Byzantine Documentaries

Well this week my research really only involved tracking down a few videos. I spent a week in Canberra so I was not really going to be doing any indepth research so this week I am continuing with the bits from Britannica, the thesis and also going to be posting up a few general Byzantine Empire documentaries.  The documentaries are long as one would expect so I expect only the really keen to watch them.

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This first documentary is about Constantine the Great. It is a kind of blend between documentary and film so I also intend to post two other documentaries to give some choice and variety. 

This documentary is a more dry affair; It discusses the empire in general, it's history, inception and so on.



And this final one is a lot more show & tell instead of simply tell.


And now back to the regularly scheduled research.

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It was during this time that the codex (book) began to come into popular use, trumping the papyrus scroll. Constantine himself ordered that the scriptures for his new churchs be inscribed upon vellum (a type of fine parchment) and bound in a codex (Ilie 2007 p. 4).

This use of codexs revolutionised libraries; With a stable spine on which to write a title items could be catalogued & organised more quickly & effectively. The codex would become the favoured format for both Christian and Western society.

All in all Constantine was a tremendous supporter and enthusiast for the literary arts as his patronage of them shows. His son however, Constantius, was not the ardent fan that his father had been. Despite his lack of interest the Imperial Library experienced steady growth under his reign (Ilie 2007 p. 5).

The next emperor whom would take up the role of patron and benefactor for the libraries with zeal was Julian the Apostate. Julian, named Apostate for his anti-Christian politics, built a portico to create more space and made considerable additions to the library (Ilie 2007 p. 5).

His unique way of gathering materials for the library even led him to threaten the Bishop George as a means to acquire the Bishop's personal library. During his reign he ordered "that the works of the impious Galileans be destroyed"  referring to works of Christian authors (Ilie 2007 p. 5); From this we can pretty safely say that Christian works were not high on Julian's shopping list and may have in fact helped heat his chambers on those cold drafty days (Ilie 2007 p. 5).

Despite his strong personal views and unique methods for collection acquistion, and thanks to his less interested predecessors, Julian, was to be the Library's greatest benefactor for quite some time.

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'library' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

'Byzantine Empire' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

Ilie, B 2007, 'Libraries and Book Culture of the Empire', Master's, University of North Carolina

 

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Byzantine Fact: Before his death at the hands of Michael II and his supporters Leo V was obsessed with small signs and portents. He was convinced they were signs Michael was going to kill him. I don't suppose being right gave him much consolation in the end.

Half way point

This week in addition to the earlier discovered thesis I took to searching through Britannica Online for any relevant materials. So far Britannica has provided a great deal of information that I can put to use. Unsurprisingly however it doesn't provide a clear breakdown of libraries during the period although it does provide information on how they preserved a great deal of the ancient works that survived to the modern day.
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At the start of this new empire Constantine I modeled it greatly on the fallen empire of old Rome (Ilie 2007 p. 2). Consequently he modeled the new empire's literary culture after that of the old; Latin was the official language of speech and literature in theory if not in practice. Greek, which would, in time, completely replace Latin for the majority of the life of the empire, was still the language of the day to day and continued to be used in books produced.

Constantine's emphasis on literacy and learning would see the creation of the Imperial and Patriarchal (in the religious sense) libraries of the empire.
The old empire's literary culture would become the basis for the development of these new libraries which were inspired by old Rome's many libraries (Ilie 2007 p.2); The great private libraries, including those of Cicero, and the public libraries such as that planned by Julius Caesar that was eventually realised after his death by a man named Gaius Asinius Pollio, a patron of the literary arts (Britannica Online 2012).

Constantine I, and by extension, the empire placed such importance upon literacy and education that the Imperial Library & Patriarchal Library were created at the very inception of the empire. The date of their creation, as Ilie puts it "illustrates the significance the founding emperor placed on them as integral pieces of the new empire."

Constantine was a very generous benefactor for the Imperial Library. Agents were sent across the empire in order to find books with which to fill it (Ilie 2007 p. 4). Indeed by the time of his death in 337 A.D., a mere seven years after the Library was opened, possessed an amazing 6900 volumes (Ilie 2007 p. 4); An astonishing number for a time before print.

These first library institutions were soon joined by two additions; The Academy or University Library and the Law Library (Ilie 2007 p. 3).

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'library' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

'Byzantine Empire' 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, viewed 19 September, 2012

Ilie, B 2007, 'Libraries and Book Culture of the Empire', Master's, University of North Carolina

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A late Byzantine fact update: One emperor, Michael II, began his career as a soldier. Rising through the ranks he would later mastermind a conspiracy that would result in Emperor Leo V the Armenian's death and his own rise to power.

The shape of things to come

This week I chased up a thesis that Donna had found for me on Trove. The Trove link to view it online was broken so I set about searching for it by its title in google.

Given that I knew it was a thesis that was intended to be freely viewable online I reasoned that it would be available to download in several places. So with this logic in mind I searched by its title and found the thesis downloadable from this page.

The thesis I mention is called 'Libraries and Book Culture of the Byzantine Empire'. It deals with the exact same topic I am working on so I expect it to be a great help both for the information it provides and the resources it references in its bibliography.

My plan is to try and track down some of the resources that were used for the thesis and see if there is any of the items available at any of the branchs of my local library.

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Before its division into East and West by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals (these invasions occured in the 2nd & 3rd century A.D) the original Roman Empire was a literary powerhouse of the ancient world.

During the 2nd century the empire still possessed numerous public libraries that stood in testament to the literacy and education of the empire. However by the 4th century the invasions had taken their toll; The empire had been divided and as a Latin scholar in 378 A.D. wrote "the libraries, like tombs, were closed forever".

It was during this period that Constantine the 1st brought into being what we think of today as the Byzantine Empire. Before inaugurating Constantinople as the new seat of the empire he recognized Christianity and began to present himself as Christ's representative on Earth. Christianity was to have a huge impact on this new empire and help shape the form of things yet to come.

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Ilie, B 2007, 'Libraries and Book Culture of the Empire', Master's, University of North Carolina.

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Byzantine Fact: The previous fact directly leads into this week's. Rather then suffer a usurper like Irene to reign as Empress the Pope declared Charlemagne emperor.

Research Brief

Since everyone else seems to have started out with their research brief I think I will as well; It's what all the cool kids are doing.

My subject is the Byzantine Empire and its libraries.

In order to cover this topic I feel I need to provide a context for the information I produce; To this end I intend to cover as my main areas: The transformation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire into what we refer to as the Byzantine Empire, The state and system of libraries in the old Roman Empire, the changes to this system that occurred as part of the Byzantine Empire and how those techniques and systems developed, what materials they collected and what impact this had on how contemporary libraries developed and operate. Another issue I intend to cover is literacy in the Byzantine Empire; With public schools in the old Roman Empire and a strong degree of literacy comparative to later groups I intend to examine how the development of the Byzantine Empire impacted on literacy, whether it helped or hindered. If I get a reasonable amount of information I also intend to examine the politics of literacy in the Empire.

In terms of my intended search strategy I plan to use a range of online databases and encyclopaedias, books on the history of the Byzantines and similar items. Due to the variable reliability that exists in regards to online materials I intend to only use authorised materials such as the databases available through the Swinburne library and other sources whom are known for reliability and accuracy. No Wikipedia as a source, although if any interesting and relevant articles can provide citations I might examine the cited articles for more information.

Ok original brief aside I also intend to chuck in a new random Byzantine fact each week.

Byzantine Fact: The Empress Irene originally served as Regent for her son. Rather then give up power when he came of age she had his eyes put out and then saw to executing anyone else in the family with a claim. Fun lady; Must have been great at parties.