Alexiad
Sign in to saveThe Alexiad () is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, thus providing a significant account on the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. Among other topics, the Alexiad documents the Byzantine Empire's interaction with the Crusades and highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century. It do
Book · Open Library
- Author
- Anna Comnena
- First published
- 1610
- Editions
- 70
- Subjects
- Crusades, History, Alexius I Comnenus, Emperor of the East, 1048-1118., Asian / Middle Eastern history: BCE to c 500 CE, Biography: general, Other prose: classical, early & medieval, History: World, Byzantine Empire
via Open Library
Key facts
- Book.author
- Anna Komnene
- Book.name
- Alexiad
- Book.language
- Attic Greek
- Book.country
- Byzantine Empire
- Book.genre
- Historiography, biography
- Book.image
- Anna comnena, alexiade, forse da costantinopoli, XII secolo (pluteo 70.2).jpg
- Book.caption
- 12th-century manuscript of the Alexiad in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
- Book.image_size
- 280px
- Book.title_orig
- Ἀλεξιάς
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
18 sectionsContents
- Structure
- Themes
- Narrative style
- Influences
- Bias
- Questions of Authorship
- Representations of Emotion
- Writing Style
- Manuscripts
- Published editions
- Greek original
- Translations
- English
- Other
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Alexiad () is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, thus providing a significant account on the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. Among other topics, the Alexiad documents the Byzantine Empire's interaction with the Crusades and highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century. It does not mention the schism of 1054 – a topic which is very common in contemporary writing. It documents firsthand the decline of Byzantine cultural influence in eastern and western Europe, particularly in the West's increasing involvement in its geographic sphere. The Alexiad was paraphrased in vernacular medieval Greek in mid-14th century to increase its readability, which testifies to the work's lasting interest.
==Structure==