This is a lively collection of ten short, annotated and illustrated biographies of aristocratic ladies of the final years of the Byzantine empire. Some were ambitious mothers; others, unhappy wives; some were nuns or scholars; one became the wife of a Turkish sultan and the stepmother of a famous son; another the champion of the Greek refugees in Venice after the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. Their stories demonstrate the enterprise of some Byzantine women in the male-dominated society of their time. '… highly readable book.' The Times Higher Education Supplement '… construct[s] in vivid detail the history of the Paelaeologan epoch.' Anglo-Hellenic Review A lively collection of ten biographies of aristocratic women of the Byzantine empire in its final years. Used Book in Good Condition