Madrid Skylitzes

Madrid Skylitzes
Scene from the Battle of Shirimni; the army of Basil II defeating George I of Georgia
AuthorJohn Skylitzes
Original titleΣύνοψις Ἱστοριῶν
LanguageMedieval Greek
GenreHistoriography
Publication date12th century

The Madrid Skylitzes is a 12th-century illuminated manuscript version of the Synopsis of Histories (Greek: Σύνοψις Ἱστοριῶν) by John Skylitzes, which covers the reigns of the Byzantine emperors from the death of Nicephorus I in 811 to the deposition of Michael VI in 1057. The manuscript was produced at the Norman court of Palermo in Sicily (although there is some debate on whether the main body was made in Palermo or Constantinople) and is now housed in the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid. It remains the only preserved Greek-language illustrated chronicle from the Byzantine period. The chronicle includes 574 miniatures detailing depictions of everyday life in the Byzantine Empire such as boats, literary practices, sieges, and ceremonies, in "both purely Byzantine and Western styles".

Images

References

  1. ↑ Byzantine Greek: [ˈsy̜.nop.sis is.to.riˈon]
  1. 1 2 Sussex Centre for Byzantine Cultural History, University of Sussex. "The Madrid Skylitzes Project". www.sussex.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  2. ↑ Oikonomides, Nicolas; Zachariadou, Elizabeth (2023). "The Costume of the Eparch and the Madrid Skylitzes". Society, Culture and Politics in Byzantium. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-93933-0.
  3. ↑ Macrides, Ruth (2016). "Engaging the Byzantine past: strategies of visualizing history in Sicily and Bulgaria". History as Literature in Byzantium. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-93064-2.
  4. ↑ Tsamakda, Vasiliki (2000). "The Miniatures of the Madrid Skylitzes". academia. p. 127. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Evans, Helen C. & Wixom, William D. (1997). The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261, p. 438. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-8109-6507-2. Retrieved 8 September 2023.

Bibliography