1st Edition
Artistic Practice, Materiality, and Ideology in the Medieval East Roman Empire and Neighboring Eastern Polities
Introduction. Towards a Materialist History of East Roman Art
Mariana Bodnaruk
Part I: Materiality and Ideology of Epigraphic Texts
Chapter 1. Byzantine Lead Seals as Expressions of Power and Identity
Christos Malatras
Chapter 2. Imperial Inscriptions and Inscribed Images as a Means of Propaganda in Medieval Byzantium
Georgios Pallis
Chapter 3. The Agency of Epigraphy: Inscriptions and the Weaponization of Relics in Byzantium
Brad Hostetler
Part II. Material and Ideological Constructedness of Visual and Performative Representations
Chapter 4. Repetition as a Mechanism of Craft and Devotion: Rethinking Art Historical Frameworks through Early Christian Reliquaries and Casket Mounts
Adrien Palladino
Chapter 5. A Tale of Two Cities: The Journey of the Ivory Pyxis of St. Menas
Ruben Campini
Chapter 6. Divine Intervention and Imperial Performance: The Pilgrimage of John VIII Palaiologos
Anna Adashinskaya
Part III. Female Agency and Material Turn
Chapter 7. The Representation of Senatorial Women in Late Antique Inscribed Honorific Texts and Statue Monuments
Mariana Bodnaruk
Chapter 8. Female Presence in Moments of Death and (Re)Birth: Materializing Protective Power of Sacred Purity and Motherhood Across Late Antique Mediterranean and Beyond
Teodora Georgievová
Chapter 9. A Woman Who Had So Much to Lose: Theodora Palaiologina, the Union of Lyons and the Cleansing Power of Art
Petra Melichar
Part IV. Impact of Empire? East Roman Neighboring Polities Beyond Center and Periphery
Chapter 10. Images of Orthodoxy or Political Compromise? Visual Representations in the Late Antique South Caucasus
Veronika Džugan Hermanová and Ivan Foletti
Chapter 11. Transcultural Art as a Sign of Power: Coins Showing the Theotokos Crowning the Ruler in Byzantium and in Al-Jazīrah
Manuela Studer-Karlen
Chapter 12. Patriarchs and Anti-Patriarchs Looking for Legitimacy in Ṭūr ʿAbdīn in Pre-Modern Era
Alexandre Varela Expósito
Afterward
Michele Bacci
Appendix
Biography
Mariana Bodnaruk is Assistant Professor in Ancient History at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw. They taught at Al-Quds Bard College, Central European University, Bard College, Masaryk University, and the University of Olomouc. Their research was published in Journal of Epigraphic Studies, Journal of Late Antiquity, Antichthon, Phoenix, and Byzantinoslavica. They authored An Empire of Elites: The Self-Representation of the Senatorial Aristocracy in the Later Roman State in the Fourth Century AD (2026). Their research interests include epigraphy, art history, hagiography of the medieval East Roman Empire, as well as trans studies and queer Marxism.
