Journal articles on the topic 'Byzantine southern Italy'

The aim of this paper is to examine the literary and documentary sources produced in the ninth- and tenth-century border contexts of Sicily and Apulia, two western regions still central to imperial policy at the time. The former between Byzantium and Islam, and the latter almost reconquered by Latin Lombards, these regions appear as an excellent field for revisiting the Greek-speaking turn of the empire in the middle centuries. The monolingualism of the state was adapted to the plurilingualism of society by means of various strategies that ensured a long western history for Byzantine Hellenism.

Aim of the contribute is to offer a new key to analyse the matter concerning the influence of Byzantine law sources on the development of the legal system in Southern Italy. In addition to a historical and juridical survey about the reception process of the Isaurian Ekloge in the territories controlled by the Byzantines, a comparison is tried considering the diffusion of the compilation also in the Slavian world and especially in the Balkan regions: to study the reasons, which persuaded Stefan Du{an to use the text to compose his Zakonik, could be very useful to understand the characters - totally different because of political grounds - of the preservation of the Isaurian Ekloge in the manuscripts coming from Southern Italy.

This study presents five little-known bathing chambers from the region of Amalfi in southern Italy. Dating from the thirteenth century, the baths define with remarkable consistency a type of structure that has not previously been identified or considered in histories of medieval architecture in the West. The study begins with an analysis of the five bathing chambers and their specific architectural features, technological remains, and domestic contexts. The diverse antecedents of the buildings, which appear in ancient Roman, medieval Italian, Byzantine, and Islamic architecture, are explored, along with the implications of this eclecticism for the history of southern Italy. Utilizing the rich array of surviving medieval documents for the region, including episcopal charters, royal decrees, and medical treatises, the study then reconstructs the economic, social, and scientific significance of the baths within medieval Amalfi. As monuments outside the traditional contexts of art production in southern Italy, the baths challenge long-standing characterizations of southern Italy's art and architecture, and point to the existence of a Mediterranean-wide balneal culture in which Byzantine, Islamic, and southern Italian communities participated.

A re-examination of the medieval inscription found in Curinga, Southern Italy, reveals the possibility that the monastery there was the “imperiale monasterium” mentioned in the donation deed of 1062 by Robert Guiscard and therefore it was founded in the Middle Byzantine period.

This paper reports the analyses carried out on the medieval copper alloy door (1111–1118 AD) of the mausoleum of Boemondo d’Altavilla in Canosa di Puglia (Southern Italy). The studied door is the smallest medieval bronze door extant in Italy and, unlike the other Byzantine doors, was most probably made in Canosa di Puglia and not in Constantinople. Analyses were performed to assess the chemical composition of the alloy patinas using a portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) instrument designed at the University of Salento. The experimental results suggested that the two door leaves have the same chemical composition, even if they appear different in both style and size. Furthermore, the alloy used for the door is different from the other previously-analyzed Byzantine bronze doors. The obtained results can be used in the future to compare the chemical composition of other Byzantine doors in order to better understand the manufacture of these precious artifacts.

The growth of Arab power in Southern Italy and even Dalmatia menaced the Byzantine Empire as well as Carolingian Italy and led both to an alliance in 869/870. Their attempt, however, to conquer Bari in a joint attack failed in 870 (not 869) due to a lack of coordination. An exchange of letters, which followed between Basil I and Louis II, reveals cultural and ideological alienation between christian East and West.

AbstractGreek-speaking people have been sailing the Mediterranean for millennia. At various stages of their development from Latin, the Romance languages have been influenced by their idiom. In Italy and in its islands, this role has been particularly evident due to the many rich and culturally active colonies in Southern Italy before and during the Roman period on the one hand, and through the later Byzantine occupation, which lasted several centuries in some areas, on the other. In this article, after a brief summary of the historical background (2.), the characteristics of the lexical borrowings from Greek in the local idioms of Southern (3.) as well as of Central and Northern Italy (4.) will be sketched. Here and there, and in the conclusions (5.), the status quaestionis and the latest orientations of the research will also be broadly outlined.

AbstractGreek-speaking people have been sailing the Mediterranean for millennia. At various stages of their development from Latin, the Romance languages have been influenced by their idiom. In Italy and in its islands, this role has been particularly evident due to the many rich and culturally active colonies in Southern Italy before and during the Roman period on the one hand, and through the later Byzantine occupation, which lasted several centuries in some areas, on the other. In this article, after a brief summary of the historical background (2.), the characteristics of the lexical borrowings from Greek in the local idioms of Southern (3.) as well as of Central and Northern Italy (4.) will be sketched. Here and there, and in the conclusions (5.), the status quaestionis and the latest orientations of the research will also be broadly outlined.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the selected works of one of the twelfth century Norman historian living in the British Isles, Gerald de Barri of Wales (1146-1223) in terms of his knowledge of the Byzantine world and its cor­relation with the Normans (from England and Southern Italy). The term Byzantine world has been evolving for several decades. Today it refers no longer just to the land of the former East European Empire, which later transformed itself into the Greek Byzantium, but it can be referred to the Balkans or the Kingdom of Normandy, while scientists are constantly expanding its borders with the help of other sciences such as archeology. We will do this based on his work: De in­structione principis, Topographia Hibernica, Expugnatio Hibernica, Itinerarium Cambriae and Descriptio Cambriae. Selected by Gerald of Wales the themes of the Byzantine and Norman kingdoms of Sicily, which appear in his five works ci­ted above, are proof of the broad political horizons of the elites from British Isles that were associated with the Plantagenet dynasty. Gerald was never in Sicily, in Byzantium or in the Holy Land, but he had some source in sight, both in the form of eyewitness accounts of events and in the accounts of contemporary wri­ters, which does not diminish the credibility of the data he cites. Better and more strongly, he was interested in the facts of the kingdom of Normans in Sicily than in Byzantium. Such a state of affairs seems to be understandable, as he saw in them both a political partner and, to some extent, a model to imitate, especially in the aspect of conducting politics against the conquered peoples.

Abstract This paper focuses on the interactions between the environment and human society from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in southern Apulia, at the heel of Italy, at the lower part of the Adriatic region. The results of recent archaeological investigations and palaeoenvironmental studies, has led us to establish a correlation between the indicators of extensive olive cultivation, the archaeological markers indicating the movement of goods either side of the Adriatic Sea, and Byzantine economic and political dominance over all or part of the region, as well as the lower Adriatic.

The article offers a possible explanation for the raid of the Rus’ on Seville in 844 and also attempts to compare this event with the embassy of the Rus’ to Constantinople and Ingelheim, and with their raid on Amastris. These events, taken as a part of a complex geopolitical picture of the “long middle” of the 9th century, show the origin and nature of the emerging group of the Rus’ people. This period started with the renewed Muslim onslaught on Europe through the Byzantine holdings in Asia Minor and Italy in the 820s–830s, and finished in the middle of the 860s with the Byzantine victory over the Abbasids. Other important events of this time were the Great Schism; victories of the Byzantine Orthodoxy over Catholicism and heretics in Great Moravia, Bulgaria and Asia Minor; and the first baptism of the Rus’. This geopolitical background was complemented by the collapse of the Carolingian Empire and the beginning of the German Drang nach Osten. During this time, a small group who identified itself as the Rus’ first in 838, came into being. Its main goal was to explore new trade routes to the Muslim world bypassing Khazaria. However, eventually they discovered an opportunity of pillaging Byzantium and its allies in Andalusia. The result of their actions, which were probably coordinated form one center in Southern Denmark, was their acquisition of “homeland” in the North of Eastern Europe: a land that was given its accidentally emerged name “Rus’”.

This paper analyses one of the most representative monuments of Byzantine painting in Calabria. It is the church in the town of Stilo, known as Cattolica. It is believed to date from the last quarter of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. After a brief historiographical and architectural analysis of the building, the author considers the chronological and stratigraphical problems of the frescoes preserved inside the church. In this process, he pays particular attention to the Byzantine layers of fresco painting that were done from the end of the tenth to the end of the thirteenth century. An in-depth analysis of the frescoes from the first phase of decoration from the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century has produced valuable results that could lead to collecting fresh data about possible artistic contacts and the routes along which the models traveled between southern Italy and the countries of the Byzantine cultural circle.

The paper examines the image of the Norman invaders in southern Italy in contemporary western medieval and Byzantine sources. The comparative method and the methodology of linguistic and literary criticism are equally applied. The interest is focussed on the conceptual notions that defined the perception of the Norman invaders by medieval men and, consequently, their cultural representation. In this way, mentalities and social values are revealed, and, thus, historians investigating political developments are offered a research tool for medieval historical sources.

In 2014, I was able to secure a Byzantine gold ring for the Italian people. It was found by a fisherman, off the coast at Porto Cesareo, Puglia, southern Italy. Study has shown that it is a signet ring that belonged to Basileios, imperial protospatharios and eparch of Constantinople during the period of the Photian schism (863-867). This paper describes the ring and its discovery as well as suggesting how it may relate to Basileios taking part in an embassy to the Papal court in Rome on behalf of the emperor Basil I.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the origins of the literature of the Arbëreshë people and its impact on the survival of the language outside the country of origin. The cultural identity of the Italo-Albanians is marked by Byzantine influences: religion, economy, culture and military. The centuries-long, harsh Turkish occupation of Albania contributed to the cultural stagnation. Albanians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire were deprived of all rights, including the right to use their own language and profess their faith. The teaching of the Albanian language, as well as teaching in that language, and all publications were banned. Groups of Albanian refugees were welcomed in southern Italy as heroes and defenders of the faith. The few Albanian humanists were the descendants of immigrants educated in Ragusa, Padua or other Italian centres of research and education.

Half a century ago, the Greek academic Era Vranoussi presented Balkan and Byzantine studies with a new theory. She argued that the people named Albanoi in Michael Attaleiates’ History were not Balkan Albanians, but rather Normans in southern Italy. A debate ensued with French Byzantinist Alain Ducellier that was never resolved. More recently, some notable scholars have begun to incorporate Vranoussi's hypothesis into their work. This article re-examines Vranoussi's arguments and concludes that the evidence favours the traditional reading of Albanoi as Balkan Albanians over the interpretation of this ethnonym as an obscure reference to Norman mercenaries in territories south of Rome.

This article explores the cult of St Nicholas in later eleventh-century Bari, focusing on its importance to the new Norman rulers in the region as well as to their subjects. While acknowledging the influence of earlier expressions of the cult in Normandy and in Byzantine southern Italy, it argues that for numerous reasons Nicholas was, for Bari, an especially important – and appropriate – intercessor. During these years, which witnessed the translation of the saint from Myra, economic developments, church politics and the demands of the First Crusade merged to render Nicholas an ideal patron for the city.

Abstract The presence of a lexical stock of Romance origin in Yiddish has been interpreted differently by various authors. For D. S. Blondheim they represent a direct continuation of Judeo-Latin. For Max Weinreich, those Romance components go back to specifically Jewish languages, which he called southern and western Loez (a variation on the terms “Italkic” and “Zarphatic” once used by Salomon Birnbaum). This study reconsiders the history of those Yiddish words of Romance origin, focusing on the phonetic development they underwent as they integrated into Yiddish. The contribution of Romance historical linguistics confirms the huge importance of the Italo-Romance connection in this lexical stock, which may reflect the phase when Jews from Byzantine Italy began to settle beyond the Alps. A pinpointed examination of the morphophonemic shape of the loanwords may even hint at specific places of origin on the Italo-Romance dialectal maps. In spite of the dominance of Italo-Romance dialects in the Romance-borrowed lexical stock of Yiddish, some terms attested in both Western and Eastern Yiddish obviously have an Old French origin.

The Arbërëshe are an Albanian minority residing in southern Italy. Comparing the previous anthropological literature, this study analyses the Arbëreshë minority while considering three focal points that have contributed to highlighting the differences between the Arbëreshë and Italian communities throughout the centuries: the Arbërisht language, the Greek - Byzantine rite and the ethnic endogamy. Thanks to ethnographic fieldwork, the three focal points have been studied in a community of the Italian Arbëria, San Costantino Albanese. The aim of the research is to understand the change in Arbëreshë identity as a result of recent social changes due to the modernization process and to interaction with the new Albanian immigrants.

In Sigebert of Gembloux’s Chronica, the record of the year 982 is not a mere compilation of an episcopal biography written by Alpert of Metz, to whom the author refers as his source. In this short chapter, Sigebert not only recounts “the flight and escape of the emperor (die Flucht und Rettung des Kaisers)” during Otto II’s battle in Calabria, but he also implies a political interpretation, as Alpert did before him, by highlighting the anti-Byzantine episode in which Theophano frivolously insults the Ottonian troops. However, the same historical event of 982 has different implications when specific historical contexts and intentions of two authors’ writings are taken into account: Alpert intended to advocate for the bishop Dietrich of Metz who supported Henry II against the young emperor Otto III and his mother Theophano. On the other hand, Sigebert’s writing can be read under the perspective of the Two Emperors’ Problem (Zweikaiserproblem). Even though the context of the Crusade can also be discerned in this passage, Sigebert presents the principal agents of conflicts as the Ottonians and the Byzantines, assigning the Saracens to a supporting role. Other slight variations are also found in Sigebert’s narration when compared to the text written by Alpert such as in the case of the reason of Otto II’s campaign in Southern Italy, the existence of the Slav “merchant”, and the second flight of Otto II from the Byzantine ship. Sigebert’s writing is not so much a faithful summary of Alpert’s text as it is a meticulous reconstruction of a historical narrative within the framework of his Universal history which seeks to uncover the historical meaning and role of the Medieval German Empire.

Исторически Греческая Церковь или шире византийская церковная традиция для Италии не просто не что-то чужеродное, а наоборот, неотъемлемая часть ее духовной культуры. Термин «Великая Греция», как называлась Южная Италия еще в античности, объясняет тяготение региона к грекоязычному культурному и духовному миру, тем более что целые области полуострова в течение значительных периодов времени входили в состав Византийской империи, причем, если в ряде случаев, как в Апулии или Лукании церковная власть оставалась за римским папой, то, например, в Калабрии и Сицилии со времен императоров-иконоборцев она принадлежала Константинопольским патриархам. Северо-Восточная Италия, со своей стороны, политически и культурно тяготела к Византии по своим мотивам — со времен нашествия лангобардов (VI век) население бывшей римской провинции Венеций искало заступничества у императоров Восточной римской империи. В настоящем сообщении нас интересует в первую очередь характер взаимоотношений Латинской Церкви или, лучше сказать, папства как политического и административного института с Греческой Церковью в Италии. На основании проведенного анализа источников и исследований по данной теме делается вывод о двояком характере восточной христианской традиции на Апеннинах. Если в Южной Италии греческая и албанская общины находились с первого тысячелетия под юрисдикцией Рима и, таким образом, оставшись под ней после разделения Церквей, были в большей части ассимилированы и оторваны от своих византийских корней, то характер эмиграции греков на Север полуострова был иным. Православные в пределах Венецианской республики сумели сохранить собственную идентичность, а также многое сделать в области апологетики и других отраслей богословия и науки. Климат религиозной терпимости и мощная учебная и научная база Венеции и Падуи позволили воспитать поколения образованных людей, которые впоследствии станут культурной элитой свободной Греции. Historically, the Greek Church or, more broadly, the Byzantine church tradition for Italy is not just something alien, but, on the contrary, an integral part of its spiritual culture. The term «Greater Greece», as Southern Italy was called back in antiquity, explains the attraction of the region to the Greek-speaking cultural and spiritual world, especially since entire regions of the peninsula were part of the Byzantine Empire for significant periods of time, and, if in a number of cases, as in In Puglia or Lucania, ecclesiastical authority remained with the pope, then, for example, in Calabria and Sicily, from the time of the iconoclast emperors, it belonged to the Patriarchs of Constantinople. Northeastern Italy, for its part, politically and culturally gravitated towards Byzantium for its own reasons — since the invasion of the Lombards (VI century), the population of the former Roman province of Venice sought intercession from the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire. In this communication, we are primarily interested in the nature of the relationship of the Latin Church, or better to say the papacy, as a political and administrative institution, with the Greek Church in Italy. Based on the analysis of sources and research on this topic, a conclusion is made about the dual nature of the Eastern Christian tradition in the Apennines. If in Southern Italy the Greek and Albanian communities were from the first millennium under the jurisdiction of Rome and, thus, remaining under it after the division of the Churches, were for the most part assimilated and cut off from their Byzantine roots, then the nature of the emigration of the Greeks to the north of the peninsula was different. The Orthodox within the Venetian Republic managed to preserve their own identity, as well as to do a lot in the field of apologetics and other branches of theology and science. The climate of religious tolerance and the powerful educational and scientific base of Venice and Padua made it possible to educate generations of educated people who would later become the cultural elite of free Greece.

Although they still differ considerably in their willingness to acknowledge it, specialists in the history of north-western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries CE are increasingly treating it as that of the emergence of a new civilization in what had previously been a peripheral region of the Mediterranean-based civilization of the classical west, rather than as a continuation or revival of that civilization itself. In this light Europe, or Latin Christendom as it saw itself, offers a number of striking resemblances to the developments which Lieberman discusses. The most dynamic regions of the new Europe—north-western France, Flanders and lowland England, north-eastern Spain, northern Italy, southern Italy and Sicily—were all peripheral, though in various senses, both to the long-defunct classical civilization and its direct successors, the Byzantine and Abbasid Empires, and to the transitional and much more loosely based ninth-and tenth-century empires of the Franks and Saxons (Ottonians). To this one might add that by the end of the twelfth century the remaining rimlands of the Eurasian continent in a purely geographical sense—Scandinavia, including Iceland, and still more the southern coast of the Baltic and the areas dominated by the rivers which drained into it—were developing very rapidly indeed.

The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.

Недавние исследования, как по странам Восточного Средиземноморья, так и Закавказья, подчеркнули решающее значение покрытия пространства куполом(-ами) для архитектурного развития в этих регионах в раннем Средневековье. Существуют также некоторые публикации, относящиеся к южноитальянским церквям и обнаружившие в них сходные с закавказскими постройками композиционные особенности, а именно в двух главных церквях Канозы-ди-Пульи, еще одной в Касаранелло, а также в серии небольших «базилик» с трехлепестковым алтарем в Апулии и на Сицилии и, наконец, в базиликах с двумя куполами по соседству. Сбор результатов этих пунктуальных исследований делает очевидным, что Южная Италия должна быть полностью включена в общую эволюцию, выявленную в восточно-христианском мире. Историческим контекстом объяснимо то, что византийское присутствие там по-прежнему было действенным, и его влияние отмечено также в прилегающих районах, находившихся под управлением Лангобардов. Recent studies for the Eastern Mediterranean countries as well as for their Subcaucasian margins, have underlined the decisive importance of vaulting with cupola(s) for the architectural development in these regions during the Early Middle Ages. There are also, however, several publications dealing with South Italian churches, revealing similar constructive features: i.e., two main churches in Canosa di Puglia, another one in Casaranello; there is also a series of small “basilicas” with a triconchial choir in Puglia again and in Sicily, and finally some basilicas with two cupolas in file. Collecting here the results of these punctual investigations, it clearly appears that Southern Italy should be fully included in the general evolution attested in the Eastern Christian world. What is to be explained by historical context: Byzantine presence was still effective there, and its influence noticeably marked, too, was felt in the adjacent areas under Longobard rule; this having been so until the 8 century, at least.

In the year 1053, at the request of the Byzantine patriarch, Michael Kerullarios (1043–58), Archbishop Leo of Ochrid denounced the “priesthood of the Franks and the reverend pope” for observing Jewish rites through their celebration of the Eucharist with azymes, the same kind of unleavened bread used for Passover. Leo made these accusations in a letter addressed to John, archbishop of Trani in southern Italy, a region of coexisting Latin and Greek religious traditions that had been destabilized by the recent invasion of the Normans. The epistle was subsequently passed along to papal confidante Humbert of Silva Candida, who translated it into Latin and presented it to Pope Leo IX (1048–54). Around that same time, the two churchmen also heard news that the Greek patriarch had anathematized all those observing the Latin rite in Constantinople. A flurry of inconclusive correspondence ensued between the pope, the patriarch, and the Byzantine ruler, Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–55). In response to this persistent crisis, Pope Leo dispatched a legation to Constantinople that included Humbert, Frederick of Lorraine, and Peter of Amalfi. On 16 July 1054, after a series of acrimonious debates, the legates deposited a bull of excommunication against Kerullarios and his supporters on the high altar at Hagia Sophia. The patriarch responded in kind by excommunicating Humbert and his followers.

The relations between the churches of Elder and New Rome during the reign of Basil II and the enthronement of Alexios Stοudites<br />This study investigates the relations between the churches of Elder and New Rome during the reign of Basil II and concludes that the attempts to impose Boniface VII in 984/985 and John XVI in 997/998 as popes of Rome and the long controversy between the two sides (1011-1024) was against the policy of the Macedonian dynasty and also threatened Byzantine rule in Southern Italy. Near the time of his death, Basil II assigned the continuation of the reconciliation policy with the Roman Church (accomplished in 1024/1025) to the patriarch Alexios and to the long lasting tradition of the monastery of Stoudios. The warm welcome given by Alexios to abbot Richard of Saint-Vanne, advocate of the rising power and role of the pope of Rome, reveals a deeper reason which dictated to Basil II the choice of a Stoudite for the patriarchal see of Constantinople.

AbstractIn 1972 a hoard of eight fine silver coins was discovered in or near the baptistery of the basilica of St John in Ayasuluk. It is now conserved at the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selçuk. The coins were minted in southern France, southern Italy and on the island of Rhodes, between ca AD 1303 and 1319 or perhaps a little later. Accordingly, a concealment date of ca 1320 or a bit later is proposed. While the currency which they represent (the gigliato) is well known from other finds of the area, the present hoard is relatively early and from a particularly significant location. This currency found great success in commercial contexts in the eastern Aegean and western Anatolia during the period ca 1325 to ca 1370. By contrast, this study reveals two initial phases in the establishment and further dissemination of the gigliato in a concentrated part of western Anatolia, one in 1304 and another before and after ca 1317. On both occasions the Catalans were instrumental in shaping these processes: initially as conquerors on behalf of the Byzantine emperors and then, from their new base in Greece, as allies of the Aydinogullari rulers of Ayasuluk. Additionally, it is proposed that this new gigliato currency might have been minted at Rhodes from the summer of 1319, after which it rapidly reached the Ephesus area in a military context.

Robert Ousterhout, the author of a magnificent book “Eastern Medieval Architecture. The Building Traditions of Bizantium and Neighboring Lands”, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, the remarkable scholar and generous friend, was so kind to mention in his C. V. on the sight of Penn University (Philadelphia, USA) that he had been the Visiting professor of the Moscow architectural Institute (State Academy), as well as simulteniously of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, but he did not say that he had been awarded the degree of professor honoris causa by the academic council of MARHI. Unfortunately, his life in muscovite hostel, nevertheless we tried to do our best to provide the best possible accommodation in a “suit” with two rooms with a bathroom, had been radically different from the wonderful dwelling chosen for the visiting teaching stuff from MARHI in the University of Illinois. And Robert called our hostel “Gulag”. He had been joking probably. It is impossible to overestimate the role of professor Robert Ousterhaut in the studies of the history of Byzantine art. At the present day he is the leader in the world studies of the architecture of Byzantium, the real heir of the great Rihard Krauthaimer and Slobodan Curcic, whom he had left behind in his works. His books are known very well in Russia. R. Ousterhaut graduated in the history of art and architecture at the University of Oregon, the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, Universities of Cincinati and Illinois. Не worked at the department of history of art at the University of Oregon, department of history of architecture at the University of Illinois, had the chair of the history of architecture and preservation at the University of Illinois, which is considered, as we know, one of the twenty best American universities. He always worked hard and with success. When I had finished reading my course of the history of Russian architecture at Illinois, he said: “Yes, next term the students are to be treated well…” Now he is professor emeritus of the history of art in the famous Penn University. He taught the courses of the “History of architecture from Prehistory to 1400” and “Eastern medieval architecture” as well as led remarkable seminars devoted to the different problem of the history of architecture of the Eastern Meditarenian, including the art of Constantinopole, Cappadoce, meaning and identity in medieval art. His remarkable 4-years field work at Cappadoce, which he described in several books, and his efforts of the preservation of the architectural monuments of Constantinopole are very valuable, Among his books one certainly must cite Holy Apostels: Lost Monument and Forgotten Project, (Washingtone, D. C., 2020); Visualizing Community: Art Material Culture, and Settlement in Byzantine Cappadocia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 46 (Washington, D. C., 2017); Carie Camii (Istambul, 2011); Architecture of the Sacred: Space, Ritual, and Experience from Classical Greece to Byzantium (Cambridge University Press, 2012), ed. with Bonna D. Wescoat; Palmyra 1885: The Wolfe Expedition and the Photographs of John Henry Haynes, with B. Anderson (Istanbul: Cornucopia, 2016) John Henry Haynes: Archaeologist and Photographer in the Ottoman Empire 1881–1900 (2nd revised edition, Istanbul: Cornucopia, 2016). Several of his books were reprinted. He edited Approaches to Architecture and Its Decoration: Festschrift for Slobodan Ćurčić (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), with M. Johnson and A. Papalexandrou. His outstanding book Мaster Builders of Byzantium (2nd paperback edition, University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications, 2008) was translated into Russian and Turkish. In this work Robert Ousterhaut for the first time in English speaking tradition is regarding the architecture of Bazantium from the point of view of building art and technology. On the base of the analysis of primary written sources, contemporary archeology data, and careful study of existing monuments the author concludes that the Byzantine architecture was not only exploiting the traditions, but was trying to find new ways of the development of typology and construction techniques, which led to transformation of artistique features. Professor R. Ousterhaut discusses the choice of building materials, structure from foundations to vaults, theoretical problems which solved the master masons of Byzantium. In his recent book Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands, (Oxford University Press, 2019) Robert Ousterhaut is going further. He writes in the introduction: “I succeded my mentor at the University of Illinois… I had the privilege and challenge of teaching “Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture” to generations of the architecture students inspired my 1999 book, Master Builders of Byzantium. The work of Robert Ousterhaut, published 2019, is the new and full interpretation of the architectural heritage of Byzantine Commonwealth. The author devoted the first part of his book to Late Antiquity (3–7 centuries), beginning with the relations of Domus Ecclesiastae and Church Basilica, then speaking of Konstantinopole and Jerusalem of the times of St. Constantine the Great, liturgy, inspiration, commemoration and pilgrimage, adoration of relics as ritual factors which influenced the formation of sacred space, methods and materials, chosen by the Bizantine builders with their interaction of the mentality of the East and West. Special attention is given to dwelling, urban planning and fortification Naturally a chapter is devoted to Hagia Sophia and the building programs of Emperor Justinian. The second part speaks of the transition to what is called Middle Byzantine architecture both in the capital and at the edges of the Empire. The third part tells the story of the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries and includes the rise of the monasteries, once more secular and urban architecture, the craft of church builders. Churches of Greece and Macedonia, Anatolia, Armenia and Georgia, as well as of the West of Byzantium – Venice, Southern Italy and Sicily. The chapter is devoted to Slavonic Balkans – Bulgaria and Serbia and Kievan Rus. The last fourth part of the book describes the times of the Latin Empire, difficult for Byzantium, to the novelty of the architecture of Palewologos and the development of Byzantine ideas in the Balkans and especially in the building programs of the great powers of the epoch Ottoman Empire and Russia. There is a lot more to say about the book of professor Robert Ousterhaut, but we have to leave this to the next issue of this magazine, and better give the space to the words of the author – his text on the architecture of Kievan Rus.

Mediterranean is the birthplace of civilizational changes in world. There is special school of medicine in east of Islamic world which was formed by transferring Iranian medical heritage from ancient university of Jondishapur and medical sciences of India, Alexandria, Greece and Egypt. Therefore, Baghdad has arisen as a combined medical school. There is same school of medicine was established in west of Islamic world by evolutionary processes of Islamic medicine during its Mediterranean life and produced independent medical schools. Medical experience schools of ancient Cairo, Tunisia, Cordoba and Sicily transferred in Qairwan. This shows that medical development in Mediterranean world of Islamic period has been an increasing development, and Islamic medicine in the Mediterranean. Despite having Iranian roots and its origin go back to Avicenna, the founder of Islamic medicine and philosophy had a higher position than each other. It has acquired its oriental type. The medical school in the Mediterranean took place with the transfer of medicine from the first house of wisdom in the Islamic world to the second house of wisdom, which was built in Qairwan by Aghlabids state. The reality of Mediterranean period of Islamic medicine and its physical role in history of world medicine played by House of Wisdom (Beit al-Hakmeh ) Qairwan in the last stages of its development has prepared the collection of Islamic medical knowledge produced in Beit al-Hikma in Baghdad for final development by combining Latin teachings. By Transfer of Roman and Byzantine; medical knowledge from the Latin world to the Islamic world, which was a major milestone in the history of world medicine in southern Europe was made in Andalusia on the Iberian Peninsula, setting the stage for the latest evolution of medicine. A vast body of medical knowledge was transferred from North Africa and Andalusia to Europe (Salerno Italy) at the beginning of the European Renaissance.

The Byzantine Empire had a long tradition of educational practices, including schedography. It became popular in the 10th century and continued to be cultivated until the 19th century, with a peak in the 13th century. In the late 19th century, scholars began to take an interest in the relevant texts. In the mid-20th century, there were attempts to study these texts as a curious kind of paraliterary production. Currently, in the 21st century, there have been editions of different schedographical collections. Schedographical texts are a very specific kind of written documents and do not fit well with the usual editorial practices. They were written to be read aloud, intended to teach, not to entertain, and generally, they do not have the aesthetic value of a literary text. Finally, these texts appear in collections of very different origins. In many cases we do not know their original context, which makes them difficult to be interpreted. In this article, 23 schedographical texts from manuscript Vat. Pal. Gr. 92 are published. This manuscript consists of 239 ff. and it was copied in the last decades of the 13th century in southern Italy. The manuscript contains more than 425 schedae. In contrast to other paratexts used in schools, the manuscript includes glosses with forms of popular Greek, such as, e. g., the use of σπίτι for “house”. A complete edition of the manuscript will certainly reveal more expressions similar to this one. 29 remaining unpublished texts will be published in the second part. The humorous phrase that heads this article, ὦ μωρῆς παιδίον, is the schedographical resolution of the phrase ὀμμ’ ὀρεῖς (glossed as ἐγείρεις) παιδίον, included in one of the schedae published here for the first time.

Recent conservation and restoration work on the icon of the Virgin and Child which stood on the altar in the Church of St. Nicholas at Prijeko in Dubrovnik has enabled a new interpretation of this paining. The icon, painted on a panel made of poplar wood, features a centrally-placed Virgin holding the Child in her arms painted on a gold background between the two smaller figures of St. Peter and St. John the Baptist. The figures are painted in the manner of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dubrovnik style, and represent a later intervention which significantly changed the original appearance and composition of the older icon by adding the two saints and touching up the Virgin’s clothes with Renaissance ornaments, all of which was performed by the well-known Dubrovnik painter Nikola Božidarević. It can be assumed that the icon originally featured a standing or seated Virgin and Child. The Virgin is depicted with her head slightly lowered and pointing to the Christ Child whom she is holding on her right side. The chubby boy is not seated on his mother’s lap but is reclining on his right side and leaningforward while his face is turned towards the spectator. He is dressed in a red sleeveless tunic with a simple neck-line which is embroidered with gold thread. The Child is leaning himself on the Virgin’s right hand which is holding him. He is firmly grasping her thumb with one hand and her index finger with the other in a very intimate nursing gesture while she, true to the Hodegitria scheme, is pointing at him with her left hand, which is raised to the level of her breasts. Such an almost-realistic depiction of Christ as a small child with tiny eyes, mouth and nose, drastically departs from the model which portrays him with the mature face of an adult, as was customary in icon painting. The Virgin is wearing a luxurious gold cloak which was repainted with large Renaissance-style flowers. Her head is covered with a traditional maphorion which forms a wide ring around it and is encircled by a nimbus which was bored into thegold background. Her skin tone is pink and lit diffusely, and was painted with almost no green shadows, which is typical of Byzantine painting. The Virgin’s face is striking and markedly oval. It is characterized by a silhouetted, long, thin nose which is connected to the eyebrows. The ridge of the nose is emphasized with a double edge and gently lit whilethe almond-shaped eyes with dark circles are set below the inky arches of the eyebrows. The Virgin’s cheeks are smooth and rosy while her lips are red. The plasticity of her round chin is emphasized by a crease below the lower lip and its shadow. The Virgin’s eyes, nose and mouth are outlined with a thick red line. Her hands are light pink in colour and haveelongated fingers and pronounced, round muscles on the wrists. The fingers are separated and the nails are outlined with precision. The deep, resounding hues of the colour red and the gilding, together with the pale pink skin tone of her face, create an impression of monumentality. The type of the reclining Christ Child has been identified in Byzantine iconography as the Anapeson. Its theological background lies in the emphasis of Christ’s dual nature: although the Christ Child is asleep, the Christ as God is always keeping watch over humans. The image was inspired by a phrase from Genesis 49: 9 about a sleeping lion to whom Christ is compared: the lion sleeps with his eyes open. The Anapeson is drowsy and awake at the same time, and therefore his eyes are not completely shut. Such a paradox is a theological anticipation of his “sleep” in the tomb and represents an allegory of his death and Resurrection. The position, gesture and clothes of the Anapeson in Byzantine art are not always the same. Most frequently, the ChristChild is not depicted lying in his mother’s arms but on an oval bed or pillow, resting his head on his hand, while the Virgin is kneeling by his side. Therefore, the Anapeson from Dubrovnik is unique thanks to the conspicuously humanized relationship between the figures which is particularly evident in Christ’s explicitly intimate gesture of grasping the fingers of his mother’s hand: his right hand is literally “inserting” itself in the space between the Virgin’s thumb and index finger. At the same time, the baring of his arms provided the painter with an opportunity to depict the pale tones of a child’s tender skin. The problem of the iconography of the Anapeson in the medieval painting at Dubrovnik is further complicated by a painting which was greatly venerated in Župa Dubrovačka as Santa Maria del Breno. It has not been preserved but an illustration of it was published in Gumppenberg’sfamous Atlas Marianus which shows the Virgin seated on a high-backed throne and holding the sleeping and reclining Child. The position of this Anapeson Christ does not correspond fully to the icon from the Church of St. Nicholas because the Child is lying on its back and his naked body is covered with the swaddling fabric. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko claims a special place in the corpus of Romanesque icons on the Adriatic through its monumentality and intimate character. The details of the striking and lively Virgin’s face, dominated by the pronounced and gently curved Cimabuesque nose joined to the shallow arches of her eyebrows, link her with the Benedictine Virgin at Zadar. Furthermore, based on the manner of painting characterized by the use of intense red for the shadows in the nose and eye area, together with the characteristic shape of the elongated, narrow eyes, this Virgin and Child should be brought into connection with the painter who is known as the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. The so-called Benedictine Virgin is an icon, now at the Benedictine Convent at Zadar, which depicts the Virgin seated on a throne with a red, ceremonial, imperial cushion, in a solemn scheme of the Kyriotissa, the heavenly queen holding the Christ Child on her lap. The throne is wooden and has a round back topped with wooden finials which can also be seen in the Byzantine Kahn Virgin and the Mellon Madonna, as well as in later Veneto-Cretan painting. The throne is set under a shallow ciborium arch which is rendered in relief and supportedby twisted colonettes and so the painting itself is sunk into the surface of the panel. A very similar scheme with a triumphal arch can be seen on Byzantine ivory diptychs with shallow ciborium arches and twisted colonettes. In its composition, the icon from Prijeko is a combination ofthe Kyr i ot i ss a and the Hodegitria, because the Virgin as the heavenly queen does not hold the Christ Child frontally before her but on her right-hand side while pointing at him as the road to salvation. He is seated on his mother’s arm and is supporting himself by pressing his crossed legsagainst her thigh which symbolizes his future Passion. He is wearing a formal classical costume with a red cloak over his shoulder. He is depicted in half profile which opens up the frontal view of the red clavus on his navy blue chiton.He is blessing with the two fingers of his right hand and at the same time reaching for the unusual flower rendered in pastiglia which the Virgin is raising in her left hand and offering to him. At the same time, she is holding the lower part of Christ’s body tightly with her right hand.Various scholars have dated the icon of the Benedictine Virgin to the early fourteenth century. While Gothic features are particularly evident in the costumes of the donors, the elements such as the modelling of the throne and the presence of the ceremonial cushion belong to the Byzantine style of the thirteenth century. The back of the icon of the Benedictine Virgin features the figure of St. Peter set within a border consisting of a lively and colourful vegetal scroll which could be understood as either Romanesque or Byzantine. However, St. Peter’s identifying titulus is written in Latin while that of the Virgin is in Greek. The figure of St. Peter was painted according to the Byzantine tradition: his striking and severe face is rendered linearly in a rigid composition, which is complemented by his classical contrapposto against a green-gray parapet wall, while the background is of dark green-blue colour. Equally Byzantine is themanner of depicting the drapery with flat, shallow folds filled with white lines at the bottom of the garment while, at the same time, the curved undulating hem of the cloak which falls down St. Peter’s right side is Gothic. The overall appearance of St. Peter is perhaps even more Byzantine than that of the Virgin. Such elements, together with the typically Byzantine costumes, speak clearly of a skilful artist who uses hybrid visual language consisting of Byzantine painting and elements of the Romanesque and Gothic. Of particular interest are the wide nimbuses surrounding the heads of the Virgin and Child (St. Peter has a flat one) which are rendered in relief and filled with a neat sequence of shallow blind archesexecuted in the pastiglia technique which, according to M. Frinta, originated in Cyprus. The Venetian and Byzantine elements of the Benedictine Virgin have already been pointed out in the scholarship. Apart from importing art works and artists such as painters and mosaic makers directly from Byzantium into Venice, what was the extent and nature of the Byzantineinfluence on Venetian artistic achievements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? We know that the art of Venice and the West alike were affected by the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and by the newly founded Latin Empire which lasted until 1261.The Venetians played a particularly significant political and administrative role in this Empire and the contemporary hybrid artistic style of the eastern Mediterranean, called Crusader Art and marked by the strong involvement of the Knights Templar, must have been disseminated through the established routes. In addition to Cyprus, Apulia and Sicily which served as stops for the artists and art works en route to Venice and Tuscany, another station must have been Dalmatia where eastern and western influences intermingled and complemented each other.However, it is interesting that the icon of the Benedictine Virgin, apart from negligible variations, imitates almost completely the iconographic scheme of the Madonna di Ripalta at Cerignola on the Italian side of the Adriatic, which has been dated to the early thirteenth century and whose provenance has been sought in the area between southern Italy (Campania) and Cyprus. Far more Byzantine is another Apulian icon, that of a fourteenth-century enthroned Virgin from the basilica of St. Nicholas at Bari with which the Benedictine Virgin from Zadar shares certain features such as the composition and posture of the figures, the depictionof donors and Christ’s costume. A similar scheme, which indicates a common source, can be seen on a series of icons of the enthroned Virgin from Tuscany. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko is very important for local Romanesque painting of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century because it expands the oeuvre of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. Anicon which is now at Toronto, in the University of Toronto Art Centre Malcove Collection, has also been attributed to this master. This small two-sided icon which might have been a diptych panel, as can be judged from its typology, depicts the Virgin with the Anapeson in the upper register while below is the scene from the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. The Virgin is flanked by the figures of saints: to the left is the figure of St. Francis while the saint on the right-hand side has been lost due to damage sustained to the icon. The busts of SS Peter and Paul are at the top.The physiognomies of the Virgin and Child correspond to those of the Benedictine Virgin and the Prijeko icon. The Anapeson, unlike the one at Dubrovnik, is wrapped in a rich, red cloak decorated with lumeggiature, which covers his entire body except the left fist and shin. On the basis of the upper register of this icon, it can be concluded that the Master of the Benedictine Virgin is equally adept at applying the repertoire and style of Byzantine and Western painting alike; the lower register of the icon with its descriptive depiction of the martyrdom of St.Lawrence is completely Byzantine in that it portrays the Roman emperor attending the saint’s torture as a crowned Byzantine ruler. Such unquestionable stylistic ambivalence – the presence of the elements from both Byzantine and Italian painting – can also be seen on the icons of theBenedictine and Prijeko Virgin and they point to a painter who works in a “combined style.” Perhaps he should be sought among the artists who are mentioned as pictores greci in Dubrovnik, Kotor and Zadar. The links between Dalmatian icons and Apulia and Tuscany have already been noted, but the analysis of these paintings should also contain the hitherto ignored segment of Sicilian and eastern Mediterranean Byzantinism, including Cyprus as the centre of Crusader Art. The question of the provenance of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin remains open although the icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko points to the possibility that he may have been active in Dalmatia.However, stylistic expressions of the two icons from Zadar and Dubrovnik, together with the one which is today at Toronto, clearly demonstrate the coalescing of cults and forms which arrived to the Adriatic shores fromfurther afield, well beyond the Adriatic, and which were influenced by the significant, hitherto unrecognized, role of the eastern Mediterranean.

Generally speaking, paleochristian memoriae have emerged out of the funeral traditions of the pagan world of Antiquity with its particular expression of the cult of deceased, sustained with the culture that had come out of Christian theology and aesthetics. It came together withnew architectural forms some of which were characterized with cross-like forms, not only as a general symbol of new faith, but also as the spatial projection, model after which one had to build. It is defined by two axes that cross at the right angle, the framework of the overall architecturalcomposition, factor of building’s extension in its entire length and width, as well as the height of the building that is dominated and marked by a dome. This particular structure of the building expresses its own essence, memorial use and the Christian paradigm. Through form and function, these buildings have become a distinguished phenomenon of the Christian civilization, valued in the architecture from the late antiquity to Romanesque period.Mature form of the space intended for the cult of the deceased, particularly when small cruciform churches are in question, is remarkably expressed in the preserved chapel of St. Lawrence, widely known as the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, one of two identical buildings once located at the ends of the narthex of the Ravennate church of the Holy Cross. The lower space of Theodoric’s mausoleum in Ravenna is also cruciform, however one should also remember emperor Justinian’s cruciform tombin Constantinople church of the Holy Apostles. It was demolished in the 15 century, together with the whole complex, and is known only through historical sources.Together with the Ravennate memoriae, such tombs could have – directly or indirectly – influence the formation of the cruciform memoriae in the Adriatic cultural landscape from Late Antiquity to Romanesque period.This paper elaborates the group of approximately fifteen buildings that demonstrate – through their forms and funerary functions – perseverance of particular cruciform plan of a memoriae within the Adriatic ambiance. A particularly numerous group is that of southern Istria, which consists of the Pula cathedral baptistery, two chapels by the basilica of Sta Maria Formosa and St. Mathew’s chapel in Pula, that of St. Catharine on a nearby islet and the supposed cruciform church of St. Andrew on an island in front of Rovinj. To such a concentration of the paleochristian memoriae one should link two early-mediaeval chapels, that of St. Clement in Pula and St. Thomas’ near Rovinj. The latter’s forms were already commented by Ivan Matejčić to follow and repeat paleochristian features. Among these features there are three protruding apses similar to those of St. Catharine’s. Therefore, it seems that the forms and themeasures of pre-Romanesque chapels were taken from those of the nearby Byzantine buildings, rather than from the distant Carolingian examples in Italy or France. Earlier and later southern Istrian memoriae are treated here as a typological group with emphasized regional features and continuity. Their forms differ only in some less important details, e.g. facades being either flat or articulated with lesenes. Their common features are, on the other hand, elementary architectural composition, spatial structure that consists of four branches and the dome hidden in the drum, as well as their dimensions and proportions. An element ofparticular interest is the octagonal upper part of the dome on Pula baptistery, that on St. Catharine’s on an islet in front of Pula as well as one on St. Andrew’s on an islet in front of Rovinj. These are probably reconstructions of the older solution. Within the supposedly later construction, there is a dome, a trula, as Pietro Kandler has named it, relating it with the Longboard architecture. It is carried by squinches.This solution is, actually, the Byzantine tradition in the area of Ravennate influences. A similar dome is constructed above the cruciform chapel consecrated to St. Mary Mater Domini (Theotokos), built next to the church of St. Felix and Fortunato in Vicenza, in 6 century. It seems that the same tradition was followed by very similar buildings, Paduan chapel of San Prosdocimo, and the memory erected by Santi Apostoli in Verona. On the other hand, St. Clement’s in Pula did not have a dome of such type and this church had yet another significant difference from the other Istrian chapels, the rectangular extension of areas in front of the apses. Another example that stands out from the group is the church of St. Euphemia at Saline bay in Lim channel. It is an Early Romanesque chapel with three apses at the rear. Lateral branches are reduced; they are much shorter than the front one, and give an impression of a transept rather than cruciform branches, as in other churches of the group. The upper part of the walls give no evidence of neither vaults nor a dome.Differently from the typological unity of the paleochristian and early mediaeval Istrian memoriae, those in Dalmatia show significant variability of the theme, already noticeable at the physiognomy of the earlier examples. For instance, the small baptistery in Baška on the island of Krk is an orderly cruciform building with relatively short branches and unarticulated flat walls, similar to Pula baptistery. The ground plan of St. Martin’s on the island of Cres is considerably different. It was a considerably larger building, probably in a memorial function related to a nearby villa rustica. It also has the rectangular extension in front of the apse, like St. Clement’s at Pula. Its walls show no traces of vaulted constructions. In a later phase, it was probably used as a parish church, like some examples of Dalmatian triconchal churches. A particular articulation of the walls, different from all of the Istrian and Dalmatiancruciform memoriae, was that of St. Cyprian’s chapel at Gata. Its short branches are rectangular on the outside, while on the inside they have inscribed round apses. Therefore, the outer surfaces have narrow round niches as relief of the thickened angles. Memory of the Holy Cross at Nin also has a round apse inscribed in the rectangular body of its rear branch. However, it is flanked by two smaller protruding apses, i.e. three in total. Other branches are vaulted with a half-dome on angular squinches that are also constructed below the drum with the dome inside. Ivo Petricioli has long ago suggested that its proportions indicate influences of the early mediaeval Byzantine architecture. This is further corroborated by its outer surfaces articulated with shallow niches. These features do not appear in Carolingian architecture, so it seems that the Holy Cross should be dated into the 10th or the 11th century. It also should be related tothe influences from nearby Zadar - contemporary capitol of the Byzantine Theme of Dalmatia - with the church of St. Vitus whose features, both general form and details, are of the same type of the building. Furthermore, they should be compared with the chapel of St. Donatus at Kornić on Krk Island. This small church is of apparently different groundplan, but one could still consider it a cruciform type. Its front and rear branches are rectangular, and there are indications that the rear branch had a round apse inscribed, similarly to the memory of the Holy Cross at Nin. However, its lateral branches are relatively small round apses, protruding from the sides of the chapel. Among them, there is a relativelyspacious central section with the dome constructed on the squinches. Miljenko Jurković has plausibly dated the church in 12th century, while I believe that it confirms the continuity of the paleochristian cruciform type of the Christian memory in Istria and Dalmatia from Late Antiquity to theRomanesque period. This is proven by some contemporary constructions, such as the chapel of an unknown title at Crkvina near Kašić, near Biljani Donji, that has also been dated in Romanesque period. In spite of some individual differences all of the memoriae compared in this paper, both groups are assembled by numerousness and similarities of both cruciform plans and funerary functions. Also, the influence of Adriatic Byzantine centres, particularly that of Ravenna, Pula and Zadar, is noticeable in formation of the regional characteristics of memorial architecture in the cultural ambiance of Istria and Dalmatia, within the context of long-lasting continuity of its forms and functions, from Late Antiquity to Romanesque period.

Saint Canute the King’s Eagle Cloth in Odense CathedralA new interpretation The eagle silk cloth in Odense Cathedral (Fig. 1) is believed to have been part of the contents of the shrine of Saint Canute (King Canute the Holy); it was perhaps a cape used as a shroud. Today it measures 110 by 133 cm, but originally it was larger, at least 130 by 195 cm. The purple fabric with its blue-black eagle pattern and decoration is generally regarded as a “pannus imperialis ad aquilas magnas” – a term known from medieval texts. The style of its decorative motifs dates it to the 11th or 12th century. Otto von Falke regarded the Odense cloth and related fabrics as the products of the Byzantine state workshop. Agnes Geijer, on the other hand, assumed that the Odense specimen was made by Islamic weavers in Southern Italy or Sicily and that it had formed part of the gifts which Canute’s widow, who had later married Duke Roger of Apulia, sent to the saint’s shrine.Underneath the eagle pattern on the cloth there seems to be an inscription (Fig. 2). Although only a few of the letters are legible the classical philologist Carsten Høeg considered them to be based on Greek letter-forms. It is in fact possible to distinguish at least five, and in addition, there are some possible ligatures of two or three letters (Fig. 3). A comparison between these vestiges and well-known By­zantine textile inscriptions leads to the impression that the last word could have been DESPOTOU, and that several of the preceding signs may be part of the word PHILOCHRISTOU. If so, we have an official dating, and even the name of the emperor in question. Among the rulers in the 11th and the 12th centuries, only five had a name short enough to fit into this context, and if we are right in distinguishing an alpha or a lambda in the beginning, this would exclude all but Alexios. Consequently, we will venture to make a hypothetic reconstruction with this name based on the existing remains (Fig. 4).The style of the fabric makes it most unlikely that anyone else but Alexios I (1081-1118) could come into question. It was he, who – probably in 1103 – received Saint Canute’s brother, King Eric the Good (Erik Ejegod), who died that very same year in Cyprus on his way to the Holy Land. In Eiriksdrapa, the memorial poem written in honour of this king by the contemporary Icelandic bard, Markus Skeggjason, it is explicitly stated that among other rich gifts, Eric was presented with an imperial garment: “allvalds skruði”, i.e. “the emperor’s shroud”.One of the present authors has drawn attention to the possibility that the bluish dark colour of the eagles indicates that the fabric was intended for a “sebastokrator,” a brother or son of the emperor or someone else very close to him. The colours, the ­eagles, and the size of the cloth would actually be appropriate for the type of garment called a “paludamentum”, a purple officer’s cloak worn by the emperor and other highly prominent persons (Figs. 5-6). Some of the leaders of the First Crusade were honoured by being elevated to the status of adopted sons of the emperor, and Krijnie Ciggaar has wondered whether the same could have happened to Eric. If this was the case, then it seems that it was Eric’s imperial silk cloth that was transferred to Odense as a tribute to his more distinguished brother, the martyr saint.Recently, it has been stated that the red colour of the Odense cloth is not genuine purple. However, the loss of most of Anatolia and Lebanon made it difficult for Byzantine workers to obtain the right colour components. Genuine murex-purple was in fact used in Constantinople until the thirteenth century, but this top-quality purple was reserved for the emperor alone. This explains why an inferior dye quality was used for the Odense cloth, which was made for a person with the rank of a seba­stokrator.P.J. RiisKøbenhavnThomas RiisChristian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

The study focuses on the 17th-18th century Basilian missions in Southern Albania, specifically in the region of Himara and the people behind these missions. The article is based on primary, never-before-published archival sources. The study explains that despite the zeal, knowledge, and dedication of the missionaries, the Basilian missions in Southern Albania were sporadic, not organized, and the monks were not particularly trained in missions. This by no means minimizes the contributions of Basilian missionaries Neofito Rodino, Nilo Catalano, and Giuseppe Schirò and their hard labors in Albania. On a positive note, the Basilian missions to convert the Orthodox (as requested by the Orthodox Himarriots) might have raised Rome’s sensitivities to recognize and appreciate Byzantine tradition beginning from its backyard - the Monastery of the Mother of God of Grottaferrata in Rome, and the Italo-Albanians or Italo-Greeks living in Calabria and Sicily. These missions paved the way to the beginning of an ecumenical thinking and changed attitude in the Latin Church regarding Christian East.

It is commonly asserted that Targum Song of Songs was composed in Palestine in the seventh or eighth century CE. This article surveys the most significant criteria used to posit that assertion (such as language, Jewish education, and messianism), and it argues that these criteria are either inconclusive or point to a different Sitz im Leben for the Targum. The article then adds one element to the discussion, the use of the late Latin term olibanum, ‘frankincense’, in 4.11. Ultimately, this article argues that the traditional dating and provenance of Targum Song of Songs' composition should be adjusted. A tenth- or eleventh-century time period and a location in either southern Italy or Byzantium better fit the evidence.

Medieval Dubrovnik was rich in Romanesque figural and decorative sculpture but only a small group of fragmentary carvings has been preserved to date due to the fact that the town suffered a devastating earthquake in 1667. The earthquake completely destroyed the monumental Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin which had been considered “la piu bella in Illyrico” on the basis of its sculptural abundance. Archaeological excavations undertaken beneath the present-day Baroque Cathedral, consecrated in 1713, unearthed several thousand fragments of high-quality sculptures. Their analysis has confirmed the close connections between Dubrovnik and artistic centres in Apulia, which are well known from archival records. This article re-assesses the results of the excavations and the information from the primary sources in a new light and deepens our knowledge about the date, authorship and reconstruction of the thireenth-century pieces under consideration.The article opens with a discussion about the archival record informing us that Eustasius of Trani came to Dubrovnik in 1199 to work as a protomagister of Dubrovnik Cathedral. The document in question was the reason why art historians attributed to him a number of rather damaged, narrative reliefs which replicate the models and forms that can be seen on the portal of Trani Cathedral. Since the sculptor responsible for that portal was not known and given that the contract preserved in Dubrovnik referred to Eustasius as a son of “Belnardi, protomagistri civitati Trani”, the two artists came to be considered as the builders of the Cathedral of S. Nicola Pellegrino at Trani and of several other churches in the Terra di Bari. The sculptures produced by Eustasius and his father were convincingly deemed to display the artistic influence of southern and central France and the same can be observed in Dubrovnik. The article assigns the figure of Christ the Judge from a portal lunette depicting the Last Judgement, which has no parallels in Apulia, to the same group of sculptures and interprets the subject matter as being inspired by the iconography of numerous pilgrimage churches to which Dubrovnik Cathedral also belonged. The assessment of the formal qualities evident in all the carvings demonstrates that they are less refined than those on the portal of Trani Cathedral. Furthermore, the article separates the works of the father from those of the son and suggests that Bolnardus introduced the aforementioned French-style carving method, which had already taken root in Palestine, and that Eustasius followed it. The starting point in the proposed chronology was the Fall of Jerusalem in 1187 and the associated withdrawal of western master carvers alongside the Crusaders. During their stopover at Trani, around 1190, Boltranius was in charge of the carving of the portal of Trani Cathedral where he was helped by his son who left for Dubrovnik in 1199. Based on the visual characteristics of the fragments of architectural decoration, Eustasius is identified as being responsible for the building of Dubrovnik Cathedral according to Apulian taste which appealed to the local patrons as a consequence of their constant exposure to it through numerous trade links and the overall cultural milieu. In fact, Apulian taste was a symbiosis of Byzantine traditions and Romanesque novelties introduced by the Normans, and its allure was grounded in the fact that both the Terra di Bari and Dubrovnik acknowledged the supreme power of these two political forces albeit not at the same time and in unequal measure.The vernacular current in the Romanesque sculpture of Dubrovnik during the second quarter of the thirteenth century can be noted in a small number of works which influenced the decoration of Gothic and Renaissance public buildings. The source of this diffusion can be identified in the decoration of the Cathedral which epitomized the strong artistic connections with southern Italy from where typological and morphological models were borrowed. The redecoration of the Cathedral’s interior, especially the pulpit – recorded for the first time in 1262 – the archaeological remains of which reveal a polygonal structure resting on twelve columns, drew on those very models. Together with the ciborium above the altar in the main apse, the pulpit was praised by local chroniclers and foreign travel writers during the fifteenth century but also by the earliest church visitation records of the mid-seventeenth century. These two monuments belonged to a group of standard Apulian-Dalmatian ciboria and pulpits which also included those that can today be seen in the cathedrals of Trogir and Split but also in many south Italian churches. Some scholars have argued that the source model for this group can be found in Jerusalem but this article suggests that the ciborium from the church of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura in Rome, dated to 1148, presents a more likely option. Particular attention is given to the naturalistic workmanship of a polygonal capital from Dubrovnik Cathedral, which is assigned to the aforementioned pulpit. It is argued that the style of the capital inspired a series of capitals carved à jour on both sides of the Adriatic and that they display characteristics consistent with the manner of carving of Pietro di Facitolo seen at Bisceglie. The exceptional workmanship of the eagle from the same pulpit is attributed to Pasquo di Pietro who was recorded as a protomagister of the Cathedral from 1255 to 1282 and who well regarded as a master carver. His good reputation earned him the citizenship and an estate; he and his son were mentioned in the local documents as “de Ragusio”. The author of the article hypothesizes that Pasquo may have been Pietro di Facitolo’s son, with which he concludes the outline of the sculptural development of the Apulian Romanesque in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia in general.The final part of the article focuses on the only known work of Simeonus Ragusinus who signed himself as “incola tranensis” on the portal of the church of S. Andrea, that is, S. Salvatore at Barletta. The hybrid artistic expression of this eclectic sculptor with a limited gift, who gathered his knowledge from a variety of sources, reveals that he may have borrowed some iconographic motifs from Eustasius’ portal of Dubrovnik Cathedral or from the other two portals. Overall, the article corroborates several hypotheses that were previously expressed in the scholarship while dismissing and rerouting others. At the same time, it emphasizes the scarcity of solid evidence because of the fragmentary nature of the material. The main goal of the article is to present new research findings and widen our perspective on the issue. The article is a revised version of a brief paper presented at the international conference “Master Buvina and his Time” which was held at Split in 2014 and which will be published in a foreign language. I hope that with the addition of new comments and the scholarly apparatus the article will be a useful point of reference to Croatian researchers of similar topics and that it will contribute towards the creation of syntheses about the medieval art in the Adriatic.

The emergence of Islam influenced the revolution and made a wave of culture toward a new world when experiencing an era of darkness. The progress of Greek civilization in the Westcould not be continued by the Roman empire and Roman domination in the classical era until the middle ages; which was then therise of the West in the era of renaissance in the 14-16th century.This paper will reveal the influence of Islam on the development of the Western world, since the emergence of contact between Islam with the West in the Classical era until the middle ages. There are different opinions among historians about who and when the first contact between Islam and the West took place. The first contact, however, occurred when the areas of East Roman government (Byzantium), Syria (638) and Egypt (640) fell into the hands of the Islamic government during the reign of Caliph 'Umar bin Khaţţāb. The Second contact, at the beginning of the eighth and ninth centuries occurred when the kings of Islam were able to rule Spain (711-1472), Portugal (716-1147), and important Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia (740-1050), Cicilia (827-1091), Malta (870-1090) as well as several small areas in Southern Italy and French Southern France. The third contact, took place in Eastern Europe from the fourteenth to early twentieth century when the Ottoman empire ruled the Balkan peninsula (Eastern Europe) and Southern Russia. The Ottoman empire's powers in Europe covered Yunāni, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, parts of Rhode, Cyprus, Austria and parts of Russia. Of the three periods of contact, the greatest influence was in the second contact period, where the decline of Western science in the dark era, while in the Islamic world developed advanced and produces scientists, thinkers and intellectuals in various sciences. This influence can be seen from the sending of students studying to the university of Islamic area, the establishment of the university, the translation and copying of various scientific literature such as natural science (Science of astronomy, Mathematics, Chemistry, Pharmacy, medicine, architecture etc) and Social Science history, philosophy, politics, economics, earth sciences, sociology, law, culture, language, literature, art, etc.). The Historians recognize that the influence of Islamic civilization is very great on the development of the West, which culminated in the renaissance or rise of Western civilization in Europe after the dark era.

The emergence of Islam influenced the revolution and made a wave of culture toward a new world when experiencing an era of darkness. The progress of Greek civilization in the West could not be continued by the Roman empire and Roman domination in the classical era until the middle ages; which was then the rise of the West in the era of renaissance in the 14-16th century. This paper will reveal the influence of Islam on the development of the Western world, since the emergence of contact between Islam with the West in the Classical era until the middle ages. There are different opinions among historians about who and when the first contact between Islam and the West took place. The first contact, however, occurred when the areas of East Roman government (Byzantium), Syria (638) and Egypt (640) fell into the hands of the Islamic government during the reign of Caliph 'Umar bin Khaţţāb. The Second contact, at the beginning of the eighth and ninth centuries occurred when the kings of Islam were able to rule Spain (711-1472), Portugal (716-1147), and important Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia (740-1050), Cicilia (827-1091), Malta (870-1090) as well as several small areas in Southern Italy and French Southern France. The third contact, took place in Eastern Europe from the fourteenth to early twentieth century when the Ottoman empire ruled the Balkan peninsula (Eastern Europe) and Southern Russia. The Ottoman empire's powers in Europe covered Yunāni, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, parts of Rhode, Cyprus, Austria and parts of Russia. Of the three periods of contact, the greatest influence was in the second contact period, where the decline of Western science in the dark era, while in the Islamic world developed advanced and produces scientists, thinkers and intellectuals in various sciences. This influence can be seen from the sending of students studying to the university of Islamic area, the establishment of the university, the translation and copying of various scientific literature such as natural science (Science of astronomy, Mathematics, Chemistry, Pharmacy, medicine, architecture etc) and Social Science history, philosophy, politics, economics, earth sciences, sociology, law, culture, language, literature, art, etc.). The Historians recognize that the influence of Islamic civilization is very great on the development of the West, which culminated in the renaissance or rise of Western civilization in Europe after the dark era.

Раскол христианского мира на латинский Запад и греческий Восток, отправной точкой которого считаются анафемы 1054 г., протекал на фоне экспансии нормандцев в Южной Италии. Как показывает анализ источников, церковный конфликт имел глубинные корни и длительную предыстории, но решающим фактором в его развитии от дипломатического демарша к бескомпромиссному разрыву церковного общения стала, по нашему убеждению, именно антивизантийская борьба в Южной Италии, наложившаяся на стремление идеологов реформаторского движения в Римской Церкви вытеснить Византию из западноевропейского политического и культурного пространства как фундаментальную помеху на пути церковной интеграции Запада вокруг Престола Св. Петра. Византия, в свою очередь, отреагировала на эти процессы «демонизацией» западных народов и культивированием топоса латинской церковной традиции как искажённой «новшествами» и варварским бескультурьем «франков». The separation of the Christian world into the Latin West and the Greek East, whose starting point is generally considered to be the schism of 1054, took place during the Norman expansion in Southern Italy. As the analysis of the sources shows, the ecclesiastic conflict had deep roots and a long pre-history, but the dominant factor in its development from a diplomatic demarche to an uncompromising schism was, in the author’s opinion, the anti-Byzantine struggle in Southern Italy, which coincided with the Roman Church’s desire to expel Byzantium from the political and cultural life of Western Europe, in order to consolidate the West around the See of St. Peter. Byzantium, on the other hand, reacted to these processes by «demonizing» the peoples of the West and cultivating the topos of the Latin ecclesiastic tradition as being distorted by «innovations»and the barbaric lack of culture of the «Franks».

AbstractA diagnostic investigation was carried out on twelfth century Byzantine wall paintings preserved in the Museum of Byzantine and Norman Culture and Figurative Arts of San Marco d’Alunzio (Messina, Italy) on the occasion of recent restoration works. First, the wall paintings were analyzed using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF) and Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) to obtain a non-invasive preliminary identification of the original palette. Then, five fragments were sampled for a micro-stratigraphy study using Digital Optical Microscope (DOM), Polarizing Optical Microscope (POM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) combined with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) to characterize the mortars and the blue and black pigments non unequivocally identified through non-invasive techniques. The palette included mainly earthen pigments like red and yellow ochres, green earth, and more valuable lapis lazuli blue applied on a bone black layer; while the analysis of mortars found on the different apses showed the same manufacturing technique and constitutive materials: lime-based binder with the addition of quartz, and rare calcareous lithic fragments as aggregate. The obtained results shed light on the pictorial technique used for the wall paintings and allowed us to compare the Sicilian pictorial cycle with the coeval Byzantine wall paintings preserved in Sardinia and Southern Italy.

AbstractThis paper presents a summary of the record of the cultivated plant macroremains from southern Italy during the early Middle Ages, with a focus on the recent discoveries of crop remains in Sicily. These have shed light on the introduction of new plants in the central Mediterranean region at ca. 500–1100 ce. Specifically, we are dealing with the first evidence of the adoption of two new varieties of crops, one of flax (Linum usitatissimum cf. conv. mediterraneum) and the other of broad (or faba) bean (Vicia faba cf. var. equina) during the 8th century, a period of Byzantine domination, and also the introduction of exotic plants such as Solanum melongena (aubergine) and Gossypium herbaceum/arboreum (cotton) following the Islamic conquest. In some cases these developments were to have long term impacts, for example in Sicily with regard to cotton, which became an important cash crop there in the 13th century, and throughout southern Italy with regard to a new variety of Vicia faba (Vicia faba cf. var. major), which was grown in Puglia from the late Middle Ages onwards.