New Releases by John Julius Norwich

In Byzantium: The Early Centuries John Julius Norwich told the epic tale of the Roman Empire''s second capital up to Christmas Day AD 800 – when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as a rival emperor. This second volume of his magnificent history covers the following three centuries. In it he continues his compelling chronicle up to the coronation of the heroic Alexius Comnenus in 1081. The other two volumes in the trilogy, Byzantium: The Early Centuries and Byzantium: The Decline and Fall, are also published in Penguin.

This omnibus volume is made up of John Julius Norwich''s first two works of history published 20 years ago - The Normans in the South and The Kingdom in the Sun. The books tell the story of the dazzling Norman kingdom of Sicily founded in the 11th century by an enterprising band of adventurers from Normandy under Robert Guiscard. The state they founded was outstanding in medieval civilization.

Music pervades the soul of Venice as surely as its canals penetrate the heart of the city. From Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Rossini to Verdi, Wagner, and Stravinsky, this great city has inspired and sheltered genius. Venice is a city in which music has accompanied every aspect of life, from religious and state ceremony to late-night revelry. This lavishly illustrated book examines the unique relationships between the life of Venice and the history of music.

''He is brilliant ... He writes like the most cultivated modern diplomat attached by a freak of time to the Byzantine court, with intimate knowledge, tactful judgement and a consciousness of the surviving monuments'' IndependentIn this exciting narrative history, John Julius Norwich, one of most accomplished popular historians, reveals the beginning of Byzantium. He tells of the five formative centuries of an empire that would enthral the western world for more than eleven hundred years.

Venice of the sixth century, when lagoon-dwellers lived like sea-birds in huts built on heaps of osiers, was the city of the Doges, where people were inspired by the glories of Byzantium as they built it. Thirteenth century Venice was a world power holding the gorgeous East in fee and 15th and 16th century Venice was the city where Titian and Tintoretto and Veronese were at work. Venice of the 18th century was a city for revellers and in the 19th century it was a city for art lovers - each of these periods in its history is portrayed as its inhabitants and visitors saw it, through their eyes and in their voices.

At once the most comprehensive and the most engaging history of Venice available in English, this book will be treasured by all those who share the author''s fascination with "the most beautiful and magical of cities." Book jacket.

Book illuminates world architecture from ancient to modern times. Over 800 illustrations, 400 in full color, 320 drawings created as special cut-away drawings depicting the insides of buildings.

This book is about the ''other'' Norman Conquest. It is the story of Robert Guiscard, perhaps the most extraordinary European adventurer between Caesar and Napoleon. In one year, 1084, he had both the Eastern and Western Emperors retreating before him and one of the most formidable of medieval Popes in his power. It is also the story of his brother Roger, thanks to whom he conquered Sicily from the Saracens; and of Roger''s descendants, notably his son Roger II, who converted his father''s achievement into a cosmopolitan and cultivated kingdom whose surviving monuments still dazzle us today. The Normans in the South is the first of two volumes that recount the dazzling story of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. The second volume The Kingdom of the Sun is also being reissued in Faber Finds. ''Diligence, narrative skill, and a scholarship fired by enthusiasm'' Lord Kinross, Sunday Telegraph ''I found the book very enjoyable indeed. It is beautifully written.'' Nancy Mitford