The Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams, hosted at Ghent University (www.dbbe.ugent.be), is delighted to announce a series of lectures on the topic of book epigrams.
Byzantine manuscripts of all periods and kinds regularly contained colophons, scribal prayers, dedicatory pieces, and other “paratexts” in verse. These small (or sometimes long) poems give us a unique insight into the interests, ideologies and emotions of scribe, patron, and/or reader. They are testimonies to a long and often eventful history of reading and interpretation in Byzantine culture, and at the same time, they are fascinating (but sometimes overlooked) works of poetic art.
The DBBE has greatly improved access to this corpus. Nevertheless, book epigrams continue to elicit many questions, from palaeography to art history, from metrics to the history of text transmission. In this series of lectures, we invite scholars to share their perspectives on this multifaceted genre.
In Spring 2021, we will kick off Speaking From the Margins with a series of six online lectures. The lectures will take place at 4pm (Central European Time) and will be accessible to everyone via Zoom.
For more information, please visit https://www.projectdbbe.ugent.be/lectures or contact us at dbbe@ugent.be.
