Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ACO (The Proceedings of the Ecumenical Councils from Oral Utterance to Manuscript Edition as Evidence for Late Antique Persuasion and Self-Representation Techniques)
Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2021-04-30
The project “The Proceedings of the Ecumenical Councils from Oral Utterance to Manuscript Edition as Evidence for Late Antique Persuasion and Self-Representation Techniques” conducted an in-depth study of the Acts of the Ecumenical Councils from a perspective of cultural history.
The Acts of the Ecumenical Councils of Late Antiquity include (purportedly) verbatim minutes of the proceedings, a formal framework, and copies of relevant documents which were either (allegedly) read out during the proceedings or which were later attached to the Acts proper.
Despite this unusual wealth of documentary evidence, the daunting nature of the Acts demanding multidisciplinary competency, their complex structure with a matryoshka-like nesting of proceedings from different dates, and the stereotype that their contents bear only on Christological niceties have deterred generations of historians from studying them.
The little research that existed had not always been based on sound principles: the recorded proceedings of the sessions had too often naively been accepted as verbatim minutes.
Yet even a superficial reading quickly reveals widespread editorial interference. We must accept that in many cases the Acts will teach us less about the actual debates than about the editors who shaped their presentation.
This does not depreciate the Acts’ evidence: on the contrary, they are first-rate material for the rhetoric of persuasion and self-representation. It is possible, in fact, to take the investigation to a deeper level and examine the manner in which the oral proceedings were put into writing: several passages in the Acts comment upon the process of note-taking and the work of the shorthand writers. Thus, the main objective of the proposed research project was to trace the destinies of the Acts’ texts, from the oral utterance to the manuscript texts we have today.
The results could be summarized as follows: first, by developing a rigorous approach based on linguistic methods, we could ascertain that in many places, the Acts demonstrably present little modified stenographed minutes. While some tinkering did happen, they were no wholesale forgeries. Second, this being said, one cannot but notice that large sections are missing and have surely been removed on purpose. Third, as much as we perceive large-scaling minuting as a late antique practice, this is probably just a distorted impression caused by the accidents of transmission. Our research showed that minuting was key in Early Imperial times, too. Fourth, the wealth of information provided by the Acts for countless future research enterprises could be evidenced. Fifth, from a technical viewpoint, the IT component of this project was outstandingly successful and provided the scholarly community with tools for correcting scanned texts and searching through them.
The Acts of the Ecumenical Councils of Late Antiquity include (purportedly) verbatim minutes of the proceedings, a formal framework, and copies of relevant documents which were either (allegedly) read out during the proceedings or which were later attached to the Acts proper.
Despite this unusual wealth of documentary evidence, the daunting nature of the Acts demanding multidisciplinary competency, their complex structure with a matryoshka-like nesting of proceedings from different dates, and the stereotype that their contents bear only on Christological niceties have deterred generations of historians from studying them.
The little research that existed had not always been based on sound principles: the recorded proceedings of the sessions had too often naively been accepted as verbatim minutes.
Yet even a superficial reading quickly reveals widespread editorial interference. We must accept that in many cases the Acts will teach us less about the actual debates than about the editors who shaped their presentation.
This does not depreciate the Acts’ evidence: on the contrary, they are first-rate material for the rhetoric of persuasion and self-representation. It is possible, in fact, to take the investigation to a deeper level and examine the manner in which the oral proceedings were put into writing: several passages in the Acts comment upon the process of note-taking and the work of the shorthand writers. Thus, the main objective of the proposed research project was to trace the destinies of the Acts’ texts, from the oral utterance to the manuscript texts we have today.
The results could be summarized as follows: first, by developing a rigorous approach based on linguistic methods, we could ascertain that in many places, the Acts demonstrably present little modified stenographed minutes. While some tinkering did happen, they were no wholesale forgeries. Second, this being said, one cannot but notice that large sections are missing and have surely been removed on purpose. Third, as much as we perceive large-scaling minuting as a late antique practice, this is probably just a distorted impression caused by the accidents of transmission. Our research showed that minuting was key in Early Imperial times, too. Fourth, the wealth of information provided by the Acts for countless future research enterprises could be evidenced. Fifth, from a technical viewpoint, the IT component of this project was outstandingly successful and provided the scholarly community with tools for correcting scanned texts and searching through them.
Regarding the linguistic analysis of the Acts, the research of Tommaso Mari has yielded important results in various regards. Mari could demonstrate the reliability of the early Latin translations of Chalcedon whereas Greek translations of originally Latin parts are at times demonstrably biased. In a paper submitted for publication, Mari gives a groundbreaking account of what can be found out about spoken Greek at the Council of Chalcedon.
Maria Constantinou was working on an annotated translation of the councils of 536. She was publishing parerga along the way: an article which clarified the provenance of documents embedded in the acts of 536, and another contribution which sheds new light on the procedure of the triple summons.
Luisa Andriollo was researching earlier administrative records that were minuted; she provided the backdrop for the creation of the voluminous Acts of the ecumenical councils. She published on recorded imperial speeches to the army, and on minuted imperial verdicts in jurisdiction. She also focused on the participation of emperors in church councils and their recorded speeches in this context, helping clarify the emperor’s role at councils.
During his 13 months as visiting senior scholar in Bamberg, Thomas Graumann advanced his monograph on conciliar protocols as cultural expression. Peter Van Nuffelen, another visiting senior scholar, used the evidence from the Acts for investigating questions of late antique cognition.
Aäron Vanspauwen and Dario Internullo joined the research team as short-time fellows, working on Latin protocols from the western half of the Roman Empire. Marijke Kooijman worked on documents embedded in, and attached to, the Acts of Chalcedon.
The PI performed a close inspection of the whole source material with the purpose of tracking down possibly manipulated passages. This collection constituted the evidence base on which the development of a method to work with minutes rests. This method, elaborated by Mari, is based on discourse analysis, but in order to make it workable with minutes, a great deal of heuristic revision was necessary. Apart from that, the PI carried out the digitalization project, implementing an extremely fast and comfortable search routine for ancient Greek in the Amanuensis search utility. In order to facilitate the adoption of OCR’ed ancient texts into databases, he coordinated the development of a utility that adds sophisticated spellchecking for Latin and Ancient Greek to Microsoft Word.
Maria Constantinou was working on an annotated translation of the councils of 536. She was publishing parerga along the way: an article which clarified the provenance of documents embedded in the acts of 536, and another contribution which sheds new light on the procedure of the triple summons.
Luisa Andriollo was researching earlier administrative records that were minuted; she provided the backdrop for the creation of the voluminous Acts of the ecumenical councils. She published on recorded imperial speeches to the army, and on minuted imperial verdicts in jurisdiction. She also focused on the participation of emperors in church councils and their recorded speeches in this context, helping clarify the emperor’s role at councils.
During his 13 months as visiting senior scholar in Bamberg, Thomas Graumann advanced his monograph on conciliar protocols as cultural expression. Peter Van Nuffelen, another visiting senior scholar, used the evidence from the Acts for investigating questions of late antique cognition.
Aäron Vanspauwen and Dario Internullo joined the research team as short-time fellows, working on Latin protocols from the western half of the Roman Empire. Marijke Kooijman worked on documents embedded in, and attached to, the Acts of Chalcedon.
The PI performed a close inspection of the whole source material with the purpose of tracking down possibly manipulated passages. This collection constituted the evidence base on which the development of a method to work with minutes rests. This method, elaborated by Mari, is based on discourse analysis, but in order to make it workable with minutes, a great deal of heuristic revision was necessary. Apart from that, the PI carried out the digitalization project, implementing an extremely fast and comfortable search routine for ancient Greek in the Amanuensis search utility. In order to facilitate the adoption of OCR’ed ancient texts into databases, he coordinated the development of a utility that adds sophisticated spellchecking for Latin and Ancient Greek to Microsoft Word.
Previous to this project, minuted transactions had received exceedingly little attention in the realm of Classics. Although they constitute unique sources about the way in which people argued, they have been scarcely studied for their own sake. Accordingly, it was unclear how much they were edited or not; clarifying this is obviously an indispensable precondition for using them as sources for what actually transpired.
In this respect, the project has yielded crucial results beyond the state of the art. Thanks to a meticulous analysis of the linguistic structure of the Chalcedon transactions, Tommaso Mari could show that they are closely based on oral models. This does not imply that no editing activity took place, but on the other hand, there is no room to assume that large-scale faking of whole passages happened. Mari could even identify language tics of individuals, proving that these tics must go back to the oral utterance. The scarcely researched acts of the councils of 536 will be presented in an English annotated translation by Maria Constantinou. This implies a considerable step ahead, as there is hardly any research on them at all. Luisa Andriollo’s research on minuted imperial pronouncements is unique and therefore also well beyond the state of the art.
The digital humanities part of this project, personally carried out by the PI, was specifically successful. With a four-digit number of installations each, the two tools Amanuensis and Titivillus undoubtedly belong to the most widely deployed digital humanities offers in Classics. In this respect, the project meant a huge step forward far beyond its own subject or even its own discipline, as Amanuensis and Titivillus can be adapted to the needs of very different disciplines in the future.
It is also fulfilling to see how research in conciliar acts took off during the life-time of this project. The regular participation of team members in conferences made a wide range of fellow scholars familiar with the unique material of the acts, and one can watch how this is bearing fruit now.
In this respect, the project has yielded crucial results beyond the state of the art. Thanks to a meticulous analysis of the linguistic structure of the Chalcedon transactions, Tommaso Mari could show that they are closely based on oral models. This does not imply that no editing activity took place, but on the other hand, there is no room to assume that large-scale faking of whole passages happened. Mari could even identify language tics of individuals, proving that these tics must go back to the oral utterance. The scarcely researched acts of the councils of 536 will be presented in an English annotated translation by Maria Constantinou. This implies a considerable step ahead, as there is hardly any research on them at all. Luisa Andriollo’s research on minuted imperial pronouncements is unique and therefore also well beyond the state of the art.
The digital humanities part of this project, personally carried out by the PI, was specifically successful. With a four-digit number of installations each, the two tools Amanuensis and Titivillus undoubtedly belong to the most widely deployed digital humanities offers in Classics. In this respect, the project meant a huge step forward far beyond its own subject or even its own discipline, as Amanuensis and Titivillus can be adapted to the needs of very different disciplines in the future.
It is also fulfilling to see how research in conciliar acts took off during the life-time of this project. The regular participation of team members in conferences made a wide range of fellow scholars familiar with the unique material of the acts, and one can watch how this is bearing fruit now.