Inscribing Texts in Byzantium: Continuities and Transformations

By Jas Elsner, Ida Toth, Marek Jankowiak, Anne McCabe, Paschalis Androudis, Emmanuel Moutafov, Pamela Armstrong, Georgios Pallis, Nicholas Melvani, Foteini Spingou, Georgios Deligiannakis, Andreas Rhoby, Antonio, Enrico Felle, Niels Gaul, Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou-Seibt, Brad Hostetler, Arkadiy Avdokhin, Maria Lidova, and Paweł Nowakowski
The 49th Spring Symposium of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies INSCRIBING TEXTS IN BYZANTIUM: CONTINUITIES AND TRANSFORMATIONS 18-20 March 2016, Exeter College, Oxford In spite of the striking abundance of extant primary material – over 4000 Greek texts produced in the period between the sixth and fifteenth centuries – Byzantine Epigraphy remains largely uncharted territory, with a reputation for being elusive and esoteric that obstinately persists. References to inscriptions in our texts show how ubiquitous and deeply engrained the epigraphic habit was in Byzantine society, and underscore the significance of epigraphy as an auxiliary discipline. The growing interest in material culture, including inscriptions, has opened new avenues of research and led to various explorations in the field of epigraphy, but what is urgently needed is a synthetic approach that incorporates literacy, built environment, social and political contexts, and human agency. The SPBS Symposium 2016 has invited specialists in the field to examine diverse epigraphic material in order to trace individual epigraphic habits, and outline overall inscriptional traditions. In addition to the customary format of panel papers and shorter communications, the Symposium will organise a round table, whose participants will lead a debate on the topics presented in the panel papers, and discuss the methodological questions of collection, presentation and interpretation of Byzantine inscriptional material.