The Erotokritos

[Longovicium]

The post was shared on Facebook and I wasn't sure if anyone here would be interested in the illustrations shown in the post?

http://medievalswordmanship.wordpress.co...o-kornaro/

I know it is from a later period but the details and poses are quite captivating!

[Vindex]

Some interesting depictions of horse colours too.

[Condottiero Magno]

Will this work be available in English, with a detailed commentary?

[Longovicium]

I only know it through a share on Facebook so cannot say, alas.

[Lyceum]

Will this work be available in English, with a detailed commentary?

Eh, its a well known work for those dealing with early modern Greek texts, the Venetian empire and so on. The pictures are nice but...to use them as evidence of anything Byzantine is very disingenuous considering everything. The text itself comes from a reasonably complex intellectual milieu. Quite a few people want to try and stress the (nearly non existent) Cretan folk elements but the truth it is very much is a product of European Romance and can be absolutely jarring if you're not familiar with the genre. The genre itself became quite popular, near all consuming actually, within Greek letters and would eventually inspire the Greek novel. There actually has been quite a lot of work done on the Erotokritos, the Panoria, The King of Rhodes and other Romances but you're much better off picking up something like Tyrant Lo Blanche or, if you want something actually Byzantine, Digenes Akrites.

[Urselius]

The illustrations remind me strongly of those in Mameluke military writings. They are probably reasonably accurate depictions of the lighter cavalry found in SE Europe from 1450-1650.

[Condottiero Magno]

I only know it through a share on Facebook so cannot say, alas.

Found out that an English prose translation of Vitsentzos Kornaros' Erotokritos, with a scholarly introduction and notes, but probably lacking illustrations, is available through the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies for AU$48 including international postage.

[Longovicium]

Thanks - another book for my wish list!

I have just received the Epic Histories or Buzandaran Patmut'iwnk' which will take up a good chunk of my free reading time in the foreseeable future . . .