The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787) - (Translated Texts for Historians) by Richard Price (Paperback)

About the Book

The Second Council of Nicaea decreed that religious images are to be venerated, making the cult of icons central in Eastern Orthodoxy. Its Acts are essential reading for the iconoclast controversy, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history, and significant for the history of culture and the history of art.

Book Synopsis

Two volume set
The Second Council of Nicaea (787) decreed that religious images were to set up in churches and venerated. It thereby established the cult of icons as a central element in the piety of the Orthodox churches, as it has remained ever since. In the West its decrees received a new emphasis in the Counter-Reformation, in the defence of the role of art in religion. It is a text of prime importance for the iconoclast controversy of eighth-century Byzantium, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history. But it has also a more general significance - in the history of culture and the history of art. This edition offers the first translation that is based on the new critical edition of this text in the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum series, and the first full commentary of this work that has ever been written. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers from a variety of disciplines.

Review Quotes

'Price has done much to make the acts of major ecclesiastical councils from the fifth through eighth centuries accessible by producing reliable, well-annotated translations in the Translated Texts for Historians series... Scholars of the early Middle Ages, Byzantium and early Christianity should welcome the appearance of this volume. The translation has benefitted immensely from Price's previous work on the ecumenical councils and his thorough engagement with Lamberz's new edition and conclusions about the acts.'

Philip Michael Forness, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

'Price offers not only a reliable translation with footnotes but also a comprehensive general introduction to the iconoclast controversy, the council and the acts, as well as introductory observations on the individual sessions and texts which often summarize clearly, and through further observations supplement, the discussions on a particular theme or text that are not always easy to find in the three volumes of my edition.' Erich Lamberz, author of Concilium Universale Nicaenum secundum: Concilii Actiones I-VII (Walter de Gruyter, 2008-2016)

'The present work [The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea] is perhaps the finest Price has done so far... Price wades into [iconoclasm's] complex debates with judicious skill. His seventy-six-page introduction contains one of the most succinct, balanced and insightful overviews of the subject currently in print... this is exactly what a translation should be: accurate, accessible and informative.' Mike Humphreys, Journal of Roman Studies

About the Author

Richard Price is Professor of the History of Christianity, Heythrop College, University of London. His many previous publications include The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, The Acts of the Lateran Synod of 649 and The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553.