Archives: Events

The third lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2021 Series will be given by Jacopo Marcon (University of Birmingham).

In 2018, Jacopo Marcon obtained his MA in Classical Philology cum laude, at the University of Udine, with a thesis in Latin Palaeography (the catalogue of medieval manuscripts of Giusto Fontanini, from the Biblioteca Guarneriana in San Daniele del Friuli). Currently, he is a third-year PhD student at the department of Theology and Religion of the University of Birmingham. He is part of the ERC Project: CATENA: Commentary Manuscripts in the History and Transmission of the New Testament and is currently working on the first-ever critical edition of the Ps. Oecumenian Catena on the Romans (title of the thesis: The Edition of the Ps. Oecumenian Catena on Romans).

 

Abstract

This presentation aims to investigate the use of epigrams in the Byzantine New Testament Catenae, with a particular focus on the so-called Ps. Oecumenian Catenae on the Pauline Letters. I will analyze the position, the structure, the content, and the function of the byzantine book epigrams to reveal new interesting features in the history of Catenae and commentaries on Paul.

First, I will generally introduce the New Testament Catenae. These are biblical manuscripts with the text of the New Testament alongside the exegetical chain of comments made up of multiple extracts from the Greek Church Fathers. Second, I will consider the so-called paratextual features of the biblical Catenae on the Pauline Epistles, where most of the book epigrams are present (the Euthalian Apparatus and the set of prefaces and subscriptions).

In doing so, I will investigate different types of book epigrams. For the first typology, that of the so-called text- or author-related epigrams, I will examine the cases of Paris, BnF, Gr. 219 (GA 91), 224 (GA 1934), and Coisl. 217 (GA 1972) and Venice, BNM, Gr. Z 34 (coll. 349) (GA 1924). In these manuscripts, alongside the text of the preface on the Pauline epistles in verses (ἡ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν ὑπόθεσις διὰ ἰάμβων), short book epigrams open the text of each of the Epistles.

In some other manuscripts, book epigrams (the so-called image-related epigrams) accompany miniatures of the apostle Paul, and the Greek Church Fathers, such as in the manuscripts Paris, BnF, Gr. 223 (GA 1933), and Gr. 224 (GA 1934)), or can be incorporated into the text of the colophons and notes of property (i.e. the scribe-related epigram in Vatican City, BAV, Bar. Gr. 503 (GA 1952), with the subscription of John Pepagomenos, or the patron-related epigram at the end of Athos, Mone Agiou Paulou 2 (GA 1862), regarding a βασιλισσα Μαρια).

Finally, my presentation explores the content and the textual tradition of some epigrams that have been overlooked, in Paris, BnF, Gr. 237 (GA 82), including one which seems to have been written in Arabic or Turkish but with Greek letters.

---

Practical information

Date & time: Tuesday 30 March 2021, 4:00pm (UTC+2, CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/95155014627?pwd=NjVXWmVQeXl5MzVUWFVjSVpLUUYvQT09

• Meeting ID: 951 5501 4627
• Passcode: 57b2RkxU

The fourth lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2021 Series will be given by Alessandra Palla (University of Hamburg).

Alessandra Palla graduated from the University of Pisa (Bachelor in “Lettere Classiche” and Master in “Scienze dell’Antichità e Archeologia”) and then received her joint PhD degree in “Scienze dell’Antichità e Archeologia” from the University of Pisa and at the University of Hamburg. She has obtained various international research grants and she is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg, where she is conducting a project that involves editing, translating, and providing a commentary on Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Epistula ad Ammaeum II. At the same time, she is working on the upcoming publication of her PhD thesis regarding the manuscript tradition of Dionysius’ Epistula and on other researches, mainly in the fields of Greek rhetoric, classical philology and Greek literature.

 

Abstract

The aim of my research is to provide a literary and critical analysis of the epigrams AP 2, 372-376 and AP 9, 583.

The first stage of my paper focuses on an overview regarding the manuscripts in which these epigrams are transmitted, namely the manuscripts that contain Thucydides’ Historiae, the so-called Dio­ny­sius of Halicarnassus’ Opuscula Rhetorica, and (in some cases) Marcellinus’ Vita Thucydidis, along with an anonymous Vita about the historian, and the manuscripts of Anthologia Graeca.

In the second stage, I analyze and reconstruct the epigrams’ transmission, combining textual evidences with other aspects, such as the epigrams’ position within the manuscripts, the cultural context in which they are transmitted and their reception in antiquity.

This research will provide a basis from which to develop a thorough and detailed study not only of the manuscript tradition of the epigrams AP 2, 372-376 and AP 9, 583 but also of their intellectual, cultural and historical function.

---

Practical information

Date & time: Tuesday 27 April 2021, 4:00pm (UTC+2, CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/99198629943?pwd=a0UxaXdFVmR5MXJneEgxRytCY3ZzUT09.

• Meeting ID: 991 9862 9943
• Passcode: L75La5fW

The fifth lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2021 Series will be given by Sien De Groot (Ghent University).

After finishing her master’s degree in Classical Philology (Ghent University), Sien De Groot obtained a PhD position with the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams. She is currently finishing a doctoral thesis on book epigrams in the Byzantine manuscripts of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite.

 

Abstract

When we want to understand how readers in the past approached texts, our source material is limited. We cannot simply ask ancient or medieval readers about their experience. Instead, we have to rely on what they have written about the texts they read, and on traces left in their books. Book epigrams are unique sources in this respect. As poems written to accompany certain main texts, they express the poet’s reaction to these texts. On the other hand, their presence in the manuscripts of the main texts creates a close connection between text and reception, and guides later readers through the book.

In this presentation, I will focus on book epigrams in the Greek manuscripts of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. As we will see, book epigrams preserved in these manuscripts are usually quite short. They convey the main focus of the texts and confirm the author’s pseudonym, but they do not engage thoroughly with the theological framework expressed in the corpus. On the other hand, the book epigrams were important in structuring the manuscripts, and have, most probably, acquired this function at an early stage in the history of the texts. In order to understand how these epigrams functioned within each manuscript and within the manuscript tradition as a whole, we will take into account non-textual evidence, such as the position of epigrams in the manuscripts, the visual presentation, and the moment at which the epigrams were added to the book. With this overview, I hope to shed light on the manifold interactions between readers, texts and books that occurred around the works of Pseudo-Dionysius.

---

Practical information

Date & time: Tuesday 25 May 2021, 4:00pm (UTC+2, CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/93448862359?pwd=TzgyajFZZWsxYXhVTm5zUU1KZ0d5dz09.

• Meeting ID: 934 4886 2359
• Passcode: JmVbX7wz

The last lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2022 Series will be given by Aglae Pizzone (University of Southern Denmark).

Aglae Pizzone is a byzantinist with a training in classics. In her research she focuses on cultural history and history of the ideas. She is currently associate professor in Medieval Literature at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study, hosted by the University of Southern Denmark. She is interested in autography, self-commentaries in the Greek Middle Ages as well as in the Byzantine commentaries on Hermogenes. She has recently discovered new autograph notes by John Tzetzes in the Voss. Gr. Q1. She is PI in the MSCA Doctoral Network AntCom. From Antiquity to community: rethinking classical heritage through citizens humanities (2023-2027). Recent publications include Self-authorization and Strategies of Autography in John Tzetzes, Greek roman and Byzantine Studies, 60.4 (2020) 652-690; ‘Tzetzes and the prokatastasis: a tale of people, manuscripts, and performances’, in Prodi E. (ed.), ΤΖΕΤΖΙΚΑΙ ΕΡΕΥΝΑΙ. Bologna: Eikasmos, 2022, 49-104; and the volume, co-edited with Douglas Cairns, Martin Hinterberger and Matteo Zaccarini, Emotions through Time: From Greece to Byzantium. Heidelberg: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

Abstract

Before the composition of the Histories, Tzetzes’ commentary on Aphthonios and Hermogenes in political verse, with its scope and sheer extension, was certainly meant to be the most representative among his mature work. It is therefore no surprise that the Vossianus Gr. Q1, a contemporary, “bespoke” witness of the commentary, is equipped with a series of metrical and prose paratexts providing details on the genesis of this specific copy. They are to be found at fol. 30^r, after the end of the commentary on Aphthonios (6 hexameters), and at fols. 111^v–112^r after the end of the commentary on the four Hermogenian treatises and before the section of the Logismoi preserved by the manuscript (respectively 10 hexameters and 24 dodecasyllables). At fol. 112^r there is also a prose note, detailing the problems encountered by Tzetzes after handing over the requested copy to its commissioners. The longer hexametric poem provides us with information about the commissioner, one Nikephoros who might be the mystikos Nikephoros Serblias mentioned in the letter-collection. It also describes Tzetzes in dialogue with the Muse, whom he persuades to dwell in the “lower regions” of poetry in political verse. The talk will walk the audience through these paratexts, illustrating their function both within the specific textual organization of the Vossianus Gr. Q1 and more broadly against Tzetzes’ poetics.

Practical information

Date & time: Tuesday 14 June 2022, 4:00pm (CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/92420884710?pwd=aFprM2FpamdEN0ZKK2c3ZTJSQkZMQT09.

• Meeting ID: 924 2088 4710
• Passcode: r7BFw3Bv

N.B.: A Zoom account is required to join this meeting. Please make sure to be logged in, using your Zoom credentials.

 

The fourth lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2022 Series will be given by Manolis Patedakis (University of Crete).

Manolis S. Patedakis is Assistant Professor in Byzantine Philology. He completed his undergraduate (B.A.) and first level of postgraduate studies (M.A.) at the Department of Philology, University of Crete; he finished his dissertation for the doctoral degree (D.Phil.) at the University of Oxford in 2004, under the title “Athanasios I Patriarch of Constantinople (1289-1293, 1303-1309): A critical edition with introduction and commentary of selected unpublished works”. Between September 2007 and May 2008, he was Research Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks (Trustees for Harvard University), Washington, D.C. His special interests focus on texts and literature of the Palaeologan period, epigraphy and manuscript culture from medieval and early modern Crete, and Symeon the New Theologian. His publications include editions of Greek literary texts and inscriptions, including of the writings of Patriarch Athanasios I of Constantinople.

Abstract

The collection of poems by Theodore Prodromos known as the Tetrastichs both on the Old and the New Testament preserves certain interesting aspects as regarding the aesthetics and the spirit of his. Simple comments on biblical incidents to a more perplexed criticism addressed to sacred figures, monologues and dialogues –which sometimes become more dramatic– coloured with a sense of humour, or possible sarcastic references to the poet himself, are only a few amongst the attributes that we can mention for this group of poems. As the narration moves from the Old to the New Testament the reader wonders whether the logic slightly changes, and the new spirit of Christian art and art of speech also allows further connections between Prodromos’ poetics and other artistic and cultural means in twelfth century Constantinople and Byzantium.

Practical information

Date & time: Tuesday 17 May 2022, 4:00pm (CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/94744052849?pwd=SndUT3NWd3FWZFBWbjNlbUJxSENaQT09.

• Meeting ID: 947 4405 2849
• Passcode: ka88aW3p

N.B.: A Zoom account is required to join this meeting. Please make sure to be logged in, using your Zoom credentials.

 

The third lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2022 Series will be given by Luise Marion Frenkel (University of São Paulo).

Luise Marion Frenkel has been assistant professor of classical Greek language and literature at the University of São Paulo since 2013. She holds one PhD in Mathematics from this university and one in Divinity from the University of Cambridge. She has been a visiting fellow of the British School at Rome and of ITSEE (Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing) at the University of Birmingham. She has collaborated with a number of research groups, such as ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ in Erfurt, ‘Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’ in Tübingen and ‘Polyphony of Late Antique Christianity’ in Frankfurt. She has been a visiting scholar at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Her interests centre on orality, entextualisation and the transmission and reception of ancient texts. Most of her publications address the historiography of fourth- to seventh-century religious controversies in the Eastern Roman Empire and beyond.

Abstract

Manuscripts of most fourth- and fifth-century Christian leaders, thinkers, rhetors, historians and poets have remarkably empty margins, and DBBE suggests that canonical authors and their works were not a favourite subject for poets. Still, a number of book epigrams, often added by later hands, can be found. Surveying the book epigrams which can be linked to Origen, Eusebios of Caesarea, Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrrhus currently in DBBE, some tentative conclusions will be drawn about the relevance of text-related poems on Byzantine readers and audiences. Then, some occurrences found in Paris. gr 451, Florence Plut. 70, 7 and Basiliensis gr. A III 4 will be discussed, pointing to new avenues for DBBE and all interested in the transmission and Byzantine reception of patristic authors.

Practical information

Date & time: Thursday 21 April 2022, 4:00pm (CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/99015767396?pwd=S3dUQWdlNmJudWhNanRiUitNakxKZz09.

• Meeting ID: 990 1576 7396
• Passcode: u88fyAzq

N.B.: A Zoom account is required to join this meeting. Please make sure to be logged in, using your Zoom credentials.

 

The second lecture in the online lecture series Speaking From the Margins. DBBE Online Lectures, Spring 2022 Series will be given by Nina Sietis (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio).

Nina Sietis is currently Assistant Professor (Ricercatrice a tempo determinato) at University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, were she contributes to the activities of the project MeMo – Memory of Montecassino (https://www.memo.pyle.it/) and teaches History of the Book. Her research interests lie primarily in Greek palaeography and codicology: she published papers and gave talks concerning different topics over the long course of Greek writing history.

Abstract

Medieval men used to read the manuscripts they came across «la plume à la main» and to leave notes on them. These texts are invaluable evidence for understanding interests and habits of readers during the Middle Ages. The aim of my paper is to show how metrical annotations added by later readers, namely what I call ‘secondary metrical paratexts’, offer an invaluable insight into the reconstruction of the links between different manuscripts and textual traditions. I will firstly focus on a prolific but anonymous reader from the late 11th century and the manuscripts he owned. The last part of my speech will be devoted to some notes added in the margins of manuscripts of the Monastery of St. John Prodromos of Petra in Constantinople.

Practical information

Date & time: Thursday 17 March 2022, 4:00pm (CET)

No registration required. The lecture is freely accessible via Zoom: https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/97360235794?pwd=YzB6djIzT3FqWDJHb2VNb05BcmZOZz09.

• Meeting ID: 973 6023 5794
• Passcode: t7pA7uEu

N.B.: A Zoom account is required to join this meeting. Please make sure to be logged in, using your Zoom credentials.