Ralph of Coggeshall's Description of Constantinople (original) (raw)
Related papers
Skarlatos Byzantios, Constantinople: an Annotated Translation, vol 1, (excerpts)
Skarlatos Byzantios, Constantinople, vol. 1, Istanbul: istos yayın, 2019
Written in 1851 – 1869, Skarlatos Byzantios' three-volume masterpiece constitutes a feat of 19th c. scholarship, presented here for the first time in an annotated English translation. Drawing on Classical, Byzantine, Western European and Ottoman sources, Constantinople covers a vast period of over two and a half millennia, from the mythical foundation of Byzantium to Skarlatos' own time. A true polyglot and a keen observer, Skarlatos guides the reader through the neighbourhoods, monuments and social practices of his native city, assisted by detailed references to major historical events, personalities and long-forgotten anecdotes. His scholarly interests span across an impressive array of disciplines: political and social history, literature, architecture, epigraphy, urban planning, demography, ethnography, art and folklore. Above all, Skarlatos is a self-avowed devotee of the City of cities.
preprint
This paper focuses on the architectural history of Constantinople during the Late Byzantine period, with particular emphasis on the housing and settlement patterns. It uncovers the predominance of wooden structures in the city's architecture, which contributed to the rapid spread of fires during historical sieges. The research reveals how the city's architecture was shaped by various historical events, including the Latin Conquest and the Ottoman conquest. The study also discusses the transformation of Constantinople's urban landscape postconquest, particularly under the Ottoman rule, highlighting changes in housing styles and urban development. This research offers a nuanced understanding of the architectural and urban evolution of Constantinople in the Late Byzantine and passage to early Ottoman periods. The walled area of Constantinople is about 13 square km and was never fully inhabited until the 20 th century. The existence of vineyards, farms and vacant lands within the city is mentioned during the Komnenos Dynasty (1081-1185) in the 12th century.1 Almost all travelers who described the period from the 12 th century to the conquest of Constantinople shared similar impressions. Historians based on these sources, on the other hand, attributed this situation to the destruction brought by the IV Crusade. First of all, I find it useful to take a look at the travelogues from which the source is taken. I will return to this topic later. 12 th Century The Frenchman Odon de Deuil, who shared his impressions of the 12 th century, was in Constantinople in 1147 and shared highly critical views about the Blakarnai Palace and the city's water network. The water of the cisterns is salty and smelly. The interior of the city is dirty, disgusting and full of garbage. In many places it is written: "Darkness reigns as if it were night. There is no draft inside. The streets, where the houses of the rich are overflowing, have been left to the poor and strangers."There are large cultivated lands in the city.2
Viewing the Unknown in Eighth-Century Constantinople
Gesta, 2017
This article discusses the value of unknown monuments as construed by the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, a catalogue of the monuments of Constantinople compiled, according to some scholars, in the eighth century. I contend that the Para-staseis imagines the topography of Constantinople as one composed of nodes of the unknown. I further argue that these unknown spaces and monuments articulated the city's links to its ancient-if forgotten-past and thus played a critical role as markers of urban and historical continuity. In particular, ancient statues were associated with the longevity of the Byzan-tine Empire in a way that holy icons were not, because the former had never been subjected to the atrocities and debates regarding their validity that the latter had during Iconoclasm.