THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON FRIENDS OF THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER 2006 FRIENDS OF THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER 2006 FRONTISPIECE: El Greco (1541-1614), Boy Lighting a Candle. 1570. Oil on canvas. 51x61 cm. Courtesy Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples © The Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London, International Building, Room 237, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1784 443086, fax: +44 (0) 1784 433032 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/hellenic-institute/ Letter from the Director 25th January 2007 Dear Friend, With the beginning of the New Year I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your continued support and inform you about the progress of the Institute. 2006 was a decisive year. The most important development was the deci- sion taken by the College authorities last November, to place the Institute under the History Department in order to secure its financial viability. I have accepted this decision with relief, after more than two years of indecision as to its future. I am most grateful to the Vice-Principal Mr David Sweeney, The Dean of the Fac- ulty of Arts Mrs Máire Davies, the Heads of Classics and History Departments Professors Jonathan Powell and Justin Champion, the members of the Review Committee including the external assessors, and last but not least the members of our Steering Group, especially Professor John Barron, Mr Michael Heslop, H.E. Mrs Edmée Leventis and Marina Lady Marks for their support. The decision of the History Department to include the MA in Hellenic Studies as a pathway in the new MA in Advanced History secured the revival of this unique multidisciplinary MA programme which gives a diachronic view and ap- preciation of Greek history, tradition and culture. The programme is currently be- ing re-designed. With the co-operation of the Departments of History and Classics we hope that it will be offered in the next academic year. In addition, new undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Greek and Byzantine History and Palaeography are now offered, including BA courses on “Gods, Men and Power: An Introduction to Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium”, “Byzan- tium and its Neighbours, 602-1071”, and “The Causes and Consequences of the Fall of Constantinople (1453)” by Dr Jonathan Harris; and MA courses on “Byz- antine Autographs (13-15th century)” and “Byzantine Hands of the Palaeologan Period” by Dr Charalambos Dendrinos, while newly-designed unit courses in Modern Greek Language and Literature are now offered in the Classics Depart- ment by Dr Polymnia Tsagouria, seconded by the Greek Ministry of Education. With the contribution of the Classics and History Departments we are able to cover aspects of Greek language, history and culture from the Classical age and Late Antiquity to the Byzantine period and Modern Hellenism. Our next priority is the establishment of a Lectureship in Modern Greek History with emphasis on Anglo-Hellenic Relations. So far we have secured almost half of the necessary funds, thanks to the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture. We shall now in- tensify our efforts to secure the remainder so that we can advertise the post as soon as possible. 2 FRIENDS OF THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE Last year was marked by the death of Professor Joan Mervyn Hussey (1907- 20.II.2006). Emeritus Professor of History in the University of London and former Head of the History Department at Royal Holloway College, Joan Hussey was an internationally renowned Byzantine scholar and a dedicated teacher. She will be greatly missed, in particular by her friends and former students. In her memory “The Joan Mervyn Hussey Memorial Prize in Byzantine Studies” is established to be awarded to Hellenic Institute’s students who complete their MA in Late An- tique and Byzantine Studies with the mark of distinction. Unfortunately, Professor Hussey did not live to see the 21st International Con- gress of Byzantine Studies held in London last August, forty years after the 13th International Congress of Byzantine Studies convened in Oxford (1966), which she organized together with the late Steven Runciman and Dmitri Obolensky. An important aspect of her scholarly work was the study of the ecclesiastical relations between Byzantium and the West. The cataloguing of the Greek Manuscript Col- lection of Lambeth Palace Library by a team of our graduate students last year, on the occasion of the Byzantine Congress, reflects in a sense her legacy. All that has been achieved this year was due to the dedication and enthusiasm of our staff, colleagues and students, and the support of our College, Friends and sponsors, the Greek Ministries of Culture and Education, the Ministry of Educa- tion and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, The A.G. Leventis Foundation, The Hellenic Foundation, the London Hellenic Society, the Orthodox Cultural Asso- ciation and the Friends of the Hellenic Institute, to whom I would like to express our deep gratitude. Among our private donors I would like to thank in particular Mrs Angelike Frangou for her continued support towards the funding of “H.A.H. The Ecumeni- cal Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomaios I Postgraduate Studentship in Byz- antine Studies”, and Mrs Politeia Katekou for her generous donation towards the establishment of “The Panagiotis and Eleni Xenou Postgraduate Studentship in Hellenic and Byzantine Studies” in memory of her late parents. Such generosity gives us strength to double our efforts in promoting Greek Paideia and its ideals among the new generation of students and future scholars. With best wishes for a Happy and Peaceful New Year, J. Chrysostomides NEWSLETTER 2006 3 ABOUT THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE Established in 1993, The Hellenic Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London is a research centre of the History Department maintaining strong links with the Department of Classics. It brings together two areas of teaching and research in which Royal Holloway has long excelled: the study of the language, literature and history of Ancient Greece, and Byzan- tine Studies. It aims to consolidate these strengths and to extend them by promoting further the study of Hellenic tradition across the centuries, from the archaic and classical Greece, through the Hellenistic times, Byzantium and the Post-Byzantine period, to the modern world. The Hellenic Institute hosts a number of research projects and organises seminars, lectures and conferences addressed to students, scholars and to a wider public. The Hellenic Institute also seeks to bring together at a national and interna- tional level all those who share its interests. It collaborates closely with other institutions in the University of London and The Hellenic Centre, a cultural meeting place for the Greek community in London. It maintains links with Universities overseas, especially in Greece and Cyprus. As part of its teaching activities The Hellenic Institute runs the taught MA degree course in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies. It is hoped that the MA in Advanced History: Hellenic Studies, currently being re-designed, will be offered in the next academic year. The Institute also offers supervi- sion to research students. In 1999 The Friends of the Hellenic Institute were established with the aim to provide funding for The Nikolaos Oikonomides Studentship, to enable gifted students to pursue postgraduate studies in Byzantine History and Literature at the Institute. The Hellenic Institute is currently receiving funding from the Greek Minis- tries of Culture and Education, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, The A.G. Leventis Foundation, The Hellenic Foundation, the London Hellenic Society, the Orthodox Cultural Associa- tion, the Friends of the Hellenic Institute, and private donors. For updated information on the Institute’s activities, including forthcom- ing events, see http://www.rhul.ac.uk/hellenic-institute/ 4 FRIENDS OF THE HELLENIC INSTITUTE Students news The Hellenic Institute currently has 16 registered research students: MARIA ARGYROU (PhD), The printed Greek book production and trade in the eastern Mediterranean in the sixteenth century: the case of the editio princeps of St Basil’s Συγγράµµατά τινα. Opera quaedam beati Basilii Caesariensis episcopi by Stefano de Sabio (Venice, 1535) STELLA CHRYSOCHOOU (MPhil/PhD), The chartographical tradition of Claudius Ptolemaeus’ Γεωγραφική Ὑφήγησις in the Palaeologan period and the Renaissance NIKOLAOS CHRISSIS (PhD), Crusading in Romania: a study of Byzantine- Western relations and attitudes, 1204-1276 KONSTANTINOS IKONOMOPOULOS (MPhil/PhD), Byzantine perceptions of Orthodox Jerusalem and its impact on the Crusades, 1099-1280 GEORGIOS LIAKOPOULOS (MPhil/PhD), The historical geography of the late Byzantine and early Ottoman Peloponnese ALEXANDRA MELITA (PhD), Magic and healing and the Greeks in seven- teenth-century Venice FEVRONIA NOUSIA (PhD), Byzantine textbooks of the Palaeologan period KONSTANTINOS PALAIOLOGOS (MPhil/PhD) An annotated critical edition of the treatise On the Errors of the Latins by Matthaios Vlastares EUGENIA RUSSELL (MPhil/PhD), Fourteenth-century Byzantine encomia to St Demetrius QUENTIN RUSSELL (MPhil/PhD), The Greek community in London, 1830-1914 GEORGE SIDEROUNTIOS (MPhil/PhD), Early Christian and Byzantine uses of the term Hellene DAWN THOMAS (PhD), Galen’s Περὶ Ὑγιεινῆς in context DMITRI TOLSTOY-MILOSLAVSKI (MPhil/PhD) The Italian policy of Manuel I Comnenus, 1143-1180 CHRISTOS TRIANTAFYLLOPOULOS (MPhil/PhD), An annotated critical edi- tion of the treatise On the Errors of the Latins and the Heresy of Barlaam and Akindynos by Macarios, Metropolitan of Ancyra, 1397-1405 Two new research students enrolled in 2006. ANASTASIA VATOUSSIADI is embarking on her MPhil/PhD research on The influence of Byzantine legisla- tion on Slavic family law, and LAURA FRANCO was transferred from King’s College London to complete her PhD thesis on A study of the Metaphrastic process: the case of the unpublished Passiones of Sts Eleutherios, Hilarion, Iako- vos and Platon by Symeon Metaphrastes.