Cardinal Isidore (c.1390-1462): A Late Byzantine Scholar, Warlord, and Prelate / Edition 1

by Marios Philippides, Walter K. Hanak

Overview

A member of the imperial Palaiologan family, albeit most probably illegitimate, Isidore became a scholar at a young age and began his rise in the Byzantine ecclesiastical ranks. He was an active advocate of the union of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in Constantinople. His military exploits, including his participation in the defence of Constantinople in 1453, provide us with eyewitness accounts. Without doubt he travelled widely, perhaps more so than any other individual in the annals of Byzantine history: Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Italy. His roles included diplomat, high ecclesiastic in both the Orthodox and Catholic churches, theologian, soldier, papal emissary to the Constantinopolitan court, delegate to the Council of Florence, advisor to the last Byzantine emperors, metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia, and member of the Vatican curia.

This is an original work based on new archival research and the first monograph to study Cardinal Isidore in his many diverse roles. His contributions to the events of the first six decades of the quattrocento are important for the study of major Church councils and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Isidore played a crucial role in each of these events.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815379829
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/12/2018
Pages:	434
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marios Philippides is Professor of Classics, Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. He has published numerous articles on the fall of Constantinople, 1453, on late Byzantine and early post-Byzantine historiography, and on the Palaiologan era. He has authored numerous books and two books with Walter K. Hanak.

Walter K. Hanak was Professor of History, Emeritus at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA. He was the editor and publisher of the scholarly journal Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines for many decades. He has published numerous articles on medieval Greece, Russia, and the Slavonic word. He was the author of a number of books and collaborated with Marios Philippides in the publication of two books.

Table of Contents

1. The rise of Isidore 2. Isidore and the Council of Basle 3. The rise of Isidore and the Council of Ferrara-Florence 4. The papal emissary 5. Defender, humanist, and survivor 6. Cretan interlude 7. Il Cardinal Greco Vecchio: The last years 8. Conclusions: Damnatio Memoriae? Appendix Bibliography Index Personum Index Locorum Index Rerum Antiquarum

Editorial Reviews

"The collection of sources presented here, the thorough presentation of primary and secondary evidence about every facet of Isidore’s life and times, and the erudition of the authors, who are renowned authorities on the late Palaiologan period and the siege of 1453, make this book a signal contribution to the history of the fifteenth-century Mediterranean." - Tia Kolbaba, Rutgers University

From the Publisher