The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona

By Liudprand of Cremona and Liudprand Bishop of Cremona Liudprand

Book Overview

This modern English translation of all the surviving literary compositions ascribed to Liudprand, the bishop of Cremona from 962 to 972, offers unrivaled insight into society and culture in western Europe during the "iron century." Since Liudprand enjoyed the favor of the Saxon Roman emperor Otto the Great, and traveled to Constantinople more than once on official business, his narratives also reveal European attitudes toward the Byzantine Empire and the culture of its refined capital city. No other tenth-century writer had such privileged access to the high spheres of power, or such acerbic wit and willingness to articulate critiques of the doings of powerful people. Liudprand's historical texts (the Antapodosis on European events in the first half of the 900s, and his Historia Ottonis on the rise to power of Otto the Great) provide a unique view of the recent past against a genuinely European backdrop, unusual in a time of localized cultural horizons. Liudprand's famous satirical description of his misadventures as Ottonian legate at the Byzantine court in 968 is a vital source of information on Byzantine ritual and diplomatic process, as well as a classic of medieval intercultural encounter. This collection of Liudprand's works also includes his recently discovered Easter sermon, a rare early document of Jewish-Christian intellectual polemic. Readers interested in medieval European culture, the history of diplomacy, Italian and German medieval history, and the history of Byzantium will find this collection of translated texts rewarding. A full introduction and extensive notes help readers to place Liudprand's writings in context.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813215064
• ISBN13: 9780813215068
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Relevance in Obscurity

This is a quaint and charming book full of the obscure history of the Dark Ages. Liudprand, the writer, was a churchman in an Italy that had recently been overrun by waves of German invaders -- Lombards and Franks -- and integrated into the great feudalistic German Empire that then dominated central Europe. This book has an introduction by the English historian John Julius Norwich, who probably came across Liudprand's writings when he was doing research for his own history of the Byzantine Empire. Indeed it is Luidprand's account of his embassy to Constantinople that is the most fascinating and cohesive part of this book, as he expresses the manly contempt of the semi-civilized barbarian for the servile, effete, and overcivilized Byzantines. In the light of recent events, it is easy to draw parallels between the German Empire, the Byzantines, and the threat posed to Christendom by expansionary Islam, on the one hand, and the United States, 'Old Europe,' and the threat to democracy posed by terrorism and tyranny, on the other. In other words, no matter how obscure it may seem, we can learn a lot form this period of history too.One criticism I have is that the editors have not bothered to give a clear chronological framework, so that the year in which the events described occur is left up to one's imagination.