The Byzness, 31st March 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 31st March 2025
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1.
NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
“Texts and Stories Across Cultures: Byzantine-Slavonic Manuscripts and their Middle Eastern Contexts” – Oxford (in-person only)
Presentation of manuscripts and printed books in the Bahari Room, Weston Library, on April 10 from 3 – 4.30 pm:
Texts and stories have amazing adventures. They cross continents, millennia and cultures. As they make long-lasting impact on their recipients, they are also enriched: they are adapted, changed and transmitted further. This session will present some of these remarkable journeys. It will focus mainly on the interaction between Greek/Byzantine and Slavonic culture, while including cases that encompass Arabic and Indian cultures, and Hebrew and Persian manuscripts alike. This is a real treat for anyone interested not only in Byzantine and Slavonic cultures, but in an even wider multicultural experience.
Please note that places are limited. You can book a place by emailing Helen Tilby at helen...@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Leiden Summerschool on Manuscripts from the Muslim World | August 18-29, 2025
Leiden is excited to organise this summer the 7th Leiden Summerschool on Manuscripts from the Muslim World from August 18 to 29, 2025. The course is meant for graduate students (MA and PHD), post-doc's and researchers.
We are looking forward to a wonderful line-up of lecturers covering topics from codicological concerns of Arabic manuscripts to South-Asian manuscript collections in postcolonial and digital perspectives and Hebrew manuscript traditions. Besides theoretical lectures the course offers hands-on practice with samples from the world-famous collections of the Leiden University Library.
The programme and much more other information can be found here.
The deadline for application is May 3, 2025.
Please forward this announcement to any student or colleague you think might be interested in participating.
Summer School 2025 - Leiden University
Online Lecture: The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in our 2024–2025 lecture series:
The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice
Karin Krause, University of Chicago
April 10, 2025 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -4) | Zoom
This lecture examines the history and shifting interpretations of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ in the Church of St. Mark’s in Venice between the late Middle Ages and the Baroque era.
One is kept in a Byzantine rock crystal pyx bearing a Greek inscription that identifies its contents as Christ’s carnal blood. Although the artifact is listed in an inventory drawn up in 1325, Venetian sources before the seventeenth century are suspiciously silent about the veneration and whereabouts of this relic. Evidently, the reliquary remained concealed in the Santuario, the relic chamber of St. Mark’s, until its miraculous rediscovery in 1617.
Drawing on sources from Venice and elsewhere, I argue that soon after the arrival of the pyx, its contents must have become part of the theological controversy over the bodily blood of Christ, a Catholic debate questioning the authenticity of such relics. Because of its problematic contents, I conclude, the doges decided not to make the pyx available for public veneration for several centuries. The theological disputes surrounding the relic inside the pyx can be better understood in light of the fate of a second reliquary of the Holy Blood of Christ from Constantinople, which has been in the same church since the thirteenth century.
It was only during the Baroque era that the relic inside the Byzantine pyx was rehabilitated as authentic resulting from the efforts of Giovanni Tiepolo, an accomplished theologian and ecclesiastical leader. I examine the strategies Tiepolo employed to establish the relic’s cult, strategies that illuminate the scholar’s familiarity with Byzantine history and religious culture.
Karin Krause is an Associate Professor in the University of Chicago Divinity School. Trained as an art historian, she specializes in the Christian visual cultures of Byzantium and the premodern Mediterranean region.
Advance registration required. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/the-blood-of-his-flesh
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjc...@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.
Land, Water, and Stone: Archaeological Perspectives on the Kosmosoteira Monastic Landscape
The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on Monday April 7 with a hybrid lecture on:
Land, Water, and Stone: Archaeological Perspectives on the Kosmosoteira Monastic Landscape*
Foteini Kondyli University of Virginia
*The lecture will be preceded by the screening of a 30-minutes documentary: The BRIA Expedition: A Road Trip to Medieval Thrace
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.
To join via Zoom please follow the link here.
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
As part of its ongoing commitment to Byzantine studies, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for Mary Jaharis Center sponsored sessions at the 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference to be held in Detroit, Michigan, October 30–November 2, 2025. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.
Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is April 14, 2025.
If the proposed session is accepted, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 5 session participants (presenters and chair) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from inside North America and up to $1400 maximum for those coming from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.
For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/51st-bsc
Contact Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions
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Alexander Johnston
MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com