Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, C. 680-850: A History

Leslie Brubaker, John Haldon

Cambridge University Press, Jan 6, 2011 - Art - 918 pages

Iconoclasm, the debate about the legitimacy of religious art that began in Byzantium around 720 and continued for nearly one hundred and twenty years, has long held a firm grip on the historical imagination. This is the first book in English for over fifty years to survey this most elusive and fascinating period in medieval history. It is also the first book in any language to combine the expertise of two authors who are specialists in the written, archaeological and visual evidence from this period, a combination of particular importance to the iconoclasm debate. The authors have worked together to provide a comprehensive overview of the visual, written and other materials that together help clarify the complex issues of iconoclasm in Byzantium. In doing so they challenge many traditional assumptions about iconoclasm and set the period firmly in its broader political, cultural and social-economic context.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Belief ideology and practice in a changing world: 9
• iconoclastoropportunist? 69: 69
• Conclusions 151: 151
• The triumph of tradition? The iconophile intermission: 248
• Thesecondiconoclasm 366: 366
• Economysocietyandstate 453: 453
• urbanandrurallife 531: 531
• Socialelitesandthecourt 573: 573
• Societypoliticsandpower 625: 625
• Fiscalmanagementandadministration 665: 665
• Strategic administration and the origins of the themata 723: 723
• Iconoclasmrepresentationandrewritingthepast 772: 772
• Sources 800: 800
• Literature 815: 815
• Index 907: 907

About the author

Leslie Brubaker is Professor of Byzantine Art and Director of the Graduate School (College of Arts and Law) at the University of Birmingham. Her previous publications include Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (1999) and, with John Haldon, Byzantium in the Era of Iconoclasm: The Sources (2001). She has edited Byzantium in the Ninth Century: Dead or Alive? (1998) and coedited, with Robert Osterhout, The Sacred Image East and West (1995) and, with Julia M. H. Smith, Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900 (2004).
John Haldon is Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. His previous publications include Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture (1990; rev. edn 1997) and Byzantium: A History (2000). He has edited The Social History of Byzantium: Problems and Perspectives (2008) and coedited, with Elizabeth Jeffreys and Robin Cormack, The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies (2008).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, C. 680-850: A History
• Authors: Leslie Brubaker, John Haldon
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0521430933, 9780521430937
• Length: 918 pages
• Subjects: Art / History / Medieval; History / Europe / General; History / Europe / Medieval