(Greek text). Remarks on the meaning of the term in Byzantium (4th-15th centuries) [Σχολαστικóς. Remarques sur le sens du terme à Byzance (IVe-XVesiècles)]

The Greek word scholastikos as a human attribute appears continuously from classical antiquity to modern times. However, over the centuries, the term took various nuances, which are associated with respective activities, the participation in public life and the social status of the persons qualified as scholastikoi. In the article, starting with Axel Claus' conclusions in his doctoral thesis (Cologne 1965) as well as the exploitation of new evidences concludes that from the 3rd until the 7th century AD the number of people known as scholastikoi is particularly high. These people were well educated with rhetoric and legal knowledge. The term did not designate a specific profession, though often during this period a scholastikos gathered the characteristics of a jurist in today's sense; he was an advocate, legal advisor, teacher of law, judge, notary, etc. Although he was not directly related to the education system as a teacher or professor of rhetoric, occasionally a scholastikos could have been, under certain circumstances, a private teacher of grammar (grammarian). During the middle and late Byzantine period, the attribute scholastikos for a person is found in very few and isolated cases (Arethas' letters to Niketas David Paphlagon, Ecloga privata aucta, Alexiad, Nikephoros Gregoras to Theodoros Metochites and Thomas Magistros, Life of saint Athanasios of Meteora). It is clear that scholastikos, as a human type with the characteristics outlined above, did not disappear, but the term was no longer used in this context. According to the rare available evidence, most of the authors used the term in its ancient Greek meaning, associating it mainly with education, teachers and letters in general. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Rome’s pasts and the creation of new urban spaces: brecciation, matter, and the play of surfaces and depths

In this paper I look at how the discovery of remnants contributes to creating new spaces in the city. I use the geological metaphor of brecciation drawing upon the work of Sigmund Freud to elaborate on how materials from the past and the present are jumbled in a nonlinear fashion to enable spatial multiplicity. I then illustrate these ideas through the case study of the Sala Trevi/Mondadori building in Rome which exemplifies the ongoing dynamics of the play of surfaces and depths when remnants are featured as part of the design. This is done by outlining ways in which the building unfolds spatial and material juxtapositions, and by elaborating on three elements that are indicative of the metaphor of brecciation. I conclude that when material and spatial entanglements occur, the metaphor of brecciation goes further than the metaphor of the palimpsest in facilitating spatial transformation in the city: spaces can be modified and create new possibilities with the past, enabling tensions to coexist in the present whilst not limiting reconfiguration in the future