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N. Moran (Canada), H. Wada (Japan) and N. Schiodt (Denmark) are preparing sessions for the 2001 Paris Congress on both "Eunuchs in Byzantine Administration" and "Castrati in Byzantine Church Music". Interested participants should contact N. Moran, 257 Sherbourne St, apt. 528, Toronto, Ontario M5A 3Y9.
Dr Alexis Savvides,
research assistant professor in the Centre of Byzantine Research of the
Hellenic National Research Foundation in Athens, is soliciting contributions
to his Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and
Civilisation that covers the period from c.300-c.1500 CE. The third volume
of this project (from Antiochos to Apsimaros) is due out in mid 1998. Interested
contributors should write either to Dr Savvides (7 Tralleon St, Nea Smyrne,
Athens 171 21, Greece) or to the publishers, Mr D Koukounas, Metron Editions
(24 Ithakes St, Athens 112 57; fax 01-8213-762) and Mr C Korides, Iolcos
Editions (12 Valtetsiou & Hippocratous St, Athens 106 80; fax 01-3625-019).
The lexicion is in Greek and entries submitted in other languages (English
preferred) will be translated. Contributors will receive as payment between
one and three copies of the volume(s) in which their entries appear (Information
courtesy of Canadiobyzantina)
Report, XXXIInd Byzantine Spring Symposium, Brighton, UK, March 1998
The XXXIInd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies was again held in Brighton this year, at the University of Sussex, 27-30 March, 1998. The theme, "Strangers to themselves: the Byzantine Outsider" was chosen by the symposiarch Dion Smythe. As Dion pointed out in his introductory remarks, four categories of outsiders are clear, being defined by class, by ethnicity, by gender and sexuality, and by religion. These categories allowed the Byzantine to define his or her identity, and to draw boundaries concerning the alien or outsider. Other less obvious categories were suggested for consideration by participants: the reader outside the text; the illiterate precluded from the text; the marginal illustration to the text; the alienating quality of the Christian religion. The variety of subjects treated in the papers was thus quite broad, and was conveniently divided by Robin Cormack in his overview of the conference proceedings into three groups: papers that dealt with individuals, i.e. snap-shots; those that treated minority groups or communities; and in the third category, everything else.
In the first category, we heard two papers on Symeon the New Theologian, by R. Penkett and J. Turner; G. Greatrex on Procopius the Outsider?; E. Jeffreys on Diogenis Akritas; J. Baun on Anastasia and Middle Byzantine Apocryphal Visions; C. Rouech on Kekaumenos; B. Zeitler on Patronage and Acculturation of Western Women in Byzantium, where she considered the case of a Frankish princess; R. Jordan on John of Phoebrou; A. Palmer on Ephraim of Syria; S. Nikolov on Mavros, a Baptised Barbarian; and B. Neil on the Lives in exile of Pope Martin I and Maximos Confessor.
The second category, dealing with minority groups (including women) in Byzantium, included: J. McGuckin, Aliens and Citizens Elsewhere, on the concept of xeniteia; P. Magdalino, Constantinople and the Outside World; D. Jacoby, The Byzantine Outsider in Trade; R. Beaton on The World of Fiction and the World out there in the Byzantine novel; N. Sevcenko on Images of Nature in the Monastic Desert Writings; J. Beaucamp on Women as Outsiders from the Legal Evidence; M. Whittow on Conversion and Assimilation in Asia Minor; G. Page on the Principality of the Morea; T. Papacostas on Venetians in 12th century Cyprus; G. Prinzing on Minorities in the Maeander Valley region; L. Simeonova, on Ambivalent Attitudes to Foreignness in tenth-century Byzantium as seen in Ceremonial Ritual; P. Stephenson on Byzantine perceptions of Otherness after the annexation of Bulgaria (1018); I. Baan on Byzantines and Hungarians; N. de Lange on Jewish culture and identity in Byzantium; and J. Harris on Byzantines in renaissance Italy.
In the final category, we heard A. Bryer speak on various systems of dating and time-keeping used throughout the Byzantine empire and beyond; L. Rodley on Patron Imagery on the Fringes of the Empire; and M. Mullett, in her fine introduction to the proceedings, outlined some possible approaches to The Other in Byzantium.
In his brilliant summing-up, Robin Cormack pointed to the need to distinguish between objective questions of alienation or otherness, and more subjective notions of self-awareness. The Byzantine self-image was a constantly changing one, insofar as Byzantine society was never homogeneous. Networking, he suggested, is a far more fluid and more useful model than the rigid insider/outsider dichotomy of the sixties.
The XXXIII Spring Symposium for Byzantine Studies will be held at the University of Warwick, 26-29 March 1999.
| Bronwen Neil,
Durham |
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