The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople: The Cross-Cultural Biography of a Mediterranean Monument

Justinian's triumphal column was the tallest free-standing column of the pre-modern world and was crowned with arguably the largest metal equestrian sculpture created anywhere in the world before 1699. The Byzantine empire's bronze horseman towered over the heart of Constantinople, assumed new identities, spawned conflicting narratives, and acquired widespread international acclaim. Because all traces of Justinian's column were erased from the urban fabric of Istanbul in the sixteenth century, scholars have undervalued its astonishing agency and remarkable longevity. Its impact in visual and verbal culture was arguably among the most extensive of any Mediterranean monument. This book analyzes Byzantine, Islamic, Slavic, Crusader, and Renaissance historical accounts, medieval pilgrimages, geographic, apocalyptic and apocryphal narratives, vernacular poetry, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Italian, French, Latin, and Ottoman illustrated manuscripts, Florentine wedding chests, Venetian paintings, and Russian icons to provide an engrossing and pioneering biography of a contested medieval monument during the millennium of its life.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Justinian's Entry into Constantinople: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered; 2. The Making of Justinian's Forum; 3. Defying a Defining Witness: The Bronze Horseman and the Buildings (De Aedificiis) of Prokopios; 4. The Horseman of Baghdad Responds to the Horseman of Constantinople; 5. Soothing Imperial Anxieties: Theophilos and the Restoration of Justinian's Crown; 6. Debating Justinian's Merits in the Tenth Century; 7. The Bronze Horseman and a Dark Hour for Humanity; 8. The Horseman Becomes Heraclius: Crusading Narratives of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries; 9. From Exile in Nicaea to Restoration of Constantinople; 10. A Learned Dialogue Across the Ages: Pachymeres Confronts Prokopios; 11. Orb-session: Constantinople's Future in the Bronze Horseman's Hand; 12. Justinian's Column and the Antiquarian Gaze: A Centuries-Old 'Secret' Exposed; 13. A Timeless Ideal: Constantinople in Slavonic Imagination of the Fourteenth to Fifteenth Centuries; 14. The Horseman Meets its End; 15. Horse as Historia, Byzantium as Allegory; 16. Shadowy Past and Menacing Future; 17. After the Fall: The Bronze Horseman and Eternal Tsar'grad; Postscript: The Horseman's Debut in Print.

About the Author :
Elena N. Boeck is Professor of History of Art and Architecture at DePaul University. Her publications explore intellectual exchange in the Mediterranean and unconventional, fascinating forms of engagement with Byzantium's legacy. She is the author of Imagining the Byzantine Past: The Perception of History in the Illustrated Manuscripts of Skylitzes and Manasses (Cambridge 2015). She held appointments as the Excellence Initiative Professor at Radboud University, and Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks.

Review :
'This book will be useful for readers interested in a synthetic account of the horseman and … political and religious history of Constantinople/Istanbul, the city's rivals, and its visitors …' Carol C. Mattusch, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'By exploring connections between history writing and imagination, The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople takes an innovative look at the cultural biography of objects. In conducting her engaging inquiry, Boeck explores an extraordinary number and diversity of sources, both textual and visual, related to the monument.' Brigitte Pitarakis, YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 'Boeck undeniably grants one of Constantinople's great marvels new life in a book that it isitself a marvel of inquiry.' Sarah Bassett, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies