The problem, the difficulty or the impossibility of maintaining the breath of speech is a feature that links some of Cardinal Bessarion’s exhortations to promote a crusade against the Ottoman advance, occurring particularly at the points where the narrative touches upon the crimes that the Turks commit against the Christian people and, in particular, the…
This paper explores the Slavic translations of occasional hymns and prayers by Patriarch Philotheus Kokkinos in the making of the Norteastern Rus’ political theology (e.g., against pagans; internal conflicts and foreign threats; when departing the city for battle, etc.). Despite their significance, these translations have received little scholarly attention. This oversight is especially striking given…
Overall, not much attention has been paid to relations between Byzantium and the Late Medieval Iberian Peninsula. In particular, the Crown of Castile and its political, diplomatic, cultural, religious, or social contacts with the Empire of Constantinople remain especially neglected. It is often assumed that mutual interest was minimal, and that the considerable geographical distance…
This paper explores how George Amiroutzes, a prominent late Byzantine intellectual and former protovestiarios of the Empire of Trebizond, contributed to the transformation of Byzantine theological discourse within the new political and religious framework of the Ottoman court. After the Ottoman conquest of Trebizond in 1461, Amiroutzes became a court advisor to Sultan Mehmed II…