Giovanni Gomiero

Le manuscrit Mossoul Scher 92 a attiré à plusieurs reprises l’attention des chercheurs travail-lant sur les manuscrits syriaques. La brève description donnée par Scher est énigmatique et permet seulement d’identifier le manuscrit comme une collection ascétique-monastique basée sur trois corpus renommés : le Livre d’Évagre, le Livre de Marc le Moine et le Corpus Diony-siacum. Le manuscrit physique a été perdu après 1907 et n’a été retrouvé qu’en août 2023, lorsque j’ai identifié un microfilm dans les archives du René Draguet, conservé aujourd’hui à l’Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve). Le microfilm, de haute qualité et dans un état de conservation parfait, a permis la description et l’analyse présentées ici. Il éclairera des nouveaux aspects de la circulation des textes d’Évagre, Marc, Ps.-Macaire, Serge et Ps.-Denys au sein du milieu monastique syro-oriental. Les trois corpus présentent plusieurs particularités et caractéristiques nous permettant de tracer une ligne entre les textes que l’on trouve dans les manuscrits des VIe, VIIe et VIIIe siècles et ce témoin tardif du XVIIIe siècle, en examinant comment, pourquoi et quand un “manuel monastique” peut être organisé, même s’il ne survit que dans un microfilm privé, oublié dans l’une des boîtes à cigares de Draguet.

This paper is devoted to a critical interdisciplinary reassessment of the recently revived localization of the Battle of Gaugamela at the Plateau of Karamleis. Several conclusions are suggested. First, on the basis of literary sources, it is only possible to suggest a general geographical context of the battle. In particular, compliance with the distances mentioned in the sources cannot be seen as a solution to the identification of Gaugamela. Second, the connection between Gaugamela and Nineveh in later incidental literary references has a genuine geographical background – Gaugamela was part of the region of Nineveh. However, this region did not include only the immediate vicinity of Nineveh, but also its wider hinterland. Third, out of many geographical details in ancient sources, the reference to the Bumelus/Bumodus River is more useful than others. Although this river may theoretically be identified with both the Gomel and the Shore Dereh rivers, the former identification has stronger paleographical and topographical merits. As for previous topographical research, the identification of Gaugamela with the Plateau of Karamleis was formulated much earlier than its northern alternative at Tell Gomel. However, this identification was deeply conditioned by the limited regional perspective of the earliest explorers - Karamleis was located on the axis of the contemporary travel between Mosul and Baghdad, it also attracted the attention of European scholars because of Assyrian cities and itinerary of the Ten Thousand in 401 BCE. Finally, through the use of GIS and satellite archaeology, this identification has been shown to lack three important elements: visibility on the battlefield, a distinctive accumulation of sloped areas, and post-battle remains. All in all, in the current state of research, the identification of the Battle of Gaugamela at the Plateau of Karamleis is significantly surpassed by its northern alternative at Tell Gomel.

One of the crucial aspect of Christianity in Late Antiquity is the newfound possibility to openly organize and plan the spread of the Gospels everywhere and to every people of the known world. This gave rise to a new question: how to adapt the message to different contexts beyond the Mediterranean shores?
The Church of the East, divided since the early 5th c. and based between Iraq and Iran, between the 5th and 9th c., reached the Sea of Japan through the Silk Roads. Since the majority of missionaries were monks, trained to be perfect ascetics in their cells, they faced a double challenge when they were named bishops and sent away from their monasteries. The first challenge was how to adapt the message, and the second was how to reconcile the ascetic ideal and the hierarchical position. How to combine solitude, ecclesiastical governance, and the missionary task?
The Syriac account on Elijah of Moqan (d. 810 ca.) and the Armenian one of Israyel of Mec Kołmank‘ (d. 700 ca.), are perfect exempla in this sense (they are both monk-bishop-missionary). My paper aims to trace a preliminary sketch of how two different churches were able to build not only a new internal model of Christian life, but also an external adapted one to spread Christianity worldwide. The comparison of the Syriac and Armenian sources could let us understand better the different models of perfection proposed to Christians and to not-Christians, facing the constant clash between the perfect life of the cell and the turbulent life of the world.

Conference on Syriac Codicology for beginners, inside the framework of the first Summer School of Syriac organized in Rome by the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS, prof. Roberto Fusco) and SYRIACA, the Italian Association of Syriac Studies (Marco Pavan, Roma3, and Giovanni Gomiero, UGENT).

The Collection(s) of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, also known as Apophthegmata Patrum, represent the most intriguing and surprising literary text produced in Late Antiquity. Many scholars who have attempted to create a critical edition of these sayings have found the task to be daunting and frustrating (e.g., Guy, Wortley). The complexity is not solely due to the sheer volume and variability of manuscript contents from the 5th c. up to the present day (as the genre still thrives in Arabic within Coptic monasteries in Egypt). It is also compounded by the multitude of languages involved. When examining the Late Antique period until the 9-10th c., we must consider various recensiones in Greek, as well as translations and original texts from several languages, like Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, Palestinian-Aramaic, Sogdian, and Syriac. The Syriac tradition, in particular, is the most ancient attested in manuscripts (dating back to the early 6th c.).
While some excellent works have been completed by scholars such as Bousset, Draguet, Guy, Regnault, and more recently by Rubenson and Wortley, there remains a significant shortage of in-depth studies in this field. In this paper, I aim to explore the most crucial Syriac collection of Sayings, the Paradise of the Fathers (which contains also renowned Greek works such as the Historia Lausiaca and the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto), which can be traced back at least to the early 7th c. This collection is accessible through two challenging editions and an even more intricate English translation. The analysis I provide will offer new insights into the transmission of the Sayings during their initial two centuries and will further illuminate this captivating - but scarcely explored - area of study. This approach, based on manuscript evidence, will highlight the techniques of organizing knowledge and text transmission, as they were used inside the East Syrian tradition.

The aim of this talk is to demonstrate the complexity and richness of Thomas of Marga (fl. 840 ca.) as a unique author and his works as intriguing yet fruitful texts. Through a precise case study, I will explore one of the fundamental themes in Thomas' writing, the dichotomy between asceticism and study. At first glance, especially in the Book of Superiors, it may appear that ascetic practice is incompatible and definitively superior to literary activity and study. However, upon delving deeper into the texts of the bishop of Marga, it becomes evident that the scenario is more intricate. Several great monks within the ascetical landscape depicted by Thomas are literate men, teachers, and brilliant writers. Furthermore, and this will be the core of my presentation, Thomas presents the possibility of having little "family-run publishing houses" within the monastery. Two brothers can enter in the monastery with their expertise, and there they can collaborate, with one serving as a writer and the other as a bookbinder, living in close cells to produce manuscripts for themselves, the monastery, and anyone who requests this service (be it a noble, a bishop, or a patriarch). This unique activity, hapax in the monastic literature of the Church of the East, will provide a precise example to add to the broader theme of the relationship between the monasteries and the schools in the Church of the East, between the 6th and the 10th century.
Online conference (28 August 2023), organized by TeTra - Text Transmission Joint Research Seminar (Leuven-Ghent).

The monastic reform of Abraham of Kashkar (d. 585) is a well-researched foundational moment in East Syrian monasticism. One of its main characteristics was its connection with Egyptian Monasticism and its texts from the 4th and 5th centuries, originally written in Greek within the Byzantine Empire (Historia Lausiaca, Historia Monachorum in Aegypto and Apophtegmata patrum). This led to renewed attention for these texts within East Syrian Monasticism, mostly in Northern Iraq and in the Persian Gulf in the 7th century. This interest produced new translations, new revisions of translated material and new ways to collect the same materials and its impact was felt in all East Syrian ascetical authors (namely Isaac of Nineveh, Dadisho Qatraya, Simon of Taibuteh, etc.). My paper will focus on how Thomas of Marga, writing in the 9th century, describes this translation and re-adaptation movement in his Book of Superiors and makes it an integral part of the way he frames the history of monasticism and the Church. Therefore, I will ultimately showcase how an author living in the Abbasid Caliphate would tell the story of translations from Byzantine Greek, which were made within the Sasanian Empire and re-arranged under the Umayyad Caliphate.

The History of the Monastery of Sabrisho‘ of Bet Qoqa is an anonymous writing dated to the first half of the 9th century. The majority of the historiographic-hagiographical sources of the Church of the East have been neglected by scholars, but, for this monastic history, we could say that has been completely ignored. The text has been edited with a French translation by Alphonse Mingana, as an “appendix” of the Chronicle of Arbela, without a commentary and some introduction or context. From 1908 until now it is impossible to find a single study dedicated to that work. The goal of this paper, is to show the internal structure of the source and its relationship inside its literary and cultural context. We could in this way perfectly understand the so-called “biographical dimension” of the East Syriac Historiography: in fact, the History of the Monastery of Sabrisho‘ of Bet Qoqa is the perfect example of this literary genre and style, the biographies of the abbots are the key-points to reconstruct the network of history’s net of two centuries (from 620 ca. to 820 ca.). For understanding better the use of this collective biographies it could be useful to compare this source with the Book of Superiors of Thomas of Marga, from the same period and the same geographical-cultural context. In this way we would like to present a first analysis of this source, showing the potential and the richness of this literary heritage, unfairly neglected.

Paper presented at the XIII Symposium Syriacum (Paris, July 2022), with some first results from my MA thesis on East Syrian Historiography and Hagiography in Thomas of Marga's works.
The Book of Superiors, written by Thomas of Marga between the first and second half of the IX century, is a complex and varied work. It has been hastily and arbitrarily identified as a monastic hagiographic collection of local character, and this has compromised its reputation amongst the scholarly community. The aim of this research, is to show how the main aim which sprung Thomas into compiling this work is eminently historiographic: one can see this in the multiple statements he develops throughout his writings, in the chapters related to the prologues of the various books. This intent is clear not just from the numerous occurrences of Thomas' thoughts mentioned above: indeed, even the precision in the language and lexicon employed, with which the author develops and fine-tunes his style and his skills, are an important hint. This contribution is to be considered linked to that of the colleague dott. Carlo Emilio Biuzzi, in a transversal point of view on Syriac historiography regarding space and time.

All’interno del presente e del seguente capitolo, il tessuto urbano di Padova, concepito nella propria dimensione storica e geografica, sarà pensato come una trama complessa e articolata di relazioni, un costante dinamismo capace di plasmare il milieu sociale e culturale in funzione dei mutevoli rapporti che lo hanno attraversato, distendendosi e trasformandosi nel corso dei secoli. Il compito di queste pagine sarà dunque di ricucire assieme – nel segno della mobilità – i diversi volti della città tratteggiati all’interno del libro: in primis, il molteplice gioco che lega i quartieri studiati; in seconda istanza, Padova nel suo relazionarsi con l’alterità vicina e lontana; infine, la struttura polifonica rappresentata dai vari capitoli presenti nel volume stesso.
In questa direzione, due sentieri si intrecceranno in maniera inscindibile. Da un lato, la trattazione del costituirsi delle linee interne ed esterne a Padova: linee di terra – come le strade, le tramvie e ferrovie – linee d’acqua – quali fiumi e canali – e linee di protezione e demarcazione della città – ovvero le diverse cinte murarie – ognuna punteggiata da numerosi elementi che sempre ne hanno plasmato la morfologia. Dall’altro, l’essenziale presenza di attori che si sono mossi in questa fitta rete di vie di comunicazione e di trasporto, solcandone i percorsi, modificandone la forma e vivificandone costantemente la struttura. È difatti nella vita dei suoi abitanti che rifiorisce la storia di Padova.

All’interno del presente e del seguente capitolo, il tessuto urbano di Padova, concepito nella propria dimensione storica e geografica, sarà pensato come una trama complessa e articolata di relazioni, un costante dinamismo capace di plasmare il milieu sociale e culturale in funzione dei mutevoli rapporti che lo hanno attraversato, distendendosi e trasformandosi nel corso dei secoli. Il compito di queste pagine sarà dunque di ricucire assieme – nel segno della mobilità – i diversi volti della città tratteggiati all’interno del libro: in primis, il molteplice gioco che lega i quartieri studiati; in seconda istanza, Padova nel suo relazionarsi con l’alterità vicina e lontana; infine, la struttura polifonica rappresentata dai vari capitoli presenti nel volume stesso.
In questa direzione, due sentieri si intrecceranno in maniera inscindibile. Da un lato, la trattazione del costituirsi delle linee interne ed esterne a Padova: linee di terra – come le strade, le tramvie e ferrovie – linee d’acqua – quali fiumi e canali – e linee di protezione e demarcazione della città – ovvero le diverse cinte murarie – ognuna punteggiata da numerosi elementi che sempre ne hanno plasmato la morfologia. Dall’altro, l’essenziale presenza di attori che si sono mossi in questa fitta rete di vie di comunicazione e di trasporto, solcandone i percorsi, modificandone la forma e vivificandone costantemente la struttura. È difatti nella vita dei suoi abitanti che rifiorisce la storia di Padova.