The Nature and the Image of Princely Power in Kievan Rus’, 980-1054

Ultimo aggiornamento: 13 maggio 2021

Hanak W.K.

The Nature and the Image of Princely Power in Kievan Rus’, 980-1054

BRILL, Leiden (The Netherlands) 2013

Scheda a cura di: Hanak W.K.

Collana: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, Vol. 25


n The Nature and the Image of Princely Power in Kievan Rus', 980-1054, Walter K. Hanak offers a critical analysis of the annalistic, literary, and other works that provide rich if conflicting and contradictory information on the nature of princely power and their image or literary representations. The primary sources demonstrate an interaction between the reality and the notions concerning princely power and how this power generates an image of itself. The author also analyses the textual incongruities that appear to be a reflection of a number of currents -- Byzantine, Varangian, Khazar, and Eastern Slavic. The secondary sources provide a variety of interpretations, which Hanak seeks to uphold and dispute. His stress, however, is to view this evidence in the light of a newly Christianized state and the launching of a maturative process in its early history.

Table of contents

Abbreviations ... ix
Preface ... xi
Acknowledgments ... xv
Maps ... xvii

1 The Nature and the Early Rus’ Image of Kievan Princely Power ... 1
2 Byzantine Imperial Thought in Theory and Practice in Vladimirian-Jaroslavian Rus’ ... 71
3 The Decline of the Varangians ... 107
4 The Khazars in the Shadows of Kievan Political Thought ... 135
5 The Eastern Slavic Political and Social Structure ... 149
6 Some Conclusions ... 167

Bibliography ... 171
Index


A cura di Giulia Tarquini