The Middle Sea

This history surveys the Mediterranean from ancient Egypt, the Greeks, and Rome through Byzantium, the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the Ottoman and Habsburg struggle, and the later naval and colonial powers, down to the twentieth century. Norwich moves by episodes and cities as much as by reigns: Alexandria, Constantinople, Venice, and the Barbary coast recur. Battles and dynasties are told as narrative rather than as economic analysis. The book is a long political and naval panorama of one sea, not a social history of every shore.

Bound in image blocked blue Buckram. Frontispiece and 24 pages of colour and black & white plates in each volume. Blue slipcase with reproduction of fresco pasted on both sides.