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Medieval Sourcebook:
Anna Comnena:
The Alexiad

Complete Text | Introduction | Book 1 | Book 2 | Book 3 | Book 4 | Book 5 | Book 6 |
Book 7  | Book 8 | Book 9 | Book 10 | Book 11 | Book 12 | Book 13 | Book 14 | Book 15

Anna Comnena

 

The entire translated text of the Anna Comena's Alexiad is available. The translation used is that of dition used is that of Elizabeth A. Dawes, published in London in 1928. Note that there is a later translation by E.R.A. Sewter, published by Penguin. Sewter's translation is more "modern" in language, whereas the Dawes version sticks closer to the Greek text.

The text here is presented as either one complete file, or in "book" length files.

 

Book Files

  • Introduction
  • Book 1 From Alexius' Youth to the Last Months of Botaniates' Reign
  • Book 2 The Revolt of the Comneni
  • Book 3 The Accession of Alexius and Interfamily Power Struggles
  • Book 4 War with the Normans (1081-2)
  • Book 5 War with the Normans (1082-83) (i-vii) : Alexius' First Battle with Heretics - John Italus (viii-ix)
  • Book 6 Norman West : Death of Robert Guiscard : The Turks
  • Book 7 War with the Scyths (1087-90)
  • Book 8 War with the Scyths (1091) : Victory at Levunium (29 April 1091) : Plots against the Emperor
  • Book 9 Turkish War : Dalmatian Interlude (1092-4) : Conspiracy of Nicephorus Diogenes (1094)
  • Book 10 Second Battle with Heresy : The Cuman War : First Crusade (1094-97)
  • Book 11 The First Crusade (1097-1104)
  • Book 12 Domestic Conflicts : Second Norman Invasion (1105-7)
  • Book 13 The Conpiracy of Aston : The Final Defeat of Bohemond : The Treaty of Devol. (1107-8)
  • Book 14 Turks, Franks, Cumans and Manichaeans (1108-15)
  • Book 15 Victory over the Turks : The Orphanage : Heresy of the Bogomils : Last Illness and Death of Alexius (1116-18)

Bibliography [by Paul Halsall]

Editions and TranslationsAlexius I from a  Vatican Manuscript

The Alexiad was first edited by Possinus (Paris, 1651), the edition used in Migne, PG. CXXXI, 39-1244. The best of the older editions edition is that of the Corpus Script. Byz., I (Bonn, 1839); II (1878), which came with a Latin translation.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. Edited and translated by Elizabeth A. Dawes. London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul, 1928.
[Dawes' translation was a literal one that kept very closely to the Greek text. This is useful but not always very readable. There are almost no notes since she referred readers to Georgina Buckler's great work for further information. Buckler, of course, did not identify quotations and text references - which are the job of the translator.]

Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. Edited and translated by E.R.A. Sewter. Harmandsworth: Penguin, 1969.
[A more fluid version than Dawes', and with notes, this is the standard translation used by most Anglophone readers and students. Penguin's refusal to print the canonical reference for each book and chapter, however, severely limits the utility of the text.]

 

 

 

Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. [Alexiad. Modern Greek] ANNHS KOMNHNHS ALEXIAS. Edited and translated into modern Greek by N. Konstandopoulos (with I. Papadopoulos). Vol I. (Prologue, Books 1-3). Athens: 1975.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. [Alexiad. Modern Greek] Translated by Aloe Sideri. 2 vols. Vol 1: Books 1-9.Athens: Ed. "AGRA", 1990; Vol 2: Books 10-15 Athens: Ed. "AGRA", 1991.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. Danish] Anna Komnenas Alexiade. Translated O. A. Hovgård. 2 vols. Copenhagen: 1879-82.
[Apparently the first translation into a modern language.]

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. French] Alexiade. Edited and translated into French by Bernard Leib with Paul Gautier, 4 vols. Paris: 1937-76.
[For most of the 20th century , Leib's edition has been the scholar's choice.]

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. German] Alexias / Anna Komnene ; übersetzt, eingeleitet und mit Anmerkungen versehen. ByDiether Roderich Reinsch. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1996.
[By all accounts Reinsch's text is now to be preferred by scholars.]

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. Russian.] Aleksiada. Vstup. stat’´i`a, perevod kommentarii. By ´I`A. N. L´i`ubarskii. Moscow: Nauka, Glav. red. vostochnoi lit-ry, 1965.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. Spanish] La Alexiada / Ana Comneno ; estudio preliminar y traducción. Translated by Emilio Díaz Rolando. Seville: Editorial universidad de Sevilla, 1989.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. Italian partial translation] La precrociata di Roberto il Guiscardo; pagine dall'Alessiade. By Salvatore Impellizzeri. Bari: Dedalo, 1965.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). [Alexiad. Swedish partial translation] Anna Komnenas värld : Bysans på 1100-talet / Alexiaden i urval med inledning, översättning och kommentarer. By Sture Linnér. Stockholm : Atlantis, 1993.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). Alexiad. Book 11-13. Anonyme Metaphrase zu Anna Komnene, Alexias XI-XIII : ein Beitrag zur Erschliessung der byzantinischen Umgangssprache. By Herbert Hunger. Vienna:: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenchaften, 1981.

 

Other Primary Sources

Browning, Robert. "An Unpublished Funeral Oration of Anna Comnena." Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 188 (n.s. 8) (1962): 1-12. Repr. (?) in Aristotle Transformed, ed. R. Sorabji. 393-406. London: 1990.
[On George Tornikios' 1156 funeral . The text is given in Greek, but the introduction is valuable for the Greekless.]

Darrouzès, J., ed. Georges et Dèmetrios Tornikès, Lettres et discours. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1970.
Inlcudes a French translation of Anna's funeral oration by George Tornikios.

Gautier, Paul, ed. Michel Italikos, Lettres et discours. Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines 1972.
Preamble to Anna's testament, pp. 106-07.

Nicephoras Bryennios [husband of Anna Komnene]. Materials for a History. Edited as Comentarii. By Augustus Meinecke. Corpus Scriptorium Historiae Byzantinae. Bonn: 1836.

Nicephoras Bryennios [husband of Anna Komnene]. Materials for a History. Translated into French by Henri Gregoire. Byzantion 23 (1953): 469-530; and Byzantion 25-27 (1955-57): 881-925

Nicephoras Bryennios [husband of Anna Komnene]. Materials for a History. Edited as Histoire (with French trans.) by Paul Gautier. Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Vol. IX. Brussels: 1975.

Literature

Adam, Paul. Princesses Byzantines. La très pieuse Irène. Anne Comnène. Paris, Firmin-Didot et cie, 1893.

Aerts, W.J. "Anna's Mirror, Attict(istic) or Antiquarian? A Philological Commentary on the First Chapters of Anna Comnena's Introduction to the Alexiad." XV Congrès international d'études byzantines. Rapports et co-rapports. Vol. II: Langue, littérature, phliologie. 3ff. Athens: 1935.

Albu, Emily. "Bohemond and the Rooster: Byzantines, Normans, and the Artful Ruse." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 157-68. New York: Garland, 2000.
[On the Byzantines' and Normans' joint high evaluation of trickyness and ruses.]

Andersen, Jeffrey. "Anna Komnene, Learned Women and the Book in Byzantine Art." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 125-56. New York: Garland, 2000.
[Extensive examination of images of women holding books and scrolls in Byzantine art. Andersen does not really discuss Anna, and the place of the essay in the this book is really a witness to modern Byzantinists' determination to bring an art-historical perspective to as many questions as possible.]

Angold, Michael. Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
[Important and massive account of Komnenian society.]

Angold, Michael. The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204. 2nd ed. London; New York: Longman, 1997.

Antoniades. S. "He perigraphe sten 'Alexiada.' Pos he Anna Komnene Blepei kai Zoeraphizei prosopa kai charakteres." ELLENIKA 5 (1932): 255-56.

Baldwin, B. "Bohemond Breathing: Problematic Passage in Anna-Comnena Description in Book-13,10 of The 'Alexiad'." Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 15 (1991): 314-316.

Barrett, Tracy. Anna of Byzantium. New York: Delacorte Press,1999.
[A novel for younger readers.]

Blanken, Gerard H. Glorie der griekse middeleeuwen: Anna Comnena, 1083-1148. Arnhem, Van Loghum Slaterus, 1953.

Bompaire, Jacques. "La notion de liberté chez Anne Comnène." In La notion de liberté au Moyen Âge: Islam, Byzance, Occident. Penn-Paris-Dumbarton Oaks Colloquia IV, session des 12-15 octobre 1982 ; organisée par George Makdisi, Dominique Sourdel et Janine Sourdel-Thomine ; avec le concours de l'Université de Pennsylvanie, Dumbarton Oaks et l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). 227-38. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1985.

Bompaire, Jacques. "Remarques sur la culture antique d'Anne Comnène." Revue des études islamiques 54 (1986): 67-76.

Brand, Charles M. "Anna Comnena: Woman and Historian." Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers 21 (1995): 13.

Buckler, Georgina. Anna Comnena: A Study. London, Oxford University Press,1929.
[A work that tries to cover all aspects of Anna's work, and that has remained the standard reference. In fact, it is not quite a monograph and not quite an "encyclopedia of Anna."]

Chrystomides J. "A Byzantine Historian: Anna Comena." In Medieval Historical Writing in the Christian and Islamic Worlds. Edited by D.O. Morgan. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1982.

Conca, F. "Aspetti tradizionale nella tecnica de Anna Comnena." Acme: Annali della Facolta de Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano 23, fasc. I-II. (1980)

Dalven, Rae. Anna Comnena. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972.
[On Anna as a historian.]

Dyck, Andrew. "Iliad and Alexiad: Anna Comnena's Homeric Reminiscences." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 27 (1986): 113-20.

Foakes-Jackson, F.J., "Anna Comnena." Hibbert Journal 33 (1934-35): 430-42.

France, John. "Anna Comnena, the Alexiad, and the First Crusade." Reading Medieval Studies 10 (1983): 20-32.

France, John. Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
[See pp. 111-12, 117ff, 144-45, 382, for criticism of Anna's reliability.]

Germaine, Catherine. A Study of the Preservation of the Classical Tradition in the Education, Language, and Literature of the Byzantine Empire. MA. Thesis: Western Michigan University, 1989.

Gouma-Petersen, Thalia. "Engendered Category or Recognizable Life: Anna Komnene and her Alexiad." Byzantinische Forschungen 23 (1996): 25-34.

Gouma-Petersen, Thalia, ed. Anna Komnene and Her Times. New York: Garland, 2000.
[An important collection of new papers. Gouma-Petersen has been at the forefront of those who realized feminist scholarship has something to offer students of Anna.]

Gouma-Petersen, Thalia. "Gender and Power: Passages to the Maternal in Anna Komnene's Alexiad." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 107-24. New York: Garland, 2000.
[A rare (!) effort to apply the insights of French psychological feminism to Anna.]

Gyoni, M. "Le nom de Blakoi dans l'Alexiade d'Anne Comnene." Byzantinische Zeitschrift 44 (1951): 241-252

Hanawalt, Emily Albu. William of Apulia's Gesta Roberti Wiscardi and Anna Comnena's Alexiad: A Literary Comparison. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of California, Berkeley, 1975.

Hanawalt, Emily Albu. "Vita: Anna Comnena." Harvard Magazine. March-April 1982: 38-39.

Hill, Barbara. "A Vindication of the Rights of Women to Power by Anna Komene." Byzantinische Forschungen 23 (1996): 45-52.
[Addresses, inter alia, the question of whether Anna can be considered a feminist.]

Hill, Barbara. "The Ideal Imperial Komnenian Women"Byzantinische Forschungen 23 (1996): 7-18.
[Essentially uses the funeral oration by Tornikios to construct an image of the ideal Imperial woman in the 12th century.]

Hill Barbara. "Alexios Komnenos and the Imperial Women." In Alexios I Komnenos. Edited by Margaret Mullet and Dion Smythe. Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations. Vol. I. 37-54. Belfast: Belfast Byzantine Enterprises, School of Greek and Latin, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1996.

Hill, Barbara. "Actions Speak Louder than Words: Anna Komnene's Attempted Usurpation." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 45-62. New York: Garland, 2000.
[Picking up from an earlier paper, Hill is now prepared to use the word "feminist" about Anna.]

Hill, Barbara. Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025-1204: Power, Patronage and Ideology. London; New York: Longman, 2000

Horrocks, Geoffrey. Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers. London; New York: Longman, 1997.
Pp. 175-78: 'The New Atticism: Anna Komene."

Howard-Johnson, James. "Anna Komnene and the Alexiad." In Alexios I Komnenos. Edited by Margaret Mullet and Dion Smythe. Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations. Vol. I. 260-301. Belfast: Belfast Byzantine Enterprises, School of Greek and Latin, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1996.
[Notorious article in which this Oxford historian seeks to deny Anna's authorship of the Alexiad and to claim that the military accounts in the Alexiad were by her husband Nicephorus Bryennios. See Macrides and other others in the Anna Komnene and her Times collection for some sharp rebuttals.]

James, George P.R., ed. Memoirs of Celebrated Women. Philadelphia : E. L. Carey, 1839.
[Vol. 1. For Anna]

Jurewicz, O. "Anna Komnene: Kronprinzessin und Schriftstellerin." In Greichenland-Byzanz-Europa, Ein Studienband. Edited by J. Hermann, H. Köpstein, and R. Müller. 50 ff. Berlin: 1985.

Kambylis, A. "Zum 'Programm' der byzantinischen Historikerin Anna Komnene." DWPHMA Hans Diller zum 70. Geburtstag. 127-46. Athens: 1975.

Karpozilos, Apostolos. "'Charax'/'Charkenos' in the 'Alexiad' of Anna Comnena." Byzantinoslavica 56:2 (1995): 407-09.
[Charax is identified tentatively as a trading post near Nikomedia; Anna Komnene used the geographic terms to refer to the man who impersonated Leo, the son of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes.]

Katicic, R. "Anna Komnene kai ho Homeros." Epeteris Hetairias Byzantinon Spoudon 27 (1957): 213-23.

Krumbacher, Karl. Geschichte. d. byzantinische. Lit. 2d ed. 1902.
Discusses Anna Commena, pp. 274-279. He mentions Walter Scott's Count Robert of Paris as "a rather unlucky reproduction" of the Alexiad.

Landman, Christina. "Anna Comnena's Concept of Woman." Acta Patristica et Byzantina 8 (1997): 105-114.

Laiou, Angeliki. "Introduction: Why Anna Komnene?" In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 1-14. New York: Garland, 2000.

Leib, Bernard. "Les silences d'Anne Comnène." Byzantinoslavica 19 (1958): 1-10.

Leib, Bernard. "Aperçus sur l'époque des premiers Comnènes : Le rôle des femmes, Alexis I Comnène, Anne Comnène. " Collectanea byzantina 1-64. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 204. Rome : Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1977.

Lilie, Ralph-Johannes. Byzanz und die Kreuzfahrerstaaten. English. Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204. Translated by J.C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings. Rev. 1988. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1993.
[German: Byzanz und die Kreuzfahrerstaaten : Studien der Politik des byzantinischen Reiches gegenüber den Staaten der Kreuzfahrer in Syrien und Palästina bis zum vierten Kreuzzug (1096-1204). Munich: W. Fink, 1981. [Series title: Poikila Byzantina ; 1, Poikila Vyzantina ; 1.]]

Lilie, Ralph-Johanne. "Der erste Kreuzzug in der Darstellung Anna Komnene." In Varia II. Edited by P. Speck, Ralph-Johanne Lilie et al. POIKILA BUZANTINA 6. 49-148. Bonn: 1987.

Lilie, Ralph-Johanne. "Anna Comnena and the Latins." [translation of German title?] Byzantinoslavica 54 (1993): 169-82.

Linnér. Sture. "Psellus' Chronographia and the Alexias: Some Textual Parallels." Byzantinische Zeitschrift 76 (1983): 1-9.

Ljubarskij, Jakov. "Why is the Alexiad a Masterpiece of Byzantine Literature." In LEIMWN Studies Presented to Lennart Rydén. Edited by Jan Olaf Rosenqvist. 127-41. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet ; Stockholm : distributed by Almquist and Wiksell international, 1996.

Ljubarskij, Jakov. "Why is the Alexiad a Masterpiece of Byzantine Literature." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 169-86. New York: Garland, 2000.
[An expansion of his 1996 article. Assesses the Alexiad from the standpoint of Aristotelian unities, and sees real artistry in Anna's execution of her plan.]

Loud, G.A. "Anna Komnena and her Sources for the Normans of Southern Italy: [Byzantine historian's sources examined]." In Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to John Taylor. Edited by Ian Wood and G.A. Loud. 41-57. London; Rio Grande, Ohio: Hambledon Press, 1991.

Macrides, Ruth. "The Historian in the History" In FILLELLHN Studies in Honour of Robert Browning. Edited by C. Constantinides et al. 205-24. Venice: 1996.
[Looks at self-interjection by Byzantine historians -- a challenge to classical norms of historiography. Anna does this more than any other historian.]

Macrides, Ruth. "The Pen and the Sword: Who Wrote the Alexiad?" In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 63-82. New York: Garland, 2000.
[Macrides' response to Howard-Johnson -- just about manages to be polite.]

Magdalino, Paul. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos 1143-1180 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Magdalino, Paul. "The Pen of the Aunt: Echoes of the Mid-Twelth Century." In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 15-44. New York: Garland, 2000.
[Magdalino considers the Alexiad from the angle of the time it was written -- under Manuel I -- rather than the time it is about. By doing this he is able to address some of the reasons Anna might have arranged events as she did -- as well as accusations about her "misinformation" by modern authors such as John France.]

Maltese, Ev. "Anna-Comnena in the Sea of Misfortunes ('Alexiad' Book-14,7,4) - A Textual Interpretation." [translation of Italian title?] Byzantinische Zeitschrift 80, No. 1 (1987): 1-2.

Mitchison, Naomi. "Anna Comnena." In Representative Women. London: 1928.

Morelli, Patrizia. Anna Comnena: la poetessa epica (c. 1083-c. 1148-1153). Milan: Jaca book, 1998.

Mutafchieva, Vera P.. Az, Anna Komnina: roman. Sofia: Izd-vo "Khemus," 1991.
[Bulgarian novel on Anna.]

Neumann, Carl. Griechische Geschichtschreiber und Geschichtsquellen im zwölften Jahrhundert;, Studien zu Anna Comnena, Theod. Prodromus, Joh. Cinnamus. New York, B. Franklin, 1971

Oster, E. Anna Komnena. I-III. Rastatt: W. Mayer, 1868-1871.

Reinsch, Diether R. "The 1562 Editio-Princeps of an Excerpt from Anna-Comnena 'Alexias' - A Representative of an Independent Tradition." [translation of German title"] Byzantinische Zeitschrift 84-5 (1992): 12-16.

Reinsch, Diether R. "An Alleged Interpolation in the 'Alexias' of Anna Comnena." [translation of German title?] Byzantinische Zeitschrift 82, No. 1-2 (1989): 69-72.

Reinsch, Diether R. "Zur literarischen Leistung der Anna Komnene." In LEIMWN Studies Presented to Lennart Rydén. Edited by Jan Olaf Rosenqvist. 113-25. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet ; Stockholm : distributed by Almquist and Wiksell international, 1996.

Reinsch, Diether R. "Womens' Literature in Byzantium? -- The Case of Anna Komnene." Translated by Thomas Dunlap. In Anna Komnene and Her Times. Edited by Thalia Gouma-Petersen. 83-106. New York: Garland, 2000.

Rolando, E.D. Las fuentes clásicas de la Alexiada de Ana Comnena. Ph.D. Dissertation: Seville, 1994.

Rolando, E.D. "Ana Comnena y la historiografía de periodo clásico: Apromación a un debate." Erytheia 13 (1992): 29-44.

Roueché, Charlotte. "Georgina Buckler: The Making of a British Byzantinist." In The Making of Byzantine History: Studies Dedicated to Donald M. Nicol. Edited by Roderick Beaton and Charlotte Roueché. 1974-96. Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.
[Paper on Anna's foremost commentator.]

Scott, Sir Walter. Count Robert of Paris (1832).
Scott uses the Alexiad as a source..

Shahan, Thomas. "Anna Comnena." Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Vol 1:351
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01531a.htm
[Classic example of a negative evaluation of Anna.]

Skoulatos, Basile. Les personnages byzantins de l'Alexiade : analyse prosopographique et synthèse. Louvain-la-Neuve : Bureau du recueil, Collège Erasme ; Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1980.
[Series title: Recueil de travaux d'histoire et de philologie / Université de Louvain ; 6e sér., fasc. 20, Recueil de travaux d'histoire et de philologie ; 6e sér., fasc. 20.]

Du Sommerard, Louis. Deux princesses d'Orient au XIIe siècle: Anne Comnène, témoin des croisades; Agnès de France. Paris: Perrin et cie, 1907.

Takács, Sarolta A. "Convergence of Silence and Articulation: Anna Komnena's Filial Devotion and Philosophical Zeal." Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers 21 (1995): 16.

Takács, Sarolta A.. "Oracles and Science: Anna Comnena's Comments on Astrology." Byzantinische Forschungen 23 (1996): 35-44.

Takács, Sarolta A. "Convergence of Silence and Articulation: Anna Komnene's Filial Devotion and Philosophical Zeal."' Byzantine Studies Conference: Abstracts of Papers 21 (1995): 16.

Thomas R.D.. "Anna Comnena's Account of the First Crusade: History and Politics in the Reigns of the Emperors Alexius I and Manuel I Comnenus." Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 15 (1991): 269-312.

Tuilier, André, "Byzance et la féodalité occidentale: les vertus guerrières des premiers croisés d’après l’Alexiade d’Anne Comnène." In La guerre et la paix: frontières et violences au moyen âge. Actes du 101e Congrès national des sociétés savantes, Lille, 1976, Section de philologie et d'histoire jusqu'à 1610. 35-50. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1978.

Weyl-Carr, Annemarie [et al.]. Revised Papers that were Originally Read at the Session Entitled "Komnenian culture": Papers from the Session at the 20th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 21 September 1994 [aka Komnenian culture: 20th annual Byzantine Studies Conference] Amsterdam : A.M. Hakkert, 1996. [Aka Byzantinische Forschungen. 23 (1996)]

Web pages

Women.com Brings You 100 Women of the Millennium: Anna Comnena
http://www.women.com/news/top100/096.html [Anna is no. 96]

Female Heroes: Anna Comnena (1083-1153), Byzantine Historian of the First Crusade
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine5.html

Other Women's Voices: Anna Comnena
http://home.infi.net/~ddisse/comnena.html


Complete Text | Introduction | Book 1 | Book 2 | Book 3 | Book 4 | Book 5 | Book 6 |
Book 7  | Book 8 | Book 9 | Book 10 | Book 11 | Book 12 | Book 13 | Book 14 | Book 15


Source.

Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. Edited and translated by Elizabeth A. Dawes. London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul, 1928.

Inquiries into the copyright on this text indicate that US copyright was not renewed, nor was any claim filed under the GATT. Barnes and Noble published the text in the US in 1967 with no claim of copyright, and thus under the laws at the time as a public domain work. Correspondence with Routledge (on file) indicated that they had no records whatsoever about the book, including the date of its first sale in the US (putting one copy on sale would constitute "publication" under GATT).

Note that the later translation by E.R.A. Sewter, published by Penguin, is still under copyright.

Notes:

This etext slightly alters the organization and much of the typography of the printed edition.

Page numbers of the printed edition are indicated in the texts by numbers in brackets, e.g. [57].

Some short notes are placed in the text in brackets [*like this].

Longer notes are marked in the text with two asterisks **, and placed at the end of each chapter


This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.

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Paul Halsall, February 2001
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