TRANSLATIO IMPERII DUPĂ CĂDEREA CONSTANTINOPOLULUI (1453) ÎN VIZIUNEA LUI MIHAIL KRITOBOULOS
Translatio Imperii after the Fall of Constantinople

Summary/Abstract: The study deals with the concept of translatio imperii, a historiographical concept used in the Middle Ages, but which has its roots in Antiquity. Basically, the concept means “transfer of power”. The Byzantine writer and historian Mihail Kritoboulos emphasizes in his work that the process of decline and fall of an empire cannot be regarded as being connected only to the past – to the Babylonians, Persians, Romans etc. –, but is connected to the living history, in other words, that of the 15th century, the very era in which he lived. From the perspective of translatio imperii, Kritoboulos’s History represents a peculiar source of information. Regarding the fall of Constantinople, Kritoboulos’s text seems to diverge from the common negative view of the Ottomans.

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