In 2019, when we all thought that the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies would take place in Istanbul in August 2021, the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul was approached by Buket Kitapçı Bayrı of the Tukish Committee for Byzantine Studies, who wanted to know if the institute was interested in organizing an exhibition for the congress. It was a reasonable question, because the institute was at that point under the direction of not only one but two Byzantinists – myself as new director and Olof Heilo as deputy director – and it seemed like a good way of contributing to the co ..read more

The 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies took place in Venice and Padua, 22–24 August 2022. The theme, “Byzantium – Bridge Between Worlds”, was originally coined by the Turkish Committee for the congress to be held in Istanbul in August 2021. For various reasons the congress was postponed and moved to Venice, but the theme and the basic programme was retained by the Italian committee, with some significant additions related to the change of location. Accordingly, the plenary sessions maintained their focus on recent developments and future challenges: for instance, PS5, “Dialogue ..read more

As most of our readers have probably already heard, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond has generously decided to support Ingela Nilssons’ project Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic (c. 950 – c. 1100)! The project is administrated by Uppsala University, involves over ten scholars – including several NBN members – and will run for eight years, starting immediately this month (January 2020). A brief content description follows below: During the long eleventh century (c. 950–c. 1100 CE), a host of core narratives that form the substructure of what ..read more

Five years after the NBN workshop The Straits – Inquiries into a Crossroad took place at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and thanks to the great efforts of its new director Ingela Nilsson, we are proud to present the outcome in the form of a book in the series Transactions of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, called Constantinople as Center and Crossroad (ed. Olof Heilo and Ingela Nilsson). Six of the original papers from the workshop have been joined by four excellent contributions by Ragnar Hedlund, Fedir Androshchuk, Claudia Rapp and Mabi Angar, creating a di ..read more

Sergey Ivanov’s guidebook to the Byzantine monuments of Istanbul has already appeared in Russian, Bulgarian and Turkish. Thanks to a collaboration between the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, the Turkish publisher Kitap Yayinevi, and The Byzantine Legacy, an English translation was published earlier this year and can be purchased online through srii.bokorder.se. It can also be found (for browsing but not for buying) at the book fair of the Byzantine Congress in Venice in two weeks! For those who haven’t seen it, the full program of the congress is now available. We are looking forward t ..read more

Edited by Reinhart Ceulemans and Barbara Crostini Politics of Interpretation: with Gábor Buzási, Paul M. Blowers, Sysse Gudrun Engberg, Meredith L. D. Riedel Quotation: with Sébastien Morlet, Alexandru Ioniţă, Emmanuel van Elverdinghe, Panagiotis Ch. Athanasopoulos Rewritten Bible: with Francesca Promote Barone, Guillaume Bady, Rachele Ricceri Visual Exegesis: with Anne-Catherine Baudoin, Kathleen Maxwell, Élisabeth Yota, Angelina Smirnova, Massimo Bernabò Technical Exegesis: with Theodora Panella, Laurence Vianès, Leontien Vanderschelden, Mariachiara Fincati Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis ..read more

”It is generally agreed that the Byzantines first developed the dessert as a method of light entertainment”: https://youtu.be/XM8sGTGxnwg?t=166 (2:46 ..read more

By Milan Vukašinović History, and a good deal of it medieval, has been making headlines in Serbia lately. The municipal government of Belgrade keeps allocating millions of euros for the project of piercing the foundations of the city’s medieval fortress in order to build a funicular over the Sava river – a project that was ‘temporarily halted’ by the administrative court, and that led to Europa Nostra listing the fortress amongst the most endangered heritage sites in Europe. Simultaneously, in early 2021, a gargantuan statue of Stefan Nemanja (c.1113–1199), a rule ..read more

Last weekend two of the NBN members decided to have a closer look at the current state of the Chora church and Hagia Sophia efter the turbulence of the last two months. In Chora/Kariye Camii, a minbar has been added to the inner naos, and some sort of drop-down curtains to cover up the three mosaics there during prayer times. All other mosaics visible so far, and one still pays entrance fees to enter the building. The frescoes have been inaccessible for more than a year due to the ongoing restoration of the exonarthex, unclear how that will proceed. The building as a whole is still covered in ..read more

Myrto Veikou has handed in her doctoral dissertation for the traditional “spikning” at Uppsala University: “Spatial paths to holiness: Literary ‘lived spaces’ in eleventh-century Byzantine saints’ lives”. The dissertation will be defended on September 26 with Stephanos Efthymiadis as faculty examiner. After that, a research position in the new RJ programme “Retracing Connections” awaits Myrto. Please explore the programme here: https://retracingconnections.org ..read more