Byzantine historiographic texts display valuable passages in regard to manifestations of cult and worship.
The aim of the presented project is to explore and research these evidences in order to create new knowlegde in
studing of function of religion in Byzantine historiography. Investigating of Byzantine and, in general, Medieval
historiographical writings in order not to find hard historical facts and dates, but to reveal social and cultural
details, is a current trend in modern scholarship. For instance, in recent years, great attention has been paid to the
phenomenon of dreams and miracles in the texts of Byzantine historians. This approach in itself leads to
understanding the motives and goals of Byzantine authors while they create historical narratives. To this issue was
dedicated the plenary session – “How the Byzantines Wrote History”, moderated by Ruth Macrides at the
"International Congress of Byzantine Studies" (Belgrade 2016).
The systematic research of cult and worship reflected in Byzantine historiographic writings have not been
conducted yet. That should be considered in the context of the above-mentioned trend and defines the research
novelty of the presented project proposal. Within the frame of the project historical narratives telling about relics,
icons, architectural monuments, religious rituals, miracles and other details related to religious function in
Byzantium will be explored. In particular, the writings of middle Byzantine historians (8
th-13th c.), selected in
advance, will be examined. Besides research, the project implies translation of these passages into the Georgian
language. Some changes, exclusions or inclusions of texts/authors, comparative studies considering Georgian or
other material, identification of typological parallels depend on the process of research. We choose period from 8
th
to 13th centuries as it is marked by iconoclasm (c. 680-850) and less studied in comparison to late antiquity. While
the project –“The Cult of Saints”, directed by Dr Bryan Ward-Perkins at the University of Oxford, examines the
development of the cult of saints from its origin to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world, and it covers
also Byzantine historical writings of the late antiquity.
Besides that, the importance of the project proposal is determined by the Byzantine tradition of the
interrelation between narrative and depiction, since references to written sources to investigate Byzantine art
culture is a significant component in the studies of art historians and philologists (Cyril Mango, Christopher
Walter, Thomas Mathews, Henry Maguire, Hans Belting, Piotr Grotowski and others).
2 |Annex 3
The project results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publication, in a monograph and will be presented
at the international scientific events. Project results presentation will be held at Ilia State University for the third
year of the project. The presentation will be open to public and representatives of academic circles.
Establishment and strengthening of successful cooperation within the project between the Georgian team
and the project foreign research advisors, and common research interests will contribute to long-term cooperation
and partnership on further projects and/or educational activity; it will increase the quality of research and the
number of joint scientific articles in the international high-ranking peer-reviewed journals.