Herzog's Roman Tesserae: Their Nature and Purpose Revisited

This dissertation reinterprets a distinctive type of inscribed ivory or bone label, which has been neglected for the past century, and contextualizes them within wider Roman labeling practices. Each of their four sides bears a Latin inscription: the first side names either a slave or freedman, the second names a Roman elite family, while the third and fourth sides bear a date (day, month, and consuls) between 96 BCE and 83 CE. Unlike many portable inscriptions, these tesserae have an exact date. In 1919 Rudolf Herzog, the last scholar to thoroughly study these tesserae, based his interpretation on about 120 of them. He proposed that Roman financial officials used them as labels to certify an amount or quality of coinage. Herzog’s hypothesis has remained unchallenged; yet it is speculative and overdue for reconsideration.By using digital photography and archiving techniques, my project documents Herzog’s tesserae far more thoroughly as both inscriptions and physical objects. Visits to over 15 museums and libraries across Europe have enabled me to increase the known number of examples to 180 and to create the fullest photographic record and catalog possible. My contention is that Herzog’s tesserae appear to be used to label prestigious objects, sometimes perhaps stored in temple complexes, although they need not be limited to this function. They are unique labels from the Roman world in that they explicitly name slaves and freedmen, and emphasize their role in the inspection of prestigious objects. I have developed a typology for the changes in form over the period during which they were used. I have also taken the opportunity to compare Herzog’s tesserae to other groups of rectangular tesserae made for different purposes, such as tribal and gaming tesserae. These comparisons reveal that cultural preferences dictated their aesthetics and production from 96 BCE to 33 BCE, while functional requirements necessitated a change in their physical form between 32 BCE and 83 CE.Doctor of Philosoph

Performing Authority in Byzantium. Bodies, Gestures, and Behaviour in the Practice and in the Literary Representation of Power

This research analyses the role of gesture, postures and bodily movements in Byzantine society and politics, with a particular attention to the imperial figure and through the theoretical lens provided by social sciences and performative studies. Far away from being a trivial one, the topic had been successfully addressed by the Greek-Roman and Middle Ages Western historical research, and only recently and occasionally had been put forward in the Byzantine field, where it remains an underestimated area of research. The present study wishes, first of all, to define the meaning and the values of bodily display and gesture (schema and schemata) in Byzantium, together with an analysis of the implications of the way in which the relation between body and soul was perceived, as well as of the rationale behind the use of physical movements. A more complex and comprehensive picture of the imperial body has emerged, unveiling its physical and performative dimension, its role in the ‘theater’ of a court potentially aware of the play, as well as its importance to understand the emperor’s divine and human nature. A review of the gestural occurrences has been conducted in the most exemplificative sources from Late Antiquity down to the Middle Byzantine period, and concluded with an exceptional case-study, the Chronographia of Michael Psellos

A critical analysis of Jean Thenaud's Kabbalistic Manuscript Arsenal ms.5061.

Jean Thenaud, a Franciscan from the region of Angouleme had intimate access to the royal family of Francis I (1494-1547), King of France, who commissioned Thenaud to journey to the Holy Land. Although the report on this voyage was published all Thenaud's other works, which include poetical commentary, horoscopes, monumental moralistic directives for the royal household and two Kabbalistic works remained in manuscript. (All his works were written in French). The first Kabbalistic work was the 1519 manuscript La saincte et tres chrestienne cabale metrifiee (BN. Fr. 882) which was in verse and which, perhaps because of this, did not gain royal approval. Thenaud rewrote his findings and in 1521 duly presented Traite de la cabale (Arsenal ms. 5061). The present thesis compromises an analysis of the Kabbalistic oeuvre of Thenaud plus an assessment of the state of Hebrew learning in Christian circles, particularly in France, up to the end of the sixteenth century. The edition of Arsenal ms. 5061 includes commentary and translation. A text-only transcription of the original is also provided on diskettes. At first sight Arsenal ms. 5061 is thoroughly neo-Platonic. It follows the Kabbalistic works of Johann Reuchlin, employs a cosmology and numerology derived from Dionysius the Areopagite and re-interprets Kabbalism by means of the Figure of the ninth century Rabanus Maurus of Fulda. Although Jews had been banned from France in 1394 the thesis proposes that Thenaud had direct access to an otherwise unrecognised Hebrew Kabbalistic source. This is supported by analysis of the distribution of the endings of the names of the 72 angels together with the form of exorcism given in Treatise 4. Furthermore new research in this thesis concerning Jewish-Christian relationships as found in Toledot Yeshu confirms that Thenaud did have direct access to a distinct Hebraic tradition. This tradition, mediated through Thenaud's European scholarship, allowed him to present the Kabbalah in accordance with medieval cosmology making full use of superbly illustrated colour diagrams