The aim of the course is to promote the acquisition of historical and historical-cultural notions, as well as of methodological tools that allow students of the master's degree to draw on the heritage of Byzantine culture and to deal with different aspects of the Byzantine Millennium, as well as with its historical and ideological afterlife in modern and contemporary political thought.
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
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
Reference Bibliography
OPTIONAL TEXTS TO BE CHOSEN AMONG N.B. IMPORTANT. Students who have not attended the course in any way, either in presence or remotely via Teams connection or in deferred listening (carefully) to the recordings on the module's Teams platform, must bring to the examination, in addition to the mandatory texts, one or two of the texts in category B. They must agree on these in advance with the teacher, even if only by email, so that the choice is congruent with their interests and course of study and functional to their Byzantine training. The use of oral lectures, in one of the three ways indicated above, is however strongly recommended: it is less tiring and gives better results. - G. Ostrogorsky, Storia dell’impero bizantino, Einaudi Tascabili 2005 - S. Runciman, Gli ultimi giorni di Costantinopoli (trad. it.), Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 1997 - AA.VV., Il mondo bizantino. III: L’Impero greco (1204-1453), a c. di A. Laiou e C. Morrisson, edizione italiana a c. di S. Ronchey e T. Braccini, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 [chapters to be chosen together with the Professor] - P. Schreiner, Costantinopoli, metropoli dai mille volti, Roma, Salerno, 2009 - S. Ronchey – T. Braccini, Il romanzo di Costantinopoli. Guida letteraria alla Roma d’Oriente, Torino, Einaudi, 2010 [chapters to be chosen together with the Professor] - 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. Ronchey, L’enigma di Piero, Milano, BUR, 2017 - S. Ronchey, Malatesta/Paleologhi. Un’alleanza dinastica per rifondare Bisanzio nel quindicesimo secolo, “Byzantinische Zeitschrift” 93 (2000), ii, pp. 521-567 - 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, 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, 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 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
In personAttendance
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
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
Reference Bibliography
OPTIONAL TEXTS TO BE CHOSEN AMONG N.B. IMPORTANT. Students who have not attended the course in any way, either in presence or remotely via Teams connection or in deferred listening (carefully) to the recordings on the module's Teams platform, must bring to the examination, in addition to the mandatory texts, one or two of the texts in category B. They must agree on these in advance with the teacher, even if only by email, so that the choice is congruent with their interests and course of study and functional to their Byzantine training. The use of oral lectures, in one of the three ways indicated above, is however strongly recommended: it is less tiring and gives better results. - G. Ostrogorsky, Storia dell’impero bizantino, Einaudi Tascabili 2005 - S. Runciman, Gli ultimi giorni di Costantinopoli (trad. it.), Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 1997 - AA.VV., Il mondo bizantino. III: L’Impero greco (1204-1453), a c. di A. Laiou e C. Morrisson, edizione italiana a c. di S. Ronchey e T. Braccini, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 [chapters to be chosen together with the Professor] - P. Schreiner, Costantinopoli, metropoli dai mille volti, Roma, Salerno, 2009 - S. Ronchey – T. Braccini, Il romanzo di Costantinopoli. Guida letteraria alla Roma d’Oriente, Torino, Einaudi, 2010 [chapters to be chosen together with the Professor] - 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. Ronchey, L’enigma di Piero, Milano, BUR, 2017 - S. Ronchey, Malatesta/Paleologhi. Un’alleanza dinastica per rifondare Bisanzio nel quindicesimo secolo, “Byzantinische Zeitschrift” 93 (2000), ii, pp. 521-567 - 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, 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, 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 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
In personAttendance
OptionalType of evaluation
Oral exam