Thoughts on the conception of Nature in Byzantium (11th-12th Centuries)
- Stavros Lazaris Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4395-511X
Abstract
This paper examines a new way of looking at nature in Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and how this may have impacted the conception of the individual. This shift in mentalities is studied by analysing several testimonies from this period, as well as other contemporary elements such as a pronounced taste for gardens and hunting. The study of artworks reinforces this perception, which bears witness to the Byzantines' desire to reflect on their place between nature and Creation.
Riferimenti bibliografici
1. Primary Sources
[Anonymous], Physiologus, Sbordone, Francesco (editor). Hildesheim ; New York, N.Y.: G. Olms, 1936
[Anonymous], Hortus symbolicus (= Le Jardin symbolique), Thomson, Margaret H. (editor). Paris: les Belles lettres (Limoges impr. A. Bontemps), 1960
Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographia Christiana (= Topographie chrétienne), Wolska-Conus, Wanda (editor). Paris: Ed. du Cerf, 1968
Philo of Alexandria, De opificio mundi (= On the creation of the cosmos according to Moses), Runia, David (editor). Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2001
Εἰκὼν καὶ λόγος : Ἕξι Βυζαντινὲς περιγραφὲς ἔργων τέχνης, Agapitos, Panagiotis (editor). Athina: Εκδόσεις Ἀργα, 2006
Four Byzantine Novels: Agapetus - Theodore Prodromos; Rhodanthe and Dosikles - Eumathios Makrembolites; Hysmine and Hysmini, Jeffreys, Elizabeth (editor). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012
2. Bibliography
Agapitos, Panagiotis. "Ἀπὸ τὸ ‘δρᾶμα’ τοῦ Ἔρωτα στὸ ‘ἀφήγημαν’ τῆς Αγάπης· Τὸ ἐρωτικὸ μυθιστόρημα στὸ Βυζάντιο (11ος–14ος αἰώνας)". In Byzantium matures : choices, sensitivities, and modes of expression (eleventh to fifteenth centuries), edited by C. Angelidi. Athina: The national Hellenic Research Foundation Athens, 2004, 53-72
Anagnostakis, Ilias, Kolias, Taxiarchis G. and Papadopoulou, Eftychia (editors). Animal and Environment in Byzantium (7th-12th c.). Athina: The National Hellenic Research Foundation, 2011
Anderson, Jeffrey C. "The Seraglio Octateuch and the Kokkinobaphos Master". Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 36 (1982): 83-114
Arentzen, Thomas, Burrus, Virginia and Peers, Glenn (editors). Byzantine Tree Life: Christianity and the Arboreal Imagination. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
Baratte, François. "Représenter la nature: l'exemple des manuscrits". Antiquité tardive, 29 (2021): 125-138
Barber, Charles. "Reading the Garden in Byzantium: Nature and Sexuality". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 16 (1992): 1-20
Beaton, Roderick. "Epic and romance in the twelfth century". In Originality in Byzantine literature, art and music a collection of essays, edited by A. R. Littlewood. Oxford: Oxbow books, 1995, 81-91
Beaton, Roderick. The medieval Greek romance. London ; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1996
Beck, Hans-Georg. Geschichte der byzantinischen Volksliteratur. München: C.E. Beck, 1971
Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte. "Medieval Identity: A Sign and a Concept". American Historical Review, 105, 5 (2000): 1489-1533
Benson, Robert Louis and Constable, Giles (editors). Renaissance and renewal in the twelfth century. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 19912
Bernard, Floris. Writing and reading Byzantine secular poetry 1025-1081. Oxford: Oxford university press, 2014
Bernard, Floris and Demoen, Kristoffel (editors). Poetry and its contexts in eleventh-century Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016
Boonen, Anne. "Étude iconographique des scènes bucoliques illustrant le Discours 44 (chap. 10-11) de Grégoire de Nazianze". In Studia nazianzenica, edited by A. Schmidt. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 1-41
Bouloubasi, Aggeliki. Φυσικό και Ανθρωπογενές Περιβάλλον στο Βυζάντιο. Οι κρατικές περιβαλλοντικές ρυθμίσεις στη βυζαντινή νομοθεσία. Mistras: Université du Péloponnèse (Πανεπιστήμιο Πελοποννήσου), 2021 - PhD Thesis
Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Innovation in byzantine medicine : the writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275-c.1330). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020
Buckley, Penelope. "Mode of Identity: Attaleiates, Komnene, and Psellos". In The Routledge Handbook on Identity in Byzantium, edited by M. E. Stewart, D. A. Parnell and C. Whately. London: Routledge, 2022, 395-423
Burnett, Charles. "The twelfth-century renaissance". In The Cambridge history of science, edited by D. C. Lindberg and M. H. Shank. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 365-384
Bynum, Caroline Walker. "Did the Twelfth Century Discover the Individual?". The Journal of ecclesiastical history, 31, 1 (1980): 1-17
Caiazzo, Irene. "Nature et découverte de la nature au XIIe siècle: nouvelles perspectives". In The Pleasure of Knowledge (= Quaestio 15), edited by P. Porro and L. Sturlese. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015, 47-72
Cantino Wataghin, Gisella. "Uomo e "natura" nella tarda antichità: rappresentazione e percezione". Antiquité tardive, 29 (2021): 29-42
Chatzifotis, Ioannis. Η προστασία του περιβάλλοντος στο βυζάντιο. Athina: Τυπωθήτω, 2001
Chenu, Marie-Dominique. La théologie au douzième siècle. Paris: J. Vrin, 19662
Collins, Minta. Medieval herbals: the illustrative traditions. London; Toronto: British Library; University of Toronto Press, 2000
Cormack, Robin Sinclair. Icônes et société à Byzance. Paris: G. Monfort, 1993
Cutler, Anthony. The Aristocratic psalters in Byzantium. Paris: Picard, 1984
Cutler, Anthony and Spieser, Jean-Michel. Byzance médiévale, 700-1204. Paris: Gallimard, 1996
Coorebyter, Vincent (de). Un monde sans moi est-il possible ? l'individu au Moyen âge. Rennes: Editions Apogée, 2022
Demangel, Robert and Mamboury, Ernest. Le quartier des Manganes et la première région de Constantinople. Paris: E. de Boccard, 1939
Dora, Veronica (della). Landscape, nature, and the sacred in Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016
Draelants, Isabelle and Frunzeanu, Eduard. "Génération, Force, Mouvement, Habitude : définitions théoriques médiévales de la nature". (2016) - online publication (⟨halshs-02424212⟩)
Dufrenne, Suzy. L'illustration des psautiers grecs du Moyen Age : Pantocrator 61, Paris grec 20, British Museum 40731. Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1966
Durr, Alexandra. L'image toxicologique à Byzance : fonctions et usages des miniatures des "Alexipharmaka" et des "Thèriaka" des pseudo-Dioscoride durant les derniers siècles de l'Empire. Fribourg: 2018
Epstein, Seymour. "Cognitive-experiential self-theory". In Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, edited by L. A. Pervin. New York: The Guilford Press, 1990, 165-192
Eychenne, Mathieu. L'histoire de la quatrième croisade à travers les historiens français et anglais d'après 1914 : une tentative de mise au point. 1999 - PhD Thesis
Fausti, Daniela. "L'idea di natura nel mondo antico". In Pianeta Galileo, edited by A. Peruzzi. Firenze: Centro stampa del Consiglio regionale della Toscana, 2005, 89-101
Ferguson, Chris D. Europe in transition: a select, annotated bibliography of the twelfth-century renaissance. New York: Garland, 1989
Flusin, Bernard and Cheynet, Jean-Claude (editors). Autour du Premier humanisme byzantin & des Cinq études sur le XIe siècle, quarante ans après Paul Lemerle. Paris: Association des amis du Centre d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2017
Galavaris, George. Ζωγραφική βυζαντινών χειρογράφων. Athina: Εκδοτική Αθηνών, 1994
Goldschmidt, Adolph and Weitzmann, Kurt. Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X-XIII Jahrhunderts. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1930
Goldwyn, Adam J. Byzantine Ecocriticism: Women, Nature, and Power in the Medieval Greek Romance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
Gurevič, Aron Âkovlevič. La naissance de l'individu dans l'Europe médiévale. Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 1997
Haskins, Charles Homer. The renaissance of the twelfth century. Cambridge: Harvard university press, 1927
Hepburn, Ronald. "Contemporary aesthetics and the neglect of natural beauty". In British Analytical Philosophy, edited by B. A. O. Williams and A. C. Montefiore. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966, 285-310
Hulak, Florence. "En avons-nous fini avec l’histoire des mentalités ?". Philonsorbonne, 2 (2008): 89-109
Izdebski, Adam and Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes (editors). A Companion to the Environmental History of Byzantium. Leiden: Brill, 2024
Kádár, Zoltan. Survivals of Greek zoological illuminations in Byzantine manuscripts. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó : distributed by Kultura, 1978
Kazhdan, Aleksandr Petrovič and Epstein, Ann Wharton. Change in Byzantine culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 19902
Kominko, Maja. The world of Kosmas. Illustrated Byzantine codices of the Christian Topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013
Laiou, Aggeliki E. Urbs capta : the fourth Crusade and its consequences = la IVe Croisade et ses conséquences. Paris: Lethielleux, 2006
Lazaris, Stavros. Art et science vétérinaire à Byzance. Formes et fonctions de l'image hippiatrique. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010
Lazaris, Stavros. "Christianizing animals: Physiologus and Hexaemeral Literature", in: A. Rhoby and P. Marciniak (ed.), Handbook of Animals in Byzantium. London: [in print]
Lazaris, Stavros (editor). A Companion to Byzantine Science. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2020
Lazaris, Stavros. "Hunting in Byzantium: a case-study in falconry". In Falconry in the Mediterranean Context during the Pre-Modern Era, edited by C. Brunet and B. Van den Abeele. Genève: Droz, 2021, 261-276
Lazaris, Stavros. Le Physiologus grec. t. 1. La réécriture de l’histoire naturelle antique. Firenze: SISMEL – Edizioni del Calluzzo, 2016
Lazaris, Stavros. Le Physiologus grec. t. 2. Donner à voir la nature. Firenze: SISMEL – Edizioni del Calluzzo, 2021
Lazaris, Stavros. "Scientific, Medical and Technical Manuscripts". In A Companion to Byzantine illustrated manuscripts, edited by V. Tsamakda. Leiden: Brill, 2017, 55-113 & figs. 113, 118-138
Le Goff, Jacques. "Histoire des sciences et histoire des mentalités". Revue de synthèse, 111-112 (3ème série) (1983): 408-415
Littlewood, Anthony, Maguire, Henry and Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim (editors). Byzantine garden culture. Washington, D.C: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2002
Lugt, Maaike Van Der (editor). La nature comme source de la morale au Moyen Âge. Firenze: SISMEL - Ed. del Galluzzo, 2014
Magdalino, Paul. "From ‘Encyclopaedism’ to ‘Humanism’: The Turning Point of Basil II and the Millennium". In Byzantium in the Eleventh Century: Being in Between. Papers from the 45th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (Exeter College, Oxford, 24-6 March 2012), edited by M. D. Lauxtermann and M. Whittow. London: Routledge, 2017, 3-18
Maguire, Henry. "Christians, Pagans, and the Representation of Nature". In Begegnung von Heidentum und Christentum im spätantiken Ägypten, edited by D. Willers. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 1993, 131-160
Maguire, Henry. "A Description of the Aretai Palace and its Garden". Journal of Garden History, 10, 4 (1990): 209-213
Maguire, Henry. "Imperial Gardens and the Rhetoric of Renewal". In New Constantines the rhythm of imperial renewal in Byzantium, 4th-13th centuries. Papers from the Twenty-sixth Spring symposium of Byzantine studies (St Andrews, March 1992), edited by P. Magdalino. Aldershot: Variorum, 1994, 181-198
Maguire, Henry. Nectar and Illusion: Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature. Oxford ; New York, N.Y.; Auckland: Oxford University Press., 2012
Mango, Cyril and Hawkins, Ernest J. W. "The Hermitage of St. Neophytos and Its Wall Paintings". Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 20 (1966): 119-206
Mango, Cyril. The art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453. Sources and documents. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972
Marzoa, Franciso. "Le concept de nature à travers les âges: Aristote. la nature ne fait rien en vain". IS@DD, juin (2011): 1-3
Mavromati, Kaliopi. Φύση και άνθρωπος στις επιστολές της υστεροβυζαντινής περιόδου (13ος-15ος αι). Athènes: Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ), 2014 - PhD Thesis
Morrison, Karl Frederick. History as a Visual Art in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990
Morrisson, Cécile. Les croisades. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France ; Cairn, 202012
Naddaf, Gérard. The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005
Naddaf, Gérard and Castelnérac, Benoît. Le concept de nature chez les présocratiques. Paris: Klincksieck, 2008
Nicolaidis, Efthymios. Science et orthodoxie - des pères grecs à l'époque de la mondialisation. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2018
Nilsson, Ingela. "Narrating Images in Byzantine Literature: The Ekphraseis of Konstantinos Manasses". Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 55 (2005): 121–146
Novikoff, Alex J. The twelfth-century Renaissance: a reader. 2017
Papadaki-Oekland, Stella. Byzantine illuminated manuscripts of the Book of Job : a preliminary study of the miniature illustrations, its origin and development. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009
Parani, Maria. "Secular Art". In The Oxford handbook of Byzantine art and architecture, edited by E. C. Schwartz. New York, N.Y., 2021, 117-132
Paribeni, Andrea. "Il cofanetto di Colonia con storie di Adamo ed Eva". In Byzantina Mediolanensia. Atti del V Congresso Nazionale di Studi Bizantini (Milano, 19-22 ottobre 1994), edited by F. Conca. Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli, 1996, 319-338
Pérez Martín, Immaculada and Manolova, Divna. "Science Teaching". In A Companion to Byzantine Science (4th-15th C.), edited by S. Lazaris. Leiden: Brill, 2020, 53-104
Perry, B. E. "Physiologus". In Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, edited by A. Pauly and G. Wissowa. Stuttgart: 1941, 1074-1129 (col.)
Perry, B. E. "Physiologus, ed. F. Sbordone. In Aedibus Societatis “Dante Alighieri,” Milan 1936. Pp. cxvii+332". American Journal of Philology, 58 (1937): 488-496
Rhoby, Andreas. "Hunde in Byzanz". In Lebenswelten zwischen Archäologie und Geschichte Festschrift für Falko Daim zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, edited by J. Drauschke, E. Kislinger, K. Kühtreiber, T. Kühtreiber, G. Scharrer-Liška and T. Vida. Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2018, 807-820
Ritchey, Sara. "Rethinking the Twelfth-Century Discovery of Nature". Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 39, 2 (2009): 225–255
Roilos, Panagiotis. Amphoteroglossia: A Poetics of the Twelfth Century Medieval Greek Novel. Washington, D. C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2006
Ronconi, Filippo and Papaioannou, Stratis. "Book Culture". In The Oxford handbook of Byzantine literature. edited by S. Papaioannou. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2021, 44-75
Rosenwein, Barbara H. "Y avait-il un « moi » au haut Moyen Âge ?". Revue historique, 1 (2005): 31-52
Runia, David T. Philo of Alexandria : collected studies 1997-2021. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck Tübingen, 2023
Sallis, John. The Figure of Nature: On Greek Origins. Studies in Continental thought. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2016
Simpson, William James. Sciences and the self in medieval poetry Alan of Lille's "Anticlaudianus" and John Gower's "Confessio amantis". Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1995
Sinakos, Anastasios. Άνθρωπος και περιβάλλον στην πρωτοβυζαντινή εποχή (4ος-6ος αι.). Thessalonique: University Studio Press, 2003
Spatharakis, Ioannis. The illustrations of the Cynegetica in Venice Codex Marcianus graecus Z 139. Leiden: Alexandros Press, 2004
Strezova, Anita. Hesychasm and art. The appearance of new iconographic trends in Byzantine and Slavic lands in the 14th and 15th centuries. Canberra ACT, Australia: Australian National University Press, 2014
Stückelberger, Alfred. Bild und Wort : das illustrierte Fachbuch in der antiken Naturwissenschaft, Medizin und Technik. Mainz am Rhein: Ph. von Zabern, 1994
Terrasse, Michel, Poulle Emmanuel and Jacquart, Jacquart (editors). Comprendre et maîtriser la nature au Moyen âge : mélanges d'histoire des sciences offerts à Guy Beaujouan. Genève ; Paris: Librairie Droz ; Librairie Champion, 1994
Thomason, Allison, Day, Joanna and Gieseche, Annette. "The Representation of Plants". In A cultural history of plants, edited by A. L. Giesecke and D. J. Mabberley. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2022, 175-211
Thümmel, Hans Georg. "Neilos von Ankyra über die Bilder". Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 71 (1978): 10-21
Treu, Ursula. "The Physiologus and the Early Fathers". In Studia patristica Historica, theologica et philosophica, gnostica, edited by E. A. Livingstone. Leuven: Peeters Press, 1993, 197-200
Treu, Ursula. "Vom Löwen bis zum Wildesel. Die dritte, sogenannte pseudobasilianische Redaktion des Physiologus". In Festschrift für Fairy von Lilienfeld zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by A. Rexheuser and F. von Lilienfeld. Erlangen: Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg, 1982, 446-478
Trizio, Michele. "The Byzantine Reception of Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia (and the Zoological Works) in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium: An Overview". In The Parva naturalia in Greek, Arabic and Latin Aristotelianism supplementing the science of the soul, edited by B. Bydén and F. Radovic. Cham: Springer, 2018, 155–168
Tullio, Gregory. "La nouvelle idée de nature et de savoir scientifique au XIIe siècle". In The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning. Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Philosophy, Science and Theology in the Middle Ages (September 1973), edited by J. E. Murdoch and E. D. F. Sylla. Dordrecht ; Boston: D. Reidel Publ. Company, 1975, 192-218
Virág, Curie and Spingou, Foteini. "The Pleasures of Virtue and the Virtues of Pleasure: The Classicizing Garden in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century China and Byzantium". Medieval worlds, 13 (2021): 229-265
Walter, Christopher. "Expressionism and hellenism. A note on stylistic tendencies in Byzantine figurative art from Spätantike to Macedonian Renaissance". Revue des Etudes Byzantines, 42 (1984): 265-287
Weitzmann, Kurt. "Byzantine Miniature and Icon Painting in the Eleventh Century", in: J. M. Hussey, D. Obolensky and S. Runciman (ed.), Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Byzantine studies (Oxford, 5-10 September 1966). London: Oxford University Press, 1967, 207-224 & 242 pls.
Weitzmann, Kurt. Illustrated manuscripts at St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. Collegeville, Minn.: St. John's University Press, 1973
Wolska-Conus, Wanda. "La «Topographie Chrétienne» de Cosmas Indicopleustès : Hypothèses sur quelques thèmes de son illustration". Revue des Études byzantines, 48 (1990): 155-191
Yannopoulos, Panayotis. "Περιβάλλον και προπαγάνδα στο Βυζάντιο. Πολιτική εκμετάλλευση φυσικών φαινομένων από την εικονόφιλη φιλολογία". In Ιστορίας μέριμνα. Τιμητικός τόμος στον καθηγητή Γεώργιο Ν. Λεοντσίνη. Athina: Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, 2012, 272-289
Zucker, Arnaud "Zoology". In A Companion to Byzantine Science, edited by S. Lazaris. Leiden ; Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2020, 261–301
##submission.format##
##submission.crossmark##
