Papers from the First and Second Postgraduate Forums in Byzantine Studies: Sailing to Byzantium
Editor: Savvas Neocleous
Date Of Publication: Aug 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-1102-6
Isbn: 1-4438-1102-5
Sailing to Byzantium brings together ten probing and pertinent critical papers, presented at the First and Second Postgraduate Forums in Byzantine Studies, held at Trinity College Dublin on 17-18 April 2007 and 15-16 May 2008 respectively. These essays engage with various facets of Byzantine history and culture. Many of them seek to shed new light on frequently controversial subject matters relating to history, historiography, and religion (the contentious nature of Jerusalem in Byzantine imperial ideology; medieval Western attitudes and perceptions of the Byzantine Empire; and the translation and use of Greek theologians in the West). Elsewhere, there are papers that tackle aspects of Byzantine literature (Encyclopaedism; the circulation of poetry; and a case study of political rhetoric in Manuel II’s Dialogue with the Empress-Mother on Marriage). Finally, history of art and cult come under the microscope in the last two essays of the volume (the meaning of the eight-century apsidal conch at Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome and the origins of the cult of Saint Martin in Dalmatia). Sailing to Byzantium is a provocative, wide-ranging collection and a must for students and academics who wish to broaden their understanding of one of history’s most fascinating civilizations.

Savvas Neocleous completed a B.A. in History and Archaeology at the University of Cyprus in 2004 and an M.Phil. in Medieval Language, Literature and Culture at Trinity College Dublin in 2005. He recently submitted his PhD, entitled “Imaging the Byzantines: Latin Perceptions, Representations, and Memory, c. 1095–c. 1230,” at Trinity College Dublin. His recent papers include: “The Byzantines and Saladin: Opponents of the Third Crusade?,” forthcoming in Crusades 9 (2010); “Imaging Isaac of Cyprus and the Cypriots: Evidence from the Western Historiography of the Third Crusade,” forthcoming in the volume From Holy War to Peaceful Co-Habitation (CEU Medievalia); and “Representation of Music in Medieval Cypriot Iconography: Evidence from Nativity Scenes,” published in the volume POCA 2005, Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology.

“This volume contains ten contributions to various aspects of Byzantine history, literature and mentality, all written by young scholars who show a high scholarly level and an impressive competence in handling important questions in a methodically correct and often new approach. Some of the articles are devoted to questions of the interrelationship between Byzantium and the medieval West in historiography and theology, others cover the fields of Byzantine encyclopaedism, of the circulation of poetry and of advices of the emperor. Two contributions deal with art history, again focusing on Byzantine-Western relations. Thus the volume shows a certain homogeneity and at the same time a rich variety of subject-matters. In its entirety it is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the place of Byzantium within the framework of medieval literature and thought.”

- Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hörandner, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Byzantinistik

“This volume offers a convenient as well as impressive selection of the finest papers performed at the model-setting Dublin Postgraduate Fora Sailing to Byzantium, uniting young scholars from a large number of excellent institutions and educational backgrounds, from Bucharest in the east to Buenos Aires in the west, with innovative papers covering an equally huge scope, stretching from Rome to Jerusalem, and the Crusader Levant more generally, geographically, from Late Antiquity – St John Chrysostom – to late Byzantium – Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos – chronologically, and from medieval translation and manuscript studies via close source readings to art history methodologically.”

-Prof. Niels Gaul, Department of Medieval Studies, CEU Budapest

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