Firstly, this section shall try to reconstruct the different phases of the siege and of the final battle on the 29th of May 1453, in which the Osman Turks of Mehmet II Fatîh brought to an end, at least politically, the Byzantine empire and the eleventh centuries of Byzantine life.
The analysis of the events shall be done by a comparative reading and a precise exegesis of ‘official’ sources of both the sides, namely Byzantine (George Sphrantzes, Doukas, Critobulos, Laonikos Calcondilas) and western sources (Isidore of Kiev, Leonard of Chios, Niccolò Barbaro) but also islamic ones, particularly those of the Ottoman Chroniclers of the cohort of Mehmet II (Tursun Beg e Ibn Kemâl).
To this first group of sources, which, although they are known to the historians, could yet still be given other interpretations, we shall add the exploration of less known attestations, which are either partially edited or still unedited. These attestations are actually memorials of different sort that various observers from different lineage and nations wrote, to be used by powerful people of whom they were or could be considered emissaries: the so-called ‘spies’voices’ that are yet to be considered in the historical evaluation of the battle of the 29th of May 1453.
The analysis of the events shall be done by a comparative reading and a precise exegesis of ‘official’ sources of both the sides, namely Byzantine (George Sphrantzes, Doukas, Critobulos, Laonikos Calcondilas) and western sources (Isidore of Kiev, Leonard of Chios, Niccolò Barbaro) but also islamic ones, particularly those of the Ottoman Chroniclers of the cohort of Mehmet II (Tursun Beg e Ibn Kemâl).
To this first group of sources, which, although they are known to the historians, could yet still be given other interpretations, we shall add the exploration of less known attestations, which are either partially edited or still unedited. These attestations are actually memorials of different sort that various observers from different lineage and nations wrote, to be used by powerful people of whom they were or could be considered emissaries: the so-called ‘spies’voices’ that are yet to be considered in the historical evaluation of the battle of the 29th of May 1453.
teacher profile teaching materials
This section of the Byzantine civilization teaching, addressed to graduate students of Classics, History and Art, aims to re-open the historical dossier on the fall/conquest of Constantinople after forty years from the premature death of the best scholar on this subject, Agostino Pertusi, trying to complete his research on unedited and edited historical sources on the event.
S. Ronchey, Lo Stato bizantino, Torino, Einaudi, 2002
A. Pertusi (a c. di), La caduta di Costantinopoli, 2 voll., Fondazione Lorenzo Valla / Mondadori, Milano 1976
Programme
29th MAY 1453. THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC TESTIMONIES AND IN THE VOICES OF THE SPIESThis section of the Byzantine civilization teaching, addressed to graduate students of Classics, History and Art, aims to re-open the historical dossier on the fall/conquest of Constantinople after forty years from the premature death of the best scholar on this subject, Agostino Pertusi, trying to complete his research on unedited and edited historical sources on the event.
Core Documentation
A) Mandatory Texts:S. Ronchey, Lo Stato bizantino, Torino, Einaudi, 2002
A. Pertusi (a c. di), La caduta di Costantinopoli, 2 voll., Fondazione Lorenzo Valla / Mondadori, Milano 1976
Reference Bibliography
B) Addictional texts to be chosen among: G. Ostrogorsky, Storia dell’impero bizantino, Einaudi Tascabili 2005 A. Pertusi, Testi inediti e poco noti sulla caduta di Costantinopoli. Edizione postuma a c. di A. Carile, Pàtron, Bologna 1983 A. Pertusi, Fine di Bisanzio e fine del mondo. Significato e ruolo storico delle profezie sulla caduta di Costantinopoli in Oriente e in Occidente. Edizione postuma a c. di E. Morini, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, Roma 1988 S. Runciman, Gli ultimi giorni di Costantinopoli (trad. it.), Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 1997 S. Ronchey, Bisanzio veramente ‘volle cadere’? Realismo politico e avventura storica da Alessio I Comneno al Mediterraneo di Braudel, “Quaderni di Storia” 52 (luglio/dicembre 2000), pp. 137-158 S. Ronchey, Malatesta/Paleologhi. Un’alleanza dinastica per rifondare Bisanzio nel quindicesimo secolo, “Byzantinische Zeitschrift” 93 (2000), ii, pp. 521-567 S. Ronchey, Il “salvataggio occidentale” di Bisanzio. Una lettera di Enea Silvio Piccolomini e l’allegoria pittorica di Bisanzio nel primo Rinascimento, in C.A. Maltezou e P. Schreiner (a cura di), Bisanzio, Venezia e il mondo franco-greco (XIII-XV secolo) (Atti del Colloquio Internazionale organizzato nel centenario della nascita di Raymond-Joseph Loenertz O.P., Venezia, 1-2 dicembre 2000), Venezia, Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini, 2002, pp. 125-150 e 529-544 S. Ronchey, Tommaso Paleologo al Concilio di Firenze, in G. Lazzi e G. Wolf (a cura di), La stella e la porpora. Il corteo di Benozzo e l’enigma del Virgilio Riccardiano. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Firenze, 17 maggio 2007), Firenze, Polistampa, 2009, pp. 135-159 S. Ronchey, Piero, Pisanello e i bizantini al concilio di Ferrara-Firenze, in Piero della Francesca e le corti italiane, catalogo della mostra, Milano, Skira, 2007, pp. 13-19 S. Ronchey, Andrea, il rifondatore di Bisanzio. Implicazioni ideologiche del ricevimento a Roma della testa del patrono della chiesa ortodossa nella settimana santa del 1462, in M. Koumanoudi e C. Maltezou (a cura di), Dopo le due cadute di Costantinopoli (1204, 1453). Eredi ideologici di Bisanzio. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Venezia, 4-5 dicembre 2006), Venezia, Edizioni dell’Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini, 2008, pp. 259-272 S. Ronchey, Il piano di salvataggio di Bisanzio in Morea, in L’Europa dopo la caduta di Costantinopoli: 29 maggio 1453. Atti del XLIV Convegno Storico Internazionale del Centro Italiano di Studi sul Basso Medioevo - Accademia Tudertina (Todi, 7-9 ottobre 2007), Spoleto, Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 2008, pp. 517-531 S. Ronchey, Orthodoxy on Sale: the Last Byzantine, and the Lost Crusade, in E. Jeffreys (ed.), Proceedings of the 21st International Congress in Byzantine Studies, London, 21-26 August 2006, I-III, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006, I, pp. 313-344 S. Ronchey, Un’aristocratica bizantina in fuga: Anna Notaras Paleologina, in S. Winter (a cura di), Donne a Venezia, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura – Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, 2004, pp. 23-42 C) Texts in a foreign language E. Pears, The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, London 1903 G. Schlumberger, Le siège de Constantinople en 1453, Plon, Paris 1922 D.M. Nicol, The End of the Byzantine Empire, Edward Arnold Publishers, London 1979 D.M. Nicol, The Immortal Emperor. The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans, Cambridge University Press, 1992 R. Crowley, 1453. The Holy War for Constantinople and the Crash of Islam and the West, Hyperion, New York 2005; C. Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2002 (More texts to be studied in English, French and German could be decided together with the professor, who is happy to also help finding them in case of need.)Type of delivery of the course
Didactic structure: 36 hours; 6 CFU; II semesterType of evaluation
Oral exam