The project MAMEMS – Mount Athos in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society: Contextualizing the History of a Monastic Republic (ca. 850–1550), funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, is led by Zachary Chitwood and carried out at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (until 2024) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (from 2024).

“MAMEMS seeks to contextualize the development of the monastic communities on Mount Athos over the course of the Middle Ages, from the first firm attestation of a discernible monastic presence there until the founding of the last principal monastery of Stavronikita (ca. 850-1550). Even though the holdings of the monastic archives of the “Holy Mountain” from the medieval period are practically unmatched elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean world and represent the largest collection of surviving Byzantine documents in the Greek language, hitherto they have not been analyzed in a comprehensive fashion as witnesses to the formation and development of a unique phenomenon that has been profitably described as a monastic republic. Thus, on the one hand, MAMEMS illuminates this inner history of the rise of a self-governing monastic federation on Mount Athos on the basis of the uniquely rich source material stemming from the Holy Mountain.

On the other hand, MAMEMS also examines the manifold connections of Mount Athos with other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean world and beyond. Athos’ reputation as an oasis of solitude and spiritual asceticism severed from the lay world – an image consciously cultivated by the monks themselves – is belied by considerable evidence demonstrating the exact opposite, namely that the Holy Mountain stood at the center of a vast network of contacts throughout the medieval Orthodox lands. Especially well-attested are the Holy Mountain’s sovereign connections with the court of the emperor himself at Constantinople, as well as those of other Orthodox sovereigns in Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldavia, Serbia, Rus’, Trebizond and Wallachia. Though these strands of sovereign patronage on Athos have been studied to a limited extent, far less well-known are the Holy Mountain’s interactions with policies across the confessional (South Italy, the Papacy, Aragon) and religious (the Ottoman Empire) divide. The multicultural nature of sovereign patronage was both the byproduct of the diverse linguistic and ethnic composition of Athos’ monastic communities as well as a key factor in fostering and maintaining this cultural diversity.” (Source: report summary)

The ACDH acts as a cooperation partner via OpenAtlas, a database software that enables the collection, processing, and management of research data and serves as the basis for the project’s web application.