Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium

"Fully illustrated in colour and black and white, Images of the Mother of God complements the successful exhibition catalogue of the 'Mother of God' exhibition at the Benaki Museum in Athens. It brings together the work of leading international authorities and younger scholars to provide a wide-ranging survey of how the Theotokos was perceived in the Byzantine world. It embraces the disciplines of art historians, archaeologists, traditional and feminist historians, as well as theologians, philologists and social anthropologists. Images of the Mother of God will appeal not just to those interested in Byzantine art and culture, but also to scholars of Western Europe in the Middle Ages who are looking for comparative materials in their own work.

Contents: Foreword, Angelos Delivorrias; Preface, Evangelos Chrysos; Introduction, Averil Cameron. Early Cult and Representations: Isis and Mary in early icons, Thomas F. Mathews and Norman Muller; The enigmatic Coptic Galaktotrophousa and the cult of the Virgin Mary in Egypt, Elizabeth S. Bolman; Icons and sites. Cult images of the Virgin in mediaeval Rome, Gerhard Wolf; Theotokos and Logos: the interpretation and reinterpretation of the sanctuary programme of the Koimesis Church, Nicaea, Charles Barber. The Theology of the Theotokos: The Virgin as the true Ark of Covenant, Michel van Esbroeck; The Theotokos in Byzantine hymnography: typology and allegory, Christian Hannick; Use and abuse of the 'image' of the Theotokos in the political life of Byzantium (with special reference to the iconoclast period), Nike Koutrakou; From poetry to liturgy: the cult of the Virgin in the Middle Byzantine era, Niki Tsironis; Exchanging embrace. The body of salvation, Ioli Kalavrezou; The symbolism of the censer in Byzantine representations of the Dormition of the Virgin, Maria Evangelatou; The Portaitissa icon at Iveron monastery and the cult of the Virgin on Mount Athos, Kriton Chryssochoidis. Female Authority and Devotion: The empress and the Virgin in early Byzantium: piety, authority and devotion, Liz James; Female piety in context: understanding developments in private devotional practices, Brigitte Pitarakis; The eyes of the Mother of God, Robin Cormack; Zoe's lead seal: female invocation to the Annunciation of the Virgin, Vasso Penna. Public and Private Cult: Byzantine domestic art as evidence for the early cult of the Virgin, Henry Maguire; The 'activated' icon: the Hodegetria procession and Mary's Eisodos, Bissera V. Pentcheva; Picturing the spiritual protector: from Blachernitissa to Hodegetria, Christine Angelidi and Titos Papamastorakis; The image of the Virgin Zoodochos Pege: two questions concerning its origin, Natalia Teteriatnikov; The cult of the Virgin Zoodochos Pege at Mistra, Rhodoniki Etzeoglou; The Virgin, the Christ-child and the evil eye, Vassiliki Foskolou; Praying for the salvation of the empire?, Maria Vassilaki. Between East and West: Thoughts on Mary east and west, Annemarie Weyl Carr; The Kahn and Mellon Madonnas and their place in the history of the Virgin and Child Enthroned in Italy and the east, Rebecca W. Corrie; Representations of the Virgin in Lusignan Cyprus, Sophia Kalopissi-Verti; The legacy of the Hodegetria: holy icons and legends between east and west, Michele Bacci; A Byzantine icon of the dexiokratousa Hodegetria from Crete at the Benaki museum, Nano Chatzidakis. Epilogue, Maria Vassilaki; Index.

About the Editor: Maria Vassilaki is Associate Professor of the History of Byzantine Art at the University of Thessaly, Greece, and Scientific Advisor at the Benaki Museum in Athens, where she organised the 'Mother of God' exhibition in 2000-2001."

See Ashgate

Maximus the Confessor and his Companions Documents from Exile

Edited by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil

"The seven documents in this book, which appear for the first time in an English translation from Greek and Latin, constitute a unique contemporary witness to the stalwart opposition of the monk Maximus the Confessor to seventh-century imperial edicts enforcing adherence to the doctrines of monoenergism and monothelitism (the doctrines that in Christ there are, respectively, only one energy and one will). The monastic resistance led by Maximus gained the support of Popes John IV, Theodore, and Martin I and found many other followers in the West, as can be judged by the convocation of 150 bishops at the Lateran Synod in Rome in 649 to condemn imperial religious policy. The documents, which have been translated from a recent critical edition, cover events from the time of Maximus' arrival in Constantinople for his first legal trial in 655; the futile attempts to persuade him to accept an imperial compromise; to his final trial in the capital in 662, and his death under appalling conditions in Lazica, on the coast of the Black Sea, in the same year. The contents of these documents provide a rare insight into the difficult period of transition from the decentralized provincial system of government that characterized late antiquity, to a more hierarchical structure centred on the power of the emperor in Constantinople. They also shed light on some lesser-known but significant participants in the monothelite controversy, several of whom followed their master into exile in Lazica; Maximus' two disciples Anastasius the monk and Anastasius the Apocrisiarius, their friends Theodore Spudaeus, Theodosius of Gangra, and the brothers Theodore and Euprepius. The religious controversies of both East and West appear in these documents against a backdrop of political turmoil, and Arab and Persian invasions. The documents will be important for those interested in early Byzantine studies, church history, historical theology, and hagiography."

See Oxford University Press

The Book of Calendars

This is an excellent reference work for everyone who has to know what date it really is! The book provides easy-to-use tables that translate the calendars of over sixty civilizations into the Julian and Gregorian calendars. An indispensable tool for scholars. By Frank Parise.

Table of Contents:

Ancient Calendars
Africa
Modern Near East
India
Southeast Asia
Far East
Central America
Western Calendars

See Gorgias Press

The Wisdom of Isaac of Nineveh: A Bilingual Edition

"St. Isaac of Nineveh, or, as he is sometimes known, St. Isaac the Syrian, was born in the region of modern Qatar and lived during the seventh century. Ordained as the bishop of Nineveh sometime between 661 and 681 CE, Isaac withdrew from his ecclesiastical office after only five months, retiring to live as a monastic hermit in the mountains of southeastern Iraq. Translated from their original Syriac into a number of other languages, St. Isaac’s spiritual writings have been read by Christian monastics for centuries.

The present selection of one hundred and fifty-three short sayings by St. Isaac is drawn from both the “First Part” and the “Second Part” of his literary corpus, and it follows the sequence of these two volumes. Here, in the inaugural volume of the Texts from Christian Late Antiquity (TeCLA) series, Gorgias Press is pleased to present Sebastian Brock’s masterful English translation of St. Isaac’s writings accompanied for the first time by the Syriac text."

See Gorgias Press.