CML's Elisabetta Barili Awarded the BSC Graduate Student Prize

PhD student at CML Elisabetta Barili has been awarded the BSC graduate student prize. BSC graduate student prizes are given annually to the best graduate student papers presented at the Byzantine Studies Conference.

Elisabetta received the award for the paper “John Tzetzes and Minucianus: Polemic and Self-representation in the Commentary on Hermogenes”, presented at the 47th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference in Cleveland. The paper was part of the conference panel organized by Aglae Pizzone: From John Geometres to John Tzetzes: Reading the corpus Hermogenianum in the Middle Byzantine Period. With a focus on the 12th century, Elisabetta’s paper discussed the self-representation of John Tzetzes in his unedited commentary on Hermogenes’ On Issues. By analyzing Tzetzes’ autograph notes added in the ms. Vossianus Graecus Q 1, she showed how Tzetzes aimed to establish a personal affinity with Minucianus – Hermogenes’ chief competitor – to emphasize his own standpoint on rhetorical theory. In exploring similar cultural and personal dynamics underlying Tzetzes’ and Minucianus’ experiences (i.e. contention, conflictual relationships, and literary thefts), she demonstrated that Tzetzes used Minucianus to strengthen his polemic against Hermogenes, as well as to impose his authorial voice upon those of his adversaries, revealing once more the competitiveness existing among scholars in Constantinople.

The results presented by Elisabetta are part of the study she conducted during her PhD within the project “Medieval Self-Commentaries Beyond Europe: A Transcultural Perspective” funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

On the Byzantine Studies Conference's website you can read more about the grant in English. Read a detailed description of the conference panel here.