IMC 2023: Sessions

Session 215: Materiality and Immateriality of Information Exchange in Eurasia, 500-1000

Monday 3 July 2023, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Università degli studi di Salerno
Organiser:	Francesca Dell'Acqua, Dipartimento di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale, Università degli Studi di Salerno
Moderator/Chair:	Clemens Gantner, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Paper 215-a	Hearsay concerning Byzantium in Papal Letters to the Carolingians (Language: English) Jeffrey P. A. Berland, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame, Indiana / École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris Index terms: Administration, Archives and Sources, Literacy and Orality, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 215-b	Reading the Elephant: Animals as Geographical Texts in Late Antiquity (Language: English) Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Literacy and Orality, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 215-c	Governing by Writing: The Transmission and Reception of Tang Imperial Edicts (Language: English) Chen Xie, Department of History, University of Birmingham Index terms: Literacy and Orality, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	Why did certain cultures in the period c.600-900 treasure so much calligraphy/written documents? Which writing supports/media did they use? Were they made to last? Why then some important institutions/polities used papyrus (such as the Roman papacy) instead of more durable materials? Was the eventual transmission aimed at within their borders or also directed abroad? Were these documents aimed at transmission down to posterity? Which place had orality and hearsays in China, Persia, Francia, Byzantium, and Italy in c.600-900? Did they use other forms of communication of important information in the political sphere?