title: The Last Byzantine Renaissance (The Wiles Lectures)
author:  Steven Runciman 
description: During the last two centuries of its existence the Byzantine Empire was politically in a state of utter decadence, but, in contrast, its intellectual life has never before shone so brilliantly. In these four lectures the author discusses the leading scholars of the period, their erudition, their intense individualism, their controversies and their achievements.
zlib_text: Translated Texts for Historians 
  This series is designed to meet the needs of students of ancient and 
  medieval history and others who wish to broaden their study by reading 
  source material, but whose knowledge of Latin or Greek is not sufficient 
  to allow them to do so in the original language. Many important Late 
  Imperial and Dark Age texts are currently unavailable in translation and 
  it is hoped that TTH will help to fill this gap and to complement the 
  secondary literature in English which already exists. The series relates 
  principally to the period 300-800 AD and includes Late Imperial, Greek, 
  Byzantine and Syriac texts as well as source books illustrating a 
  particular period or theme. Each volume is a self-contained scholarly 
  translation with an introductory essay on the text and its author and 
  notes on the text indicating major problems of interpretation, including 
  textual difficulties. 
  Editorial Committee: 
  Sebastian Brock, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford 
  Av