The Byzness, 11th May 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 11th May 2025
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1.
NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
The Sinai Library as a Depository Unveiling Interactions and Connections Through Manuscripts -- ÖBG-SPBS Joint Lecture | 12 May 17:30 (UK time)
Speaker: Dr Giulia Rossetto (University of Vienna).
Response: Prof Liz James (University of Sussex – online)
The Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai has been a crossroads of languages, cultures, and traditions for over a thousand years. Its manuscript collection, which began to form with the Monastery’s foundation in the sixth century, is one place where one can still get a concrete glimpse of such intermingling. The library houses handwritten books in twelve different languages, often brought as gifts by pilgrims or bequeathed by monks and priests who joined the monastic community throughout their lives. These manuscripts, as well as their scribes, originate from a variety of regions, including Syria-Palestine, Egypt, Crete, as well as Ethiopia and Southern Italy. This paper will illustrate, through case studies, how the analysis of codicological and palaeographical features, alongside a close reading of multilingual annotations left by manuscript users, can challenge established paradigms: it helps identify new clusters of production, reconstruct the pathways through which manuscripts reached the Monastery, and highlight the mobility of scribes.
Date: 12 May 2025
Time: 17:30 (UK time)
Link to Join Online here
Location: Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik der Universität Wien, Postgasse 9, 2. Stock, Hörsaal (barrierefreier Zugang über Schönlaterngasse 12 – Lift)
Patryk Skupniewicz, "Elephants in Central Asian and Iranian Art of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages" – University of Lille
Please join us for the 2nd talk of the Ērān, Tūrān, and Hrōm Talk Series (ETHS):
Dr. Patryk Skupniewicz (University of Siedlce): "Elephants in Central Asian and Iranian Art of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages".
May 13, 2025, 18:00 CET, in person at the
University of Lille, Pont-de-Bois, Building E. 51.
Please register for online attendance here.
For more information, please visit:
https://globallateantiquity.com/2025/04/16/the-second-eths-talk-patryk-skupniewicz/
Byzantine Studies Lectures (NHRF), May 19th
The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on Monday May 19 with a hybrid lecture on:
Consumer Goods and Consumers in the Aegean Islands during the Early Middle Ages
Salvatore Cosentino University of Bologna
18:00 EET
The lecture will be hosted by Princeton Athens Center: 3 Timarchou Str. 11634 Athens
Those who wish to attend in person must register following this link here
To join via Zoom please follow the link here
Digital Byzantine Studies: Current Methods and Future Applications, 16th May, Maison Française, Oxford
In recent years, related fields such as Classical and Medieval Studies have made significant progress in developing auxiliary disciplines—papyrology, epigraphy, numismatics, and linguistics—through the use of digital tools. Byzantine Studies, however, still lag behind in this area. Institutions like Sorbonne University, the University of Cologne, and the CNRS Orient & Méditerranée (Paris) have recently come together to apply digital methods to Byzantine sources, including seals, manuscripts, and coins. Nevertheless, more work is needed to establish standardized, reliable methodologies and sustainable data practices, particularly through engagement with broader digital initiatives in Classics and Medieval Studies. This workshop will explore XML encoding and AI applications in areas such as digital palaeography, sigillography, and epigraphy (using TEI and EpiDoc for post-classical Greek); prosopography (via the PROSOPON consortium); numismatics (AI-assisted EpiDoc for coin inscriptions); and papyrology and manuscript studies (ontology-based metadata description).
For the complete schedule please see here.
All welcome!
3rd International Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Graduate Conference: Receiving Byzantium, Byzantium Receiving, May 16-17, 2025, University of Vienna and the Central European University
May 16: Central European University, Quellenstrasse 51, D001, 1100 Vienna.
May 17: Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, University of Vienna, Postgasse 9, Lecture Hall, 1010 Vienna.
The theme of the conference, Receiving Byzantium, Byzantium Receiving, invites exploration of Byzantium’s dual role as both a recipient and a transmitter of cultural influences. Byzantium both engaged with the classical traditions it inherited and interacted with its neighbouring traditions. Recent scholarship as well as popular representations of Byzantium have expanded the discourse on these issues and opened fresh perspectives on the Byzantine Middle Ages.
To see the complete conference schedule please click the link here
International workshop "Reading through the Lines: Variations and Functions of Intertextuality in Byzantine Literature (3-4 July, Cologne)
The Department of Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek Philology of the University of Cologne is pleased to invite you to the international workshop "Reading through the Lines: Variations and Functions of Intertextuality in Byzantine Literature" on July 3-4. Attendance is free, but online registration is required by June 15. Should you be interested, please email both the conveners: Giulia Gollo (ggo...@uni-koeln.de) and Cristian I. Dumitru (c.du...@uni-koeln.de).
PROGRAMME
THURSDAY, 3 JULY 2025
09:45-10:00 Welcome Coffee
10:00-10:15 Welcoming Address and Introduction
10:15-11:15 Keynote Lecture - Stratis Papaioannou Plagiarism Against Itself: Intertextuality and Rewriting in Byzantine Literature
11:15-11:45 Coffee Break
11:45-12:45 SESSION I: Novel [Chair: Cristian I. Dumitru]
Nicolò D'Alconzo The Ancient Novels in Byzantium: Intertextuality and Reception
Markéta Kulhánková Digenis Akritis: Shaping a New Storyworld Through Many Textual Worlds
12:45-13:45 Lunch
13:45-15:15 SESSION II: Hagiography [Chair: Reinhart Ceulemans]
Julie Van Pelt Intertextuality and Open Texts: the Life of Makarios the Roman and the Greek Alexander Romance
Giulia Gollo New Life, New Bible? Biblical Intertextuality in Ninth-Century Hagiographical Doublets
Lorenzo Maria Ciolfi From Anthology to Eulogy. Quotation, Adaptation, and Originality in the Encomia of John III Vatatzes
15:15-15:45 Coffee Break
15:45-17:15 SESSION III: Rhetoric, Historiography, Epistolography [Chair: Claudia Sode]
Cristian I. Dumitru Being Orthodox at the End Times: Florilegic Habits, Politics, and Providence in Joseph Bryennios’ Oration on our Faith (c. 1404)
Charles W. Oughton Intertextual Space in the Alexiad from Dyrrachium to Larissa
Evangelos Katafylis Intertextual References in Gregory Palamas’
anti-Islamic Epistle
19:00 Dinner
FRIDAY, 4 JULY 2025
09:45-10:00 Welcome Coffee
10:00-11:00 SESSION IV: Poetry I [Chair: Cristian I. Dumitru]
Jake Sawyer Christian and Classical Intertext as Hybridity in Nonnus of Panopolis’ Twin Epics
Elena Donadio Intertextuality in John Geometres: Not a Simple Literary Reference
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 SESSION V: Poetry II [Chair: Reinhart Ceulemans]
Ugo Mondini Intertextual Mauropous
Krystina Kubina Webs of Verses. Byzantine Poets Embracing Byzantine Poems
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 SESSION VI: Poetry III [Chair: Giulia Gollo]
Cristina Cocola The Bible and the Self: Function and Role of the Biblical Hypotext in the Hymnographic Collection of Monk Thekaras
Nicolò Sassi The Cannibal Nun Poem in Marcianus Graecus 524: Intertextuality as Relationality and Presence in Byzantium
14:30-15:00 CLOSING REMARKS
We look forward to welcoming you to Cologne!
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Call for Papers: " The consequences of Nicaea, 1700 years after the first ecumenical council" (Urbino, Italy, 6-7 november 2025)
The organising committee are pleased to announce the call for papers for the upcoming conference "The consequences of Nicaea, 1700 years after the first ecumenical council", taking place at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo (Italy) on the 6th and 7th of November 2025.
The call for papers is open to scholars at all stages at their career:
On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the council of Nicaea in 325 CE, the University of Urbino Carlo Bo (Department of Economics, Society and Politics and Department of Humanities), in cooperation with the cultural association Rodopis, organizes an international conference to be held in Urbino on the 6th and 7th of November 2025.
The conference aims to reassess the role of the council of Nicaea in the
history of the Christian Church and to study the changes it encompassed in the
daily life of the pagan and Christian population of the Roman Empire.
The first ecumenical council was summoned in order to end the doctrinal
conflict that had arisen within the Church of Alexandria and rapidly spread out
through the Eastern Empire; indeed, it represents the starting point of the
‘arian crisis’, a phenomenon that involved the Empire as a whole and affected
not only the Christian doctrine, but also the imperial politics, legislation
and society.
At the council of Nicaea and in its immediate aftermath, the Emperor played for
the first time a crucial role in the management and settlement of doctrinal
disputes. Such a role will be strengthened from the generation of Constantine’s
sons onwards and maintained by the Emperors until the rise of the ‘barbarian
kingdoms’, becoming a characteristic feature of the exercise of power
throughout Late Antiquity and beyond.
Furthermore, the decisions taken in the council of Nicaea
crucially contributed to the codification of the concepts of ‘orthodoxy’ and
‘heresy’ and to the emergence and establishment of a new legal category (de
haereticis) in the Roman legislation, which sought to regulate the content and
expression of religious beliefs using the coercive instrument of the law.
Finally, in terms of the evolution of Roman society, the decades following the
council of Nicaea witnessed an intensification of theological debates,
involving Christian believers who were called upon to actively take part in
doctrinal disputes, even when they gave rise to armed conflicts.
The pagan population of the Empire, struggling to understand the reasons for divisions and clashes within Christianity, had to comply with all the envisaged changes both in their relationship with the imperial authority and in their daily coexistence with the Christian communities within the cities.
In light of these premises, proposals for papers may concern
but do not have to be limited to the following themes:
- the development of doctrinal and conflicts, both in a theological and
ecclesiological perspective;
- the evolution of the display and exercise of imperial power, and the impact
of these changes on the relations with external polities;
- the transformation of the prerogatives and spheres of action of civil
officials and religious authorities;
- the involvement of Christian believers in doctrinal controversies and the
pagan responses to these social changes;
- the position of heterodox doctrinal groups within urban communities;
- the development of the legislation de haereticis, including the analysis of
specific measures and their application.
Scholars at all stages of their career are invited to submit an abstract of no
more than 250 words, with a list of the main sources and a brief curriculum
vitae. Abstracts must be sent by e-mail in PDF format to urbinon...@gmail.com no
later than 15/06/2025. Each presentation will last a maximum of 20 minutes,
with a discussion to follow. Papers in Italian and English are welcome.
Confirmed keynote speakers: Prof. Rita Lizzi Testa (Università degli Studi di
Perugia), Prof. María Victoria Escribano Paño (Universidad de Zaragoza).
The proceedings of the conference will be published. Some proposals, which are not selected to be presented as papers during the conference, may be selected for publication in the proceedings.
Funds have been requested to contribute - fully or partially - to the speakers’ accommodation costs for the night of the 6th of November and meals for the duration of the conference, but no contributions to travel costs will be provided.
The conference is organised under the patronage of: Accademia Romanistica Costantiniana (ARC - Centro Studi dell’Università di Perugia); Associazione Internazionale di Studi Tardoantichi (AIST); Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose Italo Mancini in Urbino.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Ulrico Agnati (University of Urbino Carlo Bo), Gianmarco
Chiari (University of Naples Federico II - Cultural Association Rodopis), Viola
Gheller (Cultural Association Rodopis), Franco Luciani (University of Urbino
Carlo Bo).
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Alexander Johnston
MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com