The Byzantine Empire. “Second Rome.” A great state, the cradle of Orthodoxy, a center of high culture? Tyranny that mercilessly ruled many conquered peoples,...

Mediterranean. Cradle of Civilizations. Here East and West, Islam and Christianity collided more than once. Here is the history of the Mediterranean - from t...

Sir John Julius Norwich is one of the most famous British historians, a specialist in the Italian Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the author of the best-sel...

The book tells of the rise and short-lived greatness of the House of Hauteville. About how in one generation the sons of Tancred turned from small landowners...

The book tells how, in search of glory and fortune, the Normans arrived in the south of Italy, where Sicily languished under the rule of the Saracens, torn a...

“Sicily is the key to everything,” said Goethe. It is the largest island in the Mediterranean. It is an intermediary between Europe and Africa. It is the gat...

Anyone who has read Shakespeare’s immortal “chronicle plays” is sure: King Edward III was a model of nobility, Richard III was an unprincipled murderer, the ...

“Queen of the Seas” Venice. She went from boundless power and wealth to decline and destruction. The luxury that reigned among the doges was amazing, and the...

The greatness of Byzantium lay in the “triple fusion” of the Roman body, the Greek mind and the mystical eastern spirit (R. Byron). The Byzantines were a hig...

The book details the history of Venice, from the city's founding in the 5th century and its unique status as one of the most powerful city-states in the worl...

The Byzantine Empire. “Second Rome.” A great state, the cradle of Orthodoxy, a center of high culture? Tyranny that mercilessly ruled many conquered peoples,...