The economy, fiscal administration and coinage of Byzantium (review)

Reviews 161 Burke himself points out, which makes a reformulation of a study of the relationship of culture and society in Renaissance Italy very difficult. As a study of the Italian Renaissance, a latterday Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, Burke's study still has value although there seems litde reason for those possessing one or other of the earlier editions to purchase the new. For those interested in Renaissance Italy rather than the Italian Renaissance, the medieval and early m o d e m volumes in the new Longman's History of Italy may be more useful Roslyn Pesman Cooper Department of History University of Sydney Hendy, Michael F., The economy, fiscal administration and coinage of Byzantium, Northampton, Variorum, 1989; cloth; pp. xii, 288; R. R. P.£36.00. Michael Hendyfirstcame to the fore in Byzantine studies with the publication in 1969 of Coinage and Money in the Byzantine Empire 1081-1261 when he demonstrated that there was a systematic pattern to the apparent confusion of the coinage of the period. The combination of austere numismatic techniques and careful reading of the written sources within a broad theoretical framework has been characteristic of Hendy's work ever since and the reason for the respect in which he and it is held. As Hendy points out in his introduction to this collection of papers, written between 1969 and 1988, there are two themes informing his research: the economy and coinage of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the 'nature of the basic dynamic behind monetary production and distribution' between the fourth and the twelfth centuries. The former interest led him to argue for a new orthodoxy that these centuries were a time of economic revival rather than decay. This wasfirstexpressed in Coinage and money and in a 1970 article: 'Byzantium, 1081-1204: an economic reappraisal' (here no. II). In '"Byzantium, 1081-1204": the economy revisited, twenty years on', published here for thefirsttime(no. Ill), he presents a useful 'vicennial' overview of current thinking on twelfth-century economics; although, he is surely pessimistic in feeling that the twelfth century is at the moment unfashionable in Byzantine studies. His second interest culminated in his massive and very readable, if somewhat self-indulgent, Studies in the Byzantine monetary economy c.300-1450 (1985), where the main thrust of the argument is that, in the form of pre-industrial society represented by the East Roman Empire, coinage was a 'fiscal phenomenon' and its role as a medium of exchange was minor and incidental. Papers IV-VI and VIII deal with aspects of fiscal administration while the previously unpublished paper I provides what is in essence a summary of the arguments of the 1985 Studies. Paper VII discusses 162 Reviews why the late R o m a n and Byzantine pattern of coin use is not found in the Western successor kingdoms. Especially through his involvement with the authoritative Dumbarton Oaks coin catalogues, Hendy has also continued with straightforward numismatic research, as illustrated by papers IX-XII. Of these, no. XI on the Gornoslav hoard is a particularly elegant example of the conclusions that can, in favourable circumstances, be drawn from a seemingly dry list of coin types. It is in small-scale arguments of this sort as well as in the broad sweep of his theoretical discussions that Hendy bridges the 'yawning gap' that in his view exists between numismatists and historians and demonstrates that the one should not operate without the other. It is as usual useful to have a large proportion of a scholar's scattered but cohesive papers collected within one set of covers. In this case this is made the more so by the inclusion of extensive up-datings. Elizabeth M . Jeffreys Department of M o d e m Greek University of Sydney Henry, Avril, ed., The pilgrimage of the lyfe of the manhode, 2 vols, (Early English Text Society, Nos 288-292), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985 & 1988; cloth; pp. xcv, 615; 7 plates; text, notes, glossary; R. R. P, AUS$110.00 & $65.00. 'It is a matter for some chagrin that there has arisen no m o d e m editor for a work so influential and so revelatory...