Greece Reinvented: Transformations of Byzantine Hellenism in Renaissance Italy (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9789004297555)

Greece Reinvented discusses the transformation of Byzantine Hellenism as the cultural elite of Byzantium, displaced to Italy, constructed it. It explores why and how Byzantine migrants such as Cardinal Bessarion, Ianus Lascaris, and Giovanni Gemisto adopted Greek personas to replace traditional Byzantine claims to the heirship of ancient Rome. In Greece Reinvented, Han Lamers shows that being Greek in the diaspora was both blessing and burden, and explores how these migrants' newfound 'Greekness' enabled them to create distinctive positions for themselves while promoting group cohesion. These Greek personas reflected Latin understandings of who the Greeks 'really' were but sometimes also undermined Western paradigms. Greece Reinvented reveals some of the cultural tensions that bubble under the surface of the much-studied transmission of Greek learning from Byzantium to Italy.

Author: Han Lamers
ISBN-10: 9004297553
ISBN-13: 9789004297555
Publisher: Brill
Language: English
Published: 11/20/2015
Pages: 398
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.00d