Viewing the Morea: Land and People in the Late Medieval Peloponnese (Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884023907 ISBN 13: 9780884023906

Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2013

Synopsis

The fourteen essays in Viewing the Morea focus on the late medieval Morea (Peloponnese), beginning with the bold attempt of Western knights to establish a kingdom on foreign soil. Reinserted into this tale of Crusader foundation are the large numbers of Orthodox villagers who shared the region and created their own narrative of an eternal and sacred empire generated by the pains of loss and the hopes of refoundation. Layered upon the historical and physical topography of the region are the traces of the Venetians, whose “right eye,” Modon, was located at the peninsula’s southwestern tip. How these groups interacted and how they asserted identity is at the center of inquiry in these essays. Also at the core of this study is the understanding of place and memory—the recollection of the ancient history of the Peloponnese, the architectural and cartographic marking of its mountains and valleys, the re-creation of distant capitals on its land, and the refashioning of the Morea for a Renaissance audience. The authors look at the Morea and its people in the broadest possible manner and with careful attention to written and material evidence, historiography, economic networks, and the making—or retelling—of myths.

About this title

About the Author

Sharon E. J. Gerstel is Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0884023907
• ISBN 13: 9780884023906
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 520
• Editor: Gerstel Sharon E. J.