Creating New Identities (750-900) - Byzantium: From Turning within to Cautious Expansion - Cultural Flowering at Byzantium

8 important questions on Creating New Identities (750-900) - Byzantium: From Turning within to Cautious Expansion - Cultural Flowering at Byzantium

What was one of the scholarly and educational initiatives taking place in the Byzantine empire?

The creation of the Glagolithic alphabet in the mid-ninth century was one of many scholarly and educational initiatives taking place in the Byzantine Empire in the ninth century.

What trend was reversed in the ninth century?

  • Constantinople had always had schools, books, and teachers dedicated above all to training civil servants. But in the eighth century the number of bureaucrats was dwindling, schools were decaying, and books, painstakingly written out on papyrus, were disintegrating.
  • Ninth-century confidence reversed this trend, while fiscal stability and surplus wealth in the treasury greased the wheels. So did competition with the rulers and elites of the Islamic world, who supported the translations of hundreds of classical Greek texts into Arabic.

What did emperor Theophilus do?

Emperor Theophilus (r.829-842) opened a public school in the palace headed by Leo the Mathematician, a master of geometry, mechanics, medicine, and philosophy.
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What happened with the monasteries as a result of the end of iconoclasm in 843?

With the end of iconoclasm in 843, the monasteries, staunch defenders of icons, garnered renewed prestige and gained new recruits.

How were the new books produced? What does "manuscript" mean?

  • The new books produced in the Byzantine Empire were made out of parchment - animal skins scraped and treated to create a good writing surface.
  • Far more expensive than papyrus or paper, parchment was nevertheless much more durable.
  • Books of this period were not printed, since printing was unknown in the West until around 1450.
  • Rather, books were written by hand; they were "manuscripts" from manus = hand and scriptus = written.

What did the new importance of classical Greek help with?

The new importance of classical Greek texts helped inspire an artistic revival. Even during the somber years of iconoclasm, artistic activity did not entirely end at Byzantium.

What is the Macedonian Renaissance?

  • The new exuberance and sheer proliferation of mosaics, manuscript illuminations, ivories, and enamels after 870 suggest a new era.
  • Sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance, after the ninth- and tenth-century imperial dynasty that fostered it, the new movement found its models in both the hierarchical style that was so important during the pre-iconoclastic period and the natural style of classical art. 

How do images of saints and angels appear?

  • Images of the saints and angels appear in roundels made of cloisonné enamel and rimmed with pearls.
  • The figures are complex and glowing, their richness set off by the simplicity of the silver-gilt flat surface of the plaque and its frame, which is made of cut glass and beads of gold and pearl.
  • No one looks at anyone else; the figures are totally isolated from one another.
  • The artist is far more interested in patterns and color than in delineating bodies.

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