Petra Lučeničová

The Online International Conference devoted to the Archaeology, the History and Philosophy of War in Byzantine and Mediterranean Contexts (9th-16th c.), to be held virtually via Zoom from 8 to 10 December 2023, seeks to illuminate aspects of war in medieval and early modern period. Our Conference does not aim at exhausting the subject of war, but will offer an interdisciplinary forum for a selection of talks that touch upon some of the following aspects:

- Military campaigns, strategies and tactics
- Philosophy of Medieval war in Byzantium and the Mediterranean
- Psychological Warfare Techniques
- Combat arms (lances, swords, sabers, maces, hammers, knives, axes)
- Bows and crossbows
- Turkic bows
- Byzantine and Islamic great crossbows
- Military equipment (helmets, lamellar armors
- Warhorses and their equipment
- Mercenaries in armies
- Rus’ and Varangians
- Byzantine warriors
- Bulgarian warriors
- Arab warriors
- Crusader warriors
- Seljuk warriors
- Mongol warriors
- Mamluk warriors
- Man-powered mangonels
- Man-powered beam-sling mangonel
- Engines to shoot large arrows
- Ballistic machines
- Assault devices
- Stone-throwing counter-weight mangonel (or trebuchet)
- Mangonel balls
- Greek Fire projecting siphons
- Incendiary rockets
- Ceramic Grenades
- Hand cannons
- Early Cannons
- Siege Weapons
- Mobile sheds to protect men
- Byzantine Military Manuals
- Arab Military Manuals
- Latin Military Manuals
- Siege Illustrations in Manuscripts
- Arms in literature (epic poems and romances)
- Depictions of warriors, sieges and combats in art 
- Illustrations of arms and combats in the Romance of Varqa ve Gülşah

Stephanos Yerasimos (Istanbul 1942- Paris 2005) was a pioneering scholar of Byzantine and Ottoman Studies. His monumental monograph: Les voyageurs dans l’Empire Ottoman (XIVe-XVIe siècles). Bibliographie, itinéraires et inventaire des lieux habités  (Ankara 1991), is a pioneering study on travelers to the Ottoman Empire and still one of the most important in the field.
Nowadays, more than 30 years after the publication of his book it is worthly to revisit and widen its topic in time, with the organization of an international conference on Travelers in the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires (12th-16th c.) dedicated to his work and loving memory. The Conference will be hybrid (in Venice and virtually via zoom), from 15 to 17 December 2023.
The proposed scholarly meeting seeks to illuminate not only the topic of Travelers and their writings, but also to offer an interdisciplinary forum for a selection of papers that may touch upon some of the following aspects:
 Travelers to Byzantium
 Travelers to Greece and Asia Minor
 Travelers to Constantinople
 Travelers to Cyprus
 Travelers to Istanbul
 Travelers in the Balkans
 Travelers in Anatolia
 Arab travelers to Byzantium
 Western Travelers to Byzantium
 Jewish Travelers to Byzantium
 Russian travelers to Byzantium
 Byzantine travelers to the East
 Byzantine travelers to the West
 Silk routes travelers
 Ibn Battutta
 Western travelers to the Ottoman Empire
 Ottoman travelers in the Ottoman Empire
 Ottoman travelers to the West
 Monuments through travelers’ chronicles
 Objects of minor arts through travelers’ chronicles
 Merchants and their travels
 Ambassadors and travels
 Travels and ports
 Travels and accommodation (inns, hans)
 Travels by sea
 Isolarii
 Maps and mapmaking
 Portolans
Languages of Conference: English, French, Italian, Greek.
The Proceedings of the Conference will be published by the Hellenic Institute of Venice.

The Online International Conference devoted to the Towers in Byzantine and Post Byzantine period (10th-16th centuries), to be held virtually via Zoom from 18 to 20 November 2022, seeks to illuminate aspects of their construction, decoration, function and evolution in time. Our Conference does not aim at exhausting the subject, but will offer an interdisciplinary forum for a selection of talks that touch upon some of the following aspects: 
- Single (free)- standing towers
- Monastic Towers
- Towers in maritime forts, harbors and arsenals
- Towers in Palaces
- Donjons
- Towers with gates
- Byzantine Towers in Asia Minor (Anatolia)
- Towers of the Frankish, Venetian and Genoese rulers
- Towers of the Order of St. John
- Genoese Towers in Turkey
- Seljuk Towers
- Ottoman Towers
- Post-Byzantine Towers
- Towers with canons
- Tower Houses of the Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and
        early Ottoman Period
- Inscriptions on Towers
- Heraldry in Towers
-      Buttressed Towers

Το βυζαντινό αυτοκρατορικό ελεφαντοστέινο κιβωτίδιο που σήμερα βρίσκεται στον καθεδρικό ναό της Τρουά (Troyes) στη βορειοανατολική Γαλλία, αποτελεί προϊόν της λείας των Σταυροφόρων μετά την άλωση της Κωνσταντινούπολης το 1204.
Το έργο αποτελείται από έξι συναρμοσμένα πλακίδια από ελεφαντοστό προσαρμοσμένα σε εσωτερικό ξύλινο σκελετό, ενώ διατηρεί το αρχικό πορφυρό του χρώμα. Το σκάλισμα των θεμάτων του παρουσιάζει μια τεχνική αρτιότητα, ενώ με βάση την εικονογραφία του, θα πρέπει να φιλοτεχνήθηκε για τη βυζαντινή αυλή, ίσως και για τον ίδιο τον αυτοκράτορα. Ως προς τα θέματα του διακόσμου, στο κάλυμμα υπάρχουν δύο έφιπποι αυτοκράτορες μπροστά από τα τείχη μιας πόλης, οι οποίοι ταυτίστηκαν με τον Κωνσταντίνο Ζ΄ Πορφυρογέννητο και τον γιό και συναυτοκράτορά του Ρωμανό Β΄. Στην μπροστινή και την πίσω όψη του κιβωτιδίου απεικονίζονται σκηνές κυνηγιού. Στις πλάγιες όψεις έχει σκαλιστεί το μυθικό κινεζικό πουλί Φεγκ χουαν, θέμα ιδιαίτερα σπάνιο στη βυζαντινή τέχνη.
Η συνύπαρξη όλων των παραπάνω μοτίβων στο ίδιο έργο φανερώνει τις επιρροές της Ανατολής στη βυζαντινή αυλική τέχνη των μέσων του 10ου αιώνα και προσφέρει νέες ερμηνείες γύρω από την εικονογραφία του κιβωτιδίου όπως και τις επιλογές του παραγγελιοδότη του.