Meteora, The Rock Monasteries of Thessaly by Donald M. Nicol - Revised Edition 1975

Meteora, The Rock Monasteries of Thessaly by Donald M. Nicol - Revised Edition 1975 

The monasteries 'in the air' stand perched on the summits and in the caves of enormous rocks in a remote corner of the north of Greece. Their rocks are among the strangest phenomena of nature; the monasteries themselves, which in the late middle ages constituted a second Mount Athos, are among the strangest monuments to the religious aspirations of mankind. English readers will be familiar with the highly coloured account of his adventures at the Meteora given by Robert Curzon. But few serious attempts have hitherto been made in any language to present a fuller and more factual account of their origins and history. This book aims to provide an introduction to their history and a general description of the monasteries as they exist today, set against the background of Byzantine monasticism whose ideals they expressed and of the Byzantine world against which they came into being. The author has made several visits to the Meteora and to Mount Athos, and has travelled widely in what were once the European provinces of the Byzantine Empire, especially in northern Greece.

Details

• Hardcover 
• Condition: Good, very sparse notes and underlinings (see photo's), 
• ISBN: 0902089730
• Publisher: Variorum London Revised Edition 1975