Byzantine Law

The wish to have a child does not reflect the same social reality for everybody. This is especially true for the Ancient Worlds. The Romans, for example, had incorporated in their law the faculty of making children other than by procreation. Roman jurists wrote quite a number of texts about adoption; their 6th century Byzantine counterparts collected some of these reflexions in a specific chapter of the Digest. In the meantime, the Theodosian Code considered adoption only in relation to inheritance. Subsequently, both in the Code and in the Institutes of Justinian, there will be chapters dealing with this important subject. Later, after the law reform started in Byzantium in 877, the Justinian codification relating to adoption will benefit from a chapter in the Basilicas written in Greek language and promulgated in 888 by Emperor Leo VI the Wise. The rich information that contain these sources and some other texts of Roman law placed in their social, historical and psychological context show that the motivations for adopting had changed between Rome and Byzantium, and that, in several respects, the modalities and beneficiaries of the adoption too.

From Winston Black in The Medieval Review 15.06.24...

'In the concluding essay, "The Bright Side of the Knife: Dismemberment in Medieval Europe and the Modern Imagination," Lila Yawn clearly takes the most chances and has the most fun in exploring the topic of medieval wounds and wounding. After a review of graphic and supposedly "medieval" dismemberments in modern movies and literature, such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, or Pulp Fiction, Yawn poses the simple question of "how medieval cutting up living bodies really was" (218). In response, she gives a whirlwind tour of nearly two millennia of images and descriptions of amputation, dismemberment, fragmentation, and mutilation from Cicero to Thomas Jefferson. In so doing she demonstrates, as many medieval apologists have already noted, that there is no greater amount or degree of dismemberment in the Middle Ages than before or after, but what leads moderns to equate "medieval" with "dismemberment" is the medieval tendency to celebrate dismemberment and put severed body parts on display, be they of the criminal or of the saint.'

The Medieval Review 15.06.24
Kirkham, Anne, and Cordelia Warr, eds. Wounds in the Middle Ages. The History of Medicine in Context. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. pp. xvi, 254. $124.95 (hardback). ISBN: 9781409465690 (hardback).
Reviewed by: Winston Black, Assumption College. [email protected]
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/19219/25339

The Byzantine emperor Leo VI (886–912), was not a general or even a soldier, like his predecessors, but a scholar, and it was the religious education he gained under the tutelage of the patriarch Photios that was to distinguish him as an unusual ruler. This book analyses Leo's literary output, focusing on his deployment of ideological principles and religious obligations to distinguish the characteristics of the Christian oikoumene from the Islamic caliphate, primarily in his military manual known as the Taktika. It also examines in depth his 113 legislative Novels, with particular attention to their theological prolegomena, showing how the emperor's religious sensibilities find expression in his reshaping of the legal code to bring it into closer accord with Byzantine canon law. Meredith L. D. Riedel argues that the impact of his religious faith transformed Byzantine cultural identity and influenced his successors, establishing the Macedonian dynasty as a 'golden age' in Byzantium.

Quedan rigurosamente prohibidas, sin la autorización escrita de los titulares del Copyright, bajo las sanciones establecidas en las leyes, la reproducción total o parcial de esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, comprendidos la reprografía y el tratamiento informático y su distribución.

The book attempts to present –for the first time in the international bibliography– a detailed description of the historical life of Abydos (Άβυδος) of Hellespont (Ελλήσποντος, Δαρδανέλλια); the latter was an important ancient and medieval Greek city, situated on the Asiatic shore of Dardanelles, at the once narrowest part of the local Straits (usually named "Stenon of Abydos") and in the surrounding area of the promontory of Nara (an Ottoman and modern Turkish naval base, where free access is prohibited). The monograph also detects the  relations between Abydos and other known settlements in the wider region of northwestern Asia Minor (Troad, Hellespont, Mysia, Hellespontine Phrygia).

Αbydos was founded predominantly as a colony of Miletus (ca. 680-650 BC) and had a continuous historical life that lasted about 2.000 years (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). The prosperous ancient city minted various coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD. Its lively port was used for centuries as a key point for the passage from Europe to Asia and the cruise from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (and vice versa) as well as a major customs station ("telonion Abydou" during the Roman imperial years, "demosion teloneion" or "kommerkion" or "dekateuterion Abydou" during the medieval period of the city). Byzantine Abydos was also an important administrative center, a military and naval base and an ecclesiastical seat (bishopric and later metropolis).

However, the long and turbulent history of Abydos and its region is virtually unknown in modern years, despite the fact that the city's reputation was particularly widespread during ancient and medieval times in the Mediterranean world. Moreover, for many reasons noted in the book, the settlement does not exist archaeologically in the last two centuries. In short, Abydos constitutes a very interesting case of a virtually lost city during the modern times.

For various reasons, also described in the book, the importance of Abydos had declined during the 13th c. AD and the city was finally abandoned by its population in the early 14th c. AD., mainly because of the Turkish threat in the area. From mid. 15th c. AD the new city of Çanakkale was established gradually (initially named as Kale-i Sultaniye) 5-6 km to the south of Abydos. The ruins of the abandoned urban area of ​​the latter have been systematically pillaged -mainly for construction and other purposes- between the 14th - early 19th c. AD.

For the reconstruction of  the long historical life of Abydos (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD) and an in-depth analysis of its numerous and largely unknown institutions, the study relies though on the information providing by the written (ancient and medieval) texts but also on the scarce and dispersed epigraphic and the much richer numismatic (the city minted coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD) and sigillographic data and other archaeological findings regarding (or deriving from) the city. It also takes into account all the contemporary related publications.

[VANIAS publications,  Thessaloniki 2017,  752 pages,  ISBN: 978-960-288-342-6,  text in Greek language with an English summary]

The present paper, inspired by the article of Peter van Minnen, is devoted to the somewhat curious use of the term falkidion in three Dioskorean texts. In two deeds of disinheritation, P.Cair.Masp. III 67353 & I 67097 v° D, the Aphrodite Lawyer seems to have confused two distinct legal terms: quarta Falcidia and the portio debita/legitima (νόμιμος μοῖρα). In the third case, a will (P.Cair.Masp. III 67312), the term falkidion was applied in its classically correct meaning. The scholarship usually deemed the Dioskorean misconception of falkidion to have resulted from the common error of the Byzantine jurisprudence which had apparently applied it wrongly to describe legitim. Peter van Minnen thought that the notary’s seeming imprecision was rather due to his up-to-date legal education, as the Justinianic jurisprudence would have implicitly equalled the two concepts. The research of the Byzantine juristic sources proves however, that the legal texts – especially these of the Justinian’s era – almost always keep a clear distinction between these two legal institutes. After an examination of the dubious cases, the postulated identification is only ascertained in case of two works of scholarly use, Epitomae Novellarum of Julian and of Athanasius of Emesa. Subsequently the confrontation of some pre-justinianic legal sources allows to formulate a hypothesis that the justinianic compilers tried to recover the original meaning of falkidion. This supposition, in turn, may not only provide for better understanding of Dioskoros’s juristic expertise and his practical activity, but also illustrate the apparent contradictions between the pure imperial law, the legal practice and the teaching of law, based – one may speculate – still after the codification upon the pre-codified version of the law.

There can hardly be any major doubts of the huge and multifaceted influence that church hierarchs have on the communities in the Orthodox world. In view of this, it is barely surprising that the various aspects of their life, work and creativity provoke and will continue to provoke the scientific interest of generations of scholars. The research efforts in this article also are prompted by the desire to add touches to the role of Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos in the foreign affairs, as evidenced in two of the earlier letters in his abundant epistolary legacy.

There is no doubt that the highly dynamic and prolonged military clash between Byzantium and the Bulgarian Tzardom from the 70s of the tenth century until the end of the second decade of the eleventh century attracts and will continue to attract the attention of scientists. In this regard, despite the abundance of publications, when it comes to the fate of Byzantine war captives – direct participants in the battles, there seems to be something to add. Even within the limited frames of an article, it is possible to emphasize on an essential feature. It is related to the fact that, when it comes to the Byzantine prisoners of war (regular warriors as well as commanders of all ranks), Tzar Samuel and his successors followed the experience gained in the previous centuries in Early Medieval Bulgaria.

The article examines the evidence on food and nutrition found in the Slavic penitentials. Unlike the law texts in the Western historical tradition, the Slavic mediaeval law texts are poorly researched and used as a source of information on the Bulgarian history and culture. The manuscript tradition of the Slavic penitentials (the volume of manuscripts, their frequency, editorial interventions) shows that for a long period (almost until the 18th century) they have remained among the main texts used by the priests during the sacraments of confession and repentance. Therefore, they can be a source of important information about the everyday life of Bulgarians. Emphasis is put on the diet, the ban on certain foods, the role of food and nutrition in relation to the people following other traditions such as heretics, Jews, Armenians. It is argued that penitentials reflect a kind of duality. On the one hand, they may be regarded as attesting the everyday lifestyle-the Christian calendar, the observance of certain hygienic norms, while, on the other hand, they reflect, to the highest degree, the concepts of purity and impurity which are characteristic for the primitive cultures and the blurring of which might have led to supernatural punishment Както справедливо отбелязва Ст. Смядовски едва ли има по-сълзливо или плачещо общество от Средновековното (Смядовски 2014: 26). Проповядваната от Христос скръб е скръбта от и за греховете, за които всеки ще отговаря пред Страшния съд. Тежестта на греховете, признати по време на изповед, обаче би могла да бъде снета чрез искрено разкаяние и изкупена чрез извършването на определена простъпка. В това се състои и значението на тайнството покаяние. Пенитенциалите, използвани от свещенослужителите по време на изповед, имат формата на списъци с условни клаузи ("ако някой е извършил определен грях ...") със съответстващата им епитимия, което е форма на наказание, но няма юридическа сила на санкция. Целта на епитимията е да излекува ума и душата, да даде опрощение, помирение (McNeill 1932; Kottje 1995). Християнската Църква познава както публичното, така и тайното покаяние. Първото предвижда недопускане до светата литургия, носене на определени дрехи или остригване на косата за даден период от време в съответствие от извършеното

La pubblicazione di articoli e note proposti alla Rivista è subordinata alla valutazione positiva espressa su di essi (rispettando l'anonimato dell'autore e in forma anonima) da due lettori scelti dal Direttore in primo luogo tra i componenti del Comitato scientifico internazionale. Ciò in adesione al comune indirizzo delle Riviste romanistiche italiane (AG., RISG., BIDR., AUPA., SDHI., Iura, Index, Roma e America, IAH., Quaderni Lupiensi, Diritto@storia, TSDP.), in seguito alle indicazioni del gruppo di lavoro promosso dal Consorzio interuniversitario Gérard Boulvert e a conseguenti delibere del CUN e del CNR. Gli autori sono invitati a inviare alla Rivista insieme con il testo da pubblicare un abstract in lingua diversa da quella del contributo e «parole chiave» nelle due lingue.

Adesi Gioirgio Barone
A cura di Licandro Orazio e Carbone Mariateresa e Pirro Isabella
Anno di Edizione: 2019
Edizione: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
Collane:
Fra Oriente e Occidente, 7
ISBN: 9788891318381
Rilegatura: Paperback
Pagine: 526
Formato: 15 x 21 cm
 
Anteprima

Codice Prodotto: 00013195

Источники права и источники познания права: теоретические, методологические и методические проблемы исследования. Материалы круглого стола. 21-22 июня 2013 г. Екатеринбург: Российский гуманитарный научный фонд, Уральская государственная юридическая академия, 2013. -282 с. С.239 -245. (0,5 п.л.)

Scriptores Iuris Romani is a new edition of the works of
the Roman jurists, comparable to that of any other author of Antiquity. Under the stewardship
of A. Schiavone, this new edition undertakes to replace Mommsen’s edition of the Digest and
Lenel’s ‘Palingenesia Iuris Civilis’. Due to its basis in the ‘approccio biografico’, and also due
to a naive attitude towards the problems of the textual tradition – which becomes obvious in
the editorial choices made by E. Stolfi, who is in charge of this volume on Mucius –, the edition
of Mucius’ Opera is not as reliable as it should be. The whole enterprise must be considered an
important achievement of scholarship on Mucius, but will neither replace Mommsen nor Lenel.

The article deals with some canon law texts from the Slavonic translation of Nomocanon Cotelerii concerning the regulation of the mixed (interfaith) marriages: 1. If a Christian commits adultery and fornicates with a gentile woman, he defiles his baptism; even more so if he has been eating and drinking with her – it is a great dishonour. Such a man must be expelled from the Holy Church and has to stay where the catechumens stay for three years. Then, he will be allowed to re-enter the church and stay for two years; and during all these five years, he has to repent and on the sixth year he will be allowed to receive the communion with faithful Christians; 2. If a Christian has a non-Christian woman who does not want to give up her religion, or a Christian woman has a non-Christian man who does not want to accept Christianity, there is nothing to be said about them. However, as we have already written, it is not appropriate for a Christian to marry an unbelieving [spouse]. If such a thing happens to such [spouses] Apostle Paul says: The unbelieving woman will be saved by a believing man, and an unbelieving man – by a believing woman. Therefore, they must not be separated, but the believing man should forever repent for his unbelieving wife and pray for the rest of his life until God converts her into the true faith. Similarly, the believing wife [must repent for] her unbelieving husband. It is not forbidden for them to eat and drink together but only if the believing spouse goes to the spiritual Father to take His holy orders and to constantly go to church and diligently surrender to prayers and services. If the two bear children, the believing [spouse] must guide them into the true faith; 3. If an unbelieving man defiles a Christian girl, he has to be baptized into Christian faith and to be blessed to take the woman as his wife. If he does not want to do so, all his possessions have to be taken and given to the woman who lost her virginity and was defiled by him. He has to be persecuted and expelled from the place as an offender and a destroyer of the Christian kin. And when the Christian woman takes the property of this unbelieving dog, she should marry a Christian man.
The analysis shows that in Nomocanon Cotelerii a rich selection of rules unknown to other canonical and legal collections is preserved. Editio princeps and translation in Bulgarian are appended.

The Canonical collection of the hieromonk Macarius, formerly preserved in the library of Nikolsburg in Moravia—now Mikulov, Czech Republic—disappeared after the sale of Prince Alexander von Dietrichstein’s library in Lucerne in 1933. Discovered by chance in 2012 in France (Orléans), it is studied here thoroughly for the first time. Now dated from 1525/26, the Collection offers a new thematic classification of Matthew Blastares’s Syntagma canonum (14th c.), enriched with various other texts. The study consists of three parts: a codicological description of the manuscript with a detailed analysis of its content, the narrative of its modern history, and an assessment of the importance of Macarius’s work compared to similar canonical collections. After this discovery, the manuscript was bought by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and is now the Parisinus Suppl. gr. 1394.

This article first argues that the thinking behind different theories of collective self-constitution – normative political and reflexive – is commonly restricted by the particularly occidental metaphysics of medieval natural theology which rendered transcendence immanent and domesticated and absolutized God's unlimited power. The article then shows how this ''defective immanence'' of constitutional thinking functions ideologically through retroactively colonizing other forms of ''theo-politics'' in non-occidental monotheistic socio-political organizations.

This paper summarizes the recent dynamics of the studies on Byzantine law in the West and China, including monographs and research papers. This may be interesting to the readers who want to quickly learn the dynamics and trend of the subjet.

In:  T. Kolias - K. Pitsakis (eds.) - K. Synellis (assoc. ed.), Aureus. Volume dedicated to professor Evangelos K. Chrysos, National Research Foundation/ Institute of Historical Research/ Section of Byzantine Research, Athens 2014, pp. 257-295.
[Τ. Κόλιας & Κ. Πιτσάκης (εκδ.), Κ. Συνέλλη (επιµ.), Aureus. Tόμος Αφιερωμένος στον καθηγητή Ευάγγελο Κ. Χρυσό, Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών/ Ινστιτούτο Ιστορικών Ερευνών/ Τομέας Βυζαντινών Ερευνών, Αθήνα 2014, σσ. 257-295]

Un synthèse sur la compénétration des notions de droit, éthique, religion et état dans le monde byzantin, qui s'efforce de prendre appui sur une terminologie plus proche des catégories de pensée byzantines telles que la basileia, la politeia, l'ekklesia.

A B S T R A C T This paper attempts to perceive a several centuries long process of Roman matrimonium transforming into sacramentum of the Christian Church. It is based on a comparative research of two different historic periods―Roman (post)classical and Byzantine―as well as from a perspective of both Civil and Canon law. The paper contains two separate sections first of which considers the very notion of marriage in the Roman Law, while the other one examines Christian concept of marriage and Eastern Church matrimonial ceremonies through most important Byzantine Civil and Canon Law sources.

Рассматривается сложившийся в Византии принцип симфонии светской и церковной властей. Автор показывает, как этот принцип сохранялся с VI по XIV в. Дается перевод титулов из Эпанагоги о василевсе и патриархе. Упоминаются институт вселенских судей и православная ойкумена. Говорится о последствиях наличия принципа симфонии властей в Византии.
The article is devoted to the Byzantine principle of the symphony of church and state powers. The author shows how this principle has been preserved from the VI to XIV century. There is a translation of the titles of Epanagoge about the Basileus and the Patriarch. The institute of universal judges and the Orthodox oecumene are mentioned. In conclusion the author says about the effects of using the principle of the symphony of powers in Byzantium.

The „title or ordination” refers to the requirement of an ordinand to be assigned to a specific place of worship. This requirement is derived from canon 6 of the Council of Chalcedon (451). In Latin canon law the title of ordination came to be perceived as a way of guaranteeing clerical income (e.g., titulus beneficii). This essay studies how the title of ordination is interpreted in the doctrine of Eastern Orthodox canon law.