New Book!

Georgios Pachymeres, Philosophia, Book 3. In Aristotelis de Caelo Commentary. Editio princeps. Prolegomena, Text, Indices byIoannis Telelis. [Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Commentaria in Aristotelem Byzantina, No. 7], Athens: Academy of Athens,2016a 

CONTENTS

This volume offers a critical edition of the third book of Georgios Pachymeres’ Philosophia (early 14th c.), the voluminous philosophical work in which the Byzantine erudite and polyhistor attempted to epitomize the most important works of the Aristotelian philosophy by paraphrasing and commenting on them. Philosophia book 3 deals with Aristotle’s De Caelo treatise. The Prolegomena of the edition (p. 1*-156*) includes a set of seven chapters where a wide range of information and topics related to the edited text is provided and discussed. Ch. 1 provides the state of the art on the Byzantine author’s philosophical activity, the content and context of Philosophia, the position of book 3 in the framework of the work, and a brief presentation of Aristotle’s De Caelo content. Ch. 2 offers a comprehensive overview of the content of the separate sections and chapters of the text, as well as an analysis of the philological methods and practices adopted by Pachymeres in his synthesis. Ch. 3 presents the differences between the two main manuscripts of Philosophia manuscript tradition on the basis of book 3, an exploration of the possible Aristotelian exemplar of Pachymeres’ text on the basis of common and variant readings between Aristotelian passages and the textual transmission of the De Caelo, as well as data concerning the reception of the text in two later works of the 14th c. Ch. 4 investigates the paratextual material of the text, i.e. marginal notes, supplementary figures and diagrams. Ch. 5 focuses on topics related to grammatical and lexical peculiarities of the text. Ch. 6 explains the principles and conventions adopted for the constitution of the text and the construction of the different apparatuses, and the bibliography cited in the Prolegomena appears in ch. 7. The original text (p. 1-84) is accompanied by three apparatuses: Apparatus aristotelicus, fontium and criticus. Three indices (Index nominum propriorum, verborum and locorum), and Facsimiles of selected manuscript folia close the volume.

ACADEMY OF ATHENS DISTRUBUTION IN GREECE: THE ACADEMY OF ATHENS BOOKSTORE PANEPISTIMIOU 25-29, GR-106 79 ATHENS, TEL. +30-210-3239381 FOREIGN DISTRIBUTOR: LIBRAIRIE PHILOSOPHIQUE J. VRIN 6 PL. DE LA SORBONNE, F - 75005 PARIS

   

Conference!

Language Multiplicity in Byzantium 

Words—Texts—Contexts   

Vienna, 2-3 December 2016

Friday, 2 December: ÖAW Sitzungssaal, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, First Floor

Saturday, 3 December: Hörsaal, Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Vienna University, 1010 Vienna, Postgasse 7, Stiege 1, Third Floor

PROGRAM & LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

The conference seeks to explore the multiple language traditions, written and spoken, in Byzantium, by asking questions about their existence, interaction, management and significance.  It is organized by Professor Claudia Rapp’s Wittgenstein-Prize Project ‘Mobility, Microstructures and Personal Agency’ funded by the FWF (Austrian National Research Foundation) and co-sponsored by the ‘Forschungsschwerpunkt Kulturen des euromediterranen Raums und Altertumswissenschaften’ of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies (University of Vienna).

   

  

International Workshop!

AMORIUM 

A PROVINCIAL CAPITAL IN THE SETTING OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Workshop, November 25-26, 2016, Athens

Organized by Nikos Tsivikis, Amorium Urban Archaeology Project, IMS/FORTH

Venue: Greek Archaeologists Union building, 134 Ermou str. Athens

PROGRAM

The city of Amorium, located in Phrygia in the Asia Minor highlands, has been under excavation and systematic research for almost three decades. A large number of scientific publications, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a special series dedicated to Amorium, the Amorium Reports that number already five volumes, have seen the light as the main research products of this archaeological activity along with considerable amount of popularizing guide books. The impact of Amorium excavation has affected considerably the contemporary archaeological approach to Byzantine Early Medieval and Middle Byzantine cities.

Amorium has also been the stage of international cooperation for many years, and in this way it continues to bring together scholars from Turkey with colleagues from across the world. Many of our historical questions though are in an early stage, seeking for answers that the continuation of the excavation and new research will provide. At the same time innovative archaeological methods (e.g. geophysical survey, satellite imagery, LIDAR modelling) and modern approaches are being applied at Amorium, making the project one of the pioneers in the field of Byzantine archaeology.

Aim of this workshop is to bring together the members of Amorium Excavations team to confer on the most recent field work and state of research. Additionally we hope to further establish a dialogue on Amorium with other scholars of Byzantium that face similar historical and archaeological questions. In the center of such a discourse stand the challenges of Byzantine historical archaeology and our understanding of the period between the 7th and 11th c. AD, and the evolution of Byzantine urbanism with the formation of “new” or renewed urban centers as provincial capitals, this largely being the essence of the new thematic system. This process is evident in the field, but also is elucidated in the historical sources. In result our two-day thematic workshop will address all kind of questions on material culture, architecture, landscape archaeology, textual history and many more concerning the Middle Byzantine cities. 

All presentations and discussion will be in English.

Forthcoming Conference!

Monastic Journeys from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages 

Religious Aspirations, Political Goals and Economic Concerns

17-19 November 2016

VENUE: “Elise-Richter-Saal”, University of Vienna (Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna)

Program & Abstracts

New Book!

Carolina Cupane & Bettina Krönung (eds.), Fictional Storytelling in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond, Leiden: Brill 2016

Contents

This volume offers an overview of the rich narrative material circulating in the medieval Mediterranean. As a multilingual and multicultural zone, the Eastern Mediterranean offered a broad market for tales in both oral and written form and longer works of fiction, which were translated and reworked in order to meet the tastes and cultural expectations of new audiences, thus becoming common intellectual property of all the peoples around the Mediterranean shores. Among others, the volume examines for the first time popular eastern tales, such as Kalila and Dimna, Sindbad, Barlaam and Joasaph, and Arabic epics together with their Byzantine adaptations. Original Byzantine love romances, both learned and vernacular, are discussed together with their Persian counterparts and with later adaptations of western stories. This combination of such disparate narrative material aims to highlight both the wealth of medieval storytelling and the fundamental unity of the medieval Mediterranean world.

Contributors are Carolina Cupane, Faustina Doufikar-Aerts, Massimo Fusillo, Corinne Jouanno, Grammatiki A. Karla, Bettina Krönung, Renata Lavagnini, Ulrich Moennig, Ingela Nilsson, Claudia Ott, Oliver Overwien, Panagiotis Roilos, Julia Rubanovich, Ida Toth, Robert Volk, and Kostas Yiavis.