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EncountersTravel and Money in the Byzantine World

Eurydice S. Georganteli and Barrie Cook

Published by GILES in association with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Publish Date — September 2006 (UK and USA)

Dimensions — 64 pages, 180 x 180mm (7 x 7 in.)

Illustrations — 80 colour illustrations and 2 maps

Paperback price — UK£6.95/US$11.95

ISBN — 1-904832-27-X

ISBN — 978-1-904832-27-0

Book Details (pdf) — Encounters_ai.pdf

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Press Release — New Book “Encounters: Travel and Money in the

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About the Book

This new volume was published to accompany the exhibition Encounters: Travel and Money in the Byzantine World , which opened at the British Museum in Summer 2006, before travelling to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham in February 2007.

At the heart of this highly illustrated and accessible volume is the notion that to study of coins and medals is to study the history of communications and movement of people and ideas. From the end of Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople, coins circulated and constantly changed hands in the markets of towns and cities, in rural communities,along pilgrimage routes, between stationing armies and local populations, at the customs offices in harbours, and at other major entrances to the Byzantine Empire.

In five chapters this volume looks variously at city markets and the exchange of goods between different parts of the Byzantine Empire; at Byzantines travelling to the West; including trade between the Svear and the Romans and trade with Britain; Byzantines travelling to the East, including Armenia, Anatolia and China; the Byzantine legacy in the Islamic world, including the cult of Alexander the Great; and Western merchants in the East, particularly Venetians. The study concludes with the story of the late Byzantineemperors travelling to the West, and the impact their journeys had on western European art.

About the Author(s)

Eurydice S. Georganteli is curator of the Barber Institute Coin Collection and Lecturer in Numismatics at the University of Birmingham. Eurydice Georganteli studied archaeology and history of art at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Oxford. Between 1992 and 1998 she worked for the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, as well as special research assistant in the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum. She has been a Byzantine Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Centre,Washington D.C. and a Robinson Scholar at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, before her current appointment at the University of Birmingham as curator of the Barber Institute coin collection and university lecturer in numismatics. Her publications focus on studies of coin finds, monetary circulation and medieval art. Barrie Cook is curator of Medieval and early modern coinage in the Department of Coins and Medals at The British Museum. He has published extensively on medieval coinage.