F/S: Schlumberger. BYZANTINE EMPIRE

[Ron Lieberman/Family Album]

RAD/RAW Rarity of the Day/Week

MAGNIFICENT FRENCH HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Gustave Leon Schlumberger (1844-1929)

L'EPOPEE BYZANTINE A LA FIN DU DIXIEME SIECLE

I: GUERRES CONTRE LES RUSSES, LES ARABES, LES ALLEMANDS, LES
BULGARES, LUTTES, CIVILES, CONTRE, LES DEUX BARDAS, JEAN
TZIMISCES, LES JEUNES ANNEES DE BASILE II, LE TUEUR DE BULGARES
II: BASILE II, LE TUEUR DE BULGARES.
III: LES PORPHYROGENETES ZOE ET THEODORA

Hachette & Co., (Paris): 1896; 1900; 1905

Three volumes. Thick large 4to. 29 cm. pp. viii, 802; vi, 668;
viii, 846 + Plates, maps, facsimiles. Approximately 700
illustrations in text. Titles printed in colors. Original
publisher's full cloth bindings. Mildly XLib. First edition.

For more than a thousand years (until the conquest of
Constantinople by the Turks in 1453), Byzantium dominated the
Eastern world, and influenced much of Western Europe.

Until the modern scholarship of such researchers as Schlumberger,
the best source for the intricate history of this millennia was
the Byzantine historian Procopius (d. 565?). Born in Palestine,
e accompanied Belisarius on his campaigns as his secretary, and
later he commanded the imperial navy, and served (562) as prefect
of Constantinople. His chief works are generally deal with the
wars against the Goths, Vandals, and Persians, and include a
Secret History, which is largely a scandalous and salacious court
chronicle. His descriptions of social and religious customs
among the barbarians are very valuable, but his histories are
marred by his violent personal prejudices in favor of Belisarius
and against Empress Theodora.

Schlumberger tells his tale using the vast range of Byzantine art
as a guide. Great mosaic decoration brought this art to an
unprecedented level. Mosaics were applied to the domes, half-
domes, and other available surfaces of Byzantine churches in an
established hierarchical order. Smaller pieces were adorned with
an astonishing variety of mosaics, jewels, enamels, ivory,
precious metals, silks, and other embellishments. The
development of Byzantine painting can be seen, not only in
devotional works, but in their manuscript illumination. The
architecture of the Byzantine Empire was based on the great
legacy of Roman design and technique. The 5th-century basilica
of St. John of the Studion, the oldest surviving church in
Constantinople, is an early example of Byzantine reliance upon
traditional Roman models. The most imposing achievement of
Byzantine architecture is the Church of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia
Sophia. Although many of the important buildings in
Constantinople have been destroyed, impressive examples are still
extant throughout the provinces and on the outer fringes of the
empire, notably in Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Italy, and Sicily.

Much of this historical text deals with the Emperors and
Empresses of the East: Joannes I (Zimiskes) (d. 976); Basilius II
(Bulgaroktonos) (d. 1025); Zoe (978-1050?); and Theodora (d.
1056). Of these, we (and many other modern readers) are
especially attracted to Zoe and Theodora.

Zoe was the daughter and successor of Constantine VIII. She
first married when she was 50 years old at the request of her
father to insure stability in the empire. Her husband, Romanus
III, soon neglected her and, in 1034, was murdered, probably by
Zoe and her lover Michael. That same evening she married
Michael, and he became Emperor Michael IV. He and his elder
brother John, a eunuch of the court, eliminated Zoe from state
affairs. On Michael's death (1041), his nephew, Michael V, became
joint ruler with Zoe. He promptly exiled his uncle and banished
Zoe to a convent. The people rose in rebellion; Zoe was
recalled, and Michael was blinded and banished. At the same time
Zoe's younger sister, Theodora, was crowned joint empress.

Under their rule the Byzantine court was full of sex and scandal,
but nonetheless - brilliant. The chief event of this remarkable
period was the final schism between the Eastern Church and the
Western Church, brought about by the attacks of Michael
Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, on the papacy and by the
attacks of the legates of Pope Leo IX on the patriarchate.

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Ron Lieberman / The Family Album / ABAA
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"Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing.
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enameling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake,
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come"
-- W. B. Yeats