“A Companion to Byzantine Italy”, ed. Salvatore Cosentino, Brill, Leiden–Boston 2021 [= Brill’s Companions to the Byzantine World, 8], 33 maps, 25 figures, abbreviations, notes on contributors, index, pp. XVIII, 829

Abstract

T vast volume offers a collection of essays on Byzantine Italy from the 6th up to the 11th c. It was prepared by authors from many recognized scientific centres from France, Malta, United Kingdom, USA, and above all, in the greatest number (which should not be surprising due to the topic taken up) from Italy. The volume’s editor is Salvatore Cosentino, a Professor of Byzantine Civilisation at the University of Bologna, whose main research domain is the social and economic history of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantine Italy1. The volume consists of twenty-seven chapters arranged into three Parts which indicate the trajectory of the undertaken research: (1) Society and Institutions; (2) Communications, Economy and Landscape, divided into two sections: (i) General Frameworks; (ii) Settlements and Landscape: Regional Morphologies; (3) Culture and Education. The volume is opened with the introduction written by Salvatore Cosentino and Enrico Zanini, entitled: Mapping the Memory of Byzantine Italy, which was divided into two parts: (1) Written Memory; (2) Material Sources (p. 1–25). This is not a classic introduction to this specific topic, but actually a separate and excellent essay supported by a rich bibliography. Firstly, S. Cosentino points to the status