This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilisation of Byzantium and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

作者：斯蒂文• 朗西曼（Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH，1903-2000），英国著名拜占庭史、中世纪史专家。他出生于贵族世家，精通多种语言（英语、拉丁语、希腊语、俄语、保加利亚语、阿拉伯语、波斯语、土耳其语、亚美尼亚语、 叙利亚语、希伯来语、格鲁吉亚语）。自剑桥三一学院毕业后，周游列国，于多所大学任教，尤其在拜占庭历史及十字军史方面颇有造诣。1965年，《1453——君士坦丁堡的陷落》一书由剑桥大学出版社出版后，迅速成为该领域经典之作，近半世纪以来，备受推崇，至2008年，原版已重印十八次。生动谨严，繁姿庄重，并存一书。