KOMNENE, Anna.

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Alexias, sive de rebus ab Alexio Imperatore vel eius tempore gestis, libri quindecim. Editio princeps of the complete Alexiad, the first historical work written by a European woman. Komnene's epic chronicle of her father's reign is "the most important work to have been written by a Byzantine woman" (Levin et al, p. 155): it is the primary source on early 12th-century Byzantine history and the only Hellenic eyewitness of the first crusade. Anna Komnene (often Latinized as Anna Comnena) was a Byzantine princess, daughter to emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. She played an active role in the politics at the time, particularly in relation to her father's succession, and married Nikephoros Bryennios, a statesman and writer. At a time when basic literacy was uncommon among Byzantine women even in elite circles, Komnene fought against her parents' wishes in her efforts to study. Occasionally acting secretly, she learned Greek literature, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics. She composed the Alexiad towards the end of her life around 1148 to complete a project inaugurated by her mother, who had commissioned it to Bryennios but that he never accomplished.The Alexiad focuses Alexios I's reign between 1081 and 1118. Komnene paints an idealized portrait of her father centered on his wars against the Normans, Pechenegs, Turks, and the Latins in the crusades. The text is based on her own memories, conversations with the emperor and military commanders, and the imperial archiv

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