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Lviv: A City in the Crosscurrents of Culture by John s> Czaplicka (review)

2007; Maney Publishing; Volume: 85; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/see.2007.0127

2222-4327

W. H. Zawadzki,

Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies

REVIEWS 347 of the 'exemplary warrior'dominates his work and makes his assessmentof Nikephoros PhokasandJohn Tzimiskes both highly successfulgenerals particularlyinteresting.In addition,Leo providesan interestingearlyexample of what Roger Scott has characterizedas the 'intrusionof the author'spersonality ' into the writing of history. Thus we gain interestinginsightsinto Leo's views of the events taking place around and the personalitiesmost active in them. Cliched these may well be, as the editors point out, but nonetheless they provide a fascinatingglimpse of the opinions and outlook of a late tenthcentury , educated court functionary. The translation team have rendered Leo's Greek into clear and elegant English and have provided detailed notes which help to elucidate some of the most challenging aspects of his work: sortingout some of the confusionsbroughtinto the text by the punctuationof the edition of C. B. Hase, debatingthe possibleuse of a lost sourcefavourable to Nikphoros Phokas (which would help to explain why Leo is able to speak well of both this emperor andhis murderer,John Tzimiskes!),clarifyinghis sometimes confusing chronology and identifying the plethora of places and names in a history whose geographical scope stretches from the Danube to Syria.Talbot and her team are to be congratulatedin bringingthisfascinating text to a wider audience. Those alreadyfamiliarwith it will find a host of new insights and interpretationsto consider; those without Greek will find an accessible and instructiveintroduction to a work which well deserves to be better known. Department ofHistogy ROSEMARYMORRIS University of York Czaplicka, John (ed.). Lviv:A Ci in the Crosscurrents of Culture.Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005. 362 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Index. $39.95: ?25.95. THIRTEEN scholarsfrom five differentcountries have contributedto this well edited volume which goes a long way to making intelligible to Western scholarsthe complex and rich culturalhistoryof one of the greathistoriccities of the borderlandsbetween Central and Eastern Europe. It has been known variously in the past as Leopolis, Lw6w, Lvov, Lemberg; today it sports its Ukrainian name of Lviv. Located on an importanteast-westtrade route and on the fault line between Western and Eastern-riteChristianity,and ruled over the centuriesby Ruthenian princes, Polish kingsand Austrianemperors, the city has for most of its existence been the home of diverse religious, ethnic and national groups all of which have made a distinctivemark on its history and its surviving physical appearance. Mercifully the city's historic centre suffered only limited damage during the Second World War. On the other hand, the war brought about an abrupt end to Lviv's mixed Polish-Jewish-Ukrainian character,and under Soviet rule the city acquired a predominantlyUkrainianidentity.Since the I98os Lvivhas emerged as one of the most culturallyvibrant cities in independent Ukraine. 348 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 This collection of studies illustrates how different perceptions of Lviv have been created by the differentnational, ethnic and religious groups that inhabited the city in the past. The book makes a laudable and successful attempt to transcend the boundaries of nationalist historiography and of nationalistclaims and counter-claimsto the city'slegacy and ownership.The aim of the volume, explains the editorJohn Czaplicka, is not to focus on the crimes of the twentieth century, but on the literatureand architectureof the city, on its religions and on the history of its cultural transformation. Enormous credit must go to Czaplickawhose extensive introductionnot only highlightsthe key points of all the contributionsin the volume but also offers an absorbing and substantial multi-culturalsynthesis of the book's subject matter, and provides an appropriatecontext in which to locate the different contributions. Similarin its broad sweep to Czaplicka'sintroductionis YaroslavHrytsaks article with its stimulating multi-culturalhistory of Lviv. Hrytsak traces the evolution of differentreligiousallegiancesinto modern national identitiesand of their influenceson each other;he also raisesthe importantand tantalizing question of how today's largely culturally homogeneous Lviv, by coming to terms with its multi-cultural heritage, can provide the new Ukraine with a fecund link with the new central Europe. Alois Woldan explores the imagery of Lviv in Ukrainian, Polish and Austrian literatures from the sixteenth century to I9I8, ending his survey with the work of Joseph Roth who described Lviv as a city of 'blurred borders' (p. 89). Next follow three articles on architecture: Ihor Zhuk provides a...