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Byzantium and its Law in Palimpsests and Papyri

An international colloquium on Byzantine legal texts in palimpsests and papyri

Images: • ÖNB, P.Vindob. G 2004, Homologie über Kauf und Auflassung eines Katökengrundstücks, Arsinoites, Krokodilopolis(?), 13. April 124 n. Chr. © Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Papyrussammlung • ÖNB, Cod. Suppl. gr. 200, Basilica. Spectral imaging by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, processed image by Roger L. Easton, Jr. © FWF Project PAT9022724 “The Vienna Basilica Palimpsests” • ÖNB, Cod. Hist. gr. 10, Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense. Spectral imaging by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, processed image by Keith Knox. © FWF Project PAT9022724 “The Vienna Basilica Palimpsests”

INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM, VIENNA 18-19 JUNE 2026

The emperor Justinian codified Roman law in Latin, but in the East Greek remained the preferred language in teaching and legal practice. Around the year 900, the Greek translations and summaries of and commentaries on Justinian’s legislation were consolidated in a single version, the Basilica, ʻimperial lawsʼ. It is mainly through the Basilica and their ‘old’ scholia that we know the legal scholarship of the sixth century, while for the earlier stages of ‘Roman law in Greek’ papyri are the most important witnesses. In that sense the papyri and the sixth-century texts testify to a continuous development of Roman law in a Greek-speaking environment, a development continued after the Basilica and documented in their ‘new’ scholia as well as in other texts. The textual transmission of the Basilica is tenuous, and any new witness is therefore most welcome. In recent years our knowledge has increased through discoveries, among which the two palimpsests in the Austrian National Library in Vienna make an important contribution. This colloquium sets out to unite legal historians, papyrologists, palaeographers, byzantinists and classicists, in order to contribute to our knowledge of that continuous story – the development of Roman law in Greek during more than 1000 years.
 

Das Colloquium ist Prof. Dr. Otto Kresten (27.1.1943 - 24.6.2024) gewidmet.
 

Programme


Veranstalter:innen

• Bernard H. Stolte, FWF Project “The Vienna Basilica Palimpsests” (PAT9022724), Abteilung Byzanzforschung, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; University of Groningen

• Jana Grusková, FWF Project “The Vienna Basilica Palimpsests” (PAT9022724), Abteilung Byzanzforschung, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Comenius University Bratislava

• Bernhard Palme, Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Wien

• José-Domingo Rodríguez Martín, Institut für Römisches Recht und Antike Rechtsgeschichte, Rechtswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Wien

 

 

Informationen

 

Venue

ÖAW | PSK
Institute for Medieval Research
Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
Conference Rooms 2 & 3 | 3rd Floor

Conveners

Bernard H. Stolte

Jana Grusková

Bernhard Palme

José-Domingo Rodríguez Martín

Contact

Ekaterini Mitsiou
ekaterini.mitsiou(at)oeaw.ac.at