The gate to Byzantium: a preface By Florin Curta and Pablo Ubierna

https://www.academia.edu/145303742/The_gate_to_Byzantium_a_preface?email_work_card=title The fall of Troy deprived poets inside the city of all possible rewards for their efforts. Nothing remained for them, "not temples not gardens," not even poetry. 1 It's all gone, but not everything is lost: "You are free / Admirable poets of Troy." 2 Much like with Troy in Bolaño's poem, nothing survives from Byzantium that José Marín Riveros could possibly own. There is no Byzance après Byzance in Chile, no neo-Byzantine architecture, and no musical Byzantinism. That, however, is a privileged position: like Bolaño's poets of Troy, the admirable José Marín Riveros is free. His gaze can move freely across the historical map of the Empire, for it is not blocked by any conceptual walls, while his inquiry into the past is not driven by any modern requirements. In a way, the perspective in this book is exterior, but because of that surprisingly deep, innovative, and refreshing. This volume is an illustration of that freedom of movement and of the versatility of the approach adopted by José Marín Riveros. The author is one of the most influential Byzan-* Florin Curta is Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Florida, specializing in the early Middle Ages (500-1300), particularly in Eastern Europe. His most recent, two-volume book is Medieval Europe from Another Angle (Routledge, 2025). Curta is the editor of the Brill online Bibliography of the History and Archaeology of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages and coeditor of the Palgrave Macmillan series "New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture". ** ...