The Sound of Byzantium

Essays, imagery, and an illustrated dictionary for the instruments of the Byzantine era.

More than one hundred color plates accompany essays on representations of musical instruments in Byzantine iconography and literature and account for their uses in state ceremonies of the Middle and Late Byzantine periods. The contributors explore the musical instruments in Byzantine sources and evaluate their importance for specific themes in Byzantine traditions. Innovative and insightful, this comprehensive volume also contains a dictionary of musical instruments, accompanied by original drawings specially prepared for this publication.