and Object  From the Ideal to the Ordinary  Abstraction to Naturalism  Impersonal to Personal  Conclusion  Appendix: Texts  Index 

About the Author :
A. P. Kazhdan, the distinguished Russian Byzantinist, is Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. Ann Wharton Epstein, past President of the Byzantine Studies Conference, is Associate Professor of Art History at Duke University.

Review :
"The authors explore the culture of the period in greater detail than has been done--at least to my knowledge--for any other period of Byzantine history. Nor do they treat Byzantine culture in isolation, but as a part of the social, economic, and intellectual fabric of Byzantium."--M. Angold, "Byzantinische Zeitschrift