Byzantine News, Issue 1, November 2017 (original) (raw)
Related papers
This thesis discusses the mingling of changes and continuities in the layout of mediaeval Constantinople through the lens of monastic buildings (both imperial and otherwise) and the urban worship of saints and the Theotokos; its chronological focus extends from the late ninth through the middle of the twelfth centuries. It further addresses the important changes that Evergetine monasticism elicited in imperial religiosity and the care of the dead in the court context.
The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s XXI International Graduate Conference, "Contested Heritage: Adaptation, Restoration & Innovation in the Late Antique & Byzantine World", 2019
The Monastery of St. John the Forerunner Stoudios, today known as the Imrahor Ilyas Bey mosque, is located at the Yedikule district, near to the Golden Gate of Theodosian Walls, and just at the south of the Mese, the processional way of Byzantine Constantinople. The church is Constantinople’s oldest remaining ecclesiastical building, and the degree of preservation of the initial fifth-century construction is unique. The monastery was founded in the mid-fifth century by the consul Stoudios and was dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In the course of its history, the building played a leading role in the social and spiritual life of the Byzantine Empire. It housed a number of religious objects which included relics, manuscripts, and also was a part of several imperial and ecclesiastical processions. The paper focuses on the two ceremonies; the feast of the beheading of St. John the Forerunner and the commemoration of Theodore the Studite, the celebrated church father of the monastery. Both annual ceremonies are well documented and recorded in ancient literary works and manuscripts. By discussing the complex relationship between Byzantines’ memories of the ceremony and their interactions with associated monuments, the close reading of these public events will elucidate different modes of interaction between memory, experience, and architecture in the context of the ceremony in the Byzantine mind, particularly in reference to the ancient Roman ceremonial traditions.
24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies - Venice - Abstract
The History of Photography at St. Catherine’s Library (Sinai) and Its Impact on Scholarship and Monastic Life, 2022
The goal of this paper is to systematically retrace the history of the expeditions which were devoted to the photography of manuscripts at the Monastery of St. Catherine (Sinai) from the 19th to the 20th centuries. This is possible thanks to the analysis of so far neglected archival material such as the private correspondence of the – sometimes unknown – organizers of photographic projects and interview with the various members of the Monastery. In addition to offer new material for the study of the evolution of manuscripts photography (from a technical point of view), this paper also contributes to look into the human side of the cholars’ and monks’ interactions and not just the final product of their expeditions.