As someone studying Rome for decades but never been in Istanbul, I thought, Constantinople, the ‘new Rome,’ must be in many respects very similar like the ‘old’. For instance, one has a hard time to aviod more or less well preserved ruins of the imperial past scattered all over the city. Spoiler: it is not. And I had to learn it on the hard way. One has to make considerable efforts to find scattered and often well hidden pieces of the ‘new Rome’ here and there.
Luckily, a newly published book saved not only an awful lot of time of preparations, but also provided the kind of ‘nerdish’ information, which a historian or early Chrisitianity with strong interests in material culture can possibly wish for. It is not exaggerated to say that it opened a new horizon on both, the remains of the ancient city and its truely intriguing history. The books is well written and displays enormous and impressive erudition. It often presents the (scarce rests of) monuments in its Sitz im Leben, which shed also light on its usage and role for the imperial capital. Numerous maps support locating the monuments, which, however, occasionally could be a bit more precise and sometimes also less errorous. If the book would provide some practical ‘hands on’ information (how to get there, whom to contact, etc.), it would be the perfect companion for an exploration of Constantinople. In the present form, however, one still needs a ‘conventional’ travel guide (and a good data plan of mobile subscription) to navigate through the modern metropole. Despite the few shortcomings, this book is an absolute must have for everyone looking for the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Ivanov, Sergey A.: In Search of Constantinople – A Guidebook through Byzantine Istanbul, and Its Surroundings. trans. by Sara Buzadzhi and D. Hoffman, ed. by David Hendricks, The Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul and Kitap Yayinevi, Istanbul, 2022.
The website Byzantine Legacy by David Hendricks is an extremely useful and complementary resource to the book.