About our staff
Professor Niels Gaul
MSt, MA, PhD
A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies
- Email: N.Gaul@ed.ac.uk
- School of History, Classics & Archaeology, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
Office hours
Roles
Affiliated research centres
Biography
Prior to taking up the inaugural A. G. Leventis Chair at Edinburgh in 2015, I taught Byzantine studies at Central European University Budapest (2007–2015) and held the Dilts-Lyell Research Fellowship in Greek Palaeography at Lincoln College and in the Faculty of Classics, Oxford (2005–2007). I hold a Master’s degree from Oxford and my PhD from Bonn, where I also spent my undergraduate years.
I welcome applications from potential research students with interest in the Byzantine world: I supervise PhD students in both Classics and History.
External appointments
- Series founder and – with Louise Blanke, Ivan Drpić, Alexander Riehle, Yannis Stouraitis and Alicia Walker – editor, Edinburgh Byzantine Studies (Edinburgh University Press)
- Editorial board member,
- Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library/Byzantine Greek series (Harvard University Press)
- Translated Texts for Byzantinists (Liverpool University Press)
- Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta (ZRVI)
- Scriptores byzantini (new series; Romanian Society for Byzantine Studies)
- Chair, British Academy Project, 'Prosopography of the Later Roman and Byzantine Worlds' (based at the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, London)
- E. A. Lowe Lecturer in Palaeography, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2022/3
- Instructor, Byzantine Greek Summer School, Byzantine Studies Research Center, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
Useful Links
Summary of research interests
Places:- Mediterranean
- Near East
- Ancient Civilisations
- Culture
- Ideas
- Language & Literature
- Antiquity
- Medieval
Research interests
I am a Byzantinist with research interests primarily in the middle and later Byzantine periods. My current work looks at classicising learning, the classical tradition and at the learned networks permeating Byzantine society, often from a cross-cultural vantage point; manuscript culture and Greek palaeography as well as various types of social performances, be it in the form of rhetorical ‘theatre’, processions or (staged) miracles.
Current research activities
In addition to cross-cultural approaches, Greek palaeography and Byzantine book culture have been longstanding interests of mine. My ‘Manuscripts of Character: Codex, Ethos and Authority in Byzantium and Beyond' project explores the various ways in which Byzantine literati came to form their character through reading and writing/copying books and make their character visible in their own books, and I have recently presented my initial findings in the E. A. Lowe Lectures in Palaeography 2023 at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Research projects
Together with Curie Virág, I am co-directing a Byzantinist-Sinologist project funded by the European Research Council, ‘PAIXUE: Classicising learning in medieval imperial systems: cross-cultural approaches to Byzantine paideia and Tang/Song xue’ (CoG 726371), which has now entered its final year. In addition to several edited volumes based on the various workshops and conferences we organised Curie and I are finishing a joint book (provisionally) entitled Empires of Learning in the Long Eleventh Century: Literati and the Formation of the Learned Self in Byzantium and Song in which we present our main findings and insights.
Knowledge Exchange and Impact
A final developing interest of mine are the manifold connections between Byzantium and Scotland through the ages; after initial explorations in my 2019 inaugural lecture I have since been involved, alongside Professor Roderick Beaton (Edinburgh's 12th A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek), in organising a series of exciting events that commemorated the Greek Revolution of 1821 and first time somewhat systematically explored its Scottish connections: the 12th A. G. Leventis Conference (‘The Greek Revolution of 1821’) and the accompanying ‘Edina/Athena – The Greek Revolution and the Athens of the North’ exhibition in the Main Library.
Undergraduate teaching
- Medieval Worlds: A Journey through the Middle Ages (sub-honours)
- Transformation of the Later Roman World, c.300–800: Toward Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (sub-honours)
- Greek Palaeography (honours)
- Byzantine Literary History (honours)
- Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Süleyman the Magnificent (honours)
Postgraduate teaching
- Centre, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
- Renovatio Imperii or ‘Twilight of Empire’? Byzantium under Andronikos II Palaiologos
- Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Süleyman the Magnificent (PG version)
- Córdoba & Constantinople: Exchange & Competition between the Umayyad and Byzantine Courts – taught together with Dr Glaire Anderson (ECA)
- Byzantine Text Seminar
- Greek Palaeography (PG version)
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elif Demirtiken | PhD | ‘Monasteries and monasticism in late Byzantine Constantinople’ | Primary | |
| Defangyu Kong | PhD | ‘Female rule in Byzantium and Tang China: The empresses Eirene and Wu Zetian’ | Primary | |
| Joaquín Serrano del Pozo | PhD | ‘Crosses and relics of the Holy Cross in Byzantine warfare’ | Secondary | |
| Bilal Adıgüzel | PhD | ‘Patterns of resistance and subversion in the middle Byzantine empire: Niketas David Paphlagon in context’ | Primary | |
| George Pinkerton | PhD | ‘Porphyry, the “Roman marble”: imperial purple, power, and perception in the Long Late Antiquity’ | Secondary | |
| Shinichi Kubo | PhD | ‘Reading as encountering Classicising learning from the Greek Fathers through the Byzantine literary tradition’ | Primary | |
| David Moore | MScR | tbd | Primary | |
| Daiki Sano | PhD | ‘Imperial decision-making and its performative communication in early Palaiologan Byzantium (1261–1328)’ | Primary | |
Past Students:
| Name | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Completion year |
| At Central European University Budapest | |||
| András Németh | ‘Imperial systematization of the past: Emperor Constantine VII and his historical excerpts’; revised version published as The Excerpta Constantiniana and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past | Primary | 2010 |
| Florin Leonte | ‘Rhetoric in purple: The renewal of imperial ideology in the texts of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos’; revised version published as Imperial Visions of Late Byzantium: Manuel II Palaiologos and Rhetoric in Purple | Primary | 2012 |
| Julia Bokody | ‘Itinerant rulership in Byzantium: A topographical analysis of the Laskarid realm (1204–1261)’ | Primary | 2013 |
| Luka Špoljarić | ‘Nicholas of Modruš, “The Glory of Illyria”: humanist patriotism and self-fashioning in Renaissance Rome’ | Primary | 2013 |
| Cristian-Nicolae Daniel | ‘Coping with the powerful other: a comparative approach to Greek-Slavonic communities of rite in late medieval Transylvania and the Banat‘ | Primary | 2014 |
| Divna Manolova | ‘Discourses of science and philosophy in the letters of Nikephoros Gregoras’ | Primary | 2014 |
| Roman Shliakhtin | ‘From Huns into Persians: the image of the Seljuk Turks of Asia Minor among the Byzantine literati of the eleventh and twelfth centuries’ | Primary | 2016 |
| Mircea Duluş | ‘Philagathos of Cerami: Byzantine culture, monastic renewal and politics at the courts of Roger II (1130–1154) and William I (1154–1166)’ | Primary | 2018 |
| Sandro Nikolaishvili | ‘Byzantium and the Georgian world c. 900–1210: Ideology of kingship and rhetoric in the Byzantine periphery’ | Joint | 2019 |
| At the University of Edinburgh | |||
| Mihail Mitrea | ‘A late Byzantine hagiographer: Philotheos Kokkinos and his vitae of contemporary saints’ | Primary | 2018 |
| Ivan Marić | ‘Iconoclast imperial authority and its contested legacy: From the Arab siege (717/18) to the death of Michael III (867)’ | Primary | 2020 |
| Alasdair Grant | ‘Cross-confessional captivity in the later Byzantine world, c.1280–1460’ | Primary | 2020 |
| Mark Huggins | ‘The reception of John Chrysostom in the middle Byzantine period (9th–13th centuries): A case study of the Catechetical Homily on Pascha’ | Primary | 2021 |
| Ruisen Zheng (MScR) | ‘Living law and living justice: The exercise of judicial discretionary power in eleventh-century Byzantium and Song China’ | Primary | 2022 |
| Aristotelis Nayfa | ‘Monetary exchanges and social capital in the court and empire of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’ | Primary | 2023 |
Currently accepting research student applications : Yes
Areas accepting Research Students in:
Middle and late Byzantine history and culture; Greek palaeography and Byzantine manuscript studies; Byzantine rhetoric and the classical tradition; comparative approaches to the Byzantine world
Publications
Monographs
- Thomas Magistros und die spätbyzantinische Sophistik. Studien zum Humanismus urbaner Eliten in der frühen Palaiologenzeit. Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 10 (Wiesbaden, 2011).
Edited volumes
- with Roderick M. Beaton (eds), The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections (Edinburgh, forthcoming 2023).
- with M. Carr and Y. Stouraitis (eds), The Post-1204 Byzantine World: New Directions and Novel Approaches. Papers read at the 51st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Edinburgh, 13–15 April 2018 (Abingdon and New York, forthcoming 2023).
- with V. Menze and Cs. Bálint (eds), Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De Cerimoniis to De Administrando Imperio. Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 15 (Wiesbaden, 2018).
- with Av. Cameron (eds), Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium (Abingdon and New York, 2017).
- with S. Steckel and M. Grünbart (eds), Networks of Learning: Perspectives on Scholars in Byzantine East and Latin West, c. 1000–1200. Byzantinische Studien und Texte, 6 (Berlin and Münster, 2014).
- with S. Ronchey (eds), Peter Schreiner, Byzantinische Kultur. Eine Aufsatzsammlung, II: Das Wissen (Rome, 2008).
Journal articles
- ‘All the emperor’s men (and his nephews): Paideia and networking strategies at the court of Andronikos II Palaiologos, 1290–1320’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 70 (2016): 153–78. [open access]
- ‘Writing “with joyful and leaping soul”: Sacralizing strategies, scribal hands, and ceremonial in the Lincoln College Typikon’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 69 (2015): 243–71 (with eleven figures). [open access]
- ‘The twitching shroud: collective construction of paideia in the circle of Thomas Magistros’, Segno e Testo 5 (2007): 263‒340 (with six figures).
- ‘Andronikos Komnenos, Prinz Belthandros und der Zyklop: Zwei Glossen zu Niketas Choniates’ Χρονικὴ Διήγησις’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 96 (2003): 623–60.
Book chapters
- ‘Introduction’, in The Post-1204 Byzantine World (above, forthcoming).
- ‘The circulation and display of imperial effigies in (early) Palaiologan Byzantium’, in The Post-1204 Byzantine World (above, forthcoming).
- ‘Processions in early Palaiologan Constantinople: From Michael Palaiologos's theatrical spectacles to participatory processions under Andronikos II and Patriarch Athanasios I’, in L. Brubaker and N. Patterson Ševčenko (eds), Processions: Urban Ritual in Byzantium and Neighbouring Lands, Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia (Washington, D.C., forthcoming).
- ‘Voicing and gesturing emotions: Remarks on emotive performance from antiquity to the middle Byzantine period’, in D. Cairns, M. Hinterberger, A. Pizzone and M. Zaccarini (eds), Emotions through Time: From Antiquity to Byzantium (Tübingen, 2022), 201–23.
- ‘Schools and learning’, in S. Bassett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Constantinople (Cambridge, 2022), 263–276.
- ‘Fringe encounters: Translations of antiquity and negotiations of scholarly authority in the margins of Byzantine schoolbooks of Ioannes Tzetzes and Manuel Moschopoulos’, in J. Henderson and R. F. Thomas (eds), The Loeb Classical Library and Its Progeny: Proceedings of the First James Loeb Biennial Conference, Munich and Murnau 18–20 May 2017. Loeb Classical Monographs (Cambridge, Mass., 2020), 351–91.
- ‘The letter and its audience: Epistolary voice, character, and their audience’, in A. Riehle (ed.), Companion to Byzantine Epistolography (Leiden, 2020), 353–73.
- ‘“And the whole city cheered”: The poetics and politics of the miraculous in the early Palaiologan period’, in A. Mattiello and A. Rossi (eds), Reconsidering the Concept of Decline and the Arts of the Palaiologan Period (Abingdon, 2019), 7–30. [open access]
- ‘Performative reading in the late Byzantine theatron’, in I. Toth and T. Shawcross (eds), Reading in the Byzantine Empire and Beyond (Cambridge, 2018), 215–233. [open access]
- ‘Zooming in on Constantinople: Introductory notes on the interplay of center, province and periphery in the tenth-century Byzantine empire’, in Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (above), 1–21.
- ‘Embedded dialogues and dialogical voices in Palaiologan rhetoric’, in Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium (above), 184–202.
- ‘Rising elites and institutionalization – ĒthosImores – “Debts” and drafts: Three concluding steps towards comparing networks of learning in Byzantium and the “Latin” West, c.1000–1200’, in Networks of Learning (above), 235–80.
- ‘The manuscript tradition’, in E.J. Bakker (ed.), A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (Malden, Mass., and Chichester, 2010), 69–82.
- ‘Moschopulos, Lopadiotes, Phrankopulos (?), Magistros, Staphidakes: Prosopographisches und Paläographisches zur Lexikographie des 14. Jahrhunderts’, in E. Trapp and S. Schönauer (eds), Lexicologica byzantina (Bonn, 2008), 163–96.
- ‘The partridge’s purple stockings: Observations on the historical, literary, and manuscript context of Pseudo-Kodinos’ Handbook on Court Ceremonial’, in M. Grünbart (ed.), Theatron. Rhetorische Kultur in Spätantike und Mittelalter (Berlin and New York, 2007), 69‒103.
- ‘Anassa Anna skopei – Fürstin Anna, bedenke! Beobachtungen zur Schedo- und Lexikographie in der spätbyzantinischen Provinz’, in L. Hoffmann (ed.), Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie. Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur. Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 7 (Wiesbaden, 2007), 663–704.
- ‘Eunuchs in the late Byzantine empire, c.1250–1400’, in S. F. Tougher (ed.), Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond (London, 2002), 199–219.
Exhibition catalogue
- with A. Grant, I. G. Brown and R. Beaton, Edina/Athena – The Greek Revolution & the Athens of the North – 1821/2021 (Edinburgh, 2021). [open access]
Lexicon and encyclopedia entries
- Chapter on ‘Byzantinische Buchkultur’, in F. Daim (ed.), Byzanz. Historisch-kulturwissenschaftliches Handbuch. Neuer Pauly, Supplementband, 11 (Stuttgart, 2017), 982–996; Engl. tr., ‘Books and libraries – writing and reading in Byzantium’, in History and Culture of Byzantium. Brill's New Pauly. Supplements, 10 (Leiden, 2019), 451–7.
- Entries on ‘Books, book illustration, book binding, Byzantium’; ‘Libraries, Byzantium’; ‘Scribes, Byzantium’; ‘Scripts, Byzantium’, in Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (Malden, Mass., 2012).
- Entries on ‘Eustathius’; ‘Moschopoulos, Manuel’; ‘Planudes, Maximus’; ‘Thomas Magister’; and ‘Triclinius, Demetrius’, in A. Grafton, G. Most and and S. Settis (eds). The Classical Tradition: A Guide (Cambridge, Mass., 2010).
- Entry on ‘Metochites, Theodoros’, in L. Arnold (ed.), Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3rd edn (Stuttgart, 2009).
- Contributor to E. Trapp (ed.), Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, fifth fascicle (λ–παλιάνθρωπος) (Vienna, 2004).