Corpus des Mosaïques d'Albanie, vol. 2

This second volume of the Corpus of the Mosaics of Albania presents the mosaics of the churches of the via Egnatia. These buildings and their ornamentation form a high quality and cohesive whole, dated between the late 5th century and the 7th century. This perfectly demonstrates the vitality of the great land route between Rome and Constantinople that connected them.

The three lead authors – Marie-Patricia Raynaud, Elisabeth Neri (both archaeologists specializing in mosaics of pavements or murals) and Agron Islami (chief restorer of the mosaics of Albania) – have long worked together, supported by a staunch team, supplementing the study of the mosaics and records on-site by restoration work and systematic safekeeping.

The first part of the volume contains a complete and highly illustrated catalogue in which, primarily, the largely unpublished, beautiful wall and floor mosaics of Elbasan can be discovered. The second part is the work of several contributors. It focuses on issues ranging from the iconography of large figured panels and of a number of original compositions, via the reinterpretation of the mosaics of the chapel of Durrës and the identification of mosaicist workshops to reflections on the layout of the buildings encountered. Added to this are innovative results of archaeometric analyses and a reminder of the methodologies implemented. The book is completed by a long summary in Albanian.