72438 - Social History of the Byzantine World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at conveying to the student the knwoledge of the mentality and values of the Byzantine society, as well as the evolution of its social structure and features of its economic life (landscape and settlements, money, factors of production, distribution and consumption). At the end of the course the students will be able to set critically the notions acquired in the framework of the socio-economic history of the late antique and medieval Mediterranean. He will be able to read technical literature in at least a foreign language.

Course contents

The Book of the Eparch. Labour and Daily Life in Tenth Century Constantinople.

Under the title of Eparchicon Biblion the manuscript tradition transmits a collection of 22 regulations of Constantinopolitan guilds, which were put under the control of the prefect (or eparch) of the city. The work was composed in the tenth century, perhaps during the reign of Leo VI (886-912). It includes notaries, goldsmiths, bankers and moneychangers, merchants of silk and other fabrics, perfumers, wax-chandlers, soap-chandlers, grocers, saddlers, butchers, pork butchers, fishmongers, bakers, innkeepers, deputies of the eparch for the control of supplies, merchants of animals, and other contractors as carpenters, gypsum workers, marble workers, blacksmiths and painters. The reading the «Book of the Eparch» constitutes a valuable source for an historian of society. First of all, it illuminates the mechanism by which the state controls labour activities, on one hand by reserving to the members of the guilds the exclusive right to exercise certain specialized productions at the expense of free competition (even though this has been debated by scholars), on the other hand, by attempting at controlling the price trend to the advantage of the consumers. The model for this rulemaking activity stimulates a more general discussion of the notion of «market economy» in Byzantium. Furthermore, the regulations do transpire here and there important details of daily life in the capital on the Bosphorus, as well as information about the topography of single monuments, neighbourhoods or streets. Finally, the Book of the Eparch provides valuable information on the goods themselves; the reader learns, therefore, that silk was marketed in different qualities (the most valuable of which was imported from Syria and Iraq) and that perfumers made use of pepper, cinnamon, nard, aloe, amber, musk, incense, myrrh, balsam, sweet-smelling herbs, mints, indigo, wood for yellow dye and caper.

Readings/Bibliography

Critical edition of the text:

 Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen, Einführung, Edition, Übersetzung und Indices von Johannes Koder, Wien 1991 (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 33).

 Other relevant work per the study of the text:

 To Eparchikon Biblion / The Book of the Eparch / Le Livre du Prefect, with and Introduction by Professor Ivan Dujčev, London 1970 (edition by J. Nicole of 1893, with French translation and commentary, to which the English translation  E. H. Freshfield of  1938 is added).

The reading of the following essays and articles is recommended:

- L. Cracco Ruggini, “Le associazioni professionali nel mondo romano-bizantino”, in Artigianato e tecnica nella società dell'alto medioevo occidentale, I, Spoleto (Settimane CISAM, XVIII), pp. 59-193.

- N. Oikonomides, “L'uomo d'affari”, in L'uomo bizantino, a cura di Guglielmo Cavallo, Roma – Bari 1992, pp. 209-251.

- A. Carile, “Le corporazioni dei pescivendoli e dei pescatori a Costantinopoli nel X secolo”, in A. Carile – S. Cosentino, Storia della marineria bizantina, Bologna 2004, pp. 33-41.

 - C. G. Maniatis, “Organization, market structure, and modus operandi of the private silk industry in tenth century Byzantium”, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53 (1999), pp. 263-332.

 - Id., “The domain of private guilds in the Byzantine economy, tenth to fifteenth centuries”, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 55 (2001), pp. 339-369.

 N. B. All students that did not take any course of Byzantine history or Byzantine civilization in their BA training must read also the volume of  R.-J. Lilie, Bisanzio: la seconda Roma, trad. it. Milano 2005.

Teaching methods

Lectures.

Assessment methods

A paperwork (15 pages ca.) concerning an aspect dealt with during class and its discussion with the teacher.

Teaching tools

Reading, translation and commentary of parts of the text. The latter's analysis  will be integrated with visual sources introduced by powerpoint presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Cosentino