Dumbarton Oaks Papers 73 (2019)
Walter E. Kaegi, “Irfan Shahîd (1926–2016),” 1–3.
Daniel Galadza, “Robert F. Taft, S.J. (1932-2018),” 4–8.
Sylvain Destephen, “From Mobile Center to Constantinople: The Birth of Byzantine Imperial Government,” 9–23.
The history of imperial travel in late antiquity is not linear, and precise chronological transformations and structural evolutions are hard to trace. It is noteworthy that the common opinion regarding late imperial journeys is still influenced by the emperors’ portraits, created and handed down from one generation of scholars to another. The geographical limitation of imperial travels was not synonymous with territorial contraction or personal feebleness. Due to increasing concentrations of authority and elite individuals in Constantinople, the emperors of the Roman East regarded long and expensive travels throughout the provinces as financially irrelevant and politically unnecessary: later Roman emperors did not need to appear in person anymore. But the deeper the process of political sedentariness went, the rarer imperial epiphanies became. After the early fifth century, the emperors’ disappearance from the provinces did not generate any serious criticism, uprisings, or secession within the Eastern Roman Empire, since the hegemony of Constantinople had become obvious for all central and local elites. Henceforth the emperor was intimately bound to the capital. The definitive and unchallenged residence of the emperors in Constantinople was a clear demonstration of their personal authority and demonstrates the efficacy of the later Roman State.
Dina Boero, “Making a Manuscript, Making a Cult: Scribal Production of the Syriac Life of Symeon the Stylite in Late Antiquity,” 25–67.
This article analyzes the fifth-century autograph of the Syriac Life of Symeon the Stylite (Vat. Syr. 160, fols. 1b-79b) and two sixth-century recensions (Br. Mus. Add. 14484, fols. 48b-133b and 134a-152b). The versions preserved in these manuscripts present diverging accounts of events, unique narrative arrangements, and singular descriptions of the saint. They indicate that the Syriac Life of Symeon was not a stable and established text but the result of an extended process of textual transmission, in which scribes produced manuscripts for and within specific communal contexts. The three late antique manuscripts of the Syriac Life of Symeon offer insight into the development of a hagiographic tradition at the earliest stage of its existence, in a period for which substantial manuscript evidence often does not survive. They elucidate the discursive nature of the representation of a saint within a single textual tradition.
Alexandre M. Roberts, “Framing a Middle Byzantine Alchemical Codex,” 69–102.
This article analyzes the famous tenth/eleventh-century alchemical codex Marcianus graecus 299, and in particular its opening pages, as evidence for Byzantine interest in and conception of alchemy. It argues that the manuscript depicts alchemy as an ancient, legitimate science practiced by philosophers, sages, and emperors and based on sound theoretical principles—seamlessly a part of middle Byzantine high literary culture.
Lilia Campana, “Sailing into Union: The Byzantine Naval Convoy for the Council of Ferrara–Florence (1438-1439),” 103–25.
This article focuses on the Byzantine naval convoys assembled for the Council of Ferrara–Florence (1438–1439), which proclaimed the union of the Latin and Greek Churches. The transportation of 700 Byzantines on Venetian ships from Constantinople to the council and back again was an undertaking of unprecedented magnitude, requiring detailed logistical planning and immense financial resources. This article argues that the transportation of the Byzantine delegation was crucial in the struggle over authority between the Pope and the fathers gathered at the Council of Basel. The coming of the Byzantines to Italy was one of the Pope’s greatest achievements, bolstering his supremacy over the fathers and making possible the short-lived union of the Latin and Greek Churches. This article argues that such a practical and non-theological factor played a central role in the outcome of the negotiations, and dictated policies and strategies in the political scenario of the time. In a broader perspective, it may offer some insight into one of the most massive operations in maritime history, which, although temporarily, contributed to the union of the two Christianities.
Hugh G. Jeffery, “New Lead Seals from Aphrodisias,” 127–40.
This paper presents twelve lead seals excavated at the site of Aphrodisias in Caria over the period 1984–2018. The seals are catalogued consecutively from those published by John Nesbitt in 1983 so as to maintain a consistent Aphrodisian corpus. The opening discussion addresses the archaeological contexts in which the seals were found. The new specimens were unearthed in various contexts in the eastern part of the site, and present a different chronological range from Nesbitt's seals, with the eighth and ninth centuries particularly well represented. Lead seals are therefore of crucial importance for the study of the site during a period for which ceramics are difficult to recognize and coins are almost entirely absent. Commentary on individual seals follows in the catalogue. Highlights include a tenth-century skeuophylax of Hagia Sophia, an eleventh-century official stationed in distant Charsianon, and a ninth-century strategos of the Thrakesion.
Gudrun Bühl and Elizabeth Dospel Williams, “Introduction,” 143–44.
Maria G. Parani, “Curtains in the Middle and Late Byzantine House,” 145–63.
Kostis Kourelis, “Wool and Rubble Walls: Domestic Archaeology in the Medieval Peloponnese,” 165–85.
Kathrin Colburn, “Loops, Tabs, and Reinforced Edges: Evidence for Textiles as Architectural Elements,” 187–216.
Eunice Dauterman Maguire, “Curtains at the Threshold: How They Hung and How They Performed,” 217–43.
Sabine Schrenk, “The Background of the Enthroned: Spatial Analysis of the Hanging with Hestia Polyolbos in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection,” 245–59.
Jennifer L. Ball, “Rich Interiors: The Remnant of a Hanging from Late Antique Egypt in the Collection of Dumbarton Oaks,” 261–97.
Maria Evangelatou, “Textile Mediation in Late Byzantine Visual Culture: Unveiling Layers of Meaning through the Fabrics of the Chora Monastery,” 299–353.
Thelma K. Thomas, “The Honorific Mantle as Furnishing for the Household Memory Theater in Late Antiquity: A Case Study from the Monastery of Apa Apollo at Bawit,” 355–87.
Avinoam Shalem, “‘The Nation Has Put On Garments of Blood’: An Early Islamic Red Silken Tapestry in Split,” 389–408.
Elizabeth Dospel Williams, “A Taste for Textiles: Designing Umayyad and Early 'Abbasid Interiors,” 409–32.
“The Diagram Paradigm: Byzantium, the Islamic World, and the Latin West: Dumbarton Oaks Symposium, 20-21 April 2018,” 433–34.