Università Roma Tre

This first part of the Byzantine Civilization teaching, addressed to Classics, History and Art undergraduates, aims to answer to the following questions: what is Byzantium? What are the benefits of studying it and why do we need to study it? Why is the study of Byzantium important not only to those interested in the Byzantine studies themselves but also to those who are involved with classical philology, Christian studies, archeology, art history and history, in their classical, medieval and modern nature, as well as history of religions and philosophy?
During this teaching we shall give essential and precise diachronic and geographic coordinates, along with clear introductory elements of evenemential history; we will also, but not only, dwell on the long, coherent and manifold civil and cultural life of Byzantium, aiming to reach two primary goals: (1) to let emerge its role in preserving literature, art and a way of studying and thinking, which are essentially what we would nowadays call western civilization and which are the foundation of every sort of humanism, and thus of the study of humanities itself. (2) To cast some light on the millenial Byzantine experiment, not only on the political and religious history of the eleven years in which it developed, but also on the idea of ‘State’ and on the geopolitics’ parable, focusing on the places, in which civilizations met and cultures exchanged, the Byzantine Roman empire had directly or indirectly ruled on.
As customary, a monographic detailed study will be devoted to Byzantine material culture. This year, this study will be about distinctive elements of Byzantine civilisation and iconography: gold working.We will start from mysterious recipes for sharpening precious metals, which are preserved in late antique papyri and proto Byzantine manuscripts - with practical demonstrations- and we will then proceed to analyze the automata of the Magnaura Palace and their functioning enigma, to the pierrerie of the last Palaeologan Basileis offered to us by the painting of the first European Renaissance.

A) Mandatory texts
— S. Ronchey, Lo Stato Bizantino, Torino, Einaudi Tascabili, 2002
— S. Ronchey, Bisanzio fino alla quarta crociata, in A. Barbero e S. Carocci (a cura di), Storia d'Europa e del Mediterraneo, vol. VIII, Roma, Salerno, 2006, pp. 215-255