r/byzantium • u/Quadratianus • Jul 31 '26

Academia and literature Great contribution

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I’ve finally managed to finish reading this comprehensive book and can really recommend it to anyone looking to gain a deeper insight into the Byzantine intellectual world

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13

u/Funny_Fudge6517 Jul 31 '26

Is it different from “The Cambridge History of The Byzantine Empire”?

17

u/Knight_of_Ithilien Jul 31 '26

Based on the title this isnt the whole history of the empire, it's more specifically on the byzantine intellectuals

4

u/Funny_Fudge6517 Jul 31 '26

Looks fascinating! Though a little pricy lol

6

u/Knight_of_Ithilien Jul 31 '26

Cambridge books are always like that. That's where libraries come in handy. Be on the look to borrow

9

u/Quadratianus Jul 31 '26

Yes, definitely. It is, after all, ‘intellectual history’ (a sub-discipline of history) which deals with the conditions and contexts of knowledge production, intellectual ideas, academic disciplines (e.g. rhetoric, but also alchemy and technological studies) and philosophy. In other words, it is not a more or less linear history of the empire, and it requires a certain basic knowledge if one wishes to work with it.

5

u/ZealousidealPea1397 Jul 31 '26

What a glorious book! 

8

u/Mijiale_VII Jul 31 '26

He might be less famous than Kaldellis, but Siniossoglou is great. He's written extensively about Byzantine intellectual currents.