The Old Testament in Byzantium / Edited by Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Old Testament in Byzantium / Edited by Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson The Old Testamentò in Byzantium Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia Series Editor Margaret Mullett Editorial Board John Duffy John Haldon Ioli Kalavrezou The Old Testamentò in Byzantium Edited by Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection © 2010 by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Old Testament in Byzantium / edited by Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson. p. cm. Selected papers from a symposium held Dec. 2006, Dumbarton Oaks. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-88402-348-7 (alk. paper) 1. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—Byzantine Empire—Congresses. 2. Theology—Byzantine Empire—Congresses. I. Magdalino, Paul. II. Nelson, Robert S., 1947– BS1171.3.O43 2010 221.09495'0902—dc22 2009020763 www.doaks.org/publications Designed and typeset by Barbara Haines Cover and frontispiece image: Exaltation of David, Paris Psalter, Paris, Bibl. Nat. gr. 139, fol. 7v. CONTENTSò Acknowledgments vii one • Introduction 1 Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson two • The Greek Bible Translations of the Byzantine Jews 39 Nicholas de Lange three • The Prophetologion: The Old Testament of Byzantine Christianity? 55 James Miller four • Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium 77 Georgi R. Parpulov five • Illustrated Octateuch Manuscripts: A Byzantine Phenomenon 107 John Lowden six • Old Testament “History” and the Byzantine Chronicle 153 Elizabeth Jeffreys seven • Old Testament Models for Emperors in Early Byzantium 175 Claudia Rapp eight • The Old Testament and Monasticism 199 Derek Krueger nine • New Temples and New Solomons: The Rhetoric of Byzantine Architecture 223 Robert Ousterhout ten • Old Testament Models and the State in Early Medieval Bulgaria 255 Ivan Biliarsky eleven • Connecting Moses and Muh. ammad 279 Jane Dammen McAuliffe Abbreviations 299 About the Authors 303 Index 307 vi contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTSò The major renovations at Dumbarton Oaks from 2003 to 2008 prompted Alice- Mary Talbot, then Director of Byzantine Studies, to explore other venues and other times for symposia and colloquia. Early in this period plans were afoot to hold a major exhibit of Bible manuscripts at the Freer Gallery of Art, which holds a small but important collection of early Greek Bible manuscripts, seldom seen in public. The planned exhibition inspired Dr. Talbot to form an alliance with the Freer and Sackler Galleries, to hold a concomitant symposium on the Bible. Paul Magdalino and Robert Nelson, Senior Fellows of Dumbarton Oaks, continued the planning of that symposium with Dr. Talbot’s help. The Freer’s impressive exhibit, “In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000,” displayed more than threescore early manuscripts of the Bible, in many languages, loaned from collections around the world. The Dumbarton Oaks symposium, “The Old Testament in Byzantium,” held 1–3 December 2006 in the Meyer Auditorium of the Freer Gallery, shared in the success of that exhibit, and has resulted in this eponymous volume. As always, Dr. Talbot was gracious and efficient in shepherding the papers delivered at that symposium into the published material that makes up the vol- ume in hand. We are grateful for her aid in this and so many other scholarly endeavors in the past. We also wish to remember the hospitality of the Freer and the Sackler and Dr. Ann Gunter, then the Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Head of Scholarly Publications and Programs at the Galleries, and to thank the staff of the Publications Department at DO for their meticulous care in con- verting talk into print. vii This is the second volume in the series Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia. The first, published in 2009, was Becoming Byzantine: Children and Childhood in Byzantium, edited by Alice-Mary Talbot and Arietta Papa- constantinou. Other volumes in progress include San Marco, Byzantium, and the Myths of Venice (edited by Henry Maguire and Robert Nelson), and Trade and Markets in Byzantium (edited by Cécile Morrisson). Paul Magdalino Robert Nelson viii acknowledgments ònine New Temples and New Solomons The Rhetoric of Byzantine Architecture Robert Ousterhout For Rick Layton, in gratitude At the Orlando, Florida theme park “The Holy Land Experience,” the Temple of the Great King stands out as the dominant attraction.1 A grandiose build- ing, its design is based on the Temple of Jerusalem. Nearby, the divine presence, the shekinah, is recreated nightly with smoke and lights. The Tomb of Christ, represented by General Gordon’s Garden Tomb, simply pales by comparison.2 The striking contrast between the two monuments may be exaggerated for one simple reason: the Tomb still exists (and thus verisimilitude is in order), while the Temple does not. The official website differentiates them for us, explain- ing that the Tomb is an “exact replica,” whereas the Temple is “a breathtaking representation.”3 The brainchild of Reverend Marvin Rosenthal, a Baptist pastor who had converted from Judaism, the Holy Land Experience has been criticized by local Jewish groups who claim its real purpose is to convert Jews to Christian- ity. To be sure, although Old Testament sites and monuments are represented in the theme park, they are given a New Testament spin. This holds true for the Byzantine period as well. Although the Jewish Tem- ple of Jerusalem had disappeared long before the Byzantine period, the idea of the Temple loomed large then as it does now. As at the Holy Land Experience, 1 A. Wharton, Selling Jerusalem: Relics, Replicas, Theme Parks (Chicago, 2006), 189–232. 2 Perhaps in response to Protestant criticism of the “shabby theatre” at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in 1886 General Charles Gordon popularized an alternative site for Christ’s Resur- rection, the so-called “Garden Tomb,” near the Damascus Gate, which subsequently became the focus of Protestant devotion. Although its authenticity has been consistently discounted by his- torians, it “conforms to the expectations of simple piety”; see J. Murphy-O’Connor, OP, The Holy Land (Oxford, 1980), 146–48. 3 See http://www.theholylandexperience.com (accessed 22 February 2008). 223 Figure 1 Jerusalem, Herod’s Temple, hypothetical reconstruction (after J. Comay, The Temple of Jerusalem [New York, 1975], 166) however, in Byzantine times the Temple was invariably viewed through the lens of Christianity. Just as the Old Testament was never interpreted as a Jewish book but instead read in relationship to the New Testament, the idea of the Temple of Solomon was also Christianized. For the Byzantines, it offered a potent if prob- lematic architectural image—or rather images. The Tabernacle, Solomon’s Tem- ple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, Herod’s Temple, and the visionary temple of Ezekiel all had distinct identities that may have come to the fore in particular contexts, but in the polyvalent allegorical language of the Byzantines they were often conflated.4 Nevertheless, the basic features, proportions, and dimensions were known from a variety of sources; from these the Temple could have been repli- cated (Figs. 1–2).5 Indeed, with the possible exception of Noah’s Ark, the Temple is the sole architectural exemplar presented in the Old Testament. All the same, 4 The literature on the Temple is voluminous; for a convenient summary with extensive bibli- ography, see B. Narkiss, “Temple,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (Israel, 1971), 15:942–88; for a popular survey, J. Comay, The Temple of Jerusalem (New York, 1975); and more recently, M. Goldhill, The Temple of Jerusalem (Cambridge, MA, 2004). 5 For the descriptions, see 1 Kings 6; 7:13–51; 2 Chronicles 3–4; Ezekiel 40–48; Ezra 1–6; Jose- phus, Jewish Wars 5, among others. 224 robert ousterhout Figure 2 Ezekiel’s Temple, hypothet- ical reconstruction, with measurements in cubits (after J. Wilkinson,From Synagogue to Church: The Traditional Design [London, 2002]) there were scriptural objections to its reconstruction: Christ had prophesied the destruction of the Temple, and according to Christian thought it should remain in ruins until the end of time. Thus, the challenge for the Byzantine builder would have been how to represent symbolically the sanctity, the divine presence of the Temple, without falling into theological error or, in the worst-case sce- nario, bringing about the Apocalypse. In this chapter, I attempt to come to grips with the metaphorical language of Byzantine architecture, in which the Temple figures prominently as a power- ful, potent, and multivalent image. As an architectural historian, however, I am interested not so much in the nuances of the text as in how its language might assist us in interpreting architectural forms. The distinctions noted in the Holy Land Experience may be important for the Byzantine architectural context as well. There is a difference between a “replica,” based on a physical model, and a “representation,” based on a textual description. Similarly, in Byzantine archi- tecture, it is important to distinguish between the language of words and the language of forms. Byzantine rhetoricians often used metaphor to equate a Byz- antine church with the Temple in ways that are both allegorical and anagogi- cal, even when there was very little if any physical similarity between buildings. Indeed, any Byzantine church could become an “image” of the Temple through the appropriation of its terminology:
Recommended publications
  • Doctoral Dissertation Márton Rózsa Byzantine Second-Tier Élite In
    Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Humanities DOCTORAL DISSERTATION MÁRTON RÓZSA BYZANTINE SECOND-TIER ÉLITE IN THE ‘LONG’ TWELFTH CENTURY Doctoral School of History Head of the doctoral school: Dr. Gábor Erdődy Doctoral Programme of Medieval and Early Modern World History Head of the doctoral programme: Dr. Balázs Nagy Supervisor: Dr. Balázs Nagy Members of the assessment committee: Dr. István Draskóczy, Chair Dr. Gábor Thoroczkay, PhD, Secretary Dr. Floris Bernard, opponent Dr. Andreas Rhoby, opponent Dr. István Baán, member Dr. László Horváth, PhD, member Budapest, 2019 ADATLAP a d o kt ori ért e k e z é s n yit v á n o s s á gr a h a z at al á h o z l. A d o kt ori ért e k e z é s a d at ai A s z et z ő n e v e: Ró z s a ] u í árt o n MT M'f-azonosító: 1 0 0 1 9 2 7 0 A d o kt ori ért e k e z é s c í m e é s al c í m e: B y z a nti n e Second-Tie, Éttt ein t h e 'Lang'Tu,e\th C e nt ur y f) Ol-azonosító: 1 íl. l 5 1 7 6/ E L T E. 2 0 I 9. 0 5 ő A d o kt ori i s k ol a n e v e: Tü,t énele míuclo mányi D ol ú ori { sl ail a A d o kt ori pr o gr í } m n e v e: Köz é p k ori é s kora újkori e gt e í e m e s tört é n eti Doktori Progratn A t é mavezető n e v e ó s tudo mányos fcrkozata: § a g y * B ai ú z s.
    [Show full text]
  • Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger – the First One Not to Become a Blind Man? Political and Military History of the Bryennios Family in the 11Th and Early 12Th Century
    Studia Ceranea 10, 2020, p. 31–45 ISSN: 2084-140X DOI: 10.18778/2084-140X.10.02 e-ISSN: 2449-8378 Marcin Böhm (Opole) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5393-3176 Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger – the First One Not to Become a Blind Man? Political and Military History of the Bryennios Family in the 11th and Early 12th Century ikephoros Bryennios the Younger (1062–1137) has a place in the history N of the Byzantine Empire as a historian and husband of Anna Komnene (1083–1153), a woman from the imperial family. His historical work on the his- tory of the Komnenian dynasty in the 11th century is an extremely valuable source of information about the policies of the empire’s major families, whose main goal was to seize power in Constantinople1. Nikephoros was also a talented commander, which he proved by serving his father-in-law Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) and brother-in-law John II Komnenos (1118–1143). The marriage gave him free access to people and documents which he also enriched with the history of his own family. It happened because Nikephoros Bryennios was not the first representative of his family who played an important role in the internal policy of the empire. He had two predecessors, his grandfather, and great grand- father, who according to the family tradition had the same name as our hero. They 1 J. Seger, Byzantinische Historiker des zehnten und elften Jahrhunderts, vol. I, Nikephoros Bryennios, München 1888, p. 31–33; W. Treadgold, The Middle Byzantine Historians, Basingstoke 2013, p. 344–345; A.
    [Show full text]
  • BYZANTINE CAMEOS and the AESTHETICS of the ICON By
    BYZANTINE CAMEOS AND THE AESTHETICS OF THE ICON by James A. Magruder, III A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland March 2014 © 2014 James A. Magruder, III All rights reserved Abstract Byzantine icons have attracted artists and art historians to what they saw as the flat style of large painted panels. They tend to understand this flatness as a repudiation of the Classical priority to represent Nature and an affirmation of otherworldly spirituality. However, many extant sacred portraits from the Byzantine period were executed in relief in precious materials, such as gemstones, ivory or gold. Byzantine writers describe contemporary icons as lifelike, sometimes even coming to life with divine power. The question is what Byzantine Christians hoped to represent by crafting small icons in precious materials, specifically cameos. The dissertation catalogs and analyzes Byzantine cameos from the end of Iconoclasm (843) until the fall of Constantinople (1453). They have not received comprehensive treatment before, but since they represent saints in iconic poses, they provide a good corpus of icons comparable to icons in other media. Their durability and the difficulty of reworking them also makes them a particularly faithful record of Byzantine priorities regarding the icon as a genre. In addition, the dissertation surveys theological texts that comment on or illustrate stone to understand what role the materiality of Byzantine cameos played in choosing stone relief for icons. Finally, it examines Byzantine epigrams written about or for icons to define the terms that shaped icon production.
    [Show full text]
  • Georgian Polyphony in a Century of Research: Foreword from the Editors
    In: Echoes from Georgia: Seventeen Arguments on Georgian Polyphony. Rusudan Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania (Eds.). New York: Nova Science, 2010: xvii-xxii GEORGIAN POLYPHONY IN A CENTURY OF RESEARCH: FOREWORD FROM THE EDITORS Joseph Jordania and Rusudan Tsurtsumia This collection represents some of the most important authors and their writings about Georgian traditional polyphony for the last century. The collection is designed to give the reader the most possibly complete picture of the research on Georgian polyphony. Articles are given in a chronological order, and the original year of the publication (or completing the work) is given at every entry. As the article of Simha Arom and Polo Vallejo gives the comprehensive review of the whole collection, we are going instead to give a reader more general picture of research directions in the studies of Georgian traditional polyphony. We can roughly divide the whole research activities about Georgian traditional polyphony into six periods: (1) before the 1860s, (2) from the 1860s to 1900, (3) from the 1900s to 1930, (4) from the 1930s to 1950, (5) from the 1950s to 1990, and (6) from the 1990s till today. The first period (which lasted longest, which is usual for many time-based classifications), covers the period before the 1860s. Two important names from Georgian cultural history stand out from this period: Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (17th-18th centuries), and Ioane Bagrationi (beginning of the 18th-19th centuries). Both of them were highly educated people by the standards of their time. Ioane Bagrationi (1768-1830), known also as Batonishvili (lit. “Prince”) was the heir of Bagrationi dynasty of Georgian kings.
    [Show full text]
  • S1003186 Supervisor: John Bintlif Specialization: Classical and Mediterranean A
    Name: Eleni Christidou Stylianou Student number: s1003186 Supervisor: John Bintlif Specialization: Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology (Second Specialization: Archaeology of the Near East) University of Leiden Faculty of Archaeology Leiden 2012 1 To my father 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................6 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................7 2. Historical Introduction......................................................................................................10 2.1 The Byzantine Empire................................................................................................10 2.1.1 The Emerging of the Byzantine Empire. Chronology......................................10 2.1.2 General Remarks..............................................................................................13 2.2 The Arab – Islamic World..........................................................................................14 3. Arab-Byzantine Literary Exchanges..................................................................................19 3.1 Conclusion.................................................................................................................24 4. Maritime Activities, Hostilities and Reconciliation in the Mediterranean......................27 4.1 Advanced Arab-Byzantine Trade Relations at the end of the tenth
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeology and History of Lydia from the Early Lydian Period to Late Antiquity (8Th Century B.C.-6Th Century A.D.)
    Dokuz Eylül University – DEU The Research Center for the Archaeology of Western Anatolia – EKVAM Colloquia Anatolica et Aegaea Congressus internationales Smyrnenses IX Archaeology and history of Lydia from the early Lydian period to late antiquity (8th century B.C.-6th century A.D.). An international symposium May 17-18, 2017 / Izmir, Turkey ABSTRACTS Edited by Ergün Laflı Gülseren Kan Şahin Last Update: 21/04/2017. Izmir, May 2017 Websites: https://independent.academia.edu/TheLydiaSymposium https://www.researchgate.net/profile/The_Lydia_Symposium 1 This symposium has been dedicated to Roberto Gusmani (1935-2009) and Peter Herrmann (1927-2002) due to their pioneering works on the archaeology and history of ancient Lydia. Fig. 1: Map of Lydia and neighbouring areas in western Asia Minor (S. Patacı, 2017). 2 Table of contents Ergün Laflı, An introduction to Lydian studies: Editorial remarks to the abstract booklet of the Lydia Symposium....................................................................................................................................................8-9. Nihal Akıllı, Protohistorical excavations at Hastane Höyük in Akhisar………………………………10. Sedat Akkurnaz, New examples of Archaic architectural terracottas from Lydia………………………..11. Gülseren Alkış Yazıcı, Some remarks on the ancient religions of Lydia……………………………….12. Elif Alten, Revolt of Achaeus against Antiochus III the Great and the siege of Sardis, based on classical textual, epigraphic and numismatic evidence………………………………………………………………....13. Gaetano Arena, Heleis: A chief doctor in Roman Lydia…….……………………………………....14. Ilias N. Arnaoutoglou, Κοινὸν, συμβίωσις: Associations in Hellenistic and Roman Lydia……….……..15. Eirini Artemi, The role of Ephesus in the late antiquity from the period of Diocletian to A.D. 449, the “Robber Synod”.……………………………………………………………………….………...16. Natalia S. Astashova, Anatolian pottery from Panticapaeum…………………………………….17-18. Ayşegül Aykurt, Minoan presence in western Anatolia……………………………………………...19.
    [Show full text]
  • John Anthony Mcguckin Publications Historical Theology
    John Anthony McGuckin Ane Marie and Bent Emil Nielsen Professor in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies, Columbia University Publications Books Historical Theology Symeon the New Theologian. Chapters and Discourses. Cistercian Publications. Kalamazoo. 1982. pp. 144. Hardcover and Paperback. (Reprinted 1994). St. Gregory Nazianzen: Selected Poems. SLG Press. Oxford. 1986. pp. xx, 24. Paperback. (Reprinted: 1989 & 1995). The Transfiguration of Christ in Scripture and Tradition. Mellen Press. Lewiston (New York). 1987. pp. 333. Hardcover. St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy. Its History, Theology, and Texts. Brill. Leiden. 1994. pp. 424. Hardcover. 2nd Edition: St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy. SVS Press. New York. paperback. 2004. pp. 425. Nominated for Christianity Today’s 2004 Book Awards for History/Biography. At the Lighting of the Lamps: Hymns From the Ancient Church. SLG Press. Oxford. 1995. pp. 102; Paperback. 2nd Edition, Morehouse, New York. 1997. St. Cyril of Alexandria: On The Unity of Christ. (That the Christ Is One). SVS Press. New John Anthony McGuckin Ane Marie and Bent Emil Nielsen Professor in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies, Columbia University York. 1995. pp. 151. Paperback. (Reprinted 2001). (Synopsis of the Introduction reprinted in: Coptic Church Review. vol. 19. 1-2. Spring 1998. 42-51.) St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography. SVS. Press. New York. 2001. 436 pp. (Hardcover and Paperback). Sfantul Grigorie Teologul Arhiepiscopul Constantinopolui. Editura: Invierea. Timisoara. Romania. 2004. (Paperback Romanian edition) Standing In God’s Holy Fire: The Spiritual Tradition of Byzantium. DLT London. / Orbis-Maryknoll.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhetoric and the Philosopher in Byzantium*
    Rhetoric and the philosopher in Byzantium* STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU The scene is familiar. A Byzantine ‘sophist’ enters the stage. The ‘philoso- phers’ are polite and graciously greet him, yet reject his company. In their eyes, he is not one of them. By contrast, the ‘sophists’ or, as the text also names them, the ‘rhetoro-sophists’ receive him with enthusiasm and grant him an honourable place among themselves. The (early?) twelfth-century author of the Timarion, to whom we owe this description,1 could not have imagined how his positioning of the Byzantine philosopher or, as he prefers to call him, ‘sophist’ would endure beyond the infernal stage of Hades, where Timarion’s oneiric experience takes place. Byzantine philosophers may still be valued today for their rhetoric and other technical skills (of, say, copying, collecting, or commenting upon philosophical texts), but rarely for their philosophy.2 The author of the Timarion did not, of course, have the future of Byzantine philosophers in mind. What his sarcastic pen was aiming at was to disqualify the philosophical aspirations of self-professed philosophers of his immediate present. He did so by referring to an age-old anxiety of pre- modern Greek writing dating back to, at least, the writings of Plato in fourth-century Athens. The anxiety pertained to the definition and regulation of the relation between discursive content and discursive form, between thought and language, or, as it came to be seen, between philosophy and rhetoric. The anxiety was provoked by the desire on the part of self- proclaimed ‘philosophers’—such as Plato—to mark a distinct, privileged space for their own discursive production within the highly competitive field of public discourse in Athenian social life.3 The negotiation between philosophy and rhetoric remained a constant point of reference for many generations of Greek writers.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ARABIC COMMENTARIES on the HIPPOCRATIC APHORISMS: ARABIC LEARNED MEDICAL DISCOURSE on WOMEN's BODIES (9Th-15Th Cent.)
    THE ARABIC COMMENTARIES ON THE HIPPOCRATIC APHORISMS: ARABIC LEARNED MEDICAL DISCOURSE ON WOMEN'S BODIES (9th-15th cent.) A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2018 ROSALIND M. BATTEN SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 6 Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 Abbreviations and Apparatus 9 Acknowledgements 14 The Author 16 Dedication 17 INTRODUCTION 18 0. 1 Preliminaries: The Arabic Commentaries On The Hippocratic Aphorisms 18 0. 2 Literature Review 19 0. 3 The Corpus 28 0. 4 Methodological Framework and Research Questions 37 CHAPTER ONE THE EXEGETICAL DISCOURSE ON APH. 5. 31 40 1. 1 Purpose and Methodology 40 1. 2 The broad social and legal context of the debates on Aph. 5. 31 40 1. 3 Terminology used to denote a pregnancy and failed pregnancy: isqāt (abortion) and ḥaml (burden) 44 1. 4 Acute diseases and pregnancy in the Hippocratic-Galenic tradition 46 1. 5 The exegesis of Aph. 5. 31 in the Arabic tradition 47 1. 5. 1 Galen (tr. Ḥunayn) 47 1. 5. 2 Stephanos of Athens 50 1. 5. 3 Al-Nīlī 52 3 1. 5. 4 Ibn ʾAbī Ṣādiq 54 1. 5. 5 Al-Sinǧārī 60 1. 5. 6 Maimonides 67 1. 5. 7 ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baġdādī 70 1. 5. 8 Ibn al-Nafīs 75 1. 5. 9 Ibn al-Quff 80 1. 5. 10 Al-Sīwāsī 90 1. 5. 11 Al-Ṭabīb’s Commentary on al-Kīšī’s Summary of the Hippocratic ‘Aphorisms’ 93 1.
    [Show full text]
  • LATE BYZANTINE SHIPS and SHIPPING 1204-1453 a Master's
    LATE BYZANTINE SHIPS AND SHIPPING 1204-1453 A Master’s Thesis by EVREN TÜRKMENOĞLU Department of Archaeology and History of Art Bilkent University Ankara December 2006 LATE BYZANTINE SHIPS AND SHIPPING 1204-1453 The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University by EVREN TÜRKMENOĞLU In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF ART BĐLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA December 2006 ABSTRACT LATE BYZANTINE SHIPS AND SHIPPING 1204-1453 Evren Türkmenoğlu MA. Department of Archaeology and History of Art Supervisor. Asst. Prof. Dr. Charles Gates December 2006 This study has aimed to investigate the problem of interpreting the nature and influence of Byzantine ships and shipping in the later Middle ages. Maritime transport activities and ships or shipbuilding of the Byzantines during the later Medieval age, between 1204-1453, have never been adequately revealed. The textual, pictorial, and archaeological evidence of Byzantine maritime activities is collected in this study. This limited evidence is evaluated in order to gain a better understanding of Byzantine maritime activities such as shipbuilding and maritime commerce. The impact of these activities in the Late Medieval age is discussed. Keywords: Shipbuilding, Byzantine, Maritime trade, Ship representations, Monasteries, Constantinople. iii ÖZET GEÇ BĐZANS GEMĐLERĐ VE DENĐZ TĐCARETĐ 1204-1453 Yüksek Lisans, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Tarihi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Charles Gates Aralık 2006 Bu çalışma Geç Ortaçağ’da, Bizans gemileri ve deniz taşımacılığının durumu ve etkilerinin yorumlanmasını amaçlamaktadır. Bizanslıların 1204-1453 arası deniz taşımacılığı, gemileri yada gemi yapımı hakkında şu ana dek yapılan çalışmalar sınırlıdır.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3 the Social and Economic History of the Cyclades
    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/58774 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation Author: Roussos, K. Title: Reconstructing the settled landscape of the Cyclades : the islands of Paros and Naxos during the late antique and early Byzantine centuries Issue Date: 2017-10-12 Chapter 3 The social and economic history of the Cyclades 3.1 INTRODUCTION in the early 13th century (the domination of the Franks on the Aegean islands and other Byzantine The Cyclades are rarely mentioned in the territories) shaped the historical fate of the islands of literary sources of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine the southern Aegean and the Cyclades in particular. Early Middle Ages. Sporadic information in different The chronological framework followed by this kind of written sources that are separated by a study is: i) the Late Antique or Late Roman period great chronological distance, such as the Hierokles (from the foundation of Constantinople in 324 to the Synekdemos (Parthey 1967; see more in Chapter middle 7th century), ii) the Byzantine Early Middle 3.3.2), the Stadiasmus of Maris Magni (Müller 1855; Ages or the so-called “Byzantine Dark centuries” see more in Chapter 5.2.2), Notitiae Episcopatuum, (from the late 7th to the early 10th century), and iii) Conciliar Acts (Mansi 1961; Darrouzès 1981; the Middle Byzantine period (from the middle 10th Fedalto 1988; see more in Chapters 3.3.3 and 3.), century to the beginning of the venetian occupation hagiographical texts (the Life of Saint Theoktiste: in 1207). This chronological arrangement slightly Talbot 1996; see more in Chapter 1.3; the Miracles differs from the general historical subdivision of of Saint Demetrius: Lemerle 1979; 1981; Bakirtzes the Byzantine Empire, because it is adjusted to the 1997; see more in Chapter 3.3.2), the lists of the civil, peculiar circumstances pertaining to the maritime military and ecclesiastical offices of the Byzantine area of the south Aegean after the 7th century.
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Mystical Chapters
    The Book of Mystical Chapters The Esoteric Spiritual Doctrine of the Early Christian Monks and Ascetical Teachers of the East Translated & Introduced by John Anthony McGuckin 1 The Book of Mystical Chapters The Esoteric Spiritual Doctrine of the Early Christian Monks and Ascetical Teachers of the East Introduction The early Christian monks formed an international society that flourished in all the Greek territories of the late Roman empire, as well as in Syria and Persia, in Egypt gathered around the Nile and as far into Africa as Nubia ( modern Sudan) and the highlands of Ethiopia. They inhabited the rocky and desert terrain of Sinai, Palestine, Arabia, and Cappadocian Turkey; and in the great capital of the late Roman Empire, Const- antinople, they became almost a civil service, so great were their numbers, with many dedicated scholars and aristocrats among them. After the fifth century the monastic phenomenon became descriptive of Western Christianity too, where Gaul (ancient France) and Italy became centres of Latin monasticism. Everywhere in the ancient Christian world that the four major languages, Greek, Latin, Syriac or Coptic, were spoken, Christian monks could be found living in solitary isolation near villages, in small communes of hermits gathered together in remote valleys, or in small houses, usually of a few dozen living the communal life together. These three forms of monastic lifestyle in the Early Church had become standard by the fourth century of the common era, and after Constantine had begun the transformation of the Roman State into the Christian Empire of Byzantium, the monastic movement flourished for more than a thousand years more with the patronage of Christian emperors.
    [Show full text]