Book Tip!

Court ceremonies and rituals of power in Byzantium and the medieval Mediterranean: comparative perspectives, eds. A. Beihammer/ S. Constantinou/M. Parani (The medieval Mediterranean 98). Leiden 2013

Table of contents

Publicly performed rituals and ceremonies form an essential part of medieval political practice and court culture. This applies not only to western feudal societies, but also to the linguistically and culturally highly diversified environment of Byzantium and the Mediterranean basin. The continuity of Roman traditions and cross-fertilization between various influences originating from Constantinople, Armenia, the Arab-Muslim World, and western kingdoms and naval powers provide the framework for a distinct sphere of ritual expression and ceremonial performance. This collective volume, placing Byzantium into a comparative perspective between East and West, examines transformative processes from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, succession procedures in different political contexts, phenomena of cross-cultural appropriation and exchange, and the representation of rituals in art and literature.

Contributors are Maria Kantirea, Martin Hinterberger, Walter Pohl, Andrew Marsham, Björn Weiler, Eric J. Hanne, Antonia Giannouli, Jo Van Steenbergen, Stefan Burkhardt, Ioanna Rapti, Jonathan Shepard, Panagiotis Agapitos, Henry Maguire, Christine Angelidi and Margaret Mullett.

Conference

The Emperor in the Byzantine World

47th Byzantine Spring Symposium, Cardiff University, 25-27 April, 2014

In Byzantine Studies it is a strange fact that there exists no equivalent to Fergus Millar’s The Emperor in the Roman World, despite the centrality of the ruler in the Byzantine world. While there may be books on individual emperors or periods or aspects there is no general book on the emperor across the span of the Byzantine empire. This oddity is compounded by the recent publication of a plethora of books devoted to Byzantine empresses. This Symposium (the first Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies to be held in Wales) seeks to address this oddity, placing the Byzantine emperor centre stage as both ruler and man. The Symposium will consist of five main sessions, of three papers each, addressing the following themes: Dynasty; Imperial Literature; The Imperial Court; Imperial Duties; and The Material Emperor. In addition there will be a series of communications, as well as a public lecture on Byzantium and Wales.

Schedule

Book Tip!

O. Delouis/A. Couderc/P. Guran (eds.), Héritages de Byzance en Europe du Sud-Est àl’époque Moderne et Contemporaine (Mondes Méditerranéens et Balkaniques 4), Athens 2013

Contents and Intro

« The Byzantine civilisation has left a lasting mark on individuals and societies of South-Eastern Europe. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 it lost its frame, the Byzantine Empire, in which it had flourished for more than a millennium. Although restrained by a new power, the Ottoman Empire, Byzantine legacies never disappeared but survived in memories and traditions, in history and faith, in formal or informal institutions. And when peoples formerly included in the Byzantine Empire or subject to its influence established themselves as nations, when they started writing their past and considered what could be their European fate – from the Enlightenment, but especially in the 19th and 20th centuries – Byzantium was naturally reconsidered, reassessed, reinvented. The aim of this collective book is to study in a comparative manner, thanks to scholars of all countries, the history of the memory of Byzantium in South-Eastern Europe. A conclusion emerges : neither a nostalgia nor a curiosity, Byzantium appears as one of the foundations of modern Europe. »

« La civilisation byzantine a marqué durablement de son empreinte les hommes et les sociétés du Sud-Est de l’Europe. Après la chute de Constantinople en 1453, cette civilisation fut dissociée de l’État qui lui avait servi de cadre pendant plus d’un millénaire, l’Empire byzantin. Contraints par un nouveau pouvoir substitué à l’ancien, celui de l’Empire ottoman, les héritages de Byzance n’en disparurent pas pour autant. Ils cheminèrent dans les mémoires et les coutumes, dans l’histoire et la foi, dans des institutions formelles ou informelles. Et quand les peuples anciennement soumis à l’Empire byzantin ou sujets à son influence s’affirmèrent comme nations, quand ils entreprirent d’écrire leur passé et de se projeter dans un avenir européen – à partir des Lumières et plus encore aux XIXe et XXe siècles –, Byzance fut naturellement repensée, réévaluée, réinventée. L’ambition de ce volume collectif est d’étudier, de façon comparée et grâce à des études de chercheurs de tous pays, l’histoire de la mémoire de Byzance dans les sociétés sud-est européennes. Une conclusion s’en dégage : plus qu’une nostalgie et mieux qu’une curiosité, Byzance apparaît comme l’un des fondements de notre Europe contemporaine.»