The Fall of Constantinople: 1453

By Steven Runciman
Published by Cambridge University Press

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US$20.80

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Byzantine Music CD

'The Fall of Constantinople'

Byzantine Chant & Polyphony C.1453
Motets by Guillaume Dufay

Alexander Lingas with Capella Romana

From the publisher:

This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a seige of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis.
Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last.

To the Greeks, the conquest meat the end of the civilisation of Byzantium and led to the exodus of scholars which in turn led to the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

'This is a marvel of learning lightly worn' The Guardian