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），英國著名拜占庭史、中世紀史專傢。他齣生於貴族世傢，精通多種語言（英語、拉丁語、希臘語、俄語、保加利亞語、阿拉伯語、波斯語、土耳其語、亞美尼亞語、 敘利亞語、希伯來語、格魯吉亞語）。自劍橋三一學院畢業後，周遊列國，於多所大學任教，尤其在拜占庭曆史及十字軍史方麵頗有造詣。1965年，《1453——君士坦丁堡的陷落》一書由劍橋大學齣版社齣版後，迅速成為該領域經典之作，近半世紀以來，備受推崇，至2008年，原版已重印十八次。生動謹嚴，繁姿莊重，並存一書。