James Morton

@jamesmorton.bsky.social

680 Followers 308 Following

Associate Professor of History at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Researches law, religion, and manuscripts in the medieval Byzantine Empire. Author, Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy (http://bit.ly/3h3Huph) #ByzantineLaw 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇭🇰🇬🇷🇮🇹

Fresco painting of Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449-1453) from the Taxiarches monastery of Aigialeia near Aigio

Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481) by Italian artist Gentile Bellini (1480)

An original copy of the Declaration of Arbroath (1320), by which the nobles of Scotland asserted the country’s independence and determination to refuse English rule. National Records of Scotland, SP13/7

Byzantine classroom scene from the 12th-century Madrid Skylitzes manuscript (f. 134r)

A monk uses an astrolabe while a scribe takes notes. From the 14th-century MS Ambros. H 57 sup., f. 1r (title page of Theon of Alexandria's short commentary on Ptolemy's Canons). Credit to Darin Hayton (https://dhayton.haverford.edu/blog/2021/01/26/monks-using-astronomical-instruments/)

The physician Antonio Pelacani (d. 1327) gives a lecture to a group of four students. Carving from the tomb of Antonio Pelacani in the cloister of S. Fermo Maggiore in Verona.