The Imperial diadem, the Imperial robes, and shoes (encrusted with pearls), all taken from 10th and 11th century Byzantine representations, the clearest of which is probably of Nikephoros Botaniates. Another useful one is of Basil II, while more information is available from a mosaic of Constantine Monomakhos in Hagia Sofia Cathedral in Constantinople. All these representations come from a site called "Receuil d'Images Relatives aux Croisades et a' l'Histoire Byzantine" - a fount of information on Byzantium and the Crusades, and definitely worth looking at fully.
It is fortunate that at least one diadem in the classic Byzantine mould - the Holy Crown of Hungary, given to the Hungarian king by the Byzantine Emperor - still exists, and I have based much of the construction details on that.
However, the surviving pictures of Byzantine diadems differ from this example in several ways, and I have used them as my guide where differences exist. |
