First published 2000 by Ashgate Publishing.
The papers in this volume derive from the 29th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. This was held for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies in the University of London in March 1995, in order to complement the British Museum exhibition 'Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture'. The objective of the symposium was to explore the ways in which British scholars, travellers, novelists, architects, churchmen and critics came into contact with Byzantium, and how they perceived what they saw.
The present volume sets out some of the results of this enquiry. Byzantium is treated both as a source of influence on British culture as well as an 'idea' which British culture constructed in different ways in different periods of history. To give some comparative context, attention is also paid to attitudes towards Byzantium in continental Europe. Papers deal, amongst other topics, with the collecting of objects representative of Byzantine culture and with the changing appreciation of Byzantine manuscripts. They also include a series of case studies of individual historians and Byzantinists, and two deal in particular with Ruskin, who emerges as a perceptive 19th-century critic of Byzantine culture.
Author(s): Robin Cormack, Elizabeth Jeffreys (eds.)
Series: Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, 7
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: XII+258
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations viii
List of Figures ix
Preface xii
Introduction / Robin Cormack 1
Section I. Encounters with places
1. Byzantine 'purple' and Ruskin's St Mark's, Venice / Michael Wheeler 9
2. Twin reflections of a Byzantine city: Monemvasia as seen by Robert Weir Schultz and Sidney H. Barnsley in 1890 / Haris Kalligas 23
3. The Great Palace dig: the Scottish perspective / Mary Whitby 45
4. The British contribution to fieldwork in Byzantine studies in the twentieth century: an introductory survey / David Winfield 57
Section II. Encounters with books
5. The distorting mirror: reflections on the Queen Melisende Psalter (London, B.L., Egerton 1139) / Barbara Zeitler 69
6. Byzantium perceived through illuminated manuscripts: now and then / John Lowden 85
7. From Britain to Byzantium: the study of Greek manuscripts / Patricia Easterling 107
8. Greek scribes in England: the evidence of episcopal registers / Jonathan Harris 121
9. Fair exchange? Old manuscripts for new printed books / Colin Davey 127
10. The Gospels of Jakov of Serres (London, B.L., Add. MS 39626), the family Branković and the Monastery of St. Paul, Mount Athos / Zaga Gavrilović 135
Section III. Interpreters
11. 'A Gentleman's Book': attitudes of Robert Curzon / Robin Cormack 147
12. Bury, Baynes and Toynbee / Averil Cameron 163
13. O. M. Dalton: 'ploughing the Byzantine furrow' / Christopher Entwistle 177
14. R. M. Dawkins and Byzantium / Peter Mackridge 185
Section IV. Other perspectives
15. Du Cange and Byzantium / Jean-Michel Spieser 199
16. Pyotr Ivanovich Sevastianov and his activity in collecting Byzantine objects in Russia / Olga Etinghof 211
Section V. Encounters with the imagined Byzantium
17. Simpering Byzantines, Grecian goldsmiths et al.: some appearances of Byzantium in English poetry / David Ricks 223
18. 'As the actress said to the bishop...': the portrayal of Byzantine women in English-language fiction / Liz James 237
Index 251
