Byzantium beyond Byzantium: What about Greek(s) in Eighth-Century Italy? The Case of the Hypapante, lecture by Dr. Francesca Dell'Acqua Boyvadaoğlu (University of Salerno), University of Vienna, March 13, 2018, 6:30–8:00 pm

Arguing against the historiographical tendency that posits a political, cultural, and linguistic disconnection between Byzantium and Rome after the advent of Latin popes, beginning with Stephen II (752–757), this lecture will address the question of the use of Greek language and the dissemination of a related religious culture in central Italy between the seventh and the eighth centuries. This will be done through the prism of Latin  homilies on the Virgin Mary, in particular for the feast of the Purification of Mary/Presentation of Christ Child in the Temple/Hypapante in Greek, also known as Candlemas.

Francesca Dell'Acqua Boyvadaoğlu earned her Ph.D. in Art History at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2001). She was recipient of the Hanno-und-Ilse-Hahn Preis (2006) and has taught History of Medieval Art at the Università degli studi di Salerno (2005–2015). She has been Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham (2015–2017), where she has investigated the western, namely papal and monastic response to Byzantine iconoclasm for the purpose of a book: Iconophilia. Religion, Politics, and Sacred Images in Italy c. 680–880. She is interested in how  texts and objects encapsulate and shape cultures in the early medieval West and in the Mediterranean. She is an affiliated scholar of the ‘Moving Byzantium’ project.