The Thematic Session addresses critical issues regarding Learning and Education in Byzantium (4th-15th centuries) and beyond. Innovative insights will be offered on the basis of the sources, through the examination of Greek manuscripts and new readings of rhetorical works, epistles, and works of a pedagogical character. The Session focuses on the relationship between teachers and pupils, on the curriculum offered in various aspects of education, and on practices of learning in Byzantium and beyond. The thematic session will elaborate on: (a) Pedagogical practices regarding the critical edition of classical texts in the early Palaeologan period. The focus will be on the efforts of George of Cyprus, a teacher of rhetoric, to collect and correct, with the assistance of his promising students, the works of Aelius Aristides; (b) How children learnt to write in Byzantium. The online availability of Byzantine manuscripts allows an in-depth analysis of non-professional graphic manifestations, some of them attributable to schoolchildren; (c) Photius’ teaching activities and his ‘circle’. Investigation of technical and material aspects of these activities (division of labour, books used, media on which notes were taken) and of the relationship between these pedagogical activities and the action of Photius within the framework of Byzantine political life; (d) The teaching of Medicine and other aspects of medical culture in twelfth-century Byzantium. The focus includes an investigation of the place of the teaching of medicine in the curriculum provided within the system of education, as well as the material and teaching methods that were implemented; (e) Plethon as a teacher at Mystra. The focus includes the identity of his pupils and the character and function of his circle, in order to re-examine the schema for a “Plethon’s Academy” at Mystra during the first half of the 15th century.
After the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople in 1261 manuscripts and textbooks of classical authors found their way back to the capital from all parts of the empire to meet the needs of teaching the new generation of imperial and patriarchal officials. This paper will briefly present the efforts of George of Cyprus,…
The online availability of Byzantine manuscripts allows an in-depth analysis of non-professional graphic manifestations, some of them attributable to schoolchildren. Although almost all the writing exercises that were carried out in Byzantium were on ephemeral materials, some annotations on the book covers allow us to glimpse this graphic learning and to better understand the choices…
What was the involvement of Georgios Gemistos Plethon in education at Mystra? The paper intends to shed some light on this important issue, which had earlier been the arena of “romantic” and/or ideologically biased schemas including “Plethon’s Academy” at Mystra which was supposed to operate during the first half of the 15th century. The paper…