Digital Mobility: Byzantine Prosopography, Networks and Space (original) (raw)

Calculating the Middle Ages? The project “Complexities and networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East” (COMMED)

Published in Medieval Worlds Issue 2/2015: ›Empires in Decay‹ (peer reviewed, open access: http://www.medievalworlds.net/medieval\_worlds?frames=yes) The project “Complexities and networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East” (COMMED) at the Division for Byzantine Research of the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences aims at the adaptation and development of concepts and tools of network theory and complexity sciences for the analysis of societies, polities and regions in the medieval world in a comparative perspective. Key elements of its methodological and technological toolkit are applied for instance in the new project “Mapping medieval conflicts: a digital approach towards political dynamics in the pre-modern period” (MEDCON), which analyses political networks and conflict among power elites across medieval Europe with five case studies from the 12th to 15th century. For one of these case studies on 14th century Byzantium, the explanatory value of this approach is presented in greater detail. The presented results are integrated in a wider comparison of five late medieval polities across Afro-Eurasia (Byzantium, China, England, Hungary and Mamluk Egypt) against the background of the “Late Medieval Crisis” and its political and environmental turmoil. Finally, further perspectives of COMMED are outlined.

Поздневизантийское фамильное имя Канан / Late Byzantine second name Kananos (In Russian)

КЛИО / KLIO, 2018

Статья посвящена проблемам этимологии и просопографии поздневизантийского фамильного имени Канан. Происхождение патронима и история его носителей реконструируется лишь гипотетически из-за скудности имеющихся свидетельств. Несмотря на это, автор показывает, что Кананы представляли собой знатное и влиятельное поздневизантийское семейство, обладавшее высокими титулами и славившееся личными связями с членами императорского дома Палеологов. Двое представителей фамилии оставили слой след в истории византийской литературы. После падения Константинополя они эмигрировали в Италию и в качестве политических беженцев путешествовали по странам Западной и Северной Европы. The article is devoted to the problems of etymology and prosopography of the late Byzantine second name Kananos. The origin of the patronym and the history of its bearers are reconstructed only hypothetically due to the scarcity of available evidence. Despite this, the author shows that the Kananos were a noble and influential late Byzantine family having high status position and famous for its personal contacts with members of the imperial house of Palaeologoi. Two Kananos placed themselves on record of Byzantine literature. After the fall of Constantinople they emigrated to Italy and traveled as political refugees through the countries of Western and Northern Europe.