A short list of readings relevant to the themes of the seminar is provided below. It is organised alphabetically session by session. Unpublished material is accessible solely to registered participants and may not be copied or distributed.
All readings are optional and are not a requirement for attendance of the seminar.
November 17
Androshchuk, Fedir. Images of Power: Byzantium and Nordic Coinage: c. 995-1035. Kyiv: Laurus, 2016.
Butler, Thomas. “Saint Constantine-Cyril’s ‘Sermon on the Translation of the Relics of
Saint Clement of Rome’.” Cyrillomethodianum 17-18 (1993-1994): 15-39.
Garipzanov, Ildar H. “The Journey of St Clement’s Cult from the Black Sea to the Baltic Region.” In From Goths to Varangians: Communication and Cultural Exchange Between the Baltic and the Black Sea, edited by Line Bjerg, John H. Lind, and Soeren M. Sindbaek: 369–380. Aarhus: Aarhus Universit Press, 2013.
Hraundal, Thorir Jonsson. “Integration and Disintegration: the ‘Norse’ in Descriptions of the Early Rus.” In Norman Tradition and Transcultural Heritage. Exchange of Cultures in the ‘Norman’ Peripheries of Medieval Europe, edited by Stefan Burkhardt and Thomas Foerster: 279-293. London: Routledge, 2013.
Ivanova, Mirela. “Re-thinking the Life of Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher.” Slavonic and East European Review 98 (2020): 434-63.
Plokhy, Serhii. Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation from 1470 to the Present. New York: Hachette, 2017: 75-77.
Tolochko, Oleksiy. “The Primary Chronicle’s ‘Ethnography’ Revisited: Slavs and Varangians in the Middle Dniepr and the Origin of Rus’ State.” In Franks, Northman, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe, edited by Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick Geary, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk: 169-188. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007.
Yawn, Lila. “Clement’s New Clothes. The Destruction of Old S. Clemente in Rome, the Eleventh-Century Frescoes, and the Cult of (Anti)Pope Clement III.” Reti Medievali Rivista, 13/1 (Apr. 2012): 175-208.
December 1
Callmer, Johan. “At the Watershed between the Baltic and the Pontic before Gnezdovo.” In From Goths to Varangians: Communication and Cultural Exchange between the Baltic and the Black Sea, edited by Line Bjerg, John H. Lind and Søren M. Sindbæk: 39–86. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2013.
Franklin, Simon and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus: 750–1200. London: Longman, 1996.
Eniosova, Natalia and Tamara Puškina. “Finds of Byzantine Origin from the Early Urban Centre Gnezdovo in the Light of the Contacts between Rus’ and Constantinople (10th – early 11th centuries AD).” In From Goths to Varangians: Communication and Cultural Exchange between the Baltic and the Black Sea, edited by Line Bjerg, John H. Lind and Søren M. Sindbæk: 39–86. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2013.
Jankowiak, Marek. “Byzantine Coins in Viking-Age Northern Lands.” In Byzantium and the Viking World, edited by Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, Monica White: 117-39. Uppsala: Uppsala Universiteit, 2016.
Kershaw, Jane et al. “The Scale of Dirham Imports to the Baltic in the Ninth Century: New Evidence from Archaeometric Analyses of Early Viking-Age Silver.” Fornvännen 116 (2021): 185-204.
Shepard, Jonathan. “Emissions, Missions and Empire: The Curious Case of Cherson.” In Mélanges James Howard-Johnston, edited by Phil Booth and Mary Whitby: 691–722. Travaux et Mémoires 26: Paris, 2022.
Sindbæk, Søren. “Silver Economies and Social Ties: Long-Distance Interaction, Long-Term Investments – and Why the Viking Age Happened.” In Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia, AD 800- 1100, edited by J. Graham-Campbell, S. M. Sindbæk & G. Williams: 41-65. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2011.
February 2
Adams, Jonathan, Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, Kalin Dimitrov, Kroum Batchvarov, Felix Pedrotti, William Symons, Michael Grant, Dragomir Garbov, Joakim Holmlund. “The Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project – Maritime Archaeological Research off the Bulgarian Continental Shelf.” The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture (2017).
Adams, Jonathan, Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, Justin Dix, Kalin Dimitrov, Kroum Batchvarov, Joakim Holmlund, and Dragomir Garbov. “The Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project – Maritime Archaeological Research off the Bulgarian Continental Shelf.” The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture (2016).
Adams, Jonathan and Johan Rönnby. “The Consequences of New Warships: From Medieval to Modern and Our Dialectical Relationship with Things.” In On War On Board: Archaeological and historical perspectives on early modern maritime violence and warfare, edited by Johan Rönnby, Johan: 163 – 198. Stockholm: Södertörns Högskola (2019).
Adams, Jonathan and Johan Rönnby (eds). Interpreting Shipwrecks. Maritime Archaeological Possibilities. Southampton: Highfield Press (2013).
Dimitrov, Kalin, Jonathan Adams, Johan Rönnby, Kroum Bachvarov, Pavel Georgiev, Yordanov and Vesselin Draganov, “Underwater Archaeological Excavations (Early Bronze Age, Antiquity, Ottoman period) in the Sea Bay at the Mouth of Ropotamo river, Burgas region.” Archaeological Discoveries and Excavations 2019 (I): 369-376.
Pacheco-Ruiz, Rodrigo, Jonathan Adams, and Felix Pedrotti. “4D Modelling of Low Visibility Underwater Archaeological Excavations Using Multi-Source Photogrammetry in the Bulgarian Black Sea.” Journal of Archaeological Science 100 (2018).
Rönnby, Johan. “Maritime Durées: Long-Term Structures in a Coastal Landscape.” Journal of Maritime Archaeology 2 (2007): 65–82.
February 9
Yulia Mikhailova, “Praying Rulers, Elusive Clerics, and the Romano-Byzantine ‘Just War’:
Interaction Between Religion and Warfare in Pre-Mongol RusReligious Rituals of War.” To be
published in Medieval East Central and Northern Europe (c.900–c.1500). Ed. Radoslaw
Kotecki.
Mikhailova, Yulia. Property, Power, and Authority in Rus and Latin Europe, ca. 1000-1236. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2018, Introduction, pp. 1–2; Chapter One, pp. 13–30 (up to “State, Kingship, and Lordship”) and pp. 44–47 (“Rus and Its Princes: Alternative Interpretations”); Chapter Two, pp. 73–77 (Rusian Chronicles: Elusive Realm, Ubiquitous Volost)
Mikhailova, Yulia. “Reflection of the Crusading Movement in Rusian Sources: Tantalizing Hints.” In Fruits of Devotion: Essays in Honor of Predrag Matejic, Conference Proceedings of the 7th International Hilandar Conference (15–17 June 2018) and a Volume in Honor of Predrag Matejic, edited by M. A. Johnson and Alice Isabella Sullivan. Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures with the assistance of the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, The Ohio State University, 2020. Forthcoming.
Raffensperger, Christian (ed.). Authorship, Identity, and Worldview in Medieval Europe. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Raffensperger, Christian. “Alternatives to Commonwealth: Modes of Connectivity Between Byzantium and Medieval Eastern Europe.” in The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Byzantium, edited by Elizabeth Bolman, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, and Jack Tannous. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming).
Raffensperger, Christian. The Kingdom of Rus’. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2017.
Raffensperger, Christian. “Monastic Legitimation of Rulership in East and West.” In Seven Centuries Since the Death of Holy King Milutin, edited by Dragoljub Marjanovic (forthcoming).
March 2
Key Kievan sources (in the English translation):
“Memorial and Encomium for Prince Volodimer.” In The Hagiography of Kievan Rusʹ, translated by Paul Hollingsworth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
“Primary Chronicle, entry for year 6496 (988).” In The Russian Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text, translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor: 11-15. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953.
Online source: http://sites.utoronto.ca/elul/English/218/PVL-selections.pdf
An important Muscovy 15th-century source in Church Slavonic:
“Discourse on the Slavonic Books, Translated to the Russian Soil: A Juxtaposition between St. Vladimir and St. Cyril.” In Codex Slovenicus Rerum Grammaticarum, edited by Vatroslav Jagic. Nachdr. d. Separatdr: 308-310. Berlin 1896.
or: In P. Lavrov (ed.). Materialy po isstorrii vozniknoveniia drevneishei slavianskoi pis’mennosti. Paris (1966): 173-174.
Contemporary Russian sources to consider:
Monument Of Prince Vladimir in Moscow (2015), designer Salavat Scherbakov https://disk.yandex.com/a/JY_Ot38a3WBLS2/5affd7101b679828c4321121
Icon of St. Vladimir Equal to the Apostles and Patron Saint of the Russian Internal Forces, presented in 2002 by Patriarch Alexey II to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Photo Sergei Piatakov, Source RIA Novosti: http://visualrian.ru/media/3028376.html
“Vladimir Rules the World,” singer Vitaly Gogunsky, premiered online on 12.4.2015, the day of the unveiling of Vladimir’s monument in Moscow:
Gjuzelev, Vasil. “Le città della costa bulgara del Mar Nero nei secoli dal XIII alla metà del XV (caratteristiche generali).” Aa. Vv., Mittelalterliches Bulgarien. Quellen, Geschichte, Hauptstädte und Kultur, Istanbul, Isis (2001): 202-234.
Studies:
Halil, Inalcik. “Trade: The Black Sea and Eastern Europe”. In An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914, edited by Faroqhi, Suraiya, Bruce McGowan, and Sevket Pamuk: 271-314. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Karagianni, Flora (ed.), 40 Medieval City-Ports in North Aegean and the Black Sea: A Cultural Guide. Thessalonike: European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments (2014). See especially: 133-276.
Milanova, Albena, “La sculpture architecturale de la côte bulgare de la mer Noire entre l’Est et l’Ouest aux XIIIe-XIVe siècles.” Problemi na izkustvoto 1 (2017): 17-27.
Ousterhout, Robert. Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Land. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. See especially: 649-653.
Tourta, Anastasia, ed. Icons from the Thracian Coast of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. Athens: Kapon Editions, 2011.
Vanev, Ivan. In the Steps of Nessebar’s Icons. Sofia: Institut za izsledvane na izkustvata (2013).
March 9
Braund, David. “Procopius on the Economy of Lazica.” Classical Quarterly 41 (1991): 221-225.
Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500-700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Gândilă, Andrei. Cultural Encounters on Byzantium’s Northern Frontier, c. AD 500-700: Coins, Artifacts and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Howard-Johnston, James. ‘The Two Great Powers in Late Antiquity: A Comparison.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III – States, Resources and Armies, edited by Averil Cameron: 157-226. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Sarantis, Alexander. Justinian’s Balkan Wars: Campaigning, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace, and the Northern World A.D. 527-565. Prenton, U.K.: Francis Cairns, 2016.
Syrbe, Daniel. “Reiternomaden des Schwarzmeerraums (Kutriguren und Utiguren) und byzantinischen Diplomatie im. 6. Jahrhundert.” Acta Orientalia 65 (2012): 291-316.