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Obituaries (from BBBS 2003) Lennart Rydén (1932-2002) On 11 June 2002 Lennart Rydén died, at age 70, after a period of illness. He was the leading figure in Byzantine Studies in Sweden; nobody has contributed more to giving Swedish Byzantine studies a solid and sustainable form, a scholarly foundation and an international renown. He was a regular and welcome supporter of Byzantine Symposia in Britain, especially Birmingham. Rydén was from Bräcke, in the province of Jämtland. After his years at school Härnösand he went to the University of Uppsala to study classical philology. When he finished his undergraduate studies he began preparations for a thesis on Aristophanes, but his interest was soon directed towards Byzantine hagiography, and resulted in an exemplary edition of the Life of the "holy fool", Symeon of Emesa by Leontios, bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus in the seventh century (Das Leben des heiligen Narren Symeon von Leontios von Neapolis [Studia Graeca Upsaliensia 4], Uppsala 1963). He later produced a commentary (Bemerkungen zum Leben des heiligen Narren Symeon von Leontios von Neapolis [Studia Graeca Upsaliensia 6], Uppsala 1970), in which he uncovered the literary and historical background of the Life, and discussed and explained many of its numerous difficult passages. Together these two books have become a classic in their genre. They still form the firm base from which the fascination issuing from Symeon Salos attracts new generations of readers and researchers. Rydén's next project was an annotated edition of the Life of Andrew, another holy fool. As soon becomes obvious to an attentive reader, the Life of Andrew is a piece of historical fiction. As Rydén was able to show, it was composed by a writer working in mid-tenth century Constantinople, who situated his hero in a fifth-century milieu. To a considerable extent, Andrew's character is inspired by Symeon of Emesa, although his mental outlook - for example, the apocalyptic atmosphere with which his Life is largely permeated - clearly belongs in the later period. The Life of Andrew the Fool was genuinely popular and widely read in Byzantium - as in mediaeval Russia - and has been preserved in a very large number of manuscripts, a material that proved difficult to bring into order. Rydén's editorial work was finished in 1995 when it was published in two monumental volumes (The Life of St. Andrew the Fool, vol. I: Introduction, Testimonies and Nachleben. Indices; Vol. II: Text, Translation and Notes. Appendices [Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 4:1-2], Uppsala 1995). During his many years as a scholar, Rydén saw Byzantine hagiography develop from a largely neglected position to one of the most fruitful areas of research in Byzantine studies internationally. Hagiographic studies along lines that have to a large extent been determined by Rydén's work have been one of the main points, for example, in the research programme at Dumbarton Oaks, an institution to which he was affiliated as senior fellow and visiting scholar. Rydén contributed especially to the growing interest in the literary qualities of many examples of hagiography, and literary aspects are especially important in his last book, the edition of the Life of Philaretos the Merciful (The Life of St. Philaretos the Merciful Written by His Grandson: A Critical Edition with Introduction, Translation, Notes and Indices [Studia Byzantina Upsaliensa 8], Uppsala 2002), which was printed just a few weeks before his death, as well as in his last few articles. Rydén had been appointed docent of Greek shortly after defending his thesis, and when this appointment came to an end, was awarded a long-term grant from the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSFR). Their decision to support Rydén's work with Byzantine Studies made it possible for him to develop his field at his own department in Uppsala until, in 1980, he became the first professor of a chair of Byzantine Studies in Sweden. This was the first Byzantine chair in the Scandinavian countries as a whole Funded by the HSFR, this was a personal chair for Rydén. In 1994 it was transformed into a regular university chair, paving the way for its survival after his retirement. When the predecessor of the Swedish Byzantine Society, the Swedish Committee of Byzantine Studies, was constituted and started its activities in 1983, Rydén was elected it first president. He remained in this position until 1991, when the statutes were revised and the name of the association changed to the present one (then he was appointed president of the committee, elected by the board of the Society that represents Swedish Byzantinists in the Association International des Etudes Byzntines). These changes in 1991 were motivated by the growing need to encompass people with a general interest in Byzantine history and culture. Much of the popularising work that prepared the ground for this development was done by Rydén himself. Lennart Rydén never lost enthusiasm for his study. It was nourished by his interest in Byzantine civilisation being so wide. He was trained as a philologist and often expressed his appreciation of the rigorous philological tradition that characterised much of Classical Studies in Sweden. But his own approach to the texts was never restricted to philology in the limited sense in which this word is generally used. He would have preferred to understand philology in accordance with the broader definition applied a hundred year ago: a discipline that tries to understand and explain texts not only linguistically but by reference to any observations in history, archaeology, art history, numismatics etc., that might be relevant. Openmindedness remained a characteristic of his scholarly attitude. He always kept his eyes open to the ever changing "new signals in Byzantine studies", a topic he chose for a paper presented at the first meeting of the Swedish Committee of Byzantine Studies in February 1983. Lennart Rydén was a great scholar and a great worker. His attitude
to the research work itself was simple and matter-of-fact. To him this
work meant performing a task he had set himself, doing it conscientiously
and to the best of his ability, and in a form that he tried to make as
simple and easily comprehensible as possible. On the other hand his deeply
humanistic attitude to the material, the Byzantine texts and their cultural
context and background, was striking. He had no wish to present the Byzantines
more favourably than they deserved, ascribing to them a profundity of
thought or spiritual gifts or aesthetic sensitivity superior to other
people. Nor did he wish to denigrate them in accordance with the Gibbonian
paradigm. They lived under difficult circumstances, trying to master
them as best they could, often with too little success. They were imperfect
and frail like ourselves and deserve, not least for this reason, our
interest and sympathy. This attitude is no unimportant part of the heritage
that Lennart Rydén, has bequeathed to us. His death will be felt
as a sever loss to international Byzantine Studies, to the Byzantine
seminar in Uppsala, to all his friends and colleagues. Obituaries from BBBS 2010: Obituaries from BBBS 2009: Obituaries from BBBS 2008: Obituaries from BBBS 2007: Obituaries from BBBS 2006: Obituaries from BBBS 2005: Obituaries from BBBS
2004: Obituaries from BBBS
2002: Obituaries from BBBS
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