Through the Looking Glass: Byzantium through British Eyes: Papers from the Twenty-Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, KingÆs College, London, March 1995

by Cormack,Robin

• ISBN13: 9780860786672
• ISBN10: 0860786676
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-01-05
• Publisher: Variorum

Summary

The papers in this volume derive from the 29th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. This was held for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies in the University of London in March 1995, in order to complement the British Museum exhibition 'Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture'.The objective of the symposium was to explore the ways in which British scholars, travellers, novelists, architects, churchmen and critics came into contact with Byzantium, and how they perceived what they saw. The present volume sets out some of the results of this enquiry. Byzantium is treated both as a source of influence on British culture as well as an 'idea' which British culture constructed in different ways in different periods of history. To give some comparative context, attention is also paid to attitudes towards Byzantium in continental Europe.Papers deal, amongst other topics, with the collecting of objects representative of Byzantine culture and with the changing appreciation of Byzantine manuscripts. They also include a series of case studies of individual historians and Byzantinists, and two deal in particular with Ruskin, who emerges as a perceptive 19th-century critic of Byzantine culture.Through the Looking Glass is volume 7 in the series published by Ashgate/Variorum on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
List of Abbreviations	viii
List of Figures	ix
Preface	xii
Introduction	1	(8)
Robin Cormack
Section I Encounters with places
Byzantine `purple' and Ruskin's St Mark's, Venice	9	(14)
Michael Wheeler
Twin reflections of a Byzantine city: Monemvasia as seen Robert Weir Schultz and Sidney H. Barnsley in 1890	23	(22)
Haris Kalligas
The Great Palace dig: the Scottish perspective	45	(12)
Mary Whitby
The British contribution to fieldwork in Byzantine studies in the twentieth century: an introductory survey	57	(12)
David Winfield
Section II Encounters with books
The distorting mirror: reflections on the Queen Melisende Psalter (London, B.L., Egerton 1139)	69	(16)
Barbara Zeitler
Byzantium perceived through illuminated manuscripts: now and then	85	(22)
John Lowden
From Britain to Byzantium: the study of Greek manuscripts	107	(14)
Patricia Easterling
Greek scribes in England: the evidence of episcopal registers	121	(6)
Jonathan Harris
Fair exchange? Old manuscripts for new printed books	127	(8)
Colin Davey
The Gospels of Jakov of Serres (London, B.L., Add. MS 39626), the family Brankovic and the Monastery of St Paul, Mount Athos	135	(12)
Zaga Gavrilovic
Section III Interpreters
`A Gentleman's Book': attitudes of Robert Curzon	147	(16)
Robin Cormack
Bury, Baynes and Toynbee	163	(14)
Averil Cameron
O. M. Dalton: `ploughing the Byzantine furrow'	177	(8)
Christopher Entwistle
R. M. Dawkins and Byzantium	185	(14)
Peter Mackridge
Section IV Other perspectives
Du Cange and Byzantium	199	(12)
Jean-Michel Spieser
Pyotr Ivanovich Sevastianov and his activity in collecting Byzantine objects in Russia	211	(12)
Olga Etinhof
Section V Encounters with the imagined Byzantium
Simpering Byzantines, Grecian goldsmiths et al.: some appearances of Byzantium in English poetry	223	(14)
David Ricks
`As the actress said to the bishop...': the portrayal of Byzantine women in English-language fiction	237	(14)
Liz James
Index	251