Project description
The role of schedography in 11th c Byzantium
Schedography was the principal grammar teaching method in Byzantine schools between the 11th and 15th centuries. Current literature highlights its impact on the kind of Greek taught, school curricula and the purposes of Byzantine education and cultural politics. However, the study of edited schedographic sources is not strong. The EU-funded TeaGre project will tackle this by focusing on when schedography began spreading. TeaGre will frame schedography within the context of 11th century Byzantine culture and current school practices by leveraging the Longibardos handbook, the most relevant source for this period. The work will result in a critical edition of Longibardos’ handbook and other unedited schedographic pieces and a consistent linguistic and stylistic approach to schedographic sources.
Objective
Schedography is a Byzantine method of teaching Greek grammar that was popular from the eleventh century to the early modern period. The study of this method enables a better understanding of 1) which kind of Greek was taught and how its teaching was conducted in medieval schools; 2) the influence of school curriculum on writing and reading practices in Byzantium; 3) the purposes of Byzantine education and cultural politics. The existent studies offer sound, but general, overviews and several schedographic sources are unedited. Furthermore, there is the lack of a consistent approach to the study of the edited schedographic sources.
My project addresses this issue by looking at the eleventh century, when this method began to spread. I will frame schedography within the context of eleventh-century Byzantine culture and of contemporary school practices. Furthermore, I will examine the most relevant source for this period, the handbook by Longibardos, to describe its teaching method through a linguistic and stylistic analysis. My project will also lead to a critical edition of Longibardos’ handbook and other unedited eleventh-century schedographic remnants.
TeaGre will offer both the first study of schedography and its early evolution as well as a consistent linguistic and stylistic approach to schedographic sources. The simultaneous presence of the ERC-funded projects MELA and EVWRIT at Ghent University places my MSCA Fellowship within a context of substantial and innovative research on Classical, Late Antique and Medieval Greek language and education. The edition of Longibardos and eleventh-century schedographic texts will also expand the database for the study of Greek literature and language that is currently being developed at Ghent University. Through this fellowship, I will improve my professional profile into a more complete Greek scholar and my project will provide me with the proof of concept for my further research on this topic.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
9000 Gent
Belgium