Byzantium and the West ― Perception and Reality (11th-15th C.)

The interaction between Byzantium and the Latin West was intimately connected to practically all the major events and developments which shaped the medieval world in the High and Late Middle Ages – for example, the rise of the ‘papal monarchy’, the launch of the crusades, the expansion of international and long-distance commerce, or the flowering of the Renaissance. This volume explores not only the actual avenues of interaction between the two sides (trade, political and diplomatic contacts, ecclesiastical dialogue, intellectual exchange, armed conflict), but also the image each side had of the other and the way perceptions evolved over this long period in the context of their manifold contact.

Twenty-one stimulating papers offer new insights and original research on numerous aspects of this relationship, pooling the expertise of an international group of scholars working on both sides of the Byzantine-Western ‘divide’, on topics as diverse as identity formation, ideology, court ritual, literary history, military technology and the economy, among others. The particular contribution of the research presented here is the exploration of how cross-cultural relations were shaped by the interplay of the thought-world of the various historical agents and the material circumstances which circumscribed their actions.

The volume is primarily aimed at scholars and students interested in the history of Byzantium, the Mediterranean world, and, more widely, intercultural contacts in the Middle Ages.

Nikolaos G. Chrissis is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at the Democritus University of Thrace and Associate Lecturer at the Hellenic Open University, Greece. He has also taught at the Universities of London, UK, Birmingham, UK, and Crete, Greece. In 2012-2015, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Athens.

Athina Kolia-Dermitzaki is Professor Emerita of Byzantine History at the University of Athens, Greece. Her research and publications deal with: Byzantine ideology; the political and ecclesiastical relations between Byzantium and the West; the ideological background in the Byzantine-Islamic confrontation; war and peace; and various aspects of Byzantine society (particularly mentalities).

Angeliki Papageorgiou is Adjunct Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Athens, Greece. Her research interests focus on the transition from the Middle-Byzantine to the Late-Byzantine period and the social, diplomatic and ideological history of the Komnenian era, as well as the relations between Byzantium and the Slavs from the 12^th century onwards.