The agrarian history of Byzantium,from the origins to the twelfth century. The sources and problems

The relationship between conquerors and conquered in the Latin Empire of Constantinople has traditionally been understood as a relentlessly hostile one, particularly on the religious level. Whatever its merits, the dominance of this view has sometimes resulted in the gross misinterpretation of important pieces of evidence. This article examines two unusual liturgical texts that were treated by their discoverers as products of a Latin campaign of liturgical proselytism. The texts themselves are bilingual presentations of the Western rite of mass, with Greek and Latin text presented in an interlinear format. Most unusually, the Latin text is written in Greek characters. This article makes the case, due to internal evidence as well as the broader context of ecclesiastical relations in the Latin Empire, that these texts were created by Greek clerics rather than by Latin authorities, and that their purpose was entirely different from that imagined by their discoverers.     

西方古典文献学的名与实

以希腊文、拉丁文为载体的西方古典文献学,希腊文作"philologia"。在近代西方各国学界在根据各自的语言整理、研究古文献藉以溯源其共同的"古代"过程中,西方古典文献学的名称与内容在不同历史时期、不同语境中均曾发生过变化,但总体上的沿革类似于中国古典文献学或传统文献学,即由校雠而校雠学而文献学,最终被冠之以"古典的"则意在强调"希腊、拉丁的"这一属性。     

Neurognostics Question: An American Neurophysiologist,Pioneer of Electromyography,A President of Universities and Scientific Advisor to United States Presidents

The semantics of pain are an important and interesting aspect of any language. Ancient Greek and Latin had multiple words for pain, which makes scrutinizing different meanings problematic. The ancient physician Galen approached this issue through the use of adjectives to describe the qualities for pain, instead of the words for pain themselves. The medical texts of Celsus and Caelius Aurelianus reveal that Latin also vested particular significance in qualifiers to distinguish between different types of pain. This article looks at the qualifying terms used for pain in the ancient Greek and Latin languages to reveal a sophisticated Greco-Roman vocabulary for pain.     

John-Jerome of Prague (1368–1440) and the Errores Graecorum: Anatomy of a Polemic Against Greek Christians

This paper discusses the anti-Greek writings of the Camaldolese John-Jerome of Prague from 1409 to 1433. It demonstrates how his varied experiences in Poland and the Middle East helped shape his views on eastern Christians, and how these views were further affected by the role Greek theology played in the thought of his great opponents, the Hussites. His hostile statements about the Greeks provide some indication of the depth of the antipathy between the two sides, as well as the limited knowledge of many in the Latin West about the details of ecclesiastical history and Greek theology on the eve of the Council of Florence. A discussion of his writings over a quarter century illustrates how John-Jerome's opinions about Greek Christians changed as he experienced different aspects of the relationship between the Latin and Greek churches. It is interesting to compare John-Jerome's views with two contemporaries whom he knew personally, the Camaldolese humanist Ambrogio Traversari and the Greek Dominican theologian Andrew Chrysoberges.     

Partial cranial trephination by means of Hippocrates' trypanon from 5th century BC Himera (Sicily,Italy)

The paper deals with a new case of partial cranial trephination found in one of the necropolises of the Greek colony of Himera in Sicily. It is one of the very few cases of cranial trephination of Greek classical age. Macroscopic as well as radiological investigations prove that the operation was perimortal as no growth of new bone could be detected, SEM‐EDS microanalysis of the piece revealed the traces left by the tool used during trephination. The review of ancient Greek and Latin medical and surgical texts permitted us to establish that the tool used in Himera was a (trypanon) mentioned by Hippocrates and named terebra by Latin authors. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on the death of Leo Sgurus in A.D. 1208

Abstract

Leo Sgurus, archon and ‘tyrant’ of Argolis and Corinthia from c.1200 with an impressive career in the period until c.1208, succeeded in establishing an extensive albeit short-lived Territorialstaat in the NE Peloponnesus following the Latin capture of Constantinople on 12/13 April 1204 and the subsequent Latin onslaught in Greek territories. Truly among the most outstanding figures of the late Byzantine era, Sgurus has been characterized by Dionysios A. Zakythenos as one of the last 'defenders of Greek independence’ following the Frankish conquest of 1204, for this local archon seems to have constituted the sale realistic hope of the mainland Greece populations for an effective stance against the marching crusaders of Boniface of Montferrat, though, as the late George Kolias observed thirty years ago, he unwisely directed his activities rather against his compatriots than against the Latin invader. Yet, it has recently been said by Michael J. Angold that Sgurus ‘almost certainly enjoyed local backing in his expeditions’.     

Medieval Descriptions and Doctrines of Stroke: Preliminary Analysis of Select Sources. Part I: The Struggle for Terms and Theories - Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (300-800)

This first of a series of papers on the history of stroke presents an examination of a number of exemplary Greek and Latin sources, ranging from late antiquity to the dawn of the Middle Ages. We first establish a chronological order of various groups of texts and, whenever possible, ascertain the relationship of one group of writings to another. In the second century A.D., Galen had used the Hippocratic concept of humoral imbalance as a fundamental explanatory mechanism for the interpretation of clinical manifestations of apoplexy. Galen definitely rejected the Aristotelian precept of the primacy of the heart. According to his teaching, stroke resulted from the accumulation of a thick and dense humor in the ventricles of the brain blocking the passage of the animal spirit. Galen's Greek texts became axiomatic for compilers of the Byzantine period (Aetius of Amida, Alexander of Tralles, Paulus of Aegina). But his ideas contrasted starkly with the theories of the Methodical School which exerted – through the Latin writings of Caelius Aurelianus – a certain influence on authors of the Latin West (Cassius Felix, Theodorus Priscianus). References to stroke can also be found in many theological writings of the early Middle Ages.     

The renaissance in Switzerland

The geographical position of Switzerland made contact with Renaissance manifestations in Italy and Germany easy even if the country was too small and poor for notable buildings or works of art. Participation in the wars in north Italy increased interest in military and governmental aspects of the Renaissance.Basel was an early centre for printing, and its presses, particularly when intelligently directed by the Amerbach family and by Froben, contributed largely to the availability of Greek and Latin texts.Erasmus lived for many years in Basel and attracted numerous scholars - Bär, Glarean, Capito, Beatus Rhenanus, Vadian, Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Myconius wrote near-classical Latin and all had some knowledge of Greek. Konrad Witz, Manuel, Urs Graf and Asper were painters of repute: Dürer and Holbein did some of their work in Basel.The Swiss cities, Basel, Zurich, St Gall, Glarus and Bern, encouraged scholarship and education: with Tschudi, Justinger, Schilling and Anshelm, a new approach to the writing of history was possible. Paracelsus and Gessner made contributions to medicine and natural science.     

Gender Inequality in Asset Ownership in Latin America: Female Owners vs Household Heads

Most studies that incorporate a gender dimension into the study of poverty or other development outcomes focus on the sex of the household head. This article argues that a headship analysis gives only a partial view of gender inequality since it does not take into account the position of women within male‐headed households. Drawing primarily on the Living Standard Measurement Studies for Latin America and the Caribbean, the authors present baseline indicators of the degree of gender inequality in asset ownership for the eleven countries in the region that have collected individual‐level data on asset ownership. Disaggregated data on asset ownership within households suggest that the distribution of property by gender is more equitable than a headship analysis alone would imply. But the degree of gender inequality also varies according to the specific asset and among countries. Further comparative work on asset ownership requires attention to the marital regimes governing property rights in marriage. Finally, the authors suggest how household surveys could be improved by standardizing the collection of individual‐level asset data across countries.     

The renaissance in Switzerland

The geographical position of Switzerland made contact with Renaissance manifestations in Italy and Germany easy even if the country was too small and poor for notable buildings or works of art. Participation in the wars in north Italy increased interest in military and governmental aspects of the Renaissance.Basel was an early centre for printing, and its presses, particularly when intelligently directed by the Amerbach family and by Froben, contributed largely to the availability of Greek and Latin texts.Erasmus lived for many years in Basel and attracted numerous scholars - Bär, Glarean, Capito, Beatus Rhenanus, Vadian, Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Myconius wrote near-classical Latin and all had some knowledge of Greek. Konrad Witz, Manuel, Urs Graf and Asper were painters of repute: Dürer and Holbein did some of their work in Basel.The Swiss cities, Basel, Zurich, St Gall, Glarus and Bern, encouraged scholarship and education: with Tschudi, Justinger, Schilling and Anshelm, a new approach to the writing of history was possible. Paracelsus and Gessner made contributions to medicine and natural science.     

Arabs,Latins and Persians bearing gifts: Greek translations of astrolabe treatises,ca. 1300 D. M. Angeliki E. Laiou

Abstract

Although translation of foreign literature was rare in Byzantium, in c. 1300 three Greek translations of treatises on using the astrolabe appeared, two from Latin and one from Persian or Arabic; all three are assessed in terms of Greek style and significance for Byzantine culture. The Islamic treatise translated by Shams al-Din al-Bukhari includes a translator's preface, edited in full and translated into English here for the first time. In the preface, Shams describes a deluxe astrolabe sent to Andronikos II with the treatise in the hope, it is argued, of some personal benefit in return.     

Gregory IX's attempted expeditions to the Latin Empire of Constantinople: the crusade for the union of the Latin and Greek churches

Gregory IX's crusade (1236–1240) to safeguard the Latin Empire was the last expedition sponsored by the papacy before the fall of the Latin state in 1261. Like his predecessors, Innocent III and Honorius III, Gregory believed that an expedition against his fellow Christians was necessary to safeguard the land route to the Holy Land and to protect the Latin Empire itself. Gregory also shared with Innocent and Honorius the belief that this was a divinely appointed policy, symbolized by God giving the Greek Empire into Latin hands in retribution for Greek schismstic beliefs. But Gregory's policy had another facet to its justification. He accused the supporters of the Greeks, in particular John II Asen, king of Bulgaria, of sheltering heretics and of allowing a climate in which heresy could flourish. Gregory evolved a method of justifying war against the Greeks and their supporters analogous to that used elsewhere in Europe against those who sheltered heretics. He threatened the guilty with the loss of their lands under the provisions of the Fourth Lateran Council canon, Excommunicamus. To make the theoretical concrete, Gregory tried to form two expeditions, one composed of Europeans, the other of Hungarians and even Bulgarians, against the emperor of Nicaea. But the expeditions failed and Gregory's rationale for warring against the Greeks was not utilized by his immediate successors to the pontifical throne.     

Tourist,local, or other?: Greek Canadian women and the heritage fling in Greece

This article examines the romantic and sexual encounters between Greek men and Greek Canadian women vacationing in Greece and addresses how constructions of Greek Canadian female sexuality are related to foreign and local Greek conceptions of femininity during these ‘holiday flings’. Because of their Greek ancestry, Mediterranean ‘looks’, and familiarity with language and culture, Greek Canadian women exhibit ambiguous identities that uphold and cross boundaries between outsiders and insiders. Drawing on long-term fieldwork, I explore the conceptualizations of ancestral and national identity underpinning Greek women's erotic desires for Greek man who embody ethnic authenticity to them. Yet, Greek men thwart these desires when they subvert Canadian women's economic power through challenging their cultural literacy (such as a lack in language skills, etiquette, or sexual knowledge). This article addresses the question of how diasporic women's heterosexuality subjectivities – bound up with hybrid ethnic and national affiliations – take on different meanings across locales and times where transnational sex and romance are everyday occurrences.     

Gregory IX's attempted expeditions to the Latin Empire of Constantinople: the crusade for the union of the Latin and Greek churches

Gregory IX's crusade (1236–1240) to safeguard the Latin Empire was the last expedition sponsored by the papacy before the fall of the Latin state in 1261. Like his predecessors, Innocent III and Honorius III, Gregory believed that an expedition against his fellow Christians was necessary to safeguard the land route to the Holy Land and to protect the Latin Empire itself. Gregory also shared with Innocent and Honorius the belief that this was a divinely appointed policy, symbolized by God giving the Greek Empire into Latin hands in retribution for Greek schismstic beliefs. But Gregory's policy had another facet to its justification. He accused the supporters of the Greeks, in particular John II Asen, king of Bulgaria, of sheltering heretics and of allowing a climate in which heresy could flourish. Gregory evolved a method of justifying war against the Greeks and their supporters analogous to that used elsewhere in Europe against those who sheltered heretics. He threatened the guilty with the loss of their lands under the provisions of the Fourth Lateran Council canon, Excommunicamus. To make the theoretical concrete, Gregory tried to form two expeditions, one composed of Europeans, the other of Hungarians and even Bulgarians, against the emperor of Nicaea. But the expeditions failed and Gregory's rationale for warring against the Greeks was not utilized by his immediate successors to the pontifical throne.     

Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, 1207–post 1239

A fresh look at the few sources concerning Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, within the context of the recently revised history of the rule of Count Maio on the island, reveals that this first Latin bishop was a relative of the count who had an eventful and colourful rule lasting over 32 years. This chronological survey of Benedetto’s tenure illustrates the transition from a Greek to a Latin episcopacy in Frankish Greece, the restructuring of the Church following the Fourth Lateran Council, the shifting allegiances of the secular powers, and finally the problems caused by the frequently unlettered and scandalous resident prelates who ruled during the first decades after the Fourth Crusade: Benedetto was accused of simony, ignorance, negligence and sexual incontinence.     

Rentiers,teachers and workers: Greek women in late nineteenth-century Odessa

Abstract

This article sheds light on a neglected aspect of the Greek paroikia of Odessa, its female component, in the late imperial period. By revisiting the 1897 All-Russian Census, it offers an insight into the demographic and social features of Greek women, and depicts their occupational position. It shows that middle-class and working women formed the majority of the Greek female workforce and suggests that their participation or non-participation in the labour market depended on the ability of the male breadwinner to support his household financially.     

Towards a Critical Anthology of Pre-Modern Bosom Serpent Folklore

We present a preview of our work for a critical anthology of medieval and pre-medieval fantastic folklore narratives about animals in the human body. These are generally referred to among English-speaking scholars as ‘bosom serpent’ legends. In particular, we provide here two of the most ancient texts from the section of the anthology on medieval Scandinavia. We also offer two little-known narratives, a medieval Latin saint’s life and one from the Byzantine Greek world.     

Barbarian interest in the Excerpta Latina Barbari

Joseph Justus Scaliger dubbed the text of Parisinus Latinus 4884, the sole surviving witness to a Merovingian Latin translation of a now lost Greek world chronicle, the Excerpta Latina Barbari. The name was essentially a judgement on the linguistic abilities of the translator, but it is suggestive. What is there in the chronicle to appeal to the ‘barbarian’ inhabitants of Gaul? An answer to this question can offer some insight into the provenance of a neglected, but intriguing text. It will be proposed that the Greek original of the Excerpta was composed as a gift for the Austrasian king Theudebert I and was intended to elicit his aid in the war against the Ostrogothic rulers of Italy. The translation is another matter. It seems to have been undertaken about two centuries later in the context of the missionary push to the north and east from Frankish territory.