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Przemysław Marciniak

Katowice

Forschungsprojekt

Reproducing, Transforming, and Generating Knowledge. Nature and the Animal World in Byzantine Hexaemera 

How did people in the Byzantine world (the Eastern Roman Empire, ca. 330-1453) understand nature and the animal kingdom? This project is part of a broader research initiative that seeks to redefine our understanding of medieval hexaemera – commentaries on the biblical book of Genesis describing the Six Days of Creation – not merely as theological reflections but as essential sources of knowledge about the natural world. These texts shaped medieval conceptions of nature, influencing broader cultural and religious attitudes toward the environment and non-human life. 
Byzantine authors of hexaemera did not simply preserve ancient knowledge; they actively engaged with it, adapting and reinterpreting ideas to suit their religious, intellectual, and social realities. This project examines three hexaemeral texts from different centuries and regions of Byzantium, each developed for distinct audiences. By comparing these works, the study uncovers how Byzantine authors shaped and transmitted knowledge about nature, demonstrating the hexaemera’s role as a dynamic medium of intellectual creativity. 
Adopting a “history of knowledge” approach, this study highlights hexaemeral literature as an evolving space of inquiry rather than a passive repository of inherited wisdom. By analyzing how knowledge about nature and animals was recorded, transmitted, and transformed across different centuries and regions, this project not only deepens our understanding of Byzantine intellectual culture but will also contribute to a larger research initiative on the cross-cultural and multilingual transmission of hexaemeral knowledge in the entangled medieval world. 

Przemysław Marciniak

Vita

Przemysław Marciniak ist Forschungsprofessor für byzantinische Literatur an der Schlesischen Universität in Katowice (Polen). Er war Gastprofessor in München, Freiburg und Paris und hatte Stipendien in Hamburg, Uppsala, Wien, Washington und Princeton inne.
Seine Forschungsinteressen umfassen die Rezeption der byzantinischen Kultur, Humor in Byzanz, kulturelle Entomologie und Animal Studies. Unter anderem ist er Mitherausgeber des Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Relations in the Byzantine World und von Byzantium in the Popular Imagination (Bloomsbury). Zu seinen bevorstehenden Veröffentlichungen gehören ein Band über Insekten in der vormodernen Welt (De Gruyter) und ein weiterer über Naturvorstellungen in der byzantinischen Welt (Harrassowitz).

Forschungsschwerpunkt
  • Animal Studies
  • Umweltwissenschaften
  • Byzantinische Literatur
  • Humorforschung
  • Rezeptionsforschung
Publikationen (Auswahl)

Herausgaben:

  • 2024. Routledge Handbook of Byzantine Human-Animal Relations, eds. P. Marciniak and T. Schmidt, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • 2023. Byzantium in the Popular Imagination. The Modern Reception of the Byzantine Empire, eds. M. Kulhankova and P. Marciniak, London: Bloomsbury.
  • 2022. Byzantine commentaries to ancient literature (with B. van der Berg & D. Manolova), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
  • 2020. Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period. The Golden Age of Laughter?, with I. Nilsson, Brill: Leiden.

Buchkapitel:

  • 2024. Animals We Love. Pets and Companion Animals in Byzanitum?, in Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Reltions in the Byzantine World, eds. P. Marciniak and T. Schmidt, Farnham: Routledge: 332–341.
  • 2021. Performing Byzantium. Byzantium in Early Modern European theatre, in The Reception of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe, eds. J. Ranshoff & N. Aschenbrenner, Washington D.C, Dumbarton Oaks: 205–221.
  • 2023. Animals of Constantinople: Some Initial Remarks. In: Anekdota Byzantina. Studien zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur. Festschrift für Albrecht Berger anlässlich seines 65. Geburstags, eds. I. Grimm-Stadelmann, A. Riehle, R. Tocci, M. Vučetić, Berlin-Boston, DeGruyter: 435–442.

Artikel:

  • 2024. Writing a Byzantine Zoobiography: the Case of the Octopus, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 117.3: 669–692.
  • 2024. How to Lament a Fallen Mouse? A Parody of Ancient Lament in the Katomyomachia by Theodore Prodromos, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 117.1: 157–168.
  • 2023. Byzantine Cultural Entomology (4th to 15th centuries): A Microhistory of Byzantine Insects, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 77: 177–193.

Auerbach Lecture

Kontakt

Prof. Przemysław Marciniak
Byzantinistik
University of Silesia

Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
Aufenthalt: 01.11.–30.11.2025
​​​​​​​E-Mail: przemyslaw.marciniak(at)us.edu(dot)pl

In Kooperation mit: MESH