BYZANTIUM AND THE WEST

The legation sent by Pope Eugenius IV to Constantinople in 1437 played a critical role in the long diplomatic efforts towards a reunification of the Latin and Greek Churches, and paved the way for the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1439). With some exceptions, such as the later Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus, the members of the delegation have not received wide attention. This paper presents a biographical analysis of all those involved – the nuncios, the financiers and the galley commanders – and their relationship to the Pope. The findings provide new insight into Eugenius IV’s diplomacy towards the Byzantines, as well as Cusanus’s place in it. Cusanus’s presence added conciliar legitimacy, but the key functions were in the hands of a core team of Venetians – including non-patricians – who had prior experience in Constantinople and a personal connection to the Pope.

Στον βυζαντινό και λατινοκρατούμενο ελληνικό χώρο, μετά την Άλωση του 1204, ο συγχρωτισμός με τους επήλυδες ‘επιχειρηματίες’ της Ευρώπης, καθώς και οι τεράστιες απώλειες εδαφών που υφίστανται οι ανώτερες τάξεις, οδηγεί στην ανεύρεση νέων πηγών πλουτισμού, και την ανάδειξη οικογενειών όπως οι Zaccaria, οι Gattilusi, οι Acciaiuoli κ.ά.
Η οικογένεια Zaccaria ήταν ακόμη μια οικογένεια προερχόμενη από την οικονομική άρχουσα τάξη της Γένουας, η οποία προσπαθεί, χωρίς ιδιαίτερη επιτυχία, να ανταγωνιστεί την μεγάλη αντίπαλό της, Βενετία, για την κυριαρχία στο εμπόριο της ανατολικής Μεσογείου.
Η σύνδεση της οικογένειας με το Βυζάντιο ξεκινά λίγο μετά τα μέσα του 13ου αιώνα, κατά την υπογραφή της συνθήκης του Νυμφαίου (1261), ενώ το 1275, ο Μιχαήλ Η΄ παραχώρησε στον Manuele Zaccaria την άδεια για εκμετάλλευση των ορυχείων στυπτηρίας στην περιοχή της Φώκαιας. Από το 1304 εως το 1329, η κυριαρχία της οικογένειας επεκτείνεται στη Χίο και τη Λέσβο, εντάσσοντας το εμπόριο της μαστίχας στην οικονομική αυτοκρατορίας τους.
Ταυτόχρονα, οι Zaccaria αναπτύσσουν στενότατους δεσμούς με την παποσύνη, εξασφαλίζοντας πολλαπλά οικονομικά προνόμια, ενώ αναλαμβάνουν στρατιωτική δράση εναντίον των Οθωμανών, εμφανιζόμενοι ως υπέρμαχοι της Χριστιανοσύνης. Στο απόγειο της, η εμπορική αυτοκρατορία των Zaccaria, έχει να επιδείξει μεγάλα οχυρωματικά έργα, πολλαπλές νομισματικές κοπές, σύνδεση με άλλες λατινικές οικογένειες του ελλαδικού χώρου και έντονη διπλωματική δραστηριότητα.
Η ιστορία της οικογένειας Zaccaria και η δράση της στον βυζαντινό χώρο είναι ενδεικτική μιας ολόκληρης ομάδας ανθρώπων που έδρασαν στην ανατολική Μεσόγειο κατά τον Ύστερο Μεσαίωνα, και παρουσιάζουν ένα καινούριο και πολύπλευρο κοινωνικό προφίλ.


The Crusaders coming to the East, led to significant changes, not only to the political status quo, but throughout public and private life. The economy, in particular, is transformed, since, besides traditional economic activities, new concepts were introduced in the Byzantine Empire, like credit. Branches of the commercial and banking families are settled in the East, where they can easily spread their influence and eliminate their competition.
In the Byzantine and Latin occupied Greece, after 1204, mingling with the newcomer ‘entrepreneurs’ from the West, as well as huge territorial losses that the local upper classes suffered, led to the adoption of new money-making endeavors and the rise of families like the Zaccaria, the Gattilusi, the Acciaiuoli etc.
The Zaccaria family came from the financial upper class of Genoa, a city trying to compete with Venice, for the eastern Mediterranean commerce. The family’s ties with Byzantium began shortly after the mid-13th century, during negotiations for the signing of the treaty of Nymphaion (1261). In 1275, the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus (1259-1282) granted Manuele Zaccaria the right to exploit the alum mines in Phocaea. From 1304 to 1329, the family’s dominion was extended to the islands of Chios and Lesbos, adding the invaluable mastiha trade to their economic empire.
At the same time, the Zaccaria formed strong ties with the Papacy, securing multiple financial benefits, and undertook military action against the Ottomans, appearing as the defenders of Christianity in the region. To its apogee, the Zaccaria rule established great fortifications, issued currency, was connected with prominent families of the Latin Greece, and excelled as diplomats.
The history of the Zaccaria family and their activity is indicative of a larger group of people residing in the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Ages, presenting a new and complex social profile.

La figura de Flavio Heraclio Augusto (c.575-641 d.C.), emperador de los romanos entre los años 610 y 641 d.C., ha llamado la atención de numerosos historiadores, poetas, escritores y artistas desde el siglo VII hasta nuestros días. Heraclio ha sido considerado uno de los personajes más importantes de su tiempo, su gobierno aparece como una instancia de crisis y grandes transformaciones que marcan un cambio de época en el ámbito del Mar Mediterráneo y el Cercano Oriente: el crucial siglo VII.

Pero además de su gran relevancia como personaje histórico, Heraclio también destaca por el desarrollo de una significativa tradición literaria y legendaria en torno a su figura. En el ámbito occidental-latino el emperador fue recordado como un campeón de Dios, como el restaurador de la Santa Cruz y como un ejemplo de gobernante cristiano. Hacia el siglo XII incluso fue considerado por algunos como el primer cruzado. Su figura aparece en crónicas, liturgias, sermones, hagiografías, romances, miniaturas, relieves, vitrales y muchas otras fuentes de la Edad Media y de los siglos posteriores. El personaje de Heraclio alcanzó tal fama que llegó incluso a inspirar un roman en el siglo XII y una obra de teatro en el siglo XVII, obra que sigue representándose en la actualidad.

Esta investigación se pregunta por el origen y desarrollo de esta curiosa tradición: ¿cómo surge toda una leyenda sobre el emperador bizantino Heraclio en el Occidente latino medieval? ¿Cuáles son sus orígenes o fundamentos? ¿Existen antecedentes de la misma en el ámbito bizantino-oriental? ¿Cómo circuló o se difundió esta leyenda en el Mediterráneo de la época (ss. VII-XIII)? ¿En qué formatos -escritos, orales, imágens- y por qué vías se trasmitió? ¿Cómo fue su recepción, re-lectura, transformación y desarrollo en el Occidente latino medieval?

...

Article in the proceeding:
A Book of Psalms from Elventh-Century Byzantium: The Complex of Texts and Images in Vat. gr. 752
edited by Barbara Crostini & Glenn Peers
Studi e Testi 504
Città del Vaticano 2016, 193-225

The publishing house has mistakenly blackened passages in the list on pp. 224-225. This preprint version displays all entries.

In the last two centuries of its existence, the Byzantine Empire, which was restored after the Latin conquest of Constantinople, was politically and economically weak. Nevertheless, its intellectual and cultural influence had a widespread impact upon religious, literary and artistic development in the Slavic lands and Italy. Economically, the split empire was dependent on Genoese and Venetian interests, which were affected by the relationship between Italian and Ottoman authorities around the Black Sea. Politically, the Byzantine state was reduced to a minimum. Sociologically, a significant number of the Byzantine population died from the Black Death, and the power of the state was reduced due to the constant wars between the emperors Andronicus II and III. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising a resurgence of interest in late antiquity occurred that was associated with a new, specifically ethnic consciousness, marked by nostalgia and longing for the past. Humanist scholars Theodore Metochites and Nikephoros Gregoras often refer to this period as ‘preRenaissance’. The phase was characterised by an increase of literary editions and commentaries on classical texts, the development of secular treatises and rhetoric, as well as the establishment of a new conception of art, with new motifs and subjects.

Narratives on the development of world civilization generated in the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (and largely not replaced since) accord a central position to the “classical tradition” as a constituent element of modern “Western” identity and assign to Byzantium the marginal role of preserving this tradition immutable without innovation or creative elaboration. However, a survey of medieval translations of originally Greek material into Arabic and Latin reveals that Byzantium’s contemporaries viewed its literary culture under a very different light: medieval Latin and Arabic translations of Greek texts are not limited to the ancient classics but extend to biblical, patristic, hagiographical, liturgical, and legal texts. This indicates that Byzantium’s contemporaries were vividly interested its older Christian and Roman traditions. As for its “classical tradition,” when pagan Greek texts were translated, they were received within a Byzantine interpretative context for reasons of convenience: successive generations of Byzantine commentators and adaptors had smoothened out the internal inconsistencies of the great scientific and philosophical corpora of antiquity and had found ways to by-pass the disagreements of pagan thought with Judaic, Christian, and Muslim monotheism. The reception of Byzantine literary culture by its Arabic- and Latin-speaking neighbors, when investigated simultaneously with the reception of Arabic and Latin literary culture by Byzantium, suggests that different parts of the medieval world were simultaneously interested in the same larger philosophical and scientific questions and occasionally sought each other’s ideas in order to illuminate them.

The purpose of this paper is to present several avenues of reflection linked first to the onomastics of the African episcopate of the Byzantine period, then to its development. A quick overview of the most typical characteristics of onomastics of this period will be presented, followed by a description of the remarkable development of this African episcopate between the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century. It will conclude with observations on the African onomastic repertoire of the Protobyzantine era, which reflects the evolution of mentalities within the very interior of the African Christian people and the different circles within it.

During the last two centuries before the Renaissance of the arts in Italy in the 15th century, different waves of classical trends marked the artistic creation of both Byzantine and western worlds. Between 1220 and 1260 in particular, a parallel development of the revival of ancient forms is noted in both of the above-mentioned traditions. Various artistic expressions later developed independently.
The various artistic tendencies of the period under discussion are well known by the critics but usually Byzantine and Western cultures are studied separately. In the present paper, it is interesting to expose some aspects of the revivals of ancient art in both worlds, namely Byzantine and Latin, during the 13th and 14th centuries. In this way, it will, firstly, be possible to establish a more appropriate method for examining the origin of this extensive wave of ancient revival that took place during the 13th century. Secondly, it is useful to note how this Proto-Renaissance gave way under the weight of more conservative Byzantine forms in 14th century Byzantine painting and, thirdly, it is instructive to show an interpretation of how, in the West, namely in Italy, the classical forms developed unimpeded from 1260 onwards so that they eventually continued into the great Renaissance.
For this purpose, I shall first briefly expose the historical and political situation of the Byzantine Empire vis-à-vis the European world during the period under consideration. I shall then touch upon the artistic phenomena, pointing out the most characteristic cases.

Αναλυτική μελέτη για τη σταδιακή παρακμή του βυζαντινού Ναυτικού από τον 11ο αιώνα και εξής και τις καταλυτικές της συνέπειες για την επιβίωση του βυζαντινού κράτους. Το κείμενο δημοσιεύτηκε αρχικά στο περιοδικό Στρατιωτική Ιστορία και υπό την παρούσα, βελτιωμένη μορφή του στο βιβλίο των Α.Γ.Κ. Σαββίδη-Ν. Νικολούδη, Ο Ύστερος Μεσαιωνικός Κόσμος (11ος-16ος αιώνες) , Εκδόσεις Ηρόδοτος, Αθήνα 2007, σελ. 71-82.
A study on the decline of the Byzantine Navy from the 11th century onwards and its long term consequences for the survival of the Byzantine state (published in pp. 71-82 of the book with collected studies by A.G.C. Savvides and N.G. Nicoloudis, The later Medieval world (11th-16th centuries). Byzantium, Medieval West, the Orient and Islam, the Balkans and the Slavs, Herodotos Publ., Athens 2007).

This chapter studies diplomatic envoys between Byzantium and the West in the High Middle Ages. As many recent studies have shown, from ca. 860-1204 there were a great number of these agents sent throughout the broad Mediterranean area. Their social and political status is analysed, notably the official functions they fulfilled and/or the high ranking dignity they held when sent abroad, proving that they were part of the elite. Their missions were not only a way to communicate politically with others, but also had commercial, intellectual, and cultural dimensions. The power and influence these ambassadors held is also discussed. Finally, other people accompanied these envoys, such as interpreters or merchants, although the sources do not provide much detail about their identities.

The eighteen chapters of this book explore the complex history of exchange between Byzantium and the Latin West over a period of more than three hundred years, with a focus on the political, ecclesiastical and cultural spheres. Besides outlining the history of competition and collaboration between two empires in medieval Europe, a range of regional approaches, stretching from England to the Crusader kingdoms, o fer insights into the many aspects of Byzantine-Latin contact and exchange. Further sections explore patterns of mutual perception, linguistic and material dimensions of the contacts, as well as the role played by various groups of "cultural brokers" such as ambassadors, merchants, monks and Jewish communities.

Late Byzantine encomia of Constantinople provide insight into the ways in which Hellenism was gradually adopted by some Byzantine intellectuals to provide a historicizing narrative to questions of identity when the Byzantine empire had transformed into a territorial city-state. Comparing "Byzantios or Concerning the Imperial Megalopolis" by the early Palaeologan statesman and intellectual Theodore Metochites (1270-1332) with the famous "Comparison of Old and New Rome" by Manuel Chrysoloras (c.1350-1415), this paper charts the ways in which these two intellectuals engaged with the idea of Hellenism in the Constantinopolitan context. The progressive shifting away from a predominantly religious representation of Constantinople and the increased emphasis on the city's pre-Christian past in these rhetorical compositions delineate a continuous intellectual tradition in late Byzantium. I also argue that Manuel Chrysoloras' and Laonikos Chalkokondyles' western orientation in the fifteenth century help explain their significant departure from Byzantine tradition in primarily representing Constantinople as a secular locus in contrast to Metochites' earlier portrayal of the city as holy space.

This chapter (lucky chapter number 11) considers the development, survival and mutation of identities not only in peninsular Italy, but throughout that area of the central and western Mediterranean which remained to varying degrees associated with the Byzantine empire between c.540 and c.895.
It concludes that:
'We must, however, as we have seen remain wary if not sceptical at narratives that seek to homogenise the varied and multifaceted experiences of individuals across the whole of the central Mediterranean and how their responses and impulses were demonstrated. Looking at the interstitial places, in the tensions between Constantinople and the Central and Western Mediterranean elites and networks we may then find the answers to the conundrums posed by cultural and political identities'.

Contact me for a copy of the pre-proofs....if you are interested...or better still ...buy the volume!

published in International Diplomacy, ed. I.B. Neumann and H. Leira, vol. II, Diplomacy in a Multicultural World (Sage Publications Ltd), London, 2013, chapter 17, p. 39-64 (reprint of an article published in Al-Masāq. Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, 24-1, 2012, 91-112)

As far as diplomatic contacts at the imperial court of Constantinople are concerned, there was a wide variety of gestures made by the actors of these official encounters. For the tenth century, historians can rely on the precise descriptions made by the famous De cerimoniis. These gestures seem to follow a rigourous order, notably during the very first official encounter between foreign embassies and the basileis. Some are particular and have remained famous, such as the proskynesis or prostration. Nevertheless, two centuries later, at the time of the Comnenian emperors (1081-1185), a period which is being examined in this study, modern scholars miss such a document. Such significant gestures are mentioned in narrative sources – be they Greek or Latin – in such circumstances. Of course, the proskynesis is still in use. It concerns each official visitor facing the emperor, either in the Blachernae or the Great palace in Constantinople, or in the camp of the basileus if the latter is leading a military campaign. A single word refers to different movements. The gesture can range from full prostration to a simple movement of the head. In all circumstances, it illustrates both the respect of the taxis (order) and the superiority associated to the Byzantine sovereign. This last point leads to another observation. Face to the emperor, the exact positioning of the diplomatic guest is often very significant. It is logically close to another delicate aspect of these encounters: the position of sitting down or the one of standing up. Some cases reveal thus the strategic stakes of these encounters and even illustrate the geopolitical ratio of power. At the end of the article, a special attention is devoted to the presence of John II and Manuel I Komnenos in Antioch. As we interpret it, their presence was characterised by some highly humiliating gestures targeting the Latin princes of this city.

This paper focuses on the multiples problems aroused by the analysis of the Latin correspondence between Byzance (Nicaea and post-restoration) and the West (above all the Italian powers) during the thirteenth century.
A philological study that profits of the new discoveries concerning the sources that inspired or conserved these correspondences (summae dictaminis, registers, Italian rhetoric of the Duecento ) leads to two conclusions. Certain well known documents (among them a letter of Frederick II two Vatatzes) are false. Other famous documents (a letter of Andronicus II to the city of Genoa at the beginning of his reign), thought to be normal imperial Byzantine rhetoric, were constructed by Latin notaries that used western rhetoric and western quotes. The letter of Andronicus II is indeed a patchwork of Hohenstaufen Sicilian rhetoric. Thus we can discuss late Byzantium imperial ideology and its links to the Western world in a new perspective : late Byzantium chancery did not hesitate to use Western rhetorical and ideological motives to answer to or dialogue with Western powers, with a notable intercultural fluidity.

Draft of the paper published in Splendore Marciano. Il restauro della legatura già del codice LAT. III, 111 (=2116) della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana di Venezia, a cura di Maria Letizia Sebastiani [e] Paolo Crisostomi, Padova, Nova Charta, 2012 [ISBN 978-88-95047-14-0], pp. 15-25. This paper, published in 2012, anticipates a few conclusions of the book "Antieroe dai molti volti: Giuliano l'Apostata nel Medioevo bizantino", published in 2014.
Il multiforme aspetto della civiltà bizantina è esemplificato nella biblioteca di Bessarione dalla presenza di importanti codici testimonianti la ricchezza e la varietà culturale del mondo in cui il cardinale si era formato. Come metropolita di Nicea era un uomo bizantino formatosi in una civiltà millenaria in cui i classici erano di casa e non c'era stato pertanto un Rinascimento come quello italiano, ma, come uomo del Rinascimento italiano, voleva trarre ispirazione dall'antichità per opere nuove: tra le sue opere, è ancora oggi attiva e funzionante la Biblioteca Marciana.

This article aims at the investigation of the role played by the Normans of Southern Italy and Sicily in the gradual alienation between Byzantines and Latins, a fact that -  together with other factors -  led to the diversion of the Fourth Crusade against Constantinople. There are examined four different, but mutually involved factors.

Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Byzantine and Christian Museum, October 2001-January 2002; Co-editors: E. Papastavrou, M. Evangelatou, P. Skoti; Contributors: Tania Velmans, Werner Seibt, Anna Ballian, Anika Skovran, Elena Papastavrou, etc.

This chapter explores whether the stance of the Komnenian rulers towards the ideology and practice of the Crusade and its political consequences mainly in the region of Syria and Palestine (an area particularly important for the Byzantines, strategically as well as ideologically) was influenced principally by their perception of ‘“holy war’” and the crusading idea, by the Byzantine notion of Christianitas and Romanitas, and the emperor’s responsibilities and obligations, or whether it was shaped each time by the contemporary political conditions. Τhis issue is explored through case studies pertaining to the First and Second Crusades (1096-1099 and 1147-1149, respectively), because these Ccrusades  played a key role in shaping the Eastern Romans’ perceptions and attitudes vis-à-vis the crusading movement.

The book researches the Bēma display of the Cretan churches in a time period spanning from the Byzantine re-conquest of the island (11th c.) until the middle of the Venetian dominance (15th c.). It focuses on the apparition and distribution of the Templon-barrier, the function of a certain group of frescoes as prostration images and the (partial) establishment of fresco-painted masonry screens at the Orthodox churches of the island, just before the prevalence of the “wooden wall of icons”-known as Iconostasis.
This study reveals the artistic and cultic multiplicity of arrangements, consisting of archaism and modernization, until the crystallization of the Iconostasis as the »distinctive feature of churches of the Byzantine rite«, thus a material proof of cultural identity and religious consciousness of the Orthodox populace in an area (Crete) and a period (Venetian rule) that is characterized by both osmosis and conflict.