I was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin until 2018, when I joined the Department of Art and Music Histories at Syracuse University. I am an emeritus professor at both institutions.
Glenn Peers VISION AND COMMUNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: THE AL-MUALLAQA LINTEL IN ITS EIGH... more Glenn Peers VISION AND COMMUNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: THE AL-MUALLAQA LINTEL IN ITS EIGHTH-CENTURY CONTEXT Estratto dalla rivista Arte Medievale anno VI - (2007), 1 - pagine 25-46. ...
L'assimilation des images a une attitude chretienne correcte fut le resultat d'un long de... more L'assimilation des images a une attitude chretienne correcte fut le resultat d'un long debat sur la nature du culte chretien. Les icones n'excluaient pas d'autres approches comme la vertu chretienne (vraie image), mais elles faisaient desormais partie inextricablement d'une ethique chretienne complete. Les hagiographies de Theodore Stoudite, de Photios, de Nicephore ont contribue a la diffusion du culte des images comme une pratique chretienne acceptable. L'exemple miraculeux de Michel au sanctuaire d'Eusebe intervient egalement dans la mise en place d'un consensus
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology, ed. David K. Pettegrew, William R. Carraher, and Thomas W. Davis, Oxford-New York, 2019, 237-55., 2019
“Translating Edges in Art of the Medieval Middle East: On the Resafa Hoard and a Painted Bottle f... more “Translating Edges in Art of the Medieval Middle East: On the Resafa Hoard and a Painted Bottle from Lichtenstein,” in On the Edge: Time and Space. Proceedings of International Conference 14-15 November 2014, ed. Zaza Skhirtladze, Tbilisi, 2017, 9-36.
Glenn Peers VISION AND COMMUNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: THE AL-MUALLAQA LINTEL IN ITS EIGH... more Glenn Peers VISION AND COMMUNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: THE AL-MUALLAQA LINTEL IN ITS EIGHTH-CENTURY CONTEXT Estratto dalla rivista Arte Medievale anno VI - (2007), 1 - pagine 25-46. ...
L'assimilation des images a une attitude chretienne correcte fut le resultat d'un long de... more L'assimilation des images a une attitude chretienne correcte fut le resultat d'un long debat sur la nature du culte chretien. Les icones n'excluaient pas d'autres approches comme la vertu chretienne (vraie image), mais elles faisaient desormais partie inextricablement d'une ethique chretienne complete. Les hagiographies de Theodore Stoudite, de Photios, de Nicephore ont contribue a la diffusion du culte des images comme une pratique chretienne acceptable. L'exemple miraculeux de Michel au sanctuaire d'Eusebe intervient egalement dans la mise en place d'un consensus
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology, ed. David K. Pettegrew, William R. Carraher, and Thomas W. Davis, Oxford-New York, 2019, 237-55., 2019
“Translating Edges in Art of the Medieval Middle East: On the Resafa Hoard and a Painted Bottle f... more “Translating Edges in Art of the Medieval Middle East: On the Resafa Hoard and a Painted Bottle from Lichtenstein,” in On the Edge: Time and Space. Proceedings of International Conference 14-15 November 2014, ed. Zaza Skhirtladze, Tbilisi, 2017, 9-36.
Byzantine Media Subjects invites readers into a world replete with images—icons, frescoes, and mo... more Byzantine Media Subjects invites readers into a world replete with images—icons, frescoes, and mosaics filling places of worship, politics, and community. Glenn Peers asks readers to think themselves into a world where representation reigned and humans followed, and indeed were formed. Interrogating the fundamental role of representation in the making of the Byzantine human, Peers argues that Byzantine culture was (already) posthuman.
The Byzantine experience reveals the extent to which media like icons, manuscripts, music, animals, and mirrors fundamentally determine humans. In the Byzantine world, representation as such was deeply persuasive, even coercive; it had the power to affect human relationships, produce conflict, and form self-perception. Media studies has made its subject the modern world, but this book argues for media having made historical subjects. Here, it is shown that media long ago also made Byzantine humans, defining them, molding them, mediating their relationship to time, to nature, to God, and to themselves.
How did Byzantine culture understand its own objects we now call "art"? This enlighteni... more How did Byzantine culture understand its own objects we now call "art"? This enlightening publication proposes that they saw and experienced clay pilgrim tokens, relief stamps, and icons of saints as dynamic and fully active and alive in the world. The materials used and the sensory impressions they created were an integral part of the Byzantine God-saturated world. Gold was considered a living material and tokens from locations associated with a saint's physical life extended his or her presence into pilgrims' lives. This book attempts to overturn conventional art historical thought through a combination of material investigation, historical recovery, and hermeneutic clearing. Distinguished authors argue that categorizing these objects made for Medieval Greek Christians as art is incorrect, instead suggesting that they were rooted in a world with an animistic view of living things. Provocatively interweaving Byzantine material culture and art with analogs like Kongo nkondi figures and works by James Lee Byars, Donald Judd, and Yves Klein, this volume features the Menil Collection's superb holdings and fresh perspectives by a range of art historians.
This coauthored monograph examines the many ways Byzantines lived with their trees. It takes seri... more This coauthored monograph examines the many ways Byzantines lived with their trees. It takes seriously theological and hagiographic tree engagement as expressions of that culture’s deep involvement—and even fascination—with the arboreal. These pages tap into the current attention paid to plants in a wide range of scholarship, an attention that involves the philosophy of plant life as well as scientific discoveries of how communicative trees may be, and how they defend themselves. Considering writings on and images of trees from Late Antiquity and medieval Byzantium sympathetically, the book argues for an arboreal imagination at the root of human aspirations to know and draw close to the divine.
Page 1. VISIONS MEANING ** NINTH.CENTURY BYZANTIUM Image cu' Exegeoid in the Homilies of Gre... more Page 1. VISIONS MEANING ** NINTH.CENTURY BYZANTIUM Image cu' Exegeoid in the Homilies of Gregory ofNazlanzuj >* * LESLIE BRUBAKER Page 2. . Page 3. ...
... Beholding the sacred mysteries: Programs of the Byzantine sanctuary. Post a Comment. CONTRIBU... more ... Beholding the sacred mysteries: Programs of the Byzantine sanctuary. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Gerstel, Sharon EJ. PUBLISHER: College Art Association in association with Universary of Washington Press (Seattle). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1999. ...
... of icon veneration in northern Renaissance culture, to John Osborne's treatment of repre... more ... of icon veneration in northern Renaissance culture, to John Osborne's treatment of representations of the Virgin Mary in early medieval Rome, to Lucy-Anne Hunt's illumination of medieval Coptic devotion to an icon of the Archangel Michael. Clearly, Cormack's influence is deep ...
MAHMOUD ZIBAWI, Images de I'Egypte chretienne: Iconologie copte. Paris: Picard, 2003. Pp... more MAHMOUD ZIBAWI, Images de I'Egypte chretienne: Iconologie copte. Paris: Picard, 2003. Pp. 239; 291 black-and-white and color figures and 1 map. 90. The field of Coptic art and archaeology is perhaps the most exciting field in medieval studies. Discoveries of the last few years at ...
Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambr... more Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambridge Journals Online as a search option in your browser toolbar. What is this? ... Alexei Lidov, ed., Hierotopy: The Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. ...
In 2001, Gloria E. Anzaldúa received an award recognizing her contributions to American Studies, ... more In 2001, Gloria E. Anzaldúa received an award recognizing her contributions to American Studies, and in her acceptance speech, she marked a way forward with this question and response, "How do we create a fertile ground? By educating ourselves: Teaching and learning are transformative experiences. Self-education requires that we open all of our senses, not just our minds, and allow ourselves to be changed by the books and perspectives of other people. It requires that we unleash our passion for social justice rather than using our energy to compete with our colleagues for reputation and publication" (The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader, ed. AnaLouise Keating, Durham, NC-London: Duke University Press, 2009, 240). I cite this early scholar and activist of intersectionality as a warning to myself. As a white cisgender male in late middle age, I would like to accept Anzaldúa's invitation for outsiders (who are normally insiders) to "listen in" (ibid., 128). And by doing so, I want to engage this book under review with the respect and sympathy its challenging, adventurous spirit requests. I know this engagement was a transformative experience; this book made me not only examine assumptions of my own positionality as a scholar of Byzantine art history, but also to read more deeply, to listen in, to the writings of excellent scholars in the field of intersectional studies. Byzantine art history needs such interventions as this book. It is known as a field that has made small steps toward engagement with contemporary trends in the discipline of art history (and other related disciplines). Byzantine Intersectionality attempts, against this history, to pull the field into a necessary conversation over its normative assumptions regarding sexuality, gender and race. In so doing, its goal is "to look at how stories give us a glimpse into the intersectionality of identity in the medieval world, exploring how these various categories overlap with one another-not as distinct identities but as enmeshed conditions that radically alter the lives of figures, both real and imagined" (2). The book delivers many stimulating insights and methodological innovations. The inclusion of medical practices in understanding contexts for saints' (and others') lives and their receptions reveals new facets of meanings and affect for their audiences. The sensitive opening of possible readings of the erotic dynamics of sensory perception in Byzantine thought, likewise, ignites new insights. The striking move to name Pelagia, the prostitute turned saint, by the masculine form of their name is just one example of an elegant solution, here presenting Pelagius in the form they/he sought. That restitution of lives, transformed in their original cultures to our naming and describing now, is perhaps its strongest, and hopefully
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The Byzantine experience reveals the extent to which media like icons, manuscripts, music, animals, and mirrors fundamentally determine humans. In the Byzantine world, representation as such was deeply persuasive, even coercive; it had the power to affect human relationships, produce conflict, and form self-perception. Media studies has made its subject the modern world, but this book argues for media having made historical subjects. Here, it is shown that media long ago also made Byzantine humans, defining them, molding them, mediating their relationship to time, to nature, to God, and to themselves.
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776267/byzantine-media-subjects/#bookTabs=1
Open access: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43193
Available to order via https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9781942401735/animism-materiality-and-museums; and in the US via http://shop.btpubservices.com/Title/9781942401735
List of Psalms and Odes in Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
B. CROSTINI – G. PEERS, Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
C. PASINI, Preface: Sweden and the Vatican Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
B. CROSTINI – G. PEERS, Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PART I: THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS CONTEXT
1. F. D’AIUTO, Il Vat. gr. 752: scrittura, mise en page, fattura materiale
(con qualche osservazione sul Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53) . . . . 43
2. A. ACCONCIA LONGO, Il ‘Poema’ di introduzione del Salterio Vat. gr.
752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
3. D. KRAUSMÜLLER, Codex Vat. gr. 752: Some Remarks about its Pictorial
Programme and its Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
4. CH. GASTGEBER, The So-Called Schism of 1054 and its Impact on
Byzantine Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PART II: THE TEXTS
a. The Biblical Text
5. E. VARDEN, Cum Davide versari: the Psalter as Acquired Self-Expression
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
6. S. GILLINGHAM, David and Christ Sing the Psalms: the Psalter as Prophecy
and Liturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
b. The Commentary Text
7. R. CEULEMANS, The Catena of Vat. gr. 752 (with an Appendix on Giovanni
Mercati’s Unpublished Notes on the MS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
8. S. VOICU, How Many Authors? Hesychius on the Psalms . . . . . . . . . 301
9. B. CROSTINI with M. FINCATI, Hesychios of Jerusalem’s Prologue to
the Psalms Revisited in the Light of Vat. gr. 752 and its Illustrative
Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
10. M. A. BARBÀRA, Note sulla tecnica redazionale dei Commenti scoliastici
di Esichio di Gerusalemme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
11. S. TAMPELLINI, Il Commentarius in Leviticum di Esichio di Gerusalemme.
Annotazioni introduttive su alcuni aspetti e problemi riguardanti
il testo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
12. T. FERNÁNDEZ, The Greek Fragment of the Commentary on Leviticus
by Hesychius of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
PART III: THE IMAGES
13. G. PEERS, Process and Meaning: Penitence, Prayer and Pedagogy in
Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
14. M. KOMINKO, Make Music with Understanding: Music, Musicians
and Choristers in the Miniatures of Vat. gr. 752 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
15. C. J. HILSDALE, The Limits of Visual Polemicism in Vat. gr. 752 . . . . 493
16. M. MEYER, Urban Topographies: Representing Space in Vat. gr. 752 517
17. N. TRAHOULIA, Vat. gr. 752 and Vat. gr. 1927: Related Manuscripts? . 547
18. D. REILLY, Meditation, Translation, Liturgy, and the Medieval Illustrated
Psalter in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
19. T. JANZ, Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Index of Miniatures from Vat. gr. 752 Discussed in this Volume . . . . . . . 619
List of Manuscripts Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623