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A Nickel Tour of Byzantium Contact Colin Wells
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia Stick Like Glue
The Longest War: The Epic Clash of Faith and Reason, from Abraham to Zygotes
Joseph Needham's Big Question
The New York Review of Books (December 18, 2008) Kathryn Ringrose's The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (U of Chicago, 2003) |
Sailing from Byzantium
Delacorte, $22 hardcover (368p)
Delta, $14 paperback (368p)
The story of Renaissance Europe's embrace of pagan learning is familiar, but Wells tells of a fascinating intellectual circuit that begins with the transmission of Greek learning to the newly powerful Arabs and leads to Averroes's commentary on Aristotle, Aquinas's use of this commentary and finally to the Byzantine Cydones's translation of Aquinas in the 14th century. By then, the dominant Orthodox movement of Hesychasm deemed pagan learning incompatible with Christian faith, forcing many humanists to the Catholic West. Wells devotes much space to the Hesychasts and blames them for this betrayal of Greek heritage and for weakening the empire before its final collapse in 1453, but duly credits them with shaping the Russian Orthodox Church and positioning Moscow as the Third Rome. This volume, which contains a useful glossary of historical figures, detailed maps and a time line, is a superb survey of Byzantium's many cultural bequests." ---------- Library Journal (starred review)
In Part 1, Wells relates how Byzantine scholars and teachers, many fleeing the Turks, settled in 15th century Italy, where they introduced ancient Greek literature to Western scholars and helped launch the humanist movement that contributed to the Italian Renaissance. In Part 2, he looks at Byzantium's contribution to Islamic thought -the scholars and translators who would introduce the Arab Muslims to Greek philosophy, medicine, and science, leading to a golden age of Arab science, which would eventually be repudiated by Islamic fundamentalists who sought to suppress the rational inquiry that was the basis of Greek philosophy and science. Next, Wells looks at the religious legacy that Byzantium transmitted to the eastern Slavic world - the Orthodox Christianity of the Slavic churches, resulting from tireless missionary work, which may be the most enduring legacy of Byzantium. This history is a needed reminder of the debt that three of our major civilizations owe to Byzantium. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries." - Robert J. Andrews ---------- Thomas R. Martin, Professor of Classics at Holy Cross, describes Sailing from Byzantium as a "work of extraordinary learning, adroitly presented for general readers with a light touch... wide-ranging and readable." "Readers," he continues, "will find themselves guided on a fascinating journey through a story that has never before been presented in such an accessible and thought-provoking fashion." ---------- Calling Sailing from Byzantium "smart and accessible," Adam Kirsch in the New York Sun writes that "Mr. Wells offers capsule summaries of important developments, while keeping vivid personalities - kings, monks, philosophers, travelers - to the fore. The reader comes away, accordingly, with a broad outline of a complex subject, and a whole bushel of interesting anecdotes." Kirsch concludes his review by describing the book as "a fascinating lesson in the strange transience, and even stranger endurance, of empires." ---------- Sailing from Byzantium is an alternate selection of the History Book Club and the Discovery Channel Book Club. It is also available from Tantor Media as an audiobook. |
