Byzantine Scholars Research Articles

All roads lead to (New) Rome: Byzantine astronomy and geography in a rapidly changing world

During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline, Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West. Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued to rely heavily on their ancient Greek heritage, and particularly on Ptolemy’s Geography. Unfortunately, Ptolemy’s choices for his geographic coordinate system resulted in inherent and significant distortions of and inaccuracies in maps centred on the Byzantine Empire. This comprehensive review of Byzantine geographic achievements—supported by a review of astronomical developments pertaining to position determination on Earth—aims to demonstrate why and how, when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman Empire commenced, Byzantine astronomers had become the central axis in an extensive network of Christians, Muslims and Jews. Their influence remained significant well into the Ottoman era, particularly in the context of geographical applications.

К ВОПРОСУ О ЦЕННОСТНО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКОЙ РАЗНИЦЕ АВТОРСКИХ ПОДХОДОВ ПРИ ЛИТЕРАТУРНОЙ ОБРАБОТКЕ ПЕРВОЙ И ВТОРОЙ ЧАСТЕЙ ЭПИЧЕСКОЙ ПОЭМЫ «ДИГЕНИС АКРИТ»

The question of the correlation between the first and second parts of the Byzantine epic poem “Digenes Akritas” is still insufficiently covered in academic literature. Thus, for example, Byzantine scholars highlight both this work’s semantic-value integrity, and the fact that the folk songs serving as the basis of it had presumably been of diachronous nature. This determines the relevance of the poem’s axiological analysis, aiming to compare its parts with one another, as well as to clarify whether the artistic organization of “Digenes Akritas” involves a certain degree of inner unity and coherence. According to the present article, the famous Byzantine epic poem, when systematically studied in such a manner, reveals itself as a work implying a fundamental difference between its various plot-compositional parts. Examining the poem in terms of the heroes’ motivational values – which are, as a consequence, decisive for the plot, – we have identified eight axiomotifs (one for the introduction, three for the first part, and four for the second one) and analyzed them successively. The results are of obvious regularity. Thus, the poem’s first part – the one depicting the main hero’s parents – presupposes a Christian value perspective (i. e., a plot emphasis put on the categories of neighbor, compassionate love, and the glory of God), while the life story of the protagonist himself focuses on such individualistic unchristian concepts as personal fame and personal honor. Digenes, even if depicted in the poem as a man of faith, turns out to be motivated only by his own interests, and never acts selflessly for the sake of other people, religious shrines or the glory of God. As a result, it is possible not only to emphasize the fact that the epic in question has been created on the basis of different folk works, but also to establish that these works have been processed by at least two separate individuals – one of them a practicing Orthodox believer, while the other a person completely alien to Christian values – and combined mechanically only later. Consequently, an axiological analysis of the poem “Digenes Akritas” allows one to understand its genesis and its semantic-compositional structure in a more complete way, while creating prerequisites for similar studies of other Byzantine folk and literary epics, among them “The Tale of Belisarius”, “The Lay of Armouris”, and the more recent “Acritic Songs”.

Direct Reduction of Syllogisms with Byzantine Diagrams

The paper explores the potential of Byzantine diagrams in syllogistic logic. Byzantine diagrams are originated by Byzantine scholars in the early modern period to use as tools for teaching and studying Aristotelian logic. This paper presents pioneering work on employing Byzantine diagrams for checking syllogistic validity through reduction.

Luigi Orlandi. Andronikos Kallistos: a Byzantine Scholar and his manuscripts in Italian Humanism

Luigi Orlandi. Andronikos Kallistos: a Byzantine Scholar and his manuscripts in Italian Humanism

“We must study and honour the scholars who... brought Russian scholarship to the forefront”: N. S. Lebedev’s Defence of the Thesis on V. G. Vasilievsky in 1943

The focus of this article is N. S. Lebedev’s dissertation (1943) entitled “V. G. Vasilevsky as a Byzantine Scholar”, which was carried out by the evacuated Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences in Tashkent. The author refers to the transcript of the meeting of the Academic Council, Lebedev’s biographical materials kept for his thesis (RAS archive), and his publications. As early as the late 1930s, Lebedev had intended to write a thesis on Byzantium and the Mongols, but the inaccessibility of sources and literature during the Great Patriotic War changed these plans. In the end, a historiographical topic was chosen. Given the scarcity of such studies, a research programme had to be developed. Lebedev did not limit himself to outlining the main conclusions of the central figure of his thesis but sought to analyse the factors of Vasilievsky’s formation as a scholar and the conditions of the emergence of Byzantine studies in Russia. He also assessed the merits and shortcomings of the pre-revolutionary scholar’s work. The opponents who spoke at the debate, namely, V. I. Picheta, S. K. Bogoyavlensky and E. A. Kosminsky, emphasised the importance of the “political moment” of the defence of the thesis and the significance of Vasilievsky for national and world scholarship, paying less attention to the characteristics of Lebedev’s work. The historian’s conclusions indicate a desire to demonstrate the leadership of Vasilievsky and Russian scholarship in the study of Byzantine history. The research thus served an important ideological function, i. e. to demonstrate the achievements of Russian scholars. By updating the pre-revolutionary legacy, the debate serves as a certain marker of the revival of Byzantine studies in Russia, which began in the late 1930s and entered their active phase in 1943.

«РИТОРИКА ЗНАЕТ БУДУЩЕЕ, КАК БОГ»: СООТНОШЕНИЕ ФИЛОСОФИИ И РИТОРИКИ ПО МЫСЛИ ВИЗАНТИЙСКОГО УЧЕНОГО XII В.

The problem of the correlation between philosophy and rhetoric, which was widely discussed in the late antiquity, regains relevance in Byzantium in the 11th – 12th centuries. The task of this article is to determine what position on this issue was held by Michael Italikos († before 1157), a Byzantine scholar, rhetorician and Neoplatonist philosopher. It has been already noted that in two of his works Italikos articulated two opposing views: in one he argued that philosophy is useless and far inferior to rhetoric, while in the other he exalted philosophy being capable not only of investigating abstract subjects but also of caring for the human good. The paper analyzes these and other texts in which Italikos argues about philosophy and rhetoric. It is demonstrated that Italikos awarded primacy to philosophy but also valued eloquence highly. It is concluded that the ideal of Michael Italikos, as well as other authors of that period, was a synthesis of philosophical thought and rhetorical elegance. Examples are given from his works, showing how this synthesis was realized in practice. This position is contradicted by only one small essay by Italikos, where he asserts the superiority of rhetoric over philosophy. This text, quite unusual in the context of the late antique and Byzantine tradition, is probably an example of rhetorical play that does not reflect the author’s views.

Criticism and Reception of Ancient Mythology in the “Bibliotheca” of Photios (New Materials for the “Analytic of Myth” Course)

For many years, undergraduate students at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” are offered the optional course “Analytic of Myth.” It involves a study of the philosophy of mythology (that is, a conceptual understanding of the specifics of mythical thinking) at various stages of its development. Currently, among the available sources, materials on the development of relevant reflections during the Middle Ages are generally lacking. In the limited information remaining from the Soviet and first post-Soviet years, there are significant inaccuracies. This applies to the specific attitude to myth, which can be found in the “Bibliotheca” of the famous Byzantine scholar, philosopher, theologian, statesman, and clergyman of the 9th century Photios I of Constantinople (Photios the Great). Not pretending to reproduce the views of this thinker in their entirety and with maximum historical and philological authenticity, this essay only intends to fill in the gaps and correct mistakes about Photios and his era precisely in philosophy of mythology context. In the past, there was a widespread rumour that medieval authors used to refer to ancient mythology solely for the purpose of discrediting it. This essay proves, supported by various examples, that Photios rather opted for a wider reading of ancient mythology. It involved not only harsh criticism, but also a certain acknowledgement of relevant literature by discovering there several artistical, aesthetical, linguistic, stylistic, historical, cultural, educational, and moral advantages. Even though Photios’ attitude to ancient mythology formed within the framework of Christian religious tradition, it is deeply consonant with both pre-Christian culture and progress of science. On the one hand, the understanding of ancient mythology in “Bibliotheca” can be considered as a manifestation of the renaissance of ancient culture typical for Byzantium during the times of Photios (he himself was one of the leading representatives of this renaissance). On the other hand, Photios’ criticism of ancient myths can be considered not only as an example of struggle between Christianity and pagan mythology, but also as a continuation of a special intellectual trend that originates in antiquity and can be described by the formula “from myth to logos.”

Personality and Intellectual Heritage of Byzantine Scholar Macarius of Ancyra: Historiography and Problems of Study

Personality and Intellectual Heritage of Byzantine Scholar Macarius of Ancyra: Historiography and Problems of Study

Материя сна. Византийские комментаторы XII – XV вв. о материальной причине сна в трактате Аристотеля "О сне и бодрствовании"

The paper gives a general description of the surviving Byzantine commentaries on Aristotle’s small psychological treatises traditionally known as Parva naturalia and describes the most notable manuscripts and editions of commentaries compiled by Michael of Ephesus, George Pachymeres, Theodore Metochites, Sophonias and Gennady Scholarios. The paper clarifies relationships of these texts to each other, discusses possible reasons of the renewal of interest in biological and physiological aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy among Byzantine scholars of the 12th – 15th centuries, and explains why the late antique commentary tradition paid little attention to particular issues of Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. Distinctive features of Byzantine exegesis are established by examining how Byzantine commentators dealt with some controversial questions of Aristotle’s treatise On sleep and waking, in particular the question of why Aristotle, after promising to consider the formal, final, effective and material causes of sleep, explores only three of these causes and leaves the material one without attention. We demonstrate that Byzantine commentators were convinced of the existence of the material cause of sleep and identified the latter with the hot evaporation that necessarily arises from food in the process of digestion. However, the analysis of this interpretation shows that it was based on a misunderstanding of the basic concepts of Aristotelian philosophy, since Byzantine exegesis was aimed more at preserving Aristotle's texts than at better understanding the general order of his philosophy.

Notes on Alexander P. Kazhdan: the first years at Dumbarton Oaks

Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan became an iconic figure in both Soviet (and later Russian) Byz-antine studies, and in the world, especially in Anglo-American Byzantine studies. His work at Dumbarton Oaks on the “Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium”, the publication of books with English-speaking co-authors, and numerous articles on a wide variety of topics have placed him among the leading Byzantine scholars of our time. The regularity and style of his work (from the legendary card catalogues to his reading and writing techniques), his encyclopae-dic erudition as a mentor and a polemicist, allow us to say that A. P. Kazhdan was a model of how one should be a scholar and how one should live as a scholar. The author overviews his personal experience of co-working and communication with A. P. Kazhdan: his first lecture in Oxford, their co-working during the author’s being a Junior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, and later on the Studies on Byzantine Literature of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.

Τέρνοβος, ἐν ᾗ τὰ βασίλεια ἦν τῶν Βουλγάρων: the Role of the Bulgarian Capital City According to Ῥωμαϊκὴ ἱστορία by Nikephoros Gregoras

The paper is devoted to a detailed analysis of direct and indirect references to Tărnovo, the capital of the so-called Second Bulgarian Tsardom (12th–14th centuries) in Roman history of Nikephoros Gregoras, an outstanding Byzantine scholar of the first half of the fourteenth century. An analysis of the passages devoted to this city leads to a conclusion that the status of the city was fully obvious to the Byzantine historian – this was the main, capital city of the Bulgarian state, in which its rulers permanently resided, without holding which one could not be a fully legitimate tsar of the Bulgarians and exercise real power of the northern neighbours of Byzantium. Thus the conflicts over power in contemporary Bulgaria focused primarily on taking Tărnovo. The Bulgarian tsar departed with military expeditions most often from this city, having gathered in its vicinity armed forces, and to this city Byzantines and rulers of other neighbouring countries sent their envoys to meet with the Bulgarian autocrat.

Byzantine Scholar Gavriil Laskin and His Essay on the History of Byzantine-rus' relations (11 and 12th centuries)

Byzantine Scholar Gavriil Laskin and His Essay on the History of Byzantine-rus' relations (11 and 12th centuries)

The power of the arab caliphs in the byzantine literature of the 9th and 10th centuries

The birth of Islam proclaimed a new age in the history of interreligious interactions in the Middle East. In the 7th century, the political map of the region has changed, and the Christian world encountered a new adversary represented by the first Islamic state known as Caliphate. First of all, the transformation of the region influenced the consciousness of Eastern Romans (or Byzantines), whose state became a real barrier protecting Europe from the hordes of conquerors. Byzantine Empire held back the Arabian attacks for centuries, and the Caliphate was always regarded as «the state of evil» or «the Kingdom of Antichrist». Such tensions transferred to the rest of the Christian states and created a pattern for the general relation to Islam in Europe, which remained negative throughout all the Middle Ages. The problem of religious interactions, conflicts and their mutual impact on the views of popular masses, scholars and different groups of society became a subject of numerous studies. Nevertheless, the scholars usually concentrate on the religious and theological aspects. This article is devoted to the issue which is often ignored in the scholarship, namely the image of secular power of the Muslim world in perception of Byzantine scholars. The investigation is based on texts of two authors, Theophanes the Confessor and the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Both of them use specific terminology towards the Caliphs, and these terms come from the ancient past. The analysis of such passages can tell us more about Byzantine ties with Arabian world and their special attitude to the phenomenon of the Eastern despotism.

Byzantijnse geleerden over Aristophanes

AbstractThis article studies the reception of the comedies of the Athenian playwright Aristophanes in 12th-century Byzantium. It takes as its starting point various scholarly and didactic texts that facilitated this reception. These texts were written by Gregory of Corinth, John Tzetzes and Eustathius of Thessaloniki, who all used Aristophanes, and ancient literature more generally, in their teaching and scholarly practice. This article explores (1) what moral functions Byzantine scholars ascribe to ancient drama; (2) how they instruct Byzantine writers to weave elements of humour and ridicule into their own work by either imitating Aristophanes’ techniques or quoting his verses; (3) how they use the Athenian playwright as a model for correct atticizing language; (4) and how Tzetzes engages on a personal level with Aristophanes as a historical figure and with the comedies he wrote. This examination of the reception of Aristophanes in the work of Gregory, Tzetzes and Eustathius thus demonstrates the versatility of the Byzantine reception of ancient comedy.

Psellos’ Hagiographical Writings: Resources and New Directions

"Resources available for Byzantine scholarship in general and for studying Psellos in particular have improved greatly in recent years. Electronic databases assist editors of texts in isolating an author’s stylistic habits and in identifying parallel and source texts, while increasingly sensitive search engines provide wide access to scholarly articles, online manuscript catalogues, online publications of texts and translations and great potential for further expansion. Teubner has published Psellos’ extensive writings in genre-defined volumes such as poetry, philosophy, forensic orations and hagiographic orations that represent modern categories of literature but do not capture Byzantine conceptualizations. Two examples illustrate this observation. (1) Although the oration on the Miracle at Blachernae is among Psellos’ hagiographic writings, it contains a brief ecphrasis of a “living icon” prominent in art-historical discussions; however, the oration chiefly focuses upon the Byzantine court system and Psellos’ suggestion for designating a miracle to resolve a vexed legal case. (2) Psellos’ Encomion on Symeon Metaphrastes resembles a saint’s vita and his hymn/canon for Metaphrastes represents a step towards honoring a “new” Byzantine saint. This process continued for 400 years. The 14th-century Hesychast movement used Metaphrastes’ writings to validate their own views and expedited his inclusion in the Synaxarion of Constantinople in the 15th Century. Keywords: Blachernae Oration, Byzantine courts, Hesychasm, hagiographical resources, “new” Byzantine Saints, Mark Eugenikos, Psellos’ hagiography, Symeon Metaphrastes, Synaxarion of Constantinople, Teubner Psellos. "

PERSONAL BOOK COLLECTION OF THE HISTORIAN, ARCHAEOLOGIST, NUMISMAT, PROFESSOR OF THE ODESSA UNIVERSITY P. KARYSHKOVSKYI–IKAR IN THE STOCKS OF THE SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY OF THE ODESSA I. I. MECHNIKOV NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

The main purpose of the article is a subject-thematic analysis of the personal book collection of an outstanding Odessa historian-antiquarian, specialist in numismatics, Greek and Latin epigraphy of the Northern Black Sea littoral, Byzantine scholar, brilliant lecturer, professor of Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University, Head of the Department of History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages Petr Yosypovych Karyshkovskyi-Ikar (1921–1988) held in the stocks of the Scientific Library. The article tells the story of the delivery of the personal book collection to the Scientific Library of Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University in 2019. The collection contains 208 units of periodicals, 10 pictorial units, there are also cartographic atlases (6 units). The main part of the collection (1710 units) consists of books on historical sciences mainly on archeology, numismatics, history of the ancient world and Byzantium. Reference editions (38 units) as well as materials of domestic and international conferences (29 units) make an important part of the collection. Special attention is paid to some rare and valuable publications of the first half of the 20th century, such as the Bulletin of the Odessa Commission of Local Lore at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the Chersonese Collection. It can be noted that this collection is of great importance for the research and educational process of the university, as it contains important books on historical and other sciences carefully selected by the owner, as well as foreign scientific literature, which has not been republished and sometimes is not available in Ukrainian libraries. The collection also gives an idea of the range of scientific interests of its owner.

Un échange conflictuel : quelle est la meilleure philosophie ?

Byzantine Scholars, who arrived in Italy during the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439) to reunite the two Churches of the East and the West, played a significant role in the philosophical culture of the Renaissance. The purpose of this article is to highlight the contribution of Cardinal Bessarion and of other Byzantine émigrés in the humanist revival of the reading practices of ancient texts, in the controversies over the theological and soteriological interpretation of Platonism and Aristotelianism and in the debates on the relationship between dialectic and rhetoric.

Constantine Lascaris, his manuscripts and his ethical concerns

This article aims to examine Constantine Lascaris’s work on Aristoteles’ ethical corpus. We consider evidence from the textual witnesses of the Nicomachean Ethics, the Eudemian Ethics, the Magna Moralia, and some other minor ethical writings, which belonged to Lascaris, in order to reconstruct his working methods. We also explore Lascaris’ own statements about virtuous life; a life devoted to the service of the common good, to philosophy and to the study of texts. For him philosophy was a way of life, rather than simply a discourse. We look at the link between written culture and philosophical life and propose further research into how Byzantine and Renaissance scholars understood their own intellectual activities to be a special kind of spiritual exercise intended to promote moral improvement in both individuals and societies.

Préface

This thematic issue is the first publication of a research project which aims to study the contribution of Bessarion and his circle to the science of the Renaissance, as knowledge inscribed in a broader philosophical perspective. We intend to constitute a multidisciplinary network which will organize its work around thematic workshops, resulting in collective volumes and collections of translated and commented texts. This issue is the result of the first workshop of this network, which took place in Venice, in 2017. The articles present material and conceptual aspects of the context in which Bessarion acted, the revival of Neoplatonism in Italy with the arrival of Byzantine scholars, the astronomical context of Byzantine Humanism, the scientific content of Bessarion’s library, and its influence on French philosophers. A bibliography on Bessarion and his historical and cultural background closes the issue.

Byzantine epigrams on the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

This article is dealing with issues of the Cross alongside the epigrams related to the Crucifixion written by a distinguished Byzantine scholar of the 7th century, Georgios Pisidis, focusing our attention and scope on particular aspects of those epigrams such as the possible influences and impact from literary texts previously and later written and most noticeable motifs.