Mavi Boncuk |Book | Byzantine Magic
Henry Maguire[1]
Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies
BYZANTINE STUDIES, BYZANTINE HISTORY
ISBN: 978-0-88402-340-1, Paperback, 2009, Buy here
ISBN: 978-0-88402-230-5, Hardcover, 1995, Out of print
In recent years considerable attention has been given to magic in the societies of ancient Greece and Rome, of late antiquity, and of the medieval West. Much less attention, however, has been given to the phenomenon of magic in eastern Christendom during the middle ages.
The papers in this volume, written by specialists in several disciplines, explore the parameters and significance of magic in Byzantine society, from the fourth century to after the empire's fall. The authors address a wide variety of questions, some of which are common to all historical research into magic, and some of which are peculiar to the Byzantine context.
Among the topics discussed are the attitudes of the early church fathers toward the evil eye and their efforts to reconcile that belief with orthodox Christian theology, the physical evidence provided by archaeology for magical practices during the early Byzantine period, the concerns raised by the magical use of Christian images and the consequences for the design and presentation of icons, the ambiguous distinctions between holy and unholy miracles found in saints' lives and histories, the reactions of Byzantine intellectuals to the theory and practice of magic, and the changing attitudes toward magic between the late antique and medieval periods as revealed by imperial legislation and canon law. The last two chapters discuss the rich evidence for the continued importance of magic in the late Byzantine period, seen in texts such as practical manuals for magicians and proceedings of trials, and, finally, the transmission of much magical lore as a Byzantine legacy to the Slavs.
The authors reveal the scope, the forms, and the functioning of magic in Byzantine society, throwing light on a hitherto relatively little-known aspect of Byzantine culture, and, at the same time, expanding upon the contemporary debates concerning magic and its roles in pre-modern societies.
[1] Henry Maguire is a former Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks and Professor of Art History at Johns Hopkins University. Henry Maguire (b. Bath, England, 1943.) was a Junior Fellow (1971–1972), a Senior Fellow (1986–1990 and 1991–1996 ex officio), and Visiting Senior Research Associate (1989–1990) of Byzantine Studies; he was Director of Byzantine Studies (1991–1996).
See also:
Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204
Edited by Henry Maguire
Published in Turkish:Bizans Saray Kültürü 829-1204
The imperial court in Constantinople has been central to the outsider’s vision of Byzantium. However, in spite of its fame in literature and scholarship, there have been few attempts to analyze the Byzantine court in its entirety as a phenomenon. The studies in this volume aim to provide a unified composition by presenting Byzantine courtly life in all its interconnected facets.
One important theme that unites these studies is the attention paid to describing the effects of a change in the social makeup of the court during this period and the reflection of these changes in art and architecture. These changes in social composition, mentality, and material culture of the court demonstrate that, as in so many other aspects of Byzantine civilization, the image of permanence and immutability projected by the forms of palace life was more apparent than real. As this new work shows, behind the golden facade of ceremony, rhetoric, and art, there was constant development and renewal.
Imperial Spaces
The Emperor in His Church: Imperial Ritual in the Church of St. Sophia [George P. Majeska]
Gardens of the Palaces [A. R. Littlewood]
Imperial Costumes and Cult Objects
Middle Byzantine Court Costume [Elisabeth Piltz]
Helping Hands for the Empire: Imperial Ceremonies and the Cult of Relics at the Byzantine Court [Ioli Kalavrezou]
Court Culture and Cult Icons in Middle Byzantine Constantinople [Annemarie Weyl Carr]
Interchanges with Foreign Courts
Byzantine Court Culture from the Point of View of Norman Sicily: The Case of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo [William Tronzo]
The Shared Culture of Objects [Oleg Grabar]
Court Intellectuals and Rhetoric
Imperial Panegyric: Rhetoric and Reality [George T. Dennis]
In Search of the Byzantine Courtier: Leo Choirosphaktes and Constantine Manasses [Paul Magdalino]
Social Composition of the Byzantine Court
The Social World of the Byzantine Court [Alexander P. Kazhdan and Michael McCormick]
Title and Income at the Byzantine Court [Nicolas Oikonomides]
Art of the Byzantine Court
Daedalus and the Nightingale: Art and Technology in the Myth of the Byzantine Court [James Trilling]
Présence et figures du souverain à Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople et à l’église de la Sainte-Croix d’Aghtamar [Catherine Jolivet-Levy]
The Heavenly Court [Henry Maguire]
Byzantium, A World Civilization Edited by Angeliki E. Laiou Henry Maguire
ISBN 9780884022152
These seven chapters, originally given as lectures honoring the fiftieth anniversary of Dumbarton Oaks, cover a wide range of topics, from the relationship of Byzantium with its Islamic, Slavic, and Western European neighbors to the modern reception of Byzantine art.
Byzantine Garden Culture Antony Littlewood Henry Maguire Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn
ISBN 9780884022800
Only in the last decade has much serious attention been paid to the Byzantine garden, so indirect is the mass of information, both in literature and the visual arts, that is available for scholars. Byzantine Garden Culture, based on papers delivered at a colloquium at Dumbarton Oaks, is the first book devoted to the subject. Individual essays discuss Byzantine conceptions of paradise, the textual evidence for monastic horticulture, animal and game parks, herbs in medicinal pharmacy, and the famous illustrated copy of Dioskorides’s herbal manual in Vienna. An opening chapter explores questions and observations from the point of view of a non-Byzantine garden historian, and the closing chapter suggests possible directions for future scholarship in the field.
The Study of Byzantine Gardens: Some Questions and Observations from a Garden Historian [Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn]
The Scholarship of Byzantine Gardens [Antony Littlewood]
Paradise Withdrawn [Henry Maguire]
Byzantine Monastic Horticulture: The Textual Evidence [Alice-Mary Talbot]
Wild Animals in the Byzantine Park [Nancy P. Ševčenko]
Byzantine Gardens and Horticulture in the Late Byzantine Period, 1204–1453: The Secular Sources [Costas N. Constantinides]
Theodore Hyrtakenos’ Description of the Garden of St. Anna and the Ekphrasis of Gardens [Mary-Lyon Dolezal and Maria Mavroudi]
Κηποποιϊα [Kepopoiïa]: Garden Making and Garden Culture in the Geoponika [Robert Rodgers]
Herbs of the Field and Herbs of the Garden in Byzantine Medicinal Pharmacy [John Scarborough]
The Vienna Dioskorides and Anicia Juliana [Leslie Brubaker]
Possible Future Directions [Antony Littlewood]