The Medieval Church · c. 750–800
Brief Historical Notes
Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai
Anonymous
What it is
A guide to the ancient statues of Constantinople by Christians who no longer knew what most of them were. The notes are nervous throughout: one bronze is said to have killed a man who looked at it too long, several are read as prophecies, and the authors warn each other to go in groups.
Why it lasted
The clearest evidence anywhere of how a Christian city related to its own pagan inheritance once the memory had gone — not iconoclasm but unease, and a conviction that the statues still meant something dangerous.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next