Bibliotheca historica et ficta - Libarary of History and fiction
I am not going to post any reviews or give my opinions, just post the titles I have read
Non fiction - History
‘Charles V: Duty and Dynasty - The Emperor and his Changing World 1500-1558'
https://www.emperorcharlesv.com/duty-and-dynasty/
'Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy'
Michael Mallett's classic study of Renaissance warfare in Italy is as relevant today as it was when it was first published a generation ago. His lucid account of the age of the condottieri - the mercenary captains of fortune - and of the soldiers who fought under them is set in the wider context of the Italian society of the time and of the warring city-states who employed them. A fascinating picture emerges of the mercenaries themselves, of their commanders and their campaigns, but also of the way in which war was organized and practised in the Renaissance world. The book concentrates on the fifteenth century, a confused period of turbulence and transition when standing armies were formed in Italy and more modern types of military organisation took hold across Europe. But it also looks back to the middle ages and the fourteenth century, and forward to the Italian wars of the sixteenth century when foreign armies disputed the European balance of power on Italian soil. Michael Mallett's pioneering study, which embodies much scholarly research into this neglected, often misunderstood subject, is essential reading for any one who is keen to understand the history of warfare in the late medieval period and the Renaissance.
'Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond, 1500–1700'
In the early modern world three dominant cultures of war were shaped by a synergy of their internal and external interactions. One was Latin Christian western Europe. Another was Ottoman Islam. The third, no less vital for so often being overlooked, was east-central Europe: Poland/Lithuania, Livonia, Russia, the freebooting Cossacks, a volatile mix of variations on a general Christian theme.
'The Art of Renaissance Warfare: From the Fall of Constantinople to the Thirty Years War'
This story of the knight in the Middle Ages explores the effect of new technologies with highly illustrated, and with 16 pages of colour plates. "The Art of Renaissance Warfare" tells the story of the knight during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries - from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618. The period was a time of transition and innovation: a time, perhaps, when both military technology and military thinking were moving forward in accomplishment and backwards in morality. It was also a period that has provided fertile ground for the identification of a 'military revolution'. New technology on the battlefield posed deadly challenges for the mounted warrior, but it also stimulated change, and the knight moved with the times. Having survived the longbow devastation at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, he emerged triumphant, his armour lighter and more effective, and his military skills honed. From the eerie spectacle of a bristling 'hedgehog' of Swiss pikemen oozing its way across the battlefield, to the gargantuan cannon that breached the walls of Constantinople and required seventy oxen to move it, the developments in medieval warfare detailed in this book provide intriguing reading. Fighting was also conducted at sea, the lot of a typical oarsman being so arduous that a recruiting drive in Venice in 1522 offered, among other inducements, freedom for life from personal taxation, training in firearms, permission to wear personal arms (a coveted privilege), and freedom from prosecution for debt during galley service and for six months afterwards. This is a remarkably informative and entertaining book that will appeal to anyone interested in how battles were fought and won in the Dark Ages. Stephen Turnbull is an Honorary Research Fellow at Leeds University, and the author of more than fifty books on the military history of Europe and the Far East.
'The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe'
In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna.
'The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe'
The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last Muslim Conquest transforms our understanding of the Ottoman Empire, showing how Ottoman statecraft was far more pragmatic and sophisticated than previously acknowledged, and how the Ottoman dynasty was a crucial player in the power struggles of early modern Europe. In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Gábor Ágoston captures the grand sweep of Ottoman history, from the dynasty's stunning rise to power at the turn of the fourteenth century to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, which brought an end to Ottoman incursions into central Europe. He discusses how the Ottoman wars of conquest gave rise to the imperial rivalry with the Habsburgs, and brings vividly to life the intrigues of sultans, kings, popes, and spies. Ágoston examines the subtler methods of Ottoman conquest, such as dynastic marriages and the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Ottoman administration, and argues that while the Ottoman Empire was shaped by Turkish, Iranian, and Islamic influences, it was also an integral part of Europe and was, in many ways, a European empire. Rich in narrative detail, The Last Muslim Conquest looks at Ottoman military capabilities, frontier management, law, diplomacy, and intelligence, offering new perspectives on the gradual shift in power between the Ottomans and their European rivals and reframing the old story of Ottoman decline.
'Cross and Crescent in the Balkans: The Ottoman Conquest of Southeastern Europe (14th - 15th Centuries)'
This is NOT just another retelling of the Fall of Constantinople, though it does include a very fine account of that momentous event. It is the history of a quite extraordinary century and a bit which began when a tiny of force of Ottoman Turkish warriors was invited by the Christian Byzantine Emperor to cross the Dardanelles from Asia into Europe to assist him in one of the civil wars which were tearing the fast-declining Byzantine Empire apart. One hundred and eight years later the Byzantine capital of Constantinople fell to what was by then a hugely powerful and expanding empire of the Islamic Ottoman Turks, whose rulers came to see themselves as the natural and legitimate heirs of their Byzantine and indeed Roman predecessors. The book sets the scene, explains the background and tells the story, both military, political, cultural and personal, of the winners and the losers, plus those 'outsiders' who were increasingly being drawn into the dramatic story of the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
'Europe: Serbian Despotate of Srem and the Romanian Area: Between the 14th and the 16th Centuries'
After arrival of Ottomans many Serbian of Serbias nobility was concentrated in Srem region or Hungary. This the era of sharing Serbian culture and historical experiance in the neibouring areas.
'Banditry in the Medieval Balkans, 800-1500'
Explores the history of banditry in the medieval Balkans between the ninth and fifteenth centuries
Identifies three main sources of banditry: shepherds, soldiers and peasants
Examines bandits themselves, their origins, their reasons for taking up brigandage, and the steps taken by the central authorities to control their activity
'The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453 (Byzantium: A European Empire and Its Legacy)'
This book represents the first attempt to analyze historical and cultural developments in late medieval and early modern southeastern Europe as a set of mutually intertwined regional histories, burdened by the strong dichotomy between the almighty center-Constantinople-and the periphery that is rarely visible in both contemporary sources and modern scholarship. This mosaic of original studies is devoted to various regions of the Byzantine Balkans and their historical, artistic, and ideological idiosyncrasies, mirroring the complex character and composite and fragmented structure of this vast region. The focal points of the book are the two captures of Constantinople in 1204 and 1453, and the contributors analyze the significance of these catastrophic events on the political destiny of medieval Balkan societies, the mechanisms of adapting to the new political order, and the ever-present interconnectedness of a lower, regional elite across southeastern Europe that had remained strong even after the Ottoman conquest.
'Sylvester Syropoulos on Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-Century Mediterranean: Themes and Problems in the Memoirs, Section IV: 16 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies)'
The Memoirs of Sylvester Syropoulos is a text written by a Î’yzantine ecclesiastical official in the 15th century. Syropoulos participated in the Council for the union of the Greek and Latin Churches held in Ferrara and Florence, Italy, in 1438-1439. As a high-ranking official and an eye-witness of the union, he offers a unique perspective on this important political and religious event that would so decisively contribute to the political, military and religious development of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. Experts in different fields - historians, philologists, art historians and archaeologists - have come together in this volume to explore the actions and motives of the various political and religious groups that participated in the council. With Syropoulos as their starting point, the contributors of this volume reconstruct the living conditions, cross-cultural interaction, artistic and commercial exchange in the 15th-century Mediterranean. At the same time, they discuss the text as an invaluable source for political and diplomatic affairs at that time, as a travel account, an eye-witness narrative and as a literary work. Emphasis is placed on Syropoulos’s Section IV where he describes the journey of the Byzantine delegation from Constantinople to Italy, their stay in Venice and in Ferrara, the diplomatic contacts with the doge and the pope, and finally the beginning of the council’s proceedings. An annotated English translation of the text is included as an appendix to the book. The papers bring out the richness of the information in Syropoulos’s writings about the people involved in the Council of Ferrara-Florence and especially the interaction among different social, religious and political groups throughout that event. His work is unique because it is a rare eye-witness account, deriving from personal experience, rather than an objective historical narrative.
'The Siege of Shkodra: Albania's Courageous Stand Against Ottoman Conquest, 1478 (The Marinus Barletius Series)'
The first English translation of an eyewitness account of the Ottoman sieges of Shkodra (Albania) in 1474 and 1478-79, written by a besieged Shkodran citizen who fought in the battles and would later become a priest in Italy
The book is considered both history and literature, written in classical Latin in 1504 for a Western audience concerned about the advance of the Ottomans into the heart of Europe. It is considered by scholars to be a seminal source of history providing significant details about the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Albanians, Sultan Mehmed II "The Conqueror," religious conflict, late-medieval siege tactics, and the development of weaponry. Though the account is history, it unfolds as a gripping story with all the human drama and pathos that accompanies warfare. Inside are rousing speeches, intense battle scenes, passionate prayers, and counsel for future generations.
Barleti and his contemporaries considered Shkodra to be the shield of Europe (indeed this was the final great battle before the Ottomans attacked Otronto in 1480).
Joanna the notorious Queen of Naples, Jerusalem &Sicily
The exceptionally dramatic and previously unchronicled life of the medieval queen Joanna I
Mircea the old
Father of Wallachia
Grandfather of Dracula
One of the greatest leaders of Romanian history, Mircea the old comes to life in this new book. Although Vladimir tepes has gained more international fame, Mircea the old was the most significant ruler to sit on the Wallachian throne during the middle ages. 1386-1418
The Angevin Dynasties of Europe 900-1500
Lords of the greatest part of the world
From their small County of Anjou the Lords of Anjou- the Angevins produced dynasties that became kings of Jerusalem England, Sicily, Hungary, and Poland.
Francis I the maker of modern France
Francis 1494-1547 was inconstant, amorous, hot-headed and flawed. Arguably he was also the most significant king that France ever had
Sigismund of Luxembourg: Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, Germany, Italy, and Bohemia
This is a biography of Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368-1437), who was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, King of the Romans (Germany), King of Italy, and King of Bohemia. He was the son of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and the younger brother of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Sigismund had a major role in almost all of the major European events which occurred during his lifetime, including convening the Council of Constance to end the papal schism, attempting to mediate an end to the Hundred Years' War, leading the crusade against the Hussites, and participating in the Council of Basel, all while trying to hold off the Ottoman Turks from invading Europe. Sigismund traveled widely during his lifetime, including trips to London, Paris, and Perpignan in Aragon.
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Originally Posted by Wallachian
