First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing.
From the reception of imperial 'ekphraseis' in Hagia Sophia to the sounds and smells of the back streets of Constantinople, the sensory perception of Byzantium is an area that lends itself perfectly to an investigation into the experience of the Byzantine world. The theme of experience embraces all aspects of Byzantine studies and the 'Experiencing Byzantium' symposium brought together archaeologists, architects, art historians, historians, musicians and theologians in a common quest to step across the line that divides how we understand and experience the Byzantine world and how the Byzantines themselves perceived the sensual aspects of their empire and also their faith, spirituality, identity and the nature of 'being' in Byzantium.
The papers in this volume derive from the 44th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, held for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies by the University of Newcastle and University of Durham, at Newcastle upon Tyne in April 2011. They are written by a group of international scholars who have crossed disciplinary boundaries to approach an understanding of experience in the Byzantine world. 'Experiencing Byzantium' is volume 18 in the series published by Ashgate on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
Author(s): Claire Nesbitt ; Mark Jackson (eds.)
Series: Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Publications, 18
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: XVI+390
List of Contributors xiii
Editors’ Preface xv
1. Claire Nesbitt & Mark Jackson / Experiencing Byzantium 1
Section I: Experiencing Art
2. Liz James / Things: Art and Experience in Byzantium 17
3. Warren T. Woodfin / Repetition and Replication: Sacred and Secular Patterned Textiles 35
Section II: Experiencing Faith
4. Béatrice Caseau / Experiencing the Sacred 59
5. Andrew Louth / Experiencing the Liturgy in Byzantium 79
6. Nikolaos Karydis / Different Approaches to an Early Byzantine Monument: Procopius and Ibn Battuta on the Church of St. John at Ephesos 89
Section III: Experiencing Landscape
7. Nikolas Bakirtzis / Locating Byzantine Monasteries: Spatial Considerations and Strategies in the Rural Landscape 113
8. Katie Green / Experiencing 'Politiko': New Methodologies for Analysing the Landscape of a Rural Byzantine Society 133
9. Vicky Manolopoulou / Processing Emotion: Litanies in Byzantine Constantinople 153
Section IV: Experiencing Ritual
10. Heather Hunter-Crawley / The Cross of Light: Experiencing Divine Presence in Byzantine Syria 175
11. Sophie V. Moore / Experiencing Mid-Byzantine Mortuary Practice: Shrouding the Dead 195
Section V: Experiencing Self
12. Scott Ashley / How Icelanders Experienced Byzantium, Real and Imagined 213
13. Myrto Hatzaki / Experiencing Physical Beauty in Byzantium: The Body and the Ideal 233
14. Dion C. Smythe / Experiencing Self: How Mid-Byzantine Historians Presented their Experience 251
Section VI: Experiencing Stories
15. Margaret Mullett / Experiencing the Byzantine Text, Experiencing the Byzantine Tent 269
16. Georgia Frank / Sensing Ascension in Early Byzantium 293
17. Alexander Lingas / From Earth to Heaven: The Changing Musical Soundscape of Byzantine Liturgy 311
Index 359
