Portrait of Steven Runciman by Cecil Beaton, 1925 “(…) he was reasoning with Bohemond a
Portrait of Steven Runciman by Cecil Beaton, 1925 “(…) he was reasoning with Bohemond at Antioch; or counselling Richard Coeur de Lion about his policy at Acre; or playing chess with Saladin, in his tent; then, a bit later, rallying Bessarion for accepting the filioque clause at the same time as a cardinal’s hat; consoling the eastern Comnenes for the loss of Trebizond; or, under Mount Taygetus, exchanging syllogisms with Gemistos Plethon as they strolled along the future Runciman Street. Later on still, we imagined him hobnobbing with Phanariot hospodars in the snows beyond the Danube … It was hard to stop." (Patrick Leigh Fermor, Remembering Steven Runciman, The Spectator, 2001) -- source link
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