Monasteries and Sacred Landscapes & Byzantine Connections

Under the heading 'Monasticism and Sacred Landscapes' we have assembled articles discussing the interaction of monastic institutions with their environment. How did they shape the landscape, both in an economic/ecological sense, and in ritual and symbolic ways? This topic is explored in case studies from Southeast Asia, Byzantium and Western Europe: Cambodia, Greece and Gaul. Monasteries are among the medieval institutions that seem most easily comparable, at least between Christian and Buddhist spheres, as Jesuit missionaries already noted. But we have to be careful that the classification of non-Christian institutions as 'monasteries' does not transport any unreflected assumptions into our analysis. The present papers put apparent cross-cultural similarities of monastic communities to the test. They are supplemented by a fairly theoretical essay about the significance of 'asceticism' in Christian monasteries but also in modern scholarly discourse, which may encourage further reflection about the topic.
The cluster 'Byzantine Connections' addresses the cultural, commercial and diplomatic exchanges of Byzantium with its eastern and western neighbours. Two articles focus on the reception of Byzantine culture in Italian sources: 'Greeks and 'Greek' Writers in the Early Medieval Italian Papyri' examines Greek script used in the sixth- and seventh-century papyri documents of Ravenna, whereas 'Resenting Byzantine Iconoclasm' investigates an eighth-century inscription in Lombard Italy providing new aspects of the reception of Byzantine iconoclasm.