Saving Byzantium

In this compelling, readable and revisionist book, historian Laura Bolick challenges the traditional argument that the Byzantine Empire’s fate, in the final decades of the fifteenth century, was inevitable collapse. Basing her opinion on the activities of two significant Byzantine officials, Iohannes Bessarion and Isidore of Kiev, Laura Bolick analyses the efforts that they made to galvanise the Roman Catholic west into forming a crusade that would defend Constantinople from the encroaching Ottoman Turks.

As Saving Byzantium shows, these men, the dedicated champions of Byzantium, faced formidable obstacles, notably the strong divisions between Roman Catholic Christianity in the west and Orthodox Christianity in the east. They also had to navigate mutual suspicion and indifference. The book charts their continuing efforts to surmount the difficulties in order to promote a spiritual, cultural, political and military alliance against the Ottomans.

Although the empire would eventually fall, Saving Byzantium provides a new insight into this momentous period of history and one that is sure to stimulate renewed interest and discussion.