Ο Τομέας Βυζαντινής Φιλολογίας και Λαογραφίας, στο πλαίσιο του μαθήματος «Εκλογή Βυζαντινών Κειμένων» (Β´ εξάμ. Τμήματος Φιλολογίας), με διδάσκουσα την καθηγήτρια κυρία Θεοδώρα Αντωνοπούλου, διοργανώνει
ΔΙΑΛΕΞΗ
με ομιλήτρια την Βυζαντινολόγο φιλόλογο και ιστορικό της επιστήμης Δρ. Divna Manolova
Επιστημονικό Εταίρο του Paris Region Fellowship Programme SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, Γαλλία
Με θέμα "Scientific Illustrations in Late Byzantium: A Case Study of Eclipse Diagrams"
Τετάρτη 26 Απριλίου 2023, ώρα 3-4.30 μ.μ.
Στο αμφιθέατρο 428
Η διάλεξη θα δοθεί στην αγγλική γλώσσα
Περίληψη
In this paper, I interrogate how diagrams operate as scientific illustrations in the material as well as social context of late Byzantine books and in particular, how eclipse diagrams (both solar and lunar) function as vehicles for knowledge transfer. Focusing on a sample of diagrams found in Byzantine cosmological and astronomical miscellanies from the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, I discuss, first, what seems to constitute an eclipse diagram. To this end, I provide an overview of the main graphic and aesthetic conventions, on which an eclipse diagram relies in order to be understood. Second, I examine how an eclipse diagram encodes and organises knowledge about light and shadow, line and colour, as well as about relative distances and magnitudes involving the earth, the sun and the moon. Finally, I analyse how eclipse diagrams relate to corresponding narrative explanations of eclipse occurrences. My principal goal in this third part of the paper is to explore whether diagrams play a specific role and offer a contribution distinct from that of narrative in forming, structuring, preserving, and transmitting knowledge about astronomical phenomena (for the purposes of this paper, about eclipses) and whether by studying diagrams I could elucidate, ever so slightly, the ‘obscure’ place that is the so-called ‘late Byzantine classroom’.