Lectures on Byzantine and Early Modern Greek and Greek language education by Dr Ugo Mondini, Oxford/Dumbarton Oaks
Sponsored by the Ohio State Laboratory for the Greek Language, the Modern Greek Program and the Departments of Linguistics, Classics and History
From Byzantium to the Ottoman Classroom: Schoolbooks and Greek Language Education
4pm Thursday, December 4
University Hall Room 448
This lecture explores Greek schoolbooks as key sources for understanding premodern and early modern language education. In the Middle Ages, mastery of learned Greek functioned as a defining marker of elite identity, underpinning participation in imperial administration, the church hierarchy, and scholarly life. Following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the institutional structures that had traditionally supported this system underwent profound change. Greek language education did not decline; instead, it adapted to the new social and political realities of the Ottoman Empire, where Greek served various functions across diverse ethno-linguistic communities. The lecture presents reflections drawn from two research projects: one on eleventh-century schedography, a method of teaching Greek grammar emphasizing orthography and syntax, and another on the forms, uses, and social roles of Greek language education in the Ottoman period. When considered together, they open new perspectives on the development of Greek language education over time and across different settings.
Language, Metre, and Poetry in the Greek Middle Ages. The Case of Ioannes Mauropous
2:30pm Friday, December 5
Enarson 348
Ioannes Mauropous (d. after 1082) was one of the most prominent Greek authors of the eleventh century. He was a significant voice during the reign of Konstantinos IX Monomachos and continued writing while serving as a bishop in Euchaita and later living as a monk in Constantinople. Before returning to the city, he selected and reorganised his dodecasyllabic poetry, epistles, and speeches into a manuscript now preserved in the Vatican Library (Vat. Gr. 676). This rearrangement reflects a clear authorial intent, as texts are refunctionalised to serve as parts for a macrostructural narrative. This lecture examines Mauropous’ poetry with two interrelated aims. First, it investigates how the internal organisation of the poetry book shapes interpretive pathways for future readers, encouraging particular narrative and ideological frameworks. Second, it considers the conception of poetry, language, and metre that emerges from Mauropous’ corpus. By approaching Mauropous’ poetry as a curated and meaningfully structured book, the lecture highlights the sophisticated literary refinement at the heart of his oeuvre.
Ugo Mondini is a philologist and literary scholar focusing on Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Greek. His research explores how the Greek language changed throughout time and how it was taught and used in different contexts. He also investigates when, why, and how (Greek) literature was composed, experienced, used, and transmitted in the premodern world. A British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Exeter College and at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford University, he is currently a Research Fellow in Byzantine Studies at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University (Washington, DC).