| Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2009) Professor A.A.M. Bryer Professor Dame Averil Cameron Hetaireia Palatiou / Palace Company Professor Carole Hillenbrand, FBA, FRSE The Composition of Byzantine Glass Mosaic Tesserae Professor Peter Mackridge was awarded an honorary doctorate by Athens University on 26th November, 2008. Economy and Regional Trade Routes in Northern Macedonia Dr Vasiliki Tsamakda has been appointed Professor for Christian Archaeology and the History of Byzantine Art at the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, to succeed Prof. Urs Peschlow. Elena Dene Vasilescu is involved with Balkan Heritage Field School (204 Sveta Troica Str., BG-6004 Stara Zagora) in their summer programme Frescoes Hunting. Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2008) Professor Averil Cameron was President of the Board of Directors for the Patristic Conference, Oxford 2007. She has also received a Festschrift: Hagit Amirav and Bas ter Haar Romeny, From Rome to Constantinople. Studies in Honour of Averil Cameron (Peeter, Leuven 2007) Professor Małgorzata Dąbrowska: Dr Hallie Meredith is currently holding a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship (2007-2008) at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, NY. Professor Martin Smith (of Oinoanda and Bangor) has been appointed as OBE “for services to Scholarship”. Hetaireia Palatiou / Palace Company enters its third year in 2008. HP is a living history group designed to represent aspects of the Constantinopolitan court and social environs in the tenth to twelfth century. Its successful inaugural appearance at Conisbrough Castle, South Yorkshire in 2006 was followed up by another at the Rufford Abbey Romans event in July 2007. 2008 will see a burgeoning of membership, with appearances again at Rufford Abbey (mid-May), Conisbrough Castle (date tbc) and Sheffield (late August Bank Holiday). New Chair in Byzantine Religion, Union Theological Seminary, New YorkFollowing on a donor’s endowment grant of 4 million dollars, Union Theological Seminary in New York, on December 6th 2007, instituted the Nielsen Chair in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History. The first holder of the Chair is Revd. Prof. John McGuckin. Ring-fenced scholarship funds attached to the chair’s endowment will allow advanced postgraduate recipient(s) to pursue doctoral level work in Byzantine Religious studies at Union, with full access to the facilitites of Columbia University, where Prof. McGuckin also serves as Professor of Byzantine Christianity in the Religion Department. Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou’s application to the Leventis Foundation for part funding for a two-year, part-time Fellowship on post-Byzantine Art at the Open University was successful. The Trustees of the Leventis Foundation have decided to support this Fellowship, a decision for which the Arts Faculty of the Open University is grateful. The Fellowship will be in memory of the late Konstantinos Leventis. The position will be advertised shortly. Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2007) Dr. Monica White: Doctoral thesis (Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900-1200) won the Hellenic Foundation Award 2004 for the best British thesis in Byzantine / Medieval History. Dr. Teresa Shawcross: Doctoral thesis (The Chronicle of Morea: Historiography in Crusader Greece) won the Hellenic Foundation 2005 Award for the best British thesis in Greek Studies on a Byzantine or Medieval subject. Dr. Liz James (University of Sussex) has been awarded a grant by the Leverhulme Trust to set up an International Network to look at the composition of Byzantine glass mosaic tesserae. Professor Małgorzata Dąbrowska is in her second year as a Visiting Professor at Rice University, Houston. She is teaching courses in: Polish Drama in translation, Central and East European Cinema, and Contemporary Polish and Central European Politics and Culture. She has written the preface for and edited the following textbooks for these courses: At the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London 21-26 August 2006, Professor Dąbrowska participated in the General Assembly of the Association Internationale des Etudes Byzantines as a representative of the Polish Byzantine Committee. Research project: The Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism The project is funded by the AHRC for just over three years (May 2006 to July 2009). The permanent research team consist of Nicholas de Lange, Cameron Boyd-Taylor and Julia Krivoruchka, and IT support is provided by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King's College London. The project is housed in the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. While it is recognised that the books of the Hebrew Bible were originally translated into Greek in Greco-Roman antiquity by Jews for Jews, it is generally supposed that at some early point Jews gave up using the translations, along with the use of the Greek language generally, and they were preserved and used only in the Christian Church. All current introductions to the Greek Bible are written within this framework and focus on the transmission within the Christian Church. However, materials have come to light, some very recently, that make it plain that some Jews continued to use the Greek language throughout the Middle Ages, and that, while the Hebrew Bible played a central part in their religious and cultural life, they also knew the Bible in Greek. Parts of such versions survive, ranging from entire books to scattered words. Our objective is to make these texts (many of which are unpublished) available to scholars, together with the information that is necessary for an appreciation of their historical background, meaning and exegetical implications, and relationship with other translations, as well as their wider place in the history of Jewish religious culture. An important overall objective is to determine whether it is reasonable to speak of a continuous tradition extending from antiquity to the early modern period and beyond. The implications for Jewish–Christian relations will not be neglected. A website is in the course of construction. In the meantime, queries may be addressed to: Professor Nicholas de Lange nrml1@cam.ac.uk. Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2006) Professor Małgorzata Dąbrowska is a Visiting Professor at Rice University, Houston, Texas in 2005-2006, and is giving courses on Slavic cultures; Polish literature in translation; and Central and East European cinema. Mr. Michael Heslop has been appointed Honorary Research Associate in Byzantine Studies attached to the Hellenic Institute in the History Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. 9 March, 2005, Athens: Dr Matzukis’ translation into English (in metre) of the Medieval Greek verse chronicle (759 lines) contained in the book, The Fall of Constantinopole, won an award from The Society of Hellenic Translators in Athens on 9 March 2005. Several other awards were handed out to scholars from international communities for their various achievements. (± 150 invited guests were present) Heraclius and Lord Howard de Walden My late grandfather, Tommy Howard de Walden (1880-46), wrote, under the name T.E.Ellis, three plays on the Heraclian Emperors: Heraclius (performed in 1924 and 1927), Constans II and Justinian II. In a letter to the author’s son (my uncle) in 1966, Sir Steven Runciman expressed interest in the plays. He comments on the author’s imaginative and, on the whole, plausible reconstruction of events for which there is a dearth of surviving contemporary sources. The first play – Heraclius – includes an unforeshadowed interview between Heraclius and Mahomet which is crucial to the play’s subsequent development. Sir Steven points out that, like the interview between Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary in Schiller’s Maria Stuart, it is dramatically good but historically impossible. Nevertheless it reflects an actual historical event, Mahomet’s letter written in 628 to Heraclius ordering him to become a convert to Islam. Heraclius having declined the request, the play moves on from the imperial successes against the Persians to a tragic conclusion in which (after Mahomet’s death) Heraclius, enfeebled in mind and body, learns of his forces being destroyed on the field by the forces of Islam. The subject matter is, I believe, of interest, if not also contemporary resonance. I am in the course of arranging for the plays to be privately printed and would very much like to find out whether there is any wider interest in the plays, in particular I would be most interested to hear from anyone who wishes to pursue this and would be happy to make the plays available. Contact details: Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2004) Professor Claudine Dauphin was made an Honorary Professor in Archaeology and Theology of the University of Wales at Lampeter on 18th November, 2003. She delivered an inaugural lecture on 'Eucharistic Bread or Thistles? Fact or Fiction? The Diet of the Desert Fathers in Late Antique Egypt and Palestine'. Dr. Harris Kalligas: from June 20, 2004 Harris Kalligas will end her
3rd term as Director of the Gennadius Library. Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2003) Dr. Barbara Crostini is now Editorial Fellow at the Ecclesiastical Society. Professor Judith Herrin: The President of the Hellenic Republic announced the award of the Gold Cross of Honour to Judith Herrin in the summer of 2002. The honour was presented by the Minister of Culture, Euthymios Venizelos, during his visit to London on 11 November, at a ceremony hosted by the Greek Ambassador Mr Sandis at his residence. Dr. Niki Tsironis: Nigel Wilson has been elected James P. R. Lyell Reader in Bibliography;
the course of five lectures on the world of Byzantine books will be given
in Oxford on the first five Wednesdays of Trinity (summer) Term. Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2002) Dr Malgorzata Dabrowska was Visiting Fellow at All Soul’s College in Oxford in the Michaelmas term, 2001. While staying there she delivered lectures at a number of neighbouring universities in the U.K. Mihailo Popovic spent two trimestres (Jan. -June 2001) at King’s College London on an Erasmus/ Socrates exchange programme. Professor Ihor Sevcenko celebrated his 80th birthday on 10 February 2002. Special celebrations were held at Harvard University on 15 February. On behalf of all its members, the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies sends him warm wishes and congratulations in recognition of this occasion. Dr Niki Tsironis has been appointed as a Researcher at the Institute for Byzantine Research. Hellenic National Research Foundation in Athens. As a K.C. Wong Fellow, the Chinese scholar Jialing Xu carried out post-doctoral work in the Modern History Faculty and St. John’s College, Oxford, from 18th March- 28th August. As the first Byzantinist from Mainland China who has worked and studied in UK for a short period, and attended as the first Chinese Delegate in Paris Congress, Jialing Xu would like to build and keep connections and cooperative relations with all Byzantinists in UK and all over the world. Dr Xu writes: ‘we welcome all Byzantine specialists to visit China, and we would like to have more chance to go abroad for studying and research’. If you have any useful information, please correspond by e-mail to: jialingxu@hotmail.com Members' Personal Announcements (from BBBS 2001) Dr. Malgorzata Dabrowska
was a Fellow of the Kosciuszko Foundation at Dumbarton Oaks, from 14th
February - 14th August 2000. Olga Karagiorgou's
contribution to the Proceedings
of a One-Day Conference on 'Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean
during Late Antiquity' , Somerville College, Oxford, 29 May 1999 (Oxford,
2001) is entitled 'The Late Roman 2 Amphora: A container for the military
annona on the Danubian border?' (and
not 'Thessalia multa ferens (frumenta):
Thessalian products in the Late Antique Mediterranean trade' as previously
reported). She is also participating in the XXth International
Congress of Byzantine Studies, Paris in August, giving a communication
entitled 'The Sigillographic Corpus
of the theme of Hellas'. Dr. Tarek Mansour Mohammed
writes ‘the Seminar of Medieval and Islamic History has issued a new periodical,
which is interested in Byzantine, Medieval and Islamic History (JMIH). For participation in the next volume
of Journal of Medieval and Islamic
History, I invite all colleagues to participate in it. So, I enclose
herewith an invitation to them and they can send me their papers and book
reviews on my following address: Dept. of History, Faculty of Arts, Ain
Shams University, Abbasiya, Cairo, Egypt, Postal Code 11566. Fax 00202-6854079.
Email: amrtar_eg@yahoo.co.uk George D. Siderountios
has formally changed his name from 'Domatas'. Professor Franz Tinnefeld
has become a fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. from Fall term
2000/1 (Sept 11, 2000 - Jan 12, 2001). M. Dabrowska announces that due to the scholarship of the Lancoronski de Brzezie Foundation she spent two months in London (15 October-15 December 1999). She would like to thank Prof Judith Herrin of King’s College and Dr Jonathan Harris of Royal Holloway College for kindly inviting her to their seminars. She profited much from this experience. Anthony Gavanas asks whether any SPBS members can supply himself and Professor Yannopoulos, of Louvain-La-Neuve University, about the Petrion Monastery which was situated near Constantinople. Prof Yannopoulos has recently come across a manuscript which concerns this monastery, which is mentioned by Psellos and Anna Comnena, but only in passing. Please write to Anthony Gavanas, 2 Rue Ravenstein, B-1000 Brussels with any further information. |
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