The Horoscope of Emperor Baldwin II

In The Horoscope of Emperor Baldwin II Filip Van Tricht presents a microstudy of political, social and cultural life in Latin-Byzantine Constantinople and Romania. A ‘new’ set of sources is used to question the traditionally negative view of the Byzantine capital under Latin rule. Combined with an analysis of other underused historical materials, mid-13th century Latin-Byzantine Constantinople is redefined as a city that—in spite of the Western conquest during the Fourth Crusade—remained dynamic, with vibrant internal and international politics, and with interesting developments in the social, religious, artistic, and scientific spheres. Against the background of a shared Roman past the metropolis on the Bosporus became a fascinating laboratory of Latin-Byzantine interaction.

Filip Van Tricht, Ph.D. (2003), University of Ghent, is researcher at the Department of History at that university. He has authored publications on the Byzantine empire and Latin Romania in the 13th century, including The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium (Brill, 2011).

L’étude de Filip Van Tricht devait au départ n’être qu’un article. Il faut se féliciter que l’A. ait pris le parti d’en faire un livre, aussi instructif qu’agréable à lire:c’est une véritable exploration de Constantinople au milieu du xiiie siècle qui se trouve ici proposée, et le format d’un livre donne évidemment une hauteur de vue sans comparaison avec un article.
Xavier Hélary, in Comptes Rendus, Le Moyen Age , 126, (2020).