Encounters

The study of Byzantine coins is essentially the study of routes and communications within and outside Byzantium’s borders, of the empire’s political and socio-economic development and of its cultural relations with its eastern and western neighbours.This highly illustrated and accessible publication explores through 70 masterpieces of Byzantine, eastern and western art important aspects of medieval encounters: Byzantium’s influence on the economic practices and political ideology of medieval Europe; the complexity of religious, cultural and political relations between Byzantium and its eastern neighbours, Georgians, Armenians and the Islamic world; and the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea as routes of trade and war.

Eurydice Georganteli is a lecturer on Art History and Numismatics, Late Antique, Byzantine, and Medieval, at Harvard University. Prior to her current appointment she was the keeper of Coins at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and lecturer on Numismatics at the University of Birmingham.

Barrie Cook  is curator of Medieval and Early Modern Coinage, Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Byzantium and the West
   I. Allegiance and ambiguity; Byzantium and the early western states
   II. The edge of the world: Byzantium and Britain
   III. Rome and New Rome: Byzantium and Italy
   IV. Rivals or partners? Byzantium and the western empires
3. Byzantium in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe
   I. Scandinavia and Denmark
   II. Byzantine exports to east-central Europe
   III. Coinage and kingship in the medieval Balkans
   IV. Tradition and innovation: the case of Russia
4. Byzantium's Eastern Neighbours: Coinage and Legitimacy
   I. Byzantium and the Islamic world
   II. Byzantium’s Christian neighbours: Georgia and Armenia
5. Along the Routes of Trade and War
6. Travelling Emperors
7. Select Bibliography