The Jerusalem Psalter and its Evolution: A Comparative Study of Early Liturgical Psalter Divisions of the Syro-Palestinian Sphere (original) (raw)

Jerusalem: Shape, Life and Claims Introduction to: Jerusalem in Roman-Byzantine Times (COMES 5)

2021

This is the editors introduction to the volume "Jerusalem in Roman-Byzantine Times": The present volume gives insights into the shape, life and claims of Jerusalem in Roman-Byzantine Times (2nd to 7th century). Regarding the history of religions and its impact on urbanistic issues, the city of Jerusalem is of special and paradigmatic interest. The coexistence and sometimes rivalry of Jewish, Hellenistic, Roman, Christian and later Islamic cults had an impact on urban planning. The city's importance as a centre of international pilgrimage and educational tourism affected demographic and institutional characteristics. Moreover, the rivalry between the various religious traditions at the holy places effected a plurivalent sacralisation of the urban area. To show transitions and transformations, coexistence and conflicts, seventeen articles by internationally distinguished researchers from different fields, such as archaeology, Christian theology, history, Jewish and Islamic studies, are brought together to constitute this collection of essays.

A Byzantine Jerusalem. The Imperial Pharos Chapel as the Holy Sepulchre

A Byzantine Jerusalem. The Imperial Pharos Chapel as the Holy Sepulchre. In the book: Jerusalem as Narrative Space, ed. Annette Hoffmann and Gerhard Wolf, Leiden, Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2012, pp. 63-104. , 2012

Constantinople was perceived as a Holy City, the Second Jerusalem, an expected place of the Second Coming. In this study we examine the sacred space of the greatest importance in Byzantium, the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, which served from 864 to 1204 as an imperial repository of the main relics of Christendom. This ‘Byzantine Holy Sepulchre’ enshrined the collection of 10 most important relics pertaining to the Passions and the Crucifixion and was termed by contemporaries as ‘the Decalogue’. The two miraculous images ‘not made with hands’ (Mandilion and Keramion) were also kept in this church as well as the head and hand of John the Baptist and a large piece of the Holy Cross. The space of the church, so richly saturated with the relics of the Holy Land, was seen as another Jerusalem, the symbolic image of the Holy Land. One of the special services held in this church was the service ‘of the Holy City’ which resembled the services at the Resurrection church in Jerusalem. The spatial arrangement of relics in the Pharos Church entered as image-paradigm into the sacred space of many churches all over the Christian world and was represented in iconography.

Constantinople & Jerusalem in Late Antiquity: Problems – Paradigms – Perspectives [= Introduction] (with Konstantin M. Klein), in: Konstantin M. Klein & Johannes Wienand (eds.): City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, Berlin: De Gruyter 2022, pp. 1–8

When Emperor Constantine triggered the rise of a Christian state, he opened a new chapter in the history of Constantinople and Jerusalem. In the centuries that followed, the two cities were formed and transformed into powerful symbols of Empire and Church. This chapter introduces a volume that for the first time investigates the increasingly dense and complex net of reciprocal dependencies between the imperial center and the navel of the Christian world. Imperial influence, initiatives by the Church, and projects of individuals turned Constantinople and Jerusalem into important realms of identification and spaces of representation. Distinguished international scholars investigate this fascinating development, focusing on aspects of art, ceremony, religion, ideology, and imperial rule. In enriching our understanding of the entangled history of Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, the volume illuminates the transition between Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Middle Ages.

The illustration of the ninth-century Byzantine marginal psalters: layers of meaning and their sources

Ph.D. Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, 2002

right, images are not included. I am currently working on a book project on the same topic (under contract with Alexandors Press), which will introduce some revisions on the basis of more recent scholarship and will have a more extensive discussion of the sources and use of the psalters. In most cases, the interpretation of individual miniatures will be along the same lines, but reinforced with new arguments. Please bear the above in mind if you use the folowing text in your research. Also note that Elina Dobrynina is preparing a publication on the Chludov Psalter that uses evidence from the restoration of the manuscript (some of her new findings are included in a relevant article available on Academia.edu).