Macedonian Renaissance
In historical research, the Macedonian Renaissance is sometimes referred to as a phase in Byzantine history (9th / 10th centuries) in which the empire experienced a new cultural heyday.
The Eastern Roman Empire, which had lost a large part of its territory, its population and its tax income as a result of the Arab conquests and the almost parallel conquest of the Slavs in the Balkans at the beginning of the 7th century, went through a process of transformation in the 7th century that had enormous effects State, society and culture. It signified the end of antiquity in the East and the Graecization of the state apparatus, which was previously strongly influenced by elements of late antiquity ; Latin as the (parallel) language of the army and the bureaucracy has now been completely replaced by Greek. The late Roman Eastern Empire became the Byzantine Empire (so-called only in modern times). In the following decades, Byzantium was also completely occupied with defensive struggles at the borders and with domestic political problems (see Byzantine Iconoclasm ).
The result was, among other things, a noticeable decline in urban structures (the ancient polis was now often converted into the fortified castron ) and a decline in the cultural level, although Byzantium still preserved much more of the ancient heritage than the West. In the 9th century, the domestic political situation, but above all the foreign political situation, relaxed so much that more money could be used again for cultural affairs. A new phase of cultural upswing developed, the climax of which was reached in the 10th century and affected art and literature, but also “science” in general (see for example John VII. Grammatikos and Leon the Mathematician ).
Due to the name of the then ruling imperial dynasty, the Macedonian dynasty (although a cultural revival was already recognizable under the previous dynasty ), the term Macedonian Renaissance has become the term for this phase . However, the term “ renaissance ” is controversial in research and the term is probably only partially accurate. The Byzantines did not rediscover " antiquity ", because the preoccupation with ancient works (such as those of Plato , Aristotle or Thucydides ) was never completely broken off there, but resorted to traditional material (especially from late antiquity ) back. In this respect, the term “Renaissance” is hardly applicable to Byzantium. Nevertheless, after the cultural slump in the 7th / 8th In the 19th century there was a significant return to Greek antiquity , which, however, was always understood by the Byzantines as part of their own past. The Byzantines' interest in ancient forms of culture increased and there were forms of renewal, but at the same time, for example, works of art continued to emerge that were hardly or not at all influenced by ancient models. The Macedonian Renaissance was of particular importance for book illumination . The most prominent example of this is the Paris Psalter . A return to the realistic style of classical antiquity is clearly recognizable here .
The renewed blossoming of literature, in which the classical high-level language was again cultivated, is connected, among other things, with Photios and Arethas von Kaisareia , who introduced a Byzantine " encyclopaedism ". Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote a work that is mostly known as a library , in which he lectures several pagan and Christian authors and evaluates their works. Since many of these works have been partially or completely lost, the library is also an important source in this regard . Arethas in turn dealt intensively with classical philology and philosophy .
Emperor Constantine VII even tried personally to preserve ancient and late antique / early Byzantine works and to ensure their transmission. On his behalf, an extensive, only partially preserved encyclopedia was created, which also contained quite extensive excerpts from various works. For example, at least excerpts from the historical works of Priskos and Menander Protektor have come down this way ; But this collection is also of importance for the transmission of parts of the history of Cassius Dio . For the transmission of ancient texts, the new minuscule script introduced in Byzantium in the 9th century also played a role, in which the new copies of ancient manuscripts were written.
For Byzantine historiography, the new "Byzantine humanism ", as it is sometimes also called, was also significant. Late antique historiography broke off with the histories of Theophylactus Simokates in the early 7th century. Historical works have only been preserved from the late 8th century, but chronicles have now been written. It was not until the 10th century that more demanding, mostly contemporary historical works were written.
literature
- Johannes G. Deckers : The early Christian and Byzantine art . Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56293-8 ( Beck'sche series 2553).
- Herbert Hunger : The high-level profane literature of the Byzantines . 2 volumes. Beck, Munich 1978 ( Handbook of Classical Studies, Department 12: Byzantine Handbook, Part 5).
- Jan Olof Rosenqvist: The Byzantine Literature. From the 6th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 . de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-018878-3 .
- Warren Treadgold : The Macedonian Renaissance . In: Warren Treadgold (Ed.): Renaissances before the Renaissance. Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . University Press, Stanford CA 1984, ISBN 0-8047-1198-4 , pp. 75ff.
Remarks
- ↑ See above all John Haldon: Byzantium in the seventh century . 2nd edition Cambridge 1997.
- ↑ See Peter Schreiner: Renaissance in Byzanz . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 7, Col. 717f.
- ↑ See the summary in Rosenqvist (2007), p. 59.