This volume considers the period of Ottoman rule in Greek history in light of changing scholarship about this era and makes it accessible for the first time to a wider audience.

This major study is a comprehensive scholarly work on a key moment in the history of Europe, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The result of years of research, it presents all available sources along with critical evaluations of these narratives. The authors have consulted texts in all relevant languages, both those that remain only in manuscript and others that have been printed, often in careless and inferior editions. Attention is also given to 'folk history' as it evolved over centuries, producing prominent myths and folktales in Greek, medieval Russian, Italian, and Turkish folklore. Part I, The Pen, addresses the complex questions introduced by this myriad of original literature and secondary sources.

The glory of the Italian Renaissance came not only from Europe's Latin heritage, but also from the rich legacy of another renaissance - the palaeologan of late Byzantium. This nexus of Byzantine and Latin cultural and ecclesiastical relations in the Renaissance and Medieval periods is the underlying theme of the diverse and far-ranging essays in Constantinople and the West.

The fifth volume of the this series examines historical events and cultural, social and political structures which were introduced between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Endorsements: This is an important contribution to the virtually non-existent history of Orthodox theology of the ""post-Patristic"" age. Mr. Ware is right in stating in his introduction that ""four centuries of Turkish rule have left -- for good or evil -- a permanent mark upon the Greek Orthodox world"" and that ""without taking into account the way Greeks thought and felt under Turkish domination, and the way their theology developed between 1453 and 1821, it is all but impossible to understand the present condition of Greek Orthodoxy."" The book begins with an extremely valuable and well-documented chapter on the general state of Orthodoxy under Islam, with a special emphasis on the relations between the Greeks and the Latins. A modern ""ecumenicist"" will discover here many puzzling facts that could help him overcome some of the current oversimplifications. Chapter 2 gives us an exhaustive biography of Argenti and in chapter 3 through 4 the main theological problems debated by Argenti -- Baptism, Eucharist, purgatory, and papacy--are presented in a clear and penetrating way. Finally, a list of Argenti's writings and a bibliography crown this scholarly book. As said above, the importance of the book goes beyond the personal case of Argenti: it helps us understand the tragedy of Eastern Orthodoxy at the time when the West was reaching the climax of its religious and cultural development. ""Squeezed"" between Latin and Protestant influences, deprived of academic centers, Orthodox theology often surrendered to pressure. Mr. Ware's point is that in the case of Argenti it avoided such a surrender and preserved its tradition from deviations and errors. -- Alexander Schmemann, St. Vladimir Seminary Quarterly 9.2 (1965) About the Contributor(s): Kallistos Ware is an English bishop within the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and one of the best-known contemporary Eastern Orthodox theologians. From 1982 he has held the Titular Bishopric of Diokleia.

Volume I discusses the history of the major Balkan nationalities. It describes the differing conditions experienced under Ottoman and Habsburg rule, but the main emphasis is on the national movements, their successes and failures to 1900, and the place of events in the Balkans in the international relations of the day.