6.18 RT – Memories of Empire: Byzantine Heritage in Italy

In the last few years Byzantinists have looked with renewed interest at the political, social and cultural life of the Empire in its diverse geographical components. Byzantine Italy has been no exception, generating research that extended over to the post Byzantine period, looking with new eyes at the heritage of the Empire. However, while textual, material and liturgical memories have taken the lion share, less attention has been devoted to linguistic and immaterial heritage, to non-highbrow traditions, as well as to fringe engagements with the Byzantine legacy. Building on methodologies employed by and research carried out within the Horizon Europe MSCA doctoral network “From Antiquity to Community”, this round table aims to broaden the scope of research on the aftermath of Byzantium in Italy to include its narrative legacy in southern Italy, thus bridging the gap between the learned and the vernacular; the persistence of affective regimes and their representations across different media, thus illuminating the interface between the social and the textual; the practice of erasing texts for repurposing manuscripts in Southern Italy; the legacy of multilingualism in administration and within the legal system. The round table will feature mostly early career speakers – at PhD level – both reflecting the international composition of AntCom and the aims of the consortium to train a new generation of scholars.