John Kinnamos
Joannes Kinnamos,orJohn Cinnamus(Greek:Ἰωάννης Κίνναμοςor Κίναμος; born shortly after 1143, died after 1185), was aByzantinehistorian.He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos", most likely a post connected with the military administration) to EmperorManuel I(1143–1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns inEuropeandAsia Minor.It appears that Kinnamos outlivedAndronikos I,who died in 1185.[1]
Kinnamos was the author of a history[2]that covered the years 1118–1176, thereby continuing theAlexiadofAnna Komnene,and covering the reigns ofJohn IIand Manuel I, until Manuel's unsuccessful campaign against theTurks,which ended in defeat at theBattle of Myriokephalon.[1]
Kinnamos's work breaks off abruptly, though it is highly likely that the original continued to the death of Manuel. There are also indications that the present work is an abridgment of a significantly larger work. The hero of the history is Manuel, and throughout the history Kinnamos attempts to highlight what he sees as the superiority of the Byzantine Empire to the Western and other powers. Similarly, he is a determined opponent of what he perceives as the pretensions of thepapacy.Nevertheless, he writes with the straightforwardness of a soldier, and occasionally admits his ignorance of certain events.[1]The work is well organized, and its style, modeled onXenophon,is simple, especially when compared with the florid writing of other Greek authors of the period. William Plate considers him the best of the European historians of this period.[3]
John Kinnamos is also credited for writing a book on one of the Angeli emperors; however, this book is believed to be lost (perhaps together with the rest of his much larger work).
References
[edit]- ^abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Cinnamus, John".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 376–377.
- ^Ἐπιτομὴ τῶν κατορθωμάτων τῷ μακαρίτῃ βασιλεῖ καὶ πορφυρογεννήτῳ κυρίῳ Ἰωάννῃ τῷ Κομνηνῷ, καὶ ἀφήγησις τῶν πραχθέντων τῷ ἀοιδίμᾳ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ πορφυρογεννήτῳ κυρίῳ Μανουὴλ τῷ Κομνηνῷ ποιηθεῖσα Ἰωάννῃ βασιλικῷ γραμματικῷ Κιννάμῳ,orSummary of the feats of the late emperor and purple-born lord John Komnenos and narration of the deeds of his celebrated son the emperor and purple-born lord Manuel I Komnenos done by John Kinnamos his imperial secretary.Editio princepsbyCornelius Tollius(Utrecht 1652). Also available in later editions with more modern types at theInternet Archive.
- ^Smith,editor.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,1867.
Sources
[edit]- John Kinnamos,Rerum ab Ioannes et Alexio [sic] Comnenis Gestarum,ed. A. Meineke, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1836)
- John Kinnamos,The Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus,trans. C.M. Brand (New York, 1976).ISBN0-231-04080-6
- Jonathan Harris,Byzantium and the Crusades(Hambledon and London, 2003).ISBN1-85285-298-4
- J. Ljubarskij, ‘John Kinnamos as a writer’, inPolypleuros Nous: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60 Geburtstag(Byzantinisches Archiv, 19), ed. C. Scholz and G. Makris (Munich, 2000), pp. 164–73
- Paul Magdalino,'Aspects of twelfth century Byzantine Kaiserkritik',Speculum58 (1983), 326-46 and reprinted in Paul Magdalino,Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Byzantium(Ashgate publishing, 1991), No. VIII
- Paul Stephenson, 'John Cinnamus, John II Comnenus and the Hungarian campaign of 1127–1129',Byzantion66 (1996), 177-87
