The aim of the course is to promote the acquisition of historical and cultural-historical notions and methodological tools that enable students of the Master's degree to draw on the heritage of Byzantine civilisation and to deal with the various aspects of the Byzantine millennium, which stretches between the Late Antiquity and the end of what in the West is known as the Middle Ages, and of the historical and ideological transcendence of the Byzantine state in the political thought of the modern and contemporary age.
Curriculum
teacher profile teaching materials
The Byzantine History and Civilisation LM module, aimed at students of History of Art; Archaeology; Religions, Cultures, History; History and Society; Philology, Literature and History of Antiquity, will focus on the fall of Constantinople on 29th May 1453, after fifty-five days of siege by the Ottoman Turks, led by the young Sultan Mehmet II Fatih.
The course will first provide a brief historical overview of the Byzantine millennium, aimed at those who did not take the basic module of Byzantine Civilisation in the three-year degree. This will be followed by a topographical survey of the Byzantine capital, with a special focus on the defensive structures (the great Theodosian walls, the sea walls on the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, the walls around the imperial palace of the Blacherne; and then the harbour, whose access, in case of attack, was barred to enemy ships by stretching a long chain from Constantinople to the small town of Pera/Galata). The course will then schematically reconstruct the various phases of the siege and the final battle, illustrating the new results that have emerged from the many years of research on the subject carried out by the chair of Byzantine Studies at Roma Tre. In particular, the fallacy of the widespread opinion according to which the victory of the Turkish army was ineluctable, due to numerical and armament superiority, or even due to the ‘will to fall’ (Braudel) of a politically ‘exhausted’ Byzantium, will be shown.
To conclude the course, presumably at the end of April, if the political circumstances in the Middle East permit, students will be offered an educational trip to Istanbul, organised in collaboration with Koç University, the Italian Cultural Institute and other official institutions in the Turkish capital. The main purpose of the stay will be to visit the main Byzantine monuments of the Polis and to present on site to the participants various elements illustrated during the lessons, as well as to offer them the opportunity to interact with their Turkish university colleagues.
- 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
Mutuazione: 20710439 STORIA E CIVILTA' BIZANTINA L.M. in Filologia, letterature e storia dell'antichità LM-15 RONCHEY SILVIA
Programme
The Fall of Constantinople (“Ci sono luoghi in cui la storia è inevitabile come un incidente automobilistico — luoghi in cui la geografia provoca la storia. Uno è Istanbul, alias Costantinopoli, alias Bisanzio”. Iosif Brodskij)The Byzantine History and Civilisation LM module, aimed at students of History of Art; Archaeology; Religions, Cultures, History; History and Society; Philology, Literature and History of Antiquity, will focus on the fall of Constantinople on 29th May 1453, after fifty-five days of siege by the Ottoman Turks, led by the young Sultan Mehmet II Fatih.
The course will first provide a brief historical overview of the Byzantine millennium, aimed at those who did not take the basic module of Byzantine Civilisation in the three-year degree. This will be followed by a topographical survey of the Byzantine capital, with a special focus on the defensive structures (the great Theodosian walls, the sea walls on the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, the walls around the imperial palace of the Blacherne; and then the harbour, whose access, in case of attack, was barred to enemy ships by stretching a long chain from Constantinople to the small town of Pera/Galata). The course will then schematically reconstruct the various phases of the siege and the final battle, illustrating the new results that have emerged from the many years of research on the subject carried out by the chair of Byzantine Studies at Roma Tre. In particular, the fallacy of the widespread opinion according to which the victory of the Turkish army was ineluctable, due to numerical and armament superiority, or even due to the ‘will to fall’ (Braudel) of a politically ‘exhausted’ Byzantium, will be shown.
To conclude the course, presumably at the end of April, if the political circumstances in the Middle East permit, students will be offered an educational trip to Istanbul, organised in collaboration with Koç University, the Italian Cultural Institute and other official institutions in the Turkish capital. The main purpose of the stay will be to visit the main Byzantine monuments of the Polis and to present on site to the participants various elements illustrated during the lessons, as well as to offer them the opportunity to interact with their Turkish university colleagues.
Core Documentation
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
Attendance
OptionalType of evaluation
Oral exam teacher profile teaching materials
The Byzantine History and Civilisation LM module, aimed at students of History of Art; Archaeology; Religions, Cultures, History; History and Society; Philology, Literature and History of Antiquity, will focus on the fall of Constantinople on 29th May 1453, after fifty-five days of siege by the Ottoman Turks, led by the young Sultan Mehmet II Fatih.
The course will first provide a brief historical overview of the Byzantine millennium, aimed at those who did not take the basic module of Byzantine Civilisation in the three-year degree. This will be followed by a topographical survey of the Byzantine capital, with a special focus on the defensive structures (the great Theodosian walls, the sea walls on the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, the walls around the imperial palace of the Blacherne; and then the harbour, whose access, in case of attack, was barred to enemy ships by stretching a long chain from Constantinople to the small town of Pera/Galata). The course will then schematically reconstruct the various phases of the siege and the final battle, illustrating the new results that have emerged from the many years of research on the subject carried out by the chair of Byzantine Studies at Roma Tre. In particular, the fallacy of the widespread opinion according to which the victory of the Turkish army was ineluctable, due to numerical and armament superiority, or even due to the ‘will to fall’ (Braudel) of a politically ‘exhausted’ Byzantium, will be shown.
To conclude the course, presumably at the end of April, if the political circumstances in the Middle East permit, students will be offered an educational trip to Istanbul, organised in collaboration with Koç University, the Italian Cultural Institute and other official institutions in the Turkish capital. The main purpose of the stay will be to visit the main Byzantine monuments of the Polis and to present on site to the participants various elements illustrated during the lessons, as well as to offer them the opportunity to interact with their Turkish university colleagues.
- 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
Mutuazione: 20710439 STORIA E CIVILTA' BIZANTINA L.M. in Filologia, letterature e storia dell'antichità LM-15 RONCHEY SILVIA
Programme
The Fall of Constantinople (“Ci sono luoghi in cui la storia è inevitabile come un incidente automobilistico — luoghi in cui la geografia provoca la storia. Uno è Istanbul, alias Costantinopoli, alias Bisanzio”. Iosif Brodskij)The Byzantine History and Civilisation LM module, aimed at students of History of Art; Archaeology; Religions, Cultures, History; History and Society; Philology, Literature and History of Antiquity, will focus on the fall of Constantinople on 29th May 1453, after fifty-five days of siege by the Ottoman Turks, led by the young Sultan Mehmet II Fatih.
The course will first provide a brief historical overview of the Byzantine millennium, aimed at those who did not take the basic module of Byzantine Civilisation in the three-year degree. This will be followed by a topographical survey of the Byzantine capital, with a special focus on the defensive structures (the great Theodosian walls, the sea walls on the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, the walls around the imperial palace of the Blacherne; and then the harbour, whose access, in case of attack, was barred to enemy ships by stretching a long chain from Constantinople to the small town of Pera/Galata). The course will then schematically reconstruct the various phases of the siege and the final battle, illustrating the new results that have emerged from the many years of research on the subject carried out by the chair of Byzantine Studies at Roma Tre. In particular, the fallacy of the widespread opinion according to which the victory of the Turkish army was ineluctable, due to numerical and armament superiority, or even due to the ‘will to fall’ (Braudel) of a politically ‘exhausted’ Byzantium, will be shown.
To conclude the course, presumably at the end of April, if the political circumstances in the Middle East permit, students will be offered an educational trip to Istanbul, organised in collaboration with Koç University, the Italian Cultural Institute and other official institutions in the Turkish capital. The main purpose of the stay will be to visit the main Byzantine monuments of the Polis and to present on site to the participants various elements illustrated during the lessons, as well as to offer them the opportunity to interact with their Turkish university colleagues.
Core Documentation
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
Attendance
OptionalType of evaluation
Oral exam