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Andreas Rhoby presents the fourth and concluding volume of the project ‘Byzantinische Epigramme’, which will be published soon by the Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. The volume is dedicated to epigrams accompanying miniatures, and is closely related to the Ghent DBBE project.

Abstract

Byzantium plays a vital role for the transmission of ancient, late antique and Medieval Greek texts. Thousands of manuscripts preserved in libraries and collections are full of texts of ancient tragedians, late antique church fathers and particularly of Biblical texts, which represent the lion’s share of transmitted manuscripts. A considerable number of manuscripts, depending on the setting in which they were copied, are equipped with illuminations or various kinds of ornamentation which increase their value. These often very elaborately and colorfully designed depictions are usually accompanied by texts, which, due to not belonging to the main text of the manuscript, are called paratexts. A considerable number of these paratexts are in verse form. Such texts, called book epigrams, fulfill various functions: they explain the depicted scenes, highlight the relationship between the manuscript’s main text and the illumination, or act themselves as images, as for example when the text of the epigram is written in the shape of a cross or inscribed into an ornamental frame. Many of these texts, considered purely on visual grounds, already resemble inscriptions which are preserved on other kinds of surfaces and objects.
The current volume is structured like the preceding three volumes of the series Byzantine epigrams on objects, which have so far presented inscriptional verses on frescoes and mosaics; icons and portable objects; and on stones. The publication’s focus is on critical editions of the texts, (German) translations of the Greek texts, and commentaries. Besides general chapters on the cultural-historical phenomenon of quasi-inscriptional verses in manuscripts, paleography, language etc., almost all the epigrams treated are also depicted in the volume’s collection of plates in order to facilitate study of the original context of the verses.

Practical information

Date & time: Friday 28 October 2016, 2:30 pm

Location: Blandijn, room 110.046 (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent)

Abstract
In recent years, scholarship has turned its attention to the historical setting, the Sitz im Leben, of Byzantine poetry. In this context, the most prolific poet of the early 14th century, Manuel Philes, was taken into account. However, due to the vast number of texts transmitted under his name (more than 30,000 verses in more than 150 manuscripts!) no attempt has been made to look at the full picture of how his poetry was read. Without aiming at a complete evaluation, I shall offer an overview of the ways of reception. Philes’ poems were read in a variety of different contexts: from private readings of verse letters over performed enkomia to epigrams inscribed on public buildings. The form of reception also altered the way of how Philes was perceived as an author: from self-conscious reflections of an authorial ‘I’ in letters to the total absence of the author in inscriptions. The example of Manuel Philes shows the wide presence of poetry (and literature in general) in Late Byzantine society.

About the speaker
Krystina Kubina is a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna working on encomiastic poetry of the early Palaiologan period and visiting scholar at the Ghent Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams project.

Practical information

Date & time: Monday 5 December 2016, 2:30 pm

Location: Blandijn, room 100.043 (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent)

Abstract

In the mid-fifteenth century, as Italian book collectors began being exposed to Byzantine codices, the bindings of the latter started being imitated in Florence and Venice. The resulting bindings were often hybrid, since they mixed Western and Byzantine techniques, but also distinctly and deliberately “Greek-looking”; they were called “alla greca” and were sought-after for the messages they conveyed: an association with Greek culture; a refined taste for beautifully-bound books; and the appropriation of the Byzantine legacy.

My paper today looks at some aspects of the production and consumption of “alla greca” bookbindings in early modern Italy, and namely the ethnicity of bookbinders and patrons, bookmaking techniques, and collecting practices, and what they tell us about the intellectual milieux in which the books themselves circulated.​

About the speaker:

Anna Gialdini has a BA and MA in Classics from the University of Milan and a Diploma in Archival Studies from the State Archive of Milan. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis on Greek-style Bookbindings in Renaissance Venice, which constitutes an analysis of these objects from a structural and cultural perspective. Her research, which has been supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Fondazione Fedrigoni – Istocarta, and the Bibliographical Society of America, also deals with archival bindings, the social history of bookbinders, cross-cultural contact in the early modern Mediterranean, and the materiality of the book in professional contexts. After a short-term fellowship at the Huntington Library, she is now collaborating with the Public Library and Groeningemuseum in Bruges for an exhibition on Colard Mansion and the printing of incunables in the city.

Practical information

Date & time: Wednesday 16 August 2017

Location: Blandijn, room 120.043 (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent)

The Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams team kindly invites you to a lecture “Byzantine Scribes and their Paratexts” by Georgi Parpulov.

Abstract

The study of paratexts (additions) in medieval Greek manuscripts has made great advances over the past decade. My paper will discuss some of the ways in which such paratexts were selected and transmitted from one manuscript to another.

About the speaker

Georgi Parpulov studied history at the University of Sofia and art history at the University of Chicago. He subsequently did curatorial work at the Walters Art Museum, the J Paul Getty Museum and the British Museum, and taught at the University of Oxford.​

Practical information

Date & time: Monday 14 May 2018, 1:00 pm

Location: Jozef Plateauzaal (Jozef Plateaustraat 22, 9000 Gent)

Participation is free. No need to register. All are welcome!

On Monday 3 December 2018, we have the honor to welcome Andreas Rhoby from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who kindly agreed to give a guest lecture as a contribution to our MA course on Byzantine literature. Andreas Rhoby is an expert on Byzantine inscriptions, and he will introduce this topic in his guest lecture.

This lecture is organised by the Griekenlandcentrum, the Centre for Hellenic Studies at Ghent University, and will be given in Dutch.

Abstract

Onze kennis van de Griekse klassieke en Middeleeuwse literaire cultuur is onverbrekelijk verbonden met de manuscripten die in het hele Byzantijnse millennium geproduceerd werden. De teksten die jonge Byzantijnen tegenkwamen in hun schoolcurricula hebben gemakkelijker overleefd tot onze dagen. Anderzijds werden veel literaire werken die in Byzantium minder populair waren niet meer gekopieerd en zijn daarom onherroepelijk verloren.

Deze lezing onderzoekt hoe de boeken die Byzantijnen op school gebruikten eruit zagen. Werden er specifieke teksten geschreven voor leerlingen? En wat zijn de belangrijkste kenmerken van Byzantijnse schoolboeken? Door middel van een aantal afbeeldingen zullen we ingaan op de fascinerende wereld van de Byzantijnse boekproductie om inzicht te krijgen in hoe en wat Middeleeuwse Grieken lazen.

Practical information

Date & time: Wednesday 12 December 2018, 20:00 pm

Location: Auditorium 4 Jaap Kruithof (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent)