Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-UB)
University of Bucharest
Secțiunea de Științe Umaniste (SSU-ICUB)
Universitatea din București
https://irhunibuc.wordpress.com/
[email protected]
New Europe College (NEC)
http://nec.ro/
[email protected]
Knowledge Unlimited:
Intellectual Curiosity and Innovation in Byzantium
Dates: February 11 and 12, 2016 (Thursday and Friday)
Location: Bucharest, New Europe College, Str. Plantelor 21
Organizers: Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-UB) and New Europe College
(NEC); Divna Manolova (IRH-UB), Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie (University of Bucharest),
Mihnea Dobre (IRH-UB, CELFIS, University of Bucharest)
The workshop focuses on three key notions—knowledge, curiosity, and innovation—and
examines how they were conceptualized in Byzantine learned culture between the ninth and
the fourteenth centuries. Three lectures introduce respective reading-group discussions of
Byzantine texts of the period. In both lectures and reading groups, our goal is to examine how
Byzantine thinkers wrote about knowledge production and acquisition, how they reflected on
their own role in this processes, as well as what the social and political structures
underpinning and facilitating the latter were. We pay particular attention to the ‘limits’ of
knowledge set up by the conventions of Byzantine paideia and problematize them using the
concepts of innovation, progress, and curiosity as hermeneutical tools. In other words, the
aim of the workshop is to elucidate questions such as, for instance:
What kind of knowledge was conceived as acceptable and legitimate in Byzantium, or
in other terms, should knowledge be sought for its own sake or because it leads to
virtue; and consequently, which type of knowledge was considered morally
acceptable?
Could and should one pursue knowledge further than the received view?
Is the discovery of new knowledge possible and, in this respect, is intellectual
progress possible, as well as scientific advancement?
Did the definition of paideia change throughout time and, if yes, did it lead to
redefining the boundaries of what the scholar was supposed to know? Moreover, did
the Byzantine scholars feel necessary to adapt by changing their strategies of selffashioning?
Finally, how was the production and acquisition of knowledge conditioned by
contemporary networks of friendship and patronage, as well as by the scholars’ social
background?
Format
The workshop is structured in three public lectures, each of them introducing a thematicallyconnected reading group. In each reading-session the participants will analyse and discuss a
collection of primary sources and secondary literature. The workshop’s working language is
English.
Invited Speakers
Dr. Aglae Pizzone (University of Southern Denmark, Centre for Medieval Literature),
Prof. Niels Gaul (School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh),
Prof. Margaret Mullett (Professor Emerita of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and
Collection).
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Programme
February 11:
15:00–15:30: Opening Address by Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie
15:30–16:15: Aglae Pizzone, Progress and Innovation at the Patriarchal school in the
Twelfth Century
16:15–16:30: Coffee Break
16:30–19:30: Reading Group #1: Select Excerpts from Eustathios' Oration 7 (ed. Wirth)
for the Patriarch Michael III
Discussion led by Aglae Pizzone
Chair: Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie
Respondent: Margaret Mullett
February 12:
10:00 – 10:45: Divna Manolova, Theodore Metochites on the Advancement of Knowledge
and the Mathematical Sciences
10:45–11:00: Coffee Break
11:00–14:00: Reading Group #2: Theodore Metochites, Semeioseis gnomikai (Select Essays)
Discussion led by Divna Manolova
Chair: Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie
Respondent: Margaret Mullett
14:00–16:00: Lunch Break
16:00–16:45: Niels Gaul, Toward a Sociology of Paideia (ca. 800–1204)
16:45–17:00: Coffee Break
17:00–20:00: Reading Group #3: Select Excerpts from Michael Psellos and Michael
Attaleiates
Discussion led by Niels Gaul
Chair: Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie
Respondent: Margaret Mullett
20:00 – 20:30: Closing Remarks by Margaret Mullett
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