Online Conference

Echos of an Empire

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02 December 2020 / 18:00 Geçmiş Aktivite

Our knowledge for the different aspects of music in the Byzantine capital comes from a variety of sources, mainly the manuscripts following the style of the Constantinopolitan workshops.

Echos of an Empire is a study of Byzantine visual sources which include daily life objects along with miniatures from manuscripts, representing a rich array of depictions of musical instruments. The subjects vary from court ceremonies to stories about ancient mythology and Christianity.

In order to interpret references to music in the Byzantine Empire’s daily life, this talk will place special emphasis on the iconography of musical instruments building upon the results of Byzantine Musical Instruments Project conducted by Koç University - Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM) and The Friends of Music Society in Athens in collaboration with Koç University Suna Kıraç Library.

Antonios Botonakis is Post-doc fellow at Koç University - Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center For Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM).

The conference will be broadcasted live on Istanbul Research Institute’s Youtube channel.
The conference will be in English.

Image Credits:

  1. Metal dish depicting “The Marriage of David,” Nicosia Museum, J. 452, 7th century.
  2. Miniature depicting “The triumphant entrance of Nikephoros Phokas to Constantinople,” Skylitzes, Synopsis Historia, Madridmanuscript (Vitr/26/2), fol. 145r, 12th century.
  3. Miniature depicting “The correspondents of Darius paying their respects to Alexander the Great,” Alexander Romance, Ven. Inst. Gr. 5, fol. 35r, 14th century.