From Library Journal
After 35 years that witnessed the explosion of information on virtually every subject, we are in the age of synthesis: encyclopedias and dictionaries abound. With the recent 12-volume Dictionary of the Middle Ages ( LJ 2/1/83) and the older one-volume Oxford Classical Dictionary ( LJ 5/1/71. 2d ed.), this forms a trio of essential resources. The 100 contributors, many of them distinguished experts, have succeeded in their "attempt to collect within a single work data concerning all fields of Byzantine studies." The 5000-plus entries provide authoritative coverage not only of "traditional" topics such as art and architecture, basilica, agriculture, chronology, geography, literature, medicine, military strategy, science, and theology, but also many facets of everyday life--baths, clocks, houses, locks and padlocks, etc. The social historian will be especially pleased with the entries on abortion, childbirth, criminal procedure, food and diet, homosexuality, marriage and the family, names, prostitution, and slavery. The editor deserves special thanks for the uniformly lucid and readable style, for the clear illustrations, and for the useful maps, though the captions are not very informative. Three caveats: many terms appear only in Greek transliteration without adequate definition or explanation; the bibliographies are often skimpy; and the genealogical tables lack the emperors' regnal years. Still, this will endure as the first book the beginning student or the advanced scholar will reach for on the 1100-year history of Byzantium. Academic, large public, and research libraries must acquire this treasure.
-Bennett D. Hill, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"This reference work is a major event for Byzantine studies....This is a remarkable accomplishment, one that both specialists and the educated public will find useful."--Speculum"An indispensable reference tool for Byzantinists and Western medievalists, as well as an authoritative source for the more casual reader."--Religious Studies Review"A landmark achievement that has no peer....Can be recommended wholeheartedly as an indispensable reference work of great worth."--Missiology"The editor deserves special thanks for the uniformly lucid and readable style, for the clear illustrations, and for the useful maps....This will endure as the first book the beginning student or the advanced scholar will reach for on the 1100-year history of Byzantium. Academic, large public, and research libraries must acquire this treasure."--Library Journal"The student of religion and the theologian will find much of interest throughout these three tomes."--Theological Studies"A necessary addition for college and university libraries at all levels."--CHOICE"A magnificent project and will prove to be one of the most significant scholarly resources in the last quarter of the 20th century."--Review & Expositor"Throughout there is a welcome attention to realia and to daily life....The ODB now joins the OCD and the ODCC as an essential reference work for every academic or public library."--Religious Studies Review"No respectable library can afford to forgo the immediate purchase of the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, because it will be cited throughout the world, as the scholarly reference on all matters Byzantine."--Biblical Archaeology Review"Satisfies a long-felt need for a comprehensive reference work on the Eastern empire....There is no other reference work that covers the Byzantine world as thoroughly as the ODB....An essential purchase for academic collections supporting curricula in art history or medieval studies."--RBB/Booklist"The diversity is quite remarkable....The whole scholarly world is in debt to its editors and contributors."--Church History"The absorbing story of the Byzantine world...is at long last provided with a standard encyclopedia of large size and high quality. This Oxford Press masterpiece runs to nearly 2300 pages."--Henry Chadwick, Church Times"A major breakthrough....A tour de force....The last question posed by these magnificent volumes is the most insistent of all. Spending as I do a good deal of my time writing about Byzantium, how did I ever manage without them?"--John Julius Norwich, The Daily Telegraph"One would be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive dictionary than this one on Byzantine history and civilization....An incredibly useful and interesting reference work. Highly recommended."--Reference Book Review"Obviously Byzantine scholarship can only derive unprecedented benefit from a dictionary of this scale and magnitude."--Times Literary Supplement"Important for the institutional, intellectual, liturgical, and artistic development and achievements of Eastern Christianity."--ADRIS Newsletter"Opens up to the light of day a subject still too often shrouded in prejudice and half-knowledge. It effectively sets out a cultural history of Byzantium, in an attractive and accessible format...[I]t will make teaching Byzantium on a wider scale a real possibility."--Times Higher Education Supplement"You may find it hard to put down. It's well-written, superbly edited and includes genealogical tables, chronologies, maps, architectural plans and many black-and-white photographs of churches, icons, paintings, manuscripts, illuminations, coins and other cultural objects."--The Canberra Times"This volume is a great boon to Byzantinists and all who deal with Byzantine sources; it will promote interdisciplinary work by making the state of research in this fascinating but complex field more readily accessible."--The Classical Journal"A landmark in scholarship."--Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History"Like all Oxford works, this reference work will be a valuable and welcome addition to every institutional library."--Currents in Theology and Mission"Scholars in various humanistic disciplines anxious to broaden their horizons could profit enormously from access to such a reference work."--Religious Studies Review"Ambitious...It tackles new fields which have yet to be studied seriously...A useful work of reference for students of Byzantine Studies at all levels."--Mary Cuningham Corran"An achievement in itself and the presence of A. Cutler as editor for art history augurs well for the venture which in its editor-in-chief, has, perhaps the most fertile and profoundly original mind at work in Byzantine studies today."--Journal of Ecclesiastical History"The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, the first dictionary entirely devoted to Byzantium, is not just a welcome addition to the growing number of works on the Empire. It has the rare virtue of providing historians with an updated account of the state of research, while at the same [time] opening the Byzantine field to the student and the inquisitive layman. An impressive interdisciplinary work...which deserves full credit for its initiative....A remarkable achievement. It will undoubtedly serve as a standard reference work not only for those directly concerned with Byzantium, but also for classicists, archaeologists, historians of art and religion, as well as those dealing with the medieval West, Islam, and the Slavic, Armenian, and Turkic peoples. It is an indispensable tool of learning that should be available in any scholarly or public library."--Mediterranean Historical Review Book Description
The most comprehensive source of information on the 1100-year civilization that bridged the ancient and modern worlds. Now at its lowest price ever, what ancient history buff can do without The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium?
About the Author
Alexander P. Kazhdan is at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C..
