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Reading the garden in Byzantium: nature and sexuality1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Charles Barber
Charles Barber*
Affiliation:
Warburg Institute, London
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Extract

The subject of the Byzantine garden is primarily to be tackled from texts, and is very much a subject of its texts. My research on the Byzantine garden began from an art historian’s point of view, I wanted to examine the possibilities of interpreting the garden as an example of visual culture. How was the garden represented? What did the garden look like? But the information demanded by such questions proved to be thin.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 16 , 1992 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1992

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References

2. Attempts to reconstruct the Byzantine garden are rare and founder on the lack of material; see Maguire, H., ‘A description of the Aretai palace and its garden’, Journal of Garden History 10 (1990) 209–213 CrossRefGoogle Scholar for an attempt at identifying a garden description with an actual garden. The most useful survey is provided by Gothein, M. L., Geschichte der Gartenkunst I (Jena 1914) 143–148 Google Scholar. See also Thomson, Margaret H., The Symbolic Garden: Reflections drawn from a garden of virtues: a XIIth century Greek manuscript (Ontario 1989) and eadem, Textes grecs inédits relatifs aux plantes (Paris 1955) and eadem, Le jardin symbolique. Texte grec tiré du Clarkinius XI (Paris 1960)Google Scholar for identifications of plants with virtues within a Biblical and medical framework. The textuality of the garden is most clearly shown in the works of Schissel, O., Der byzantinische Garten (Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil.-hist. Klasse, Sit-zungsberichte 221.2, 1942)Google Scholar; Littlewood, A. R., ‘Romantic Paradises: the rôle of the garden in the Byzantine romance’, BMGS 5 (1979) 95–114 Google Scholar; and Beaton, R., The Medieval Greek Romance (Cambridge 1989)Google Scholar. This study owes a great deal to the work of Beaton, for his positive discussion of artifice, and of Littlewood, for his discussion of the erotic.

3. Texts on the Bryas palace are cited in Janin, R., Constantinople Byzantine (Paris 1964) 146–147 and 492 Google Scholar. Archaeological reports: Eyice, S., ‘Quatre édifices inédits ou mal connus’, Cahiers Archéologiques 10 (1959) 245–258 Google Scholar and idem, ‘Un palais construît d’après les plans des palais Abbasides: le palais de Bryas’, Belletin 23 (1959) 79-99. Further discussion in Grabar, A., Iconoclasme byzantin (Paris 1984) 167–210.Google Scholar

4. An example is provided by Bury, J. B., A History of the Eastern Roman Empire: from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I AD 802-867 (London 1912) 120–124.Google Scholar

5. Continuatus, Theophanes, Chronographia (in: Theophanes Continuatus, Joannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus, ed. Bekker, I. [CSHB 48, Bonn 1838] 1–481 Google Scholar) 95.19-99.3, esp. 98.14-99.3.

6. The texts are those of Symeon Magister, Chronographia (in: CSHB 48, see note 5), 634.17-19; Georgius Monachus (see note 5) 798.22-23; Grammaticus, Leo, Chronographia (in: Leo Grammaticus, Eustathius, ed. Bekker, I. [CSHB 34, Bonn 1842], 1–331)221.3-4.Google Scholar

7. Theophanes, , Chronographia 1, ed. de Boor, C. (Leipzig 1883) 403.26.Google Scholar The connotations of this term lie both with palace gardens and with Eden.

8. Grabar, A. and Grabar, O., ‘L’essor des arts inspirés par les cours princères à la fin du premier millénaire: princes musulmans et princes chrétiens’, Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’ alto medioevo 12: L’Occidente e l’Islam nell’ alto medioevo 1964 (Spoleto 1965)Google Scholar and Grabar, O., The Formation of Islamic Art (Yale 1987).Google Scholar

9. A. Grabar and O. Grabar, art. cit. 874; A. Grabar, Iconoclasme 191-193; the Arab influence is made clear in Theophanes, see note 5.

10. On this character assassination see Jenkins, R., ‘Constantine VII’s portrait of Michael III’, Bulletin de l’Académie royale de Belgique 34 (1948) 71–77 Google Scholar. For a lengthier treatment see Toynbee, A., Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World (Oxford 1973) 582ff.Google Scholar

11. For this description of John of Damascus see Mansi 12.356D. For Leo III see Theophanes, Chronographia, 405.14.

12. The palace design is described in Theophanes Continuatus, 139ff., tr. Mango, C., in The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453 (Toronto 1986) 160–165 Google Scholar. On al-Mutawakkil see Musil, A., Kusejr Amra I (Vienna 1907) 233.Google Scholar

13. Theophanes Continuatus, 145.2-3.

14. ibid. 145.16-18.

15. For a full discussion of this genre of literature see Beaton, R., The Medieval Greek Romance (Cambridge 1989).Google Scholar

16. This is particularly emphasised in Schissel, Der byzantinische Garten, (see note 2 above) esp. 23-24.

17. Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles I, 77-115, in Hercher, R., ed., Erotici scriptores graeci II (Leipzig 1859) 435–552.Google Scholar

18. Eustathios Makrembolites, Hysmine and Hysminias IV.9, in I. Hilberg, ed., (Vienna 1876).

19. Various reports of these gadgets can be found. For Theophilos see Leo Grammaticus, 215.12-19. For Constantine Porphyrogenitus see the famous description given by Liudprand of Cremona, Antapodosis, ed. J. Becker (Hannover 1915) V.8. For a lengthy discussion of the place of automata in Byzantium see Brett, G., ‘The automata in the Byzantine Throne of Solomon’, Speculum 29 (,1954) 477–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. In Theophanes Continuatus, there are twenty lines on the fountains (327.4-328.2) and six lines on the gardens (328.21-329.3).

21. Eustathios Makrembolites, op. cit., IV.4-16.

22. For a stimulating discussion of the relationship of art and nature see Beaton, op. cit. 62-66, 71-73, 144-146.

23. Eustathios Makrembolites, op. cit., IV. 17.

24. Belthandros and Chrysantza. 11. 289-290, in Kriaras, E., (Athens 1955) 85–130.Google Scholar

25. Littlewood, A. R., The Progymnasmata of loannes Geometres (Amsterdam 1972) 7–9 and 10–13.Google Scholar

26. ibid. 13.11-24.

27. ibid. 7.8-8.7.

28. ibid. 13.25-33; develops the theme initiated at the start of the letter, 10.1-6.

29. ibid. 7.13-14 (Odyssey, 6.43-44).

30. ibid. 8.6-7.

31. Pignani, A., Basilace, Niceforo, Progimnasmi e monodie, (Byzantina e Neo-Hellenica. Collana di Studi e Testi, no. 10, Naples 1983) 225–228 and 364–366.Google Scholar

32. Pichard, M., Le roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé (Paris 1956) 11. 1633–1935.Google Scholar

33. For a discussion of the scopic nature of desire see Lacan, J., The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis, tr. Sheridan, A. (London 1977) esp. 67–122.Google Scholar

34. For a full discussion of these terms see Lacan’s development of Sartre’s image of the man surprised while looking through a keyhole and the anxiety of his being called into existence, ibid. 84ff. Lacan’s reference is to Sartre, J.-P., L’Etre et le néant, tr. Barnes, H. as Being and Nothingness (New York n.d.) 259ff.Google Scholar

35. M. Pichard, op. cit. 11. 2457-2468.

36. On the evidence for the relationship between the woman and the garden see Littlewood, art. cit.

37. M. Pichard, op. cit. 11. 1949-1984.

38. The first five books of this romance are dominated by the garden.

39. Littlewood, art. cit. 103-107, gives a lengthy consideration to the relationship.

40. M. Pichard, op. cit. 11. 808-840.

41. Mavrogordato, John, Digenes Akrites (Oxford 1956) 6. 15–41.Google Scholar

42. Achilles: Hesseling, D. C., L’Achiliéϊade byzantine, avec une introduction, des observations et un index (Amsterdam 1919) 11. 1223–1226 Google Scholar. Belthandros and Chrysantza: Kriaras, op. cit. 677-719.

43. M. Pichard, op. cit. 11. 926-7 (tr. Beaton, op. cit.).

44. Alexiou, M., ‘A critical reappraisal of Eustathios Makrembolites’ Hysmine and Hysminias’, BMGS 3 (1977) 32.Google Scholar

45. Hesseling, op. cit. 1. 800.

46. M. Pichard, op. cit. 11. 819-820.

47. M.-H. Fourmy and M. Leroy, ‘Vie de Philarète le Miséricordieux’.

48. Sathas, K., V (Paris 1876) 62–87.Google Scholar

49. Leib, B., Anne Comnène: Aléxiade I (Paris 1937) 111.17–112.27.Google Scholar

50. Examples in Eustathios Makrembolites, op. cit. 1.9 and 1.11.