Enluminures­-témoins: Constantinople face aux attaques dans le Moyen Age tardif (XIIIe-­XVe siècles)
Illuminated Witnesses: Constantinople Under Attack in the Late Middle Ages (13th-15th centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The current study is intended as a presentation of military techniques of assault and de- fence from the end of the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, with the castle-city of Constantinople as a case study. I have not chosen Constantinople at random since its conquest put face to face the Latin West and the Greek Orient, but also Christendom against Muslims, intertwining thus the military and spiritual/religious facets of medieval war. The primary sources are visual consisting of four illuminations of illuminated manuscripts of the following chronicles: Guillaume de Tyr – Historia, Sébastien Mamerot – Les Passages d’Oultremer, Johannes de Columna – Mare Historiarum, Jean Chartier – Chronique de Charles VII). In terms of methodology, I will use a two-tier comparison: a) between the visual sources b) visual sources v. textual sources. The selection criteria for the visual sources were firstly and obviously those related to space and time (namely to represent Constantinople and fall into the chosen time frame), then the fact that such sources should be included in historiographical works and contain as many military details as possible.

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