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Foundations of Byzantine late middle ages architecture thoughtfulness

Foundations of Byzantine late middle ages architecture thoughtfulness

Milošević, Predrag

Facta universitatis – series: Architecture and Civil Engineering (2003), Volume 2, Issue 5, Pages: 395-404

Abstract

Only in the recent few years have a number of facsimile publications on architecture offered a possibility of studying the original texts from different time periods. Those, already rare studies on the theory of architecture in the western civilization, almost regularly completely omit the Byzantine achievements in the so-called entirety of thoughtfulness (enkyklios paideia), that was a main characteristic of Byzantine learning. This learning, based on the ancient Greek and Hellenistic foundations, in many ways concern architecture, especially the architectural theory. That is why writing a good account of the architectural theory of this, historically such an important country as Byzantium, in such a long historical period (since 312 till 1453), has been a difficult task (this contribution is just the initial part of the study). One should not be disregarded that the architectural theories are never completely independent of historical geographical or even personal prejudices of their authors. In this sense, a subject matter of this treatise is just one 1141 year long part of the architectural theory of the West (West – in civilizational terms, not a political West), the part that rests on Christian foundations that is the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant ones, mainly. It is all treated in order, from ancient pagan Greece and Rome, ancient and Middle Ages Orthodox Byzantium, until Middle Ages and New Age Europe, altogether, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant Europe, and then those parts of the world in which the said civilizational circle managed to take root in: parts of Asia, North and South America, parts of Africa and Australia.

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