IN AROUND 700AD a nameless scholar in the north of Italy made a five-volume study of the universe. He covered everything you would expect for a man of his time: Africa, Arabia, India. Even far-off Britannia got a nod, the cosmographer informing readers that it was "said to form part of Europe". More surprising than the ambit of his world is what he chose to put at its centre: not Jerusalem or Rome but Ravenna, a city clinging to the Adriatic marshlands south of Venice. As Judith Herrin explains in her lively, startling book, Ravenna really did deserve "the most noble" title bestowed by this anonymous admirer. From its origins as a refuge in a dying empire, it went on to host kings and prelates, physicians and lawyers-and ultimately help shape Europe. Like the continent today, Ravenna was a cosmopolitan place, mixing Roman citizens and the Germanic warlords who came to rule the city. Later, under Byzantine control, Greeks mingled with Armenian administrators and Syrian merchants.
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