The monograph addresses the unexplored area of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs’ documented attitudes towards the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The author has analyzed all the relevant documents known today originating from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova, that give the picture as seen by contemporaries, followed by its evolution (or lack of such), making it influential until the 18th century. Comparisons are made with relevant Greek and West European sources. The research deals with a rich variety of narratives, i.e. chronicles, hagiography, prophecies, official and ecclesiastical correspondence, and epigraphy; she infers on the historical consciousness of the Mediaeval Slavs, their political propaganda and religious identity.

Introduction

Chapter One: The Fall of Constantinople in April 1204 in the Memory of Contemporaries

1. Western Authors on the Fourth Crusade and the Fall of Constantinople

2. The Anonymous Russian Account of the Capture of Constantinople by the Franks

3. The Accounts by Russian Pilgrims

Chapter Two: Between Religion and History

1. Reflections of the Fourth Crusade in Contemporary Written Accounts

2. The Serbian and Bulgarian Lives of Saints

3. Prophecies in Byzantium, Serbia and Bulgaria

Chapter Three: Historical Memories of the Fall of Constantinople in 1204

1. Short Chronicles in Byzantium and Bulgaria

2. Serbian and Russian Chronicles

3. Chronographs

Conclusion

Appendices

1. The Anonymous Russian Account of the Capture of Constantinople by the Franks

2. Archbishop Anthony of Novgorod’s Pilgrim’s Book – Kniga Palomnik (A Description of Constantinople in 1200)

3. The Nikon Chronicle (Excerpt)

4. A Serbian Sixteenth-Century Chronograph (Excerpts)

5. The Branković Chronicle (Excerpts)

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Indexes