Back to the Library
The Medieval Church · c. 1148
The Alexiad
Anna Komnene · 1083–1153
Read elsewhere
What it is
A daughter's history of her father's reign, including the arrival of the First Crusade described as an unwelcome flood of armed and unpredictable Latins.
Why it lasted
The first substantial history written by a woman in the European tradition, and the essential Byzantine account of the crusades.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next