No movement? The late Byzantine court in Constantinople

This paper presents an alternative picture of late Byzantine court ceremonial to that which has held until now. An argument is presented which counters the image of a court that is isolated in the ‘citadel’ of Constantinople, in the northwest of the city, far from the main monuments, the hippodrome and Hagia Sophia in the southeast. The evidence for a different picture of late Byzantine ceremonial derives from a ceremonial book which until recently has not been the object of intensive study and a palace about which little is known. While the Great Palace has its own ceremonial book, the famous Book of Ceremonies, available in a modern edition since the nineteenth century, the other palace in Constantinople where court business was conducted, at least from the eleventh century, also has its own ceremonial book, Pseudo-Kodinos. The palaces, in diametrically opposite corners of the city, vary greatly also in architectural form. The differences in the palace buildings, their architectural forms, play a large part, it is argued, in the way in which ceremonial is described in each ceremony book. The limited movement indicated by Pseudo-Kodinos in the palace precinct is in great contrast to the Book of Ceremonies which, it could be said, is all about movement, while the movement described is within the palace. A different reading of the Book of Ceremonies shows that it, not Pseudo-Kodinos, indicates limited movement in the city, isolation within its walls and few public appearances.