This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
I accept this policy
Find out more here
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
I accept this policy
Find out more here
Brill’s MyBook program is exclusively available on BrillOnline Books and Journals. Students and scholars affiliated with an institution that has purchased a Brill E-Book on the BrillOnline platform automatically have access to the MyBook option for the title(s) acquired by the Library. Brill MyBook is a print-on-demand paperback copy which is sold at a favorably uniform low price.
The picture of court life in the reconquered Constantinople, which is generally regarded as representative of the whole of the late Byzantine period from the late thirteenth century to 1453, is based on the one surviving text from the period after 1204 that contains descriptions of ceremonies, the so-called Treatise on the court titles by the anonymous author known as Pseudo-Kodinos. The author of this chapter argues that the modern portrayal of a reduced and impoverished ceremonial and court life, does not rely so much on the text of Pseudo- Kodinos itself, as on expectations and preconceptions created by the tenth-century Book of Ceremonies. One important difference in the two works is: the Book of Ceremonies is antiquarian, while the Treatise presents living ceremony, protocols that reflect ceremonies that were being performed in the mid fourteenth century.
Keywords: Book of Ceremonies; fourteenth century Constantinople; late Byzantine period; Pseudo-Kodinos; Treatise on the court titles