Summary of Byzantine Symposium, May 5-7, 2000

Pilgrimage in the Byzantine Empire, 7th-15th c.

Symposiarch: Alice-Mary Talbot

Interest in the subject of pilgrimage in the eastern Mediterranean world has intensified in recent years, as manifested in new courses on early Christian, Byzantine and Islamic pilgrimage, exhibitions, and special conferences on the subject. With regard to eastern Christian pilgrimage the emphasis has been on travel to the Holy Land, especially during the period of the 4th-6th centuries for which the evidence is more abundant. The symposium planned at Dumbarton Oaks for May 2000 is intended to stimulate research in new directions by focussing on a later period and examining the phenomenon of pilgrimage in the Byzantine world from the 7th-15th c.

After the conquest of the Holy Land by the Arabs in the 7th c. new patterns of pilgrimage developed. Although Byzantines in limited numbers continued to journey to the loca sancta of Palestine, there was a marked shift in patterns of pilgrimage in the middle and late centuries of the Byzantine empire. Cities such as Constantinople, which acquired major relics of Christ's Passion and of the Virgin, and Thessalonike with its shrine of the martyr saint Demetrios, became major pilgrimage sites. Cults also developed at the tombs of new local saints, leading to the appearance of healing shrines in both urban and rural areas of Greece and Anatolia. Other foci of pilgrimage were holy springs (haghiasmata), holy icons and living holy men.

Summary of Byzantine Symposium, May 4-6, 2001

Late Byzantine Thessalonike

Symposiarch: Jean-Michel Spieser

After the conquest of the Byzantine Middle East by the Arabs in the 7th century, Thessalonike remained the only major town in the Byzantine empire, except of course Constantinople; despite the Slavic attacks, it continued to serve as a real urban center, the most important in Greece. The significance of Thessalonike increased paradoxically in the last Byzantine centuries, after the re-establishment of the Byzantine empire by Michael VIII Palaiologos in Constantinople. Even in the middle of the civil wars, which were so frequent in the 14th century, Thessalonike on occasion became almost a rival of the capital. Despite its troubled situation, Thessalonike experienced a flourishing religious, intellectual and artistic life: in no other period since early Christian times were so many churches built and decorated.

The Dumbarton Oaks Internet address is: http://www.doaks.org

Orders for Dumbarton Oaks publications may be placed via e-mail at: publications@doaks.org. These are also listed on the Dumbarton Oaks web page at: http://doaks.org/publications.html

You can address e-mail correspondence for the Byzantine Studies Alumni Association to: DOBAA@doaks.org

Please visit our new D.O. Byzantine Alumni Association Website at www.wam.umd.edu/~sullivan/members.html

We thank Denis Sullivan for his efforts in designing and maintaining the website.

The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh $48.00

Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 35, John Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero (paper) $100.00, (cloth) $150.00

The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An 11-th Century Pillar Saint: Byzantine Saints' Lives in Translation (3) Richard P. H. Greenfield $50.00

Siegecraft: Two Tenth-Century Instructional Manuals by "Heron of Byzantium," Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 36, Denis F. Sullivan $35.00

The Documents of Angelo de Cartura and Donato Fontanella: Venetian Notaries in Fourteenth-Century Crete ed., Stahl (paper) $40.00

Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 53 $110.00

The Letters of Manuel II Palaeologus, reprint edition, Dennis DOT 4 (CFHB 8) $35.00

Three Byzantine Military Treatises, reprint edition, Dennis DOT 9 (CFHB 25) $30.00

Studies in Byzantine Sigillography, 6 (paper) ed. Oikonomides $30.00

Corpus des Mosaïques de Tunise, Vol. IV, Fasc. 1, (paper) Ben Abed-Ben Khader $80.00

Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection: Vol. 5, Michael VIII to Constantine XI, 1258-1453, 2 vols. Grierson $210.00

Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection: Vol. 4, Alexius I to Michael VIII, 1081-1261, 2 vols. Hendy $240.00

Byzantine Coinage, new edition, Philip Grierson (paper) $15.00

Titles:

The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint (sample text).

Siegecraft: Two Tenth-Century Instructional Manuals by "Heron of Byzantium" (sample text).

Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 53 (1999).

Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents.

Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints’ Lives in English Translation.

Byzantine Coinage.

Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, Instanbul: The Fossati Restoration and the Work of the Byzantine Institute.

Byzantine Magic.
 
 

Dumbarton Oaks is again offering an intensive four-week course in medieval Greek and paleography in the early summer of 2001. A limited number of places will be available for graduate students enrolled at North American universities and currently pursuing a doctoral degree in any field of Byzantine studies. Please note that due to major construction at Dumbarton Oaks beginning in the fall of 2001 it may be impossible to hold this summer school again for several years.

Course Offerings: The principal course will be a daily one-hour session devoted to the translation of sample Byzantine texts. Each week texts will be selected from a different genre, e.g., historiography, hagiography, poetry, epistolography. One additional hour weekly will provide instruction in the basic bibliography of Byzantine philology (dictionaries, grammars, etc.) and electronic tools, such as the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae and the Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Database. Twice a week there will be one-hour sessions on Byzantine paleography. In addition each student will receive a minimum of one hour per week of individual tutorial. Thus 11 hours per week will be devoted to formal classroom instruction. It is anticipated that students will require the remaining hours of the week to prepare their assignments. If they should have extra time, they may use the resources of the Dumbarton Oaks library.

Faculty: Alexander Alexakis, Stockton State College; George Dennis, The Catholic University of America; Alice-Mary Talbot, Dumbarton Oaks

Accommodation and Costs: No tuition fees will be charged. Successful candidates from outside the Washington area will be provided with housing in the Fellows Building at no cost and complimentary breakfast and lunch on weekdays. Local area students will not be offered accommodation, but will receive free lunch on weekdays. Students are expected to cover their own transportation expenses.

Requirements for Admission: Applicants must be graduate students in a field of Byzantine studies at a North American university. Two years of college level ancient Greek (or the equivalent) are a prerequisite; a diagnostic test will be administered to finalist applicants before the final selection of successful candidates is made.

Application Procedure: Applicants should send a letter by January 15, 2001, to Dr. Talbot, describing their academic background, career goals, previous study of Greek, and reasons for wishing to attend the summer school. The application should also include a curriculum vitae and a transcript of the graduate school record. Two letters of recommendation should be sent separately, one from the student’s advisor, and one from an instructor in Greek, assessing the candidate’s present level of competence in ancient or medieval Greek. Principles of selection will include three considerations: previous meritorious achievement, need for intensive study of Byzantine Greek, and future direction of research. Awards will be announced in February 2001, and must be accepted by March 15.

DUMBARTON OAKS
Program in Byzantine Studies
1703 32nd St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007
Tel.: 202-339-6940
FAX: 202-339-6419
E-mail: Byzantine@doaks.org

President: David Olster

Vice-President: Eric Ivison

Foreign Vice-President: Zbignew Fiema

Treasurer: Leonora Neville

Secretary: Matina McGrath

The Alumni Association met at Dumbarton Oaks on Sunday, May 7, 2000. The director of Byzantine Studies, Alice-Mary Talbot, gave a report regarding the plans for the construction of a new library at Dumbarton Oaks. Designs for a possible underground expansion of the library in the North vista were under consideration. A new architect hired to consider alternate locations was examining the area behind the gardener’s cottage as a possible location for the new library. Feasibility studies were in progress, but these should not have an impact on the Center’s activities for the next year. Dr. Talbot informed the alumni of the purchase of the Sen. John Warner’s house in the summer of 1999 to serve as the future residence of the Director of Dumbarton Oaks. A section of the guest house was converted to house the D.O. Archives and the former residence of the director will be converted for the use of D.O. technical services. No major changes were expected in the location of the fellows’ offices for the immediate future.

Dr. Talbot announced the formation of a four week series of classes in Byzantine Greek sponsored by Dumbarton Oaks during the summer of 2000. The classes were designed for immediate post doctoral and graduate students studying in U.S. institutions. Out of twenty seven applicants, nine were selected to receive instruction in Paleography, Byzantine Greek and bibliographic and electronic resources. Instruction for these classes would be carried out by Dr. Talbot, Ft. George Dennis and Dr. Alexander Alexakis. Finally, Dr. Talbot conveyed the Director’s request that the Alumni Association change its name to the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Alumni Association. A motion to change the name was accepted and the new name will be used in all future Association records and correspondence.

Discussion turned to the lack of member participation in mailing entries for the Alumni news and subsequently to the purpose and goals of the Alumni Association. Some members pointed to the need for the existence of the association to represent the interests of former fellows and to oversee the continuation and advancement of Byzantine Studies at D.O., while others saw no pressing need for the existence of the association and/or for such features as the Association newsletter since the D.O. website offers most of the information contained therein in an updated and easily accessible form. Questions were also brought up regarding membership fees, the purpose of collecting them, and the difficulty presented to foreign members in making the payments (bank fees frequently exceed the value of individual annual contributions). The idea of the creation of an Association website was brought up. Problems such as maintenance, cost, location and purpose were considered. A decision was made to construct a questionnaire (enclosed for member review) with the purpose of gathering the views of Byzantine Alumni Association members. A decision was made to freeze the collection of membership fees until the future, content and format of Association newsletters was determined.

Susan Ashbrook Harvey

Elected president, North American Patristic Society.

"Incense Offerings in the Syriac Transitus Mariae: Ritual and Knowledge in Ancient Christianity", in The Early Church in its Context: Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson, ed. A.J. Malherbe, F.W. Norris, and J.W. Thompson (Leiden: Brill, 1998) 175-191.

"St. Ephrem on the Scent of Salvation", Journal of Theological Studies 49 (1998) 109-128.

Leslie MacCoull

Editorial Associate, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Arizona State

University.

"Chant in Coptic Pilgrimage," in Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique

Egypt, ed. D. Frankfurter (Leiden 1998) 415-425

"George of Pisidia, _Against Severus_: In Praise of Heraclius," in The Future

of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. R. Dahood (Turnhout 1998) 69-79

"Typikon of Apa Abraham," in Dumbarton Oaks Electronic Texts: Monastic

Typika (Washington, D.C. 1998) 51-58 <http://doaks.org.typ007.pdf>

"The Anaximander Fragment in its Sixth-Century (C.E.) Context," Philosophy

and Theology_11 (1998) 63-74

"Lesefruchte," ZPE 123 (1998) 204-206

"Plotinus the Egyptian?," Mnemosyne 52 (1999) 330-333

"Gregory Thaumaturgus' Vision Re-Envisioned," RHE 94 (1999) 5-14

"Paul of Tamma and the Monastic Priesthood," VigChr 53 (1999) 316-320

"John Philoponus, On the Pasch(CPG 7267): The Egyptian Eucharist in the

Sixth Century and the Armenian Connection," JOB 49 (1999) 1-12

"Who Was Eusebius of Alexandria?," Byzantinoslavica 60 (1999) 9-18

"The Rite of the Jar: Apostasy and Reconciliation in the Medieval Coptic

Orthodox Church," in Peace and Negotiation: Strategies for Coexistence in the

Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. D. Wolfthal (Turnhout 2000) 145-162

"Isidore and the Akephaloi," GRBS 39 (2000 [1998]) 169-178

In press:

"Oral-Formulaic Approaches to Coptic Hymnography," Oral Tradition

"Philoponus' De Opificio Mundi and the Papyri," Proceedings of the XXII

International Congress of Papyrology (Florence)

"Notes on Fulgentius," Mediterranean Studies

"Coptica Mancuniensia: Coptic Texts from the Rylands Arabic Papyri," in _.

Bingen (Brussels)

"Notes on the Martyrdom of John of Phanijoit (BHO 518)," Medieval Encounters

"The Historical Context of John Philoponus' De Opificio Mundi in the Culture

of Byzantine-Coptic Egypt," Zeitschrift fur Antikes Christentum

In progress:

"The Coptic verso of P.Berl.Sarisch. 7"

"Two Coptic Bronze Vessels in the Walters Art Gallery"

"BM 1077: Taxes in Money in Seventh-Century Egypt," OCP, forthcoming.

Joseph Patrich

The praetorium of the Byzantine governor of Provincia Plaestina was uncovered in his excavations at Caesarea Maritima (concluded January 1998, after five years of continuus excavation). He also organized an international symposium entitled: The Sabaite Heritage: The Sabaite Factor in the Orthodox Church - Monastic Life, Liturgy, Theology, Literature, Art and Archaeology (5^th century to the present), Jerusalem and Haifa May 24-30, 1998.

Urs Peschlow

"Architectural Sculpure", in C.L. Striker, Y.D. Kuban, Kalenderhane in Instanbul (1997).

Together with S. Moellers (eds), Spaetantike u. byzantinische Bauskulptur (1998).

"Die H. Sophia und das Erdbeben c. J. 740" in V. Hoffmann (ed.) Die H. Sophia in Instanbul (1998).

"Minderheiten im M¬ andertal und in Phrygien", in P. Herz, J. Kobes (ed.), Ethnische u. religiØ se Minderheiten in Kleinasien(1998).

Debra Pincus

"Venice and Fourteenth-Century Image Making: The Thaumaturgical Ruler in the Post-Serrata Period", in: Venice Reconsidered: Acts of Syracuse Conference (in Press).

May 2001:

*The integration of the Dumbarton Oaks library technical services (cataloging and acquisitions) is complete, and all new books with Library of Congress classification are placed in the basement stacks.

*The plans for the construction of the new library are finalized. The location of the new library building will be behind the gardener’s cottage. Building should begin in 2002 and the projected date of completion is 2004.

*Eight students are enrolled in the Byzantine Greek summer class series. All are graduate students (2 local 6 from out of town).

Margaret Frazer, February 24, 1999.

Robert P. Bergman, May 5, 1999.

George Stricevic, September 15, 1999.

Enrica Follieri, December 11, 1999.

Nicolas Oikonomides, May 31, 2000.

Herbert Hunger, July 9, 2000.

Josepha Weitzmann-Fiedler, July 15, 2000.

Sir Stephen Runciman, November 1, 2000.