| Paper 1601-a | The Greek Manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, gr. 3032) and the Study of Rhetoric in Byzantine Southern Italy
(Language: English)
Minqi Chu, École doctorale Mondes Antiques et Médiévaux, Sorbonne Université, Paris
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Education, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Rhetoric |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
Paul Lemerle's research has shown us the well-developed educational system and its functions in Byzantium specifically in Constantinople during the 9th to 11th centuries. But in Southern Italy, especially in Calabria and Sicily, a border far from the capital, the educational situation is significantly different. The local education provided basic trainings, that is, the προπαιδεία and the study of grammar. The Greek hagiographies show that local saints in the 9th-11th centuries received only sacred elementary education (ἱερὰ γράμματα). And a number of Greek grammatical and lexical manuscripts indicate the dynamics of grammar teaching there. However, the advanced training such as the rhetoric is very rare, the principal trace we could see before the Norman period is the Greek manuscript Paris, gr. 3032 containing the Corpus of Hermogenes, copied in the 10th century by the circle of St Neilos of Rossano. Our analysis will focus on the production and circulation of this manuscript, in order to show the differences in the learning and teaching of rhetoric between the Capital and the border.
Paper -b:
This paper will examine the correspondences among the codicological features and antidotes found in St Gall 751 and the other 9th-century medical manuscripts identified as originating in Italy to identify possible connections and lines of transmission (Beccaria, 1956; Bischoff, 1984). Some of these manuscripts have been located to specific centres, while others, such as St Gall 751 and 217, have not been associated with a centre of production. Comparing antidotes, the kinds of substitutions, and the language of the antidotes, may provide more information as to the possible locations of production of these manuscripts and aid in understanding the role of Carolingian Italy in transmitting medical knowledge to northern Europe.
Paper -c:
The conversion of the Carantani took off a century before the advent of Cyrillus and Methodius. Unlike them, the Bavarian missionaries did not leave behind much literary evidence of their activities. The only prominent remains of their mission are the Freising monuments from the time of bishop Abraham (957-994). Recently, I came across four Carolingian fragments from Carinthia which were discovered more than 60 years ago and were only investigated superficially. Freising was an active player in the Carantanian missionary field, but tangible evidence is scarce. The reinvestigation of the fragments is an important step in the reconstruction of the Bavarian and more specific Freising missionary efforts in the territory of the Carantani as they form tangible and practical evidence of missionary activity.
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