OIKOS Crash-Course Greek Palaeography

The Greek department of Ghent University offers a two-day course in Greek palaeography in collaboration with the Research School OIKOS. The course is intended for MA, ResMA and doctoral students in the areas of Classics, Ancient History, Ancient Civilizations and Medieval studies with a good command of Greek. It offers an chronological introduction into Greek palaeography from the Hellenistic period until the end of the Middle Ages and is specifically aimed at acquiring practical skills for research involving literary and documentary papyri and/or manuscripts. We will also provide the unique opportunity to read from original papyri in the papyrus collection of the Ghent University Library and become familiar with the ongoing research projects at Ghent University.

Programme

The course is set up as an intensive two-day seminar. Five lectures by specialists in the field will give a chronological overview of the development of Greek handwriting, each followed by a practice session reading relevant extracts from papyri and manuscripts in smaller groups under the supervision of young researchers (Antonia Apostolakou, Dr. Julián Bértola, Serena Causo, Cristina Cocola, Anne-Sophie Rouckhout, Emmanuel Roumanis and Nina Vanhoutte).

Monday, May 23

10:00 Welcome

10:30-11:30 Papyri of the Ptolemaic and Roman period (Dr. Joanne Stolk)

11:30-13:00 Practice with papyri of the Ptolemaic and Roman period

13:00-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-15:00 Papyri of the Byzantine period (Dr. Yasmine Amory)

15:00-16:30 Practice papyri of the Byzantine period

16:30-17:00 Tour around the papyrus collection of the Ghent University Library

19:00 Dinner

Tuesday, May 24

9:00-10:00 Majuscule and early minuscule bookhands (4th-9th centuries) (Dr. Rachele Ricceri)

10:00-11:30 Practice majuscule and early minuscule bookhands

11:30-12:00 Coffee break

12:00-13:00 The development of minuscule script (10th-12th centuries) (Prof. dr. Floris Bernard)

13:00-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-15:30 Practice minuscule script of the 10th-12th centuries

15:30-16:00 Coffee break

16:00-17:00 Manuscripts and scholars of the Paleologan period (13th-15th centuries) (Prof. dr. Andrea Cuomo)

17:00-18:30 Practice manuscripts of the Paleologan period

19:00 Dinner

Registration

Please register by sending an e-mail with a short motivation, including your background, research interests and why you would like to follow this course, to yasmine.amory ugent.be. Priority is given to OIKOS doctoral students, beginners and those who did not have the opportunity to follow course(s) on palaeography before. Registration closes when the course is fully booked (20 participants) or by the final deadline of January 15, 2022. Participants receive 2 ECTS for completing the course.

If due to changing circumstances the course cannot take place in Ghent, the lectures will be offered online to the participants on the same dates. Practice sessions will be replaced by reading assignments with feedback by the teachers.