Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Salento

The activity will introduce the public to the main research areas of the chairs of Byzantine Civilisation and Modern Greek and Greek-Speaking Minority Literature at the University of Salento. It will offer a journey through Greek culture from the Middle Ages to the present day, highlighting the variety of sources, methods, and perspectives involved in this field of research.

A first research strand focuses on the manuscript tradition and transmission of texts, with particular attention to the works of the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes and to early Modern Greek literature, represented by Haxhi Shekretis’ Alipashada. Visitors, including those with no specialist background, will have the opportunity to examine reproductions of manuscripts and try simple reading and deciphering exercises, gaining first-hand insight into how scholars study manuscripts and reconstruct the history and transmission of texts.

A second research area focuses on historical Greek-speaking linguistic minorities and their cultural heritage. The activity will present research on the literary production of Greek-speaking communities in Southern Italy, Albania, and Ukraine, as well as studies on toponymy and on the role of cultural mediators who, in different periods and contexts, fostered connections between these communities and Greece.

Visitors will also be able to engage directly with the sources of this research by listening to audio recordings of speakers from Greek-speaking minority communities. These recordings will provide an opportunity to encounter minority languages and linguistic varieties not only through scholarly descriptions, but through the voices of the people and communities that have preserved and transmitted them.

Through manuscripts, literary texts, linguistic evidence, and audio recordings, the activity will provide an accessible and interactive experience, showing how research into Greek cultures can reveal a complex network of the circulation of texts, languages, people, and ideas across the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.