This article is devoted to a brief Cyrillic text, known as “Polish Chronicle”. Presently kept in the library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, it was included in a 16th century Tetraevangelium (BAR, Ms. sl. 722). Only a small part of the text has survived, as the rest of the folio was cut off. It is a local chronicle from Galicia (then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) recording various events, most of which pertain to Polish-Tatar relations. From the surviving fragment, one may conclude that it is a kind of sylva rerum – a form of chronicle writing which was popular in that region and during this era. Although the text is brief and poorly preserved, I believe that researchers should be familiar with it.
In this paper, I will focus on the images of Constantinople’s past glory in literary texts written between the fifteenth and seventeenth century in vernacular Greek to express the sorrow after the fall of the City in 1453. To depict the images of Constantinople in the collective memory of the Greeks, I am going to discuss the following anonymous vernacular laments: Ἀνακάλημα τῆς Κωνσταντινόπολης, Ἅλωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Θρήνος και κλαυθμός περί της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως and Θρῆνος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. The four texts deserve attention not only for linguistic and literary reasons, but also for providing a number of interesting insights into the relationship between the East and West and the way the Greeks perceived the past glory of Byzantium. For further exemplification, I will also use some monodies written in a rhetorical style in classicizing Greek. The comparative analysis will reveal common patterns of perception of Constantinople’s past glory in the Greek world after the fall of the City, as well as common ways in which Constantinople was conceptualised in the post-Byzantine period, in various, sometimes distant regions of the Greek world, where the City had already been largely perceived in mythical terms.
The depiction of Isaac II Angelos in the History of Niketas Choniates, rounded off with the full description of the emperor in the final paragraph of the account on his first reign (1185–1195), is by far the most complex of all imperial portrayals penned by the respectable historian. The outdated, typically negative image of Isaac II in modern historiography is based only on the surface level of Choniates’ intricate historical narrative, which has been analyzed in greater depth only in the more recent studies. As this paper shall hopefully demonstrate, despite of all literary distortion of his personality, Isaac II remains the most realistically represented character in the History, and the most tangible one, embodying the author’s philosophical-anthropological thought on human nature. The aforementioned description represents a set of authentic body features that meet the criteria of the Byzantine (male) beauty ideal, but it possibly connotes additional meaning, thus making the overall portrayal of Isaac II in the History uniquely complete.
It is well known that the foundations of Church organization were established by the Holy Apostles themselves, who were the first to spread the teachings of Christ. They fulfilled this mission in accordance with the command of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18–19), as they traveled to various regions to establish Christian communities. Initially, each Christian community, led by its bishop, constituted a distinct ecclesiastical unit, which may be regarded as the prototype of the modern local autocephalous Churches. The existence of multiple, distinct, and independent local Churches does not hinder conciliarity within the Church. On the contrary, the major issues concerning the life of the entire Church were historically resolved through conciliar processes. With the recognition of Christianity as a legally equal religion under Emperor Constantine the Great, the organization of Church dioceses began to mirror the administrative divisions of the Roman Empire. By the 4th century, this alignment was fully realized. In the centuries that followed, the structuring of local Churches developed gradually, shaped by historical circumstances.
The paper proposes numerous possible changes to the French translation of the chronicle of Al-Anṭākī. The proposed corrections are based on Arabic editions (including neglected variant readings of the manuscripts) and the author’s Polish translation of the said chronicle.
Recent research into the history of the transmission of Zonaras’ Chronicle in the Slavic Orthodox World has shown that three short redactions of it were compiled from the so-called full Slavic redaction, an abridged version of the Greek original. Only one of those redactions, known as Paralipomenon, has been published and studied. Dating back to the beginning of the 16th century, it survives in a Russian copy (Moscow, Russian State Library, depository 113, MS Volokolamskij 655, ff. 1–122v). The second short redaction has been preserved in two Serbian manuscripts (Belgrade, Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church, MS 42, ff. 125r–221v, the second fourth of 15th century around 1430/1440) and Cavtat, Collection of Baltazar Bogišič, MS 52, 1st section ff. 1–83v, the third fourth of the 16th century. The third short redaction is preserved in a draft copy, kept in the library in Zograph monastery under № 105 and dated 1433. This redaction is in its structure and segmentation based on the text of the second short redaction. However, it contains a large number of interpolations taken mostly from the prophetologion. The article reveals links between these two redactions and attempts to prove that Constantine of Kostenets was involved in the compilation of both of them. The relevant evidence is provided by editorial remarks that follow the text of the Chronicle. The remarks were copied into both the Belgrade 42 and Cavtat 52 manuscripts by mistake. The excerpted and analyzed linguistic material undoubtedly confirms Constantine’s intervention in both redactions.
Constantine of Preslav’s Učitel’noe evangelie was written at the end of the ninth century but came down to us in only four full, much later, copies from the twelfth (the single East Slavonic manuscript [S]) to the fourteenth century (the other three South Slavonic manuscripts [G, H, W]). Copies are both scarce and distant in time and place as well as different in script from their lost (Glagolitic) protograph, with the result that scribal errors are inevitable, yet not always noted. The article proposes three methodological approaches to reconstruct some of the lexemes distorted by the manuscript tradition, even in passages without an attested Greek source text. The first approach relies on variant readings in situations that lack a Greek parallel. In cases that lack variant readings, the second method is applied, which considers references and allusions to Biblical or patristic texts to elucidate the meaning behind sometimes incomprehensible phrases. The third approach counts on the very meaning of the respective portion of text (i.e., the direct context of a word) and the rhetorical techniques used in it.
The principal objective of this study is to investigate the demographic and economic parameters that shaped the settlement dynamics of medieval Central Greece (Sterea Hellas) over a broad chronological span extending from the 12th to the 16th century. Given the fragmentary and often insufficient nature of surviving Byzantine-era sources, the most effective means of avoiding vague generalizations is to adopt a long-term analytical perspective, using the comparatively rich Ottoman data from the mid-15th to the 16th century as a basis for retrospective interpretation. Throughout this period, the spatial organization of the region – particularly the contrast between the mountainous and semi-mountainous zones of Aetoloakarnania and Evrytania and the lowland plains of Fthiotida – profoundly influenced patterns of agricultural production and pastoral activity. Documentation from the late Byzantine period regarding settlement structures remains limited, with narrative sources, primarily historiographical in nature, offering only sporadic and anecdotal references. By contrast, the Ottoman fiscal censuses (tahrir defters) provide a far more systematic dataset, recording local tax revenues and offering detailed information on the composition of the taxable population, thus enabling a more grounded reconstruction of settlement and economic patterns in the region. The available evidence points to a relatively smooth transition following the establishment of Ottoman rule in the region. In this context, the consolidation of political authority contributed to the stabilization and even revitalization of the local urban network and the broader settlement landscape, suggesting that the process of Ottoman integration fostered a degree of continuity and structural reinforcement rather than abrupt disruption.
This study examines the transformation of Ottoman attitudes toward night warfare from the late thirteenth to the late fifteenth century. By analyzing the evolving organization and composition of the Ottoman military, it demonstrates that, beginning with the reign of Murad I, Ottoman leadership gradually abandoned night-time offensive engagements. Instead, nocturnal activity was increasingly confined to intimidation and psychological pressure rather than direct combat. The paper attributes this shift to several interconnected developments. Most notably, the growing differentiation of military functions reassigned rapid raiding operations to frontier forces, reducing the central army’s reliance on such tactics. At the same time, the expanding prominence of infantry units, together with the establishment of specialized logistical formations, diminished the army’s overall mobility and made coordinated night assaults less feasible. Finally, the integration of gunpowder weaponry, including handheld firearms and artillery, further discouraged nocturnal operations, as the transport and use of such equipment compromised both stealth and tactical surprise.
The article examines the important topic of the limits of interpretation when studying medieval sources through the prism of a particular example taken from the History of George Akropolites. Without sufficient information to establish the facts, scholars often resort to analyzing separate words and expressions from the source text, whose translation and interpretation may prove decisive in clarifying the information contained within it. As the present paper demonstrates, however, the possibilities of this approach are sometimes limited and do not always allow the study to be carried out to completion. In such cases, it is crucial to clearly distinguish between irrefutable conclusions, on the one hand, and assumptions, on the other. The superimposition of a number of hypotheses and a historical reconstruction based on them may lead to long-term negative consequences for researching a given scientific problem by giving inaccurate ideas about historical events, phenomena and processes, and may mislead the next generations of historians.
This article presents (a) a critical edition of two still unedited Byzantine canons of the Matins and (b) a re-edition of two Byzantine and post-Byzantine canons, all dedicated to Saints Constantine and Helena. Additionally, this article constitutes a continuation and a supplement of a previous publication of ours entitled The Hymnography in Honour of Saints Constantine and Helena and its Connection with Imperial Ideology, published in “Studia Ceranea” 13, 2023.
The article is an attempt to analyse the references used in Theophanes’ Chronography regarding the last rightly guided caliph, ‘Ali. Despite the importance that this ruler ultimately acquired in the historiography of Islam, the Chronography references do not confirm this at all. Theophanes did not even recognize him as a legitimate ruler. He presented ‘Ali as a usurper who had lost the war with Mu‘awiya. Moreover, he appears in these fragments as a man supported either by the “desert people” or by the Persians, elements alien to the core of the new Muslim state, which for Theophanes seems to be Syria and Egypt. The differences in the presentation of Mu‘awiya’s victor by the Byzantine historian and the Abbasid historiography, as well as the contradictions between Theophanes’ version and those presented by Syriac sources, suggest that Theophanes may have presented the Umayyad version of events in certain fragments of his work regarding intra-Islamic conflicts.
Medieval Bulgaria maintained relations with the Pontic nomadic communities. The times of the rule of the Komitopules were not exceptional in this respect. In the face of a difficult war with Byzantium, the Hungarians and Pechenegs could prove to be valuable allies. Relations with the former deteriorated during the construction of the feudal kingdom of the Arpads, associated with Latin Christianity. Only John Skylitzes writes about the would-be alliance of the Bulgarians with the Pecheneg tribes. It was supposed to take place in 1017, but the Pechenegs gave up supporting the Bulgarians. The reason could have been the actions of the Byzantines, who, by intervening in Black Sea Khazaria or exerting diplomatic pressure, could have persuaded the Pechenegs to withdraw. It cannot be ruled out that the Pechenegs were threatened by Rus’ or actions taken by Bolesław I the Brave, who after the mission of St. Bruno entered into closer relations with the Pechenegs. After all, Bulgaria after 1017 could not count on the support of potential northern allies.
Le présent article est le quatrième et dernier d’une série de travaux qui a pour but de contribuer à documenter la fortune de la théorie médicale des complexions individuelles, dérivée de la théorie des quatre humeurs, à travers l’œuvre majeure que constitue l’Iconologia de l’humaniste italien Cesare Ripa (1555-1622). Nous avons étudié ici l’allégorie de la complexion sanguine dont la primauté sur les trois autres est explicitement établie dans la tradition médicale Nous avons analysé au travers des attributs allégoriques mentionnés dans le texte (jeunesse, allégresse, couronne de fleurs, visage rubicond mêlé de blanc, luth, livre de musique ouvert, bélier broutant une grappe de raisin), la manière dont Ripa s’emploie à rendre compte de cet idéal de santé. Nous avons montré que l’auteur s’écarte légèrement du canon médical. En premier lieu, l’importante synthèse qu’il fait de la doctrine le conduit à introduire quelques dissonances pathologiques perceptibles dans l’utilisation de termes inadaptés. En second lieu, pour rendre compte d’un caractère bien tempéré, il préfère épouser une tradition littéraire antique qui, néanmoins, entretient elle-même depuis ses origines des liens très étroits avec le corpus hippocratique. Il apparaît enfin que le Sanguigno per l’aria ne comporte aucune invention symbolique semblable à ce que nous avions relevé auparavant dans le Flemmatico et le Malenconico.
This study explores the theme of magic and demons in the anti-heretical Letter written by Euthymius, an 11th-century monk from the Monastery of Theotokos Perivleptos in Constantinople. The Letter was aimed at his fellow countrymen from Acmonia and primarily targeted the Phundagiagites, also known as the Bogomils, along with the Armenians. Given the significant role of the demonic nature of heresies in his accusations, it is crucial to examine the Christian Church’s perception of how heretics are believed to communicate with demons. The paper argues that Euthymius used accusatory arguments about demons in two main ways: first, through a general characterisation of heresies, and second, by recounting several fictional stories involving levitation, lycanthropy, lecanomancy, and teleportation. It aims to provide an interpretation of three of these stories that have been previously misunderstood or overlooked in research: the desecration of a newly constructed church by a priest at Hieron, the lecanomancy involving teleportation performed by a magus for the heretic Lycopetros, and the unsuccessful attempt at teleportation by Terevinthos. By analysing these cases, the author aims to deepen our understanding of the rhetorical strategy of heresiological texts, which incorporate narratives about sacrilege, magic, and demons to condemn heresies.
This paper discusses two possible hydronyms of Ancient Crete. The first question refers to a Cretan river flowing along the boundaries of the ancient city of Lato (IC I, XVI, 5, line 67). It is suggested that the epigraphical phrase καὶ κατὰ ποταμόν “and along a river” should be correctly rendered as καὶ κατὰ Ποταμόν “and along [the river] Potamós”. The ancient river in question is commonly identified as the river called Potamós (or tou Merabéllou to Potámi or Xiropótamos or Xeropótamos ton Potámon), which flowed from the Dicte mountains to the Merabello Bay. It is suggested that the East Cretans preserved the ancient name Ποταμός (literally ‘River’) for more than two millennia. The second problem relates to the Hesychian gloss: †ἀλλάθαρον· ἁλμυρόν. Κρῆτες (“allátharon: something salty. Cretans”). This is a compound noun containing the Greek term ἅλς m. ‘salt’ in the former part and the Anatolian *u̯atharu n. ‘well, spring, source’ (cf. Hittite u̯attaru) in the latter one. The Hesychian gloss may alternatively be interpreted as a proper name Ἀλλάθαρον, which originally denoted a Cretan saltwater source (and river) called Αλμυρός/Αρμυρός in modern times.
In 1581, Alexandre Sylvain Van den Bussche published in Paris his most significant work, Épitomes de cent histoires tragiques, a collection formally indebted to Seneca the Elder’s Controversiae. The thematic material is derived both from classical and contemporary sources, while also reflecting the inventive capacity of an erudite author who freely appropriates ancient exempla in order to illuminate the realities of the sixteenth century. Each epitome is structured in three parts: an initial exposition of the case, followed by two opposing orations articulating pro et contra positions. Of particular scholarly interest is the judicial discourse that subjects the act of homicide to moral evaluation. In this context, one observes – often with considerable astonishment – the paradoxical construction of the speaker’s ethos (whether as prosecutor or advocate), the deployment of a rigorously organized network of arguments and rhetorical figures, and the calculated appeal to the affective disposition of the reader, who assumes the role of witness to a simulated trial. Through these strategies, the author foregrounds a striking form of axiological relativism. Such a procedure deliberately destabilizes the interpretive horizon of the audience, compelling them to interrogate values that might otherwise appear self-evident. It provokes a series of unsettling questions: must the individual who has killed with premeditation necessarily be judged guilty? Are we confronted with sophistic reasoning? Can the author be regarded as a neutral arbiter? Ultimately, it is the reader who bears the responsibility of exercising critical initiative in the search for answers.
