We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
It is argued that Byzantine manuscript illustrations to Hesiod's eighth-century BC poem offer realistic evidence for the appearance and function of common Medieval agricultural implements, of which there is little other record. Fourteen manuscripts illustrated from the tenth to sixteenth centuries AD are analysed in the Table on p. 67. In them seventeen implements not named in the text may be regarded as contemporary Medieval pictures, which may also be true of the six implements which Hesiod describes, for traditional textual or arthistorical rules hardly apply to these rustic drawings. Using the methodology of K. D. White's studies of Roman farming, other pictorial, literary, documentary, and the scanty archaeological evidence, together with that of survivals, is applied to these twenty-three implements alone. Conclusions are that the Byzantines may have introduced an eliktrin spade-fork, and possibly a wheel structure, but the article must be read within the context of Roman, Western Medieval and later Mediterranean studies of technology and means of peasant production, for which it offers only a first step in the largely unexplored Byzantine field.
Acknowledgements. I am chiefly indebted to Professor M. L. West, Hesiod's own editor, for microfilms, offprints, patience, and generous information. He is not responsible for my blunders, nor is Professor K. D. White, the father of this sort of study. I am grateful to the librarians of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna; of the Vatican Library, Rome; of the Marcian Library, Venice; of the Biblioteca Communale Ariostea, Ferrara; of Trinity College, Cambridge; and of the Beinecke Library, Yale, for illustrations in FIGS. 3–16, as well as to Dr Benedikt Benedikz of the University of Birmingham Library and Dr W. D. Hassall of the Holkham Hall Library. I am especially grateful to Dr Maurice Byrne for not only commissioning, but bringing home, the heavy Trapezuntine bel in Fig. 19, as well as the Amaseian finger-guards; and to Diana Wardle for the Macedonian and Mr A. G. Wood for the Cappadocian finger-guards, all in Fig. 20; and to Mr Joe Pennybacker for wielding the bel in Fig. 18. I have enjoyed the advice and help of Professor Robert Browning, Dr Mary Cunningham, Miss Linda Cheetham, Dr John Haldon, Dr Alan Harvey, Dr John Lowden, and Dr Michael Ursinus. The University of Birmingham's Department of Geography photographic section made the photographs and Mrs Gaye Bye typed expertly. The article is a contribution to a collaborative research project of the University of Birmingham's Centre for Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek on material culture, but began with hunting the bel: an attempt to identify the Pontic Έλίκτριν in Vazelon Act 118 of the thirteenth century.
1 Harvey, A., ‘The Growth of the Byzantine Rural Economy 900 1200’ (Birmingham, Ph.D. thesis, 1983)Google Scholar, 168 = Harvey, Thesis. Dr Harvey is preparing this valuable thesis for publication by CUP. The study of medieval agricultural implements is much more developed in Russia, where there are parallels with Byzantium to explore, but the terrain and social conditions are different: see, for a start, Grekov, B., Kiev Rus (Moscow 1959) 70–90Google Scholar; Smith, R. E. F., The Origins of Farming in Russia (Paris The Hague 1959).Google Scholar
2 Teoteoi, T., ‘Remarques sur le travail manuel a Byzance au XIVe siècle’, Etudes Byzantines et post-Byzantines, Stăanescu, E. and Tanaşoca, N.-St. (eds.), 1 (Bucharest 1979) 55–75Google Scholar; the same's ‘Le Travail manuel dans les typika Byzantins des XIe–XIIIe siècles’, Revue des Eludes Sud-Est Européennes 17 (1979)455–62; Karpozilos, A., ‘Realia in Byzantine Epistolography X–XIIc’, BZ 77 (1984) 20–37Google Scholar; Georgacas, D. J., Ichthyological Terms for the Sturgeon and Etymology of the International Terms Botargo, Caviar and Congeners (Athens 1978)Google Scholar; contributions by Alice-Mary Talbot, Maria Dembińska, and Anthony Bryer to the 17th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, 1983, summarized in Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies 10 (1984) 20–30; Bryer, A., ‘The Estates of the Empire of Trebizond’, Ἀρχεῖον Πόντου 35 (1979)Google Scholar, reprinted in The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontos (London 1980) = Bryer, , CS vii. 374–91Google Scholar; and the same's ‘Byzantine Porridge’, in Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis, ed. Mayr-Hartingand, H., Moore, R. I. (London 1985), 1–6Google Scholar; Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, tr. Luibheld, C. and Russell, N. (London 1982), 105Google Scholar; Angold, M., The Byzantine Empire 1025–1204 (London and New York 1984) = Angold, 236Google Scholar; Wickham, C., ‘Pastoralism and Underdevelopment in the Early Middle Ages’, Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo 31 (Spoleto 1985) 430Google Scholar; Liutprand Legatio, XL, who is confirmed by Theodore, of Kyzikos, in Epistoliers Byzantins du Xe siècle, Darrouzès, J. (ed.) (Paris 1960), 324, 327–9Google Scholar; cf Bryer, , CS vii. 385–6.Google Scholar Calculations of Byzantine life expectancy in Kazhdan, A. and Constable, G., People and Power in Byzantium (Washington DC 1982) 53–5Google Scholar; and Talbot, Alice-Mary M., ‘Old Age in Byzantium’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 77 (1984) 269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Lemerle, P., Prolégomènes à une édition critique et commentée des ‘Conseils et Recits’ de Kekaumenos (Brussels 1980).Google Scholar
4 Watson, A. M., Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World; the Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100 (Cambridge 1983) 15–19.Google Scholar
5 Lemerle, , Cinq Etudes sur le XIe siècle Byzantin (Paris 1977) 22Google Scholar; cf. Harvey, Thesis 160–221; Bryer, , CS vii. 394–5.Google Scholar
6 Planoudes most accessible in Wilson, N., An Anthology of Byzantine Prose (Berlin-New York 1971) 126–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pertusi, A., ‘La Tradizione manoscritta degli scolii alle Opere e i Giorni e le note inedite attribute a Massimo Planude’, Atti dell' VIII. Cong. int. di Stud. Biz. i (Rome 1951), 177–82Google Scholar; Il libro dei conti di Giacomo Badoer, ed. Dorini, V. and Bertelè, T. (Rome 1956), 1Google Scholar; cf. Oikonomidès, N., Hommes d'affaires Grecs et Latins à Constantinople (XIIIe–XVe siècles) (Montreal–Paris 1979) 130–1Google Scholar.
7 Duby, G., Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (London 1962) 16–22Google Scholar; Angold, 249.
8 Miklosich, F. and Müller, J., Acta et diplomata graeci medii aevi (Vienna 1860–1890) iv. 267–71Google Scholar = Melissenos Will.
9 White, K. D., Agricultural Implements of the Roman World (Cambridge 1967)Google Scholar = White. Cf. the same's Roman Farming (London 1970). Koukoules, Ph., Βυζαντινῶν βίος καὶ πολιτισμός (Athens 1952) = Koukoules, BBP v.Google Scholar
10 Nesbitt, J. W., ‘Mechanisms of Agricultural Production on Estates of the Byzantine Praktika’ (Wisconsin, Ph.D. dissertation, 1973)Google Scholar = Nesbitt, Thesis; Cheetham, Linda, ‘A Study of Traditional Technology in Greece and Cyprus as a Demonstration of the Value of Ethnography to Archaeology’ (Institute of Archaeology, London, BA dissertation, 1981)Google Scholar = Cheetham, Thesis; cf. the same's ‘Threshing and Winnowing— An Ethnographic Study’, Antiquity 56 (1982) 127–30 and pl. xvi; Harvey, Thesis (see n. 1 above).
11 Andriotes, N. P., Ἐτυμολγικό λεξικό τῆς κοινῆς νεοελληνικῆς (Athens 1951) = AndriotesGoogle Scholar; Kriaras, E., Λεξικό τῆς μεσαιωικῆς ἑλληνικῆς δημωδοῦς γραμματείας, 1100–1699 I– (Thessalonike 1968)Google Scholar up to KA = Kriaras; Papadopoulos, A. A., Ἰστορικόν Λεξικόν τῆς Ποντικῆς διαλέκτου, 2 vols. (Athens 1958–1961) = PapadopoulosGoogle Scholar.
12 Ashburner, W., ‘The Farmer's Law’, JHS 30 (1910) 85–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 32 (1912) 68–95, esp. ch. 20 = Farmer's Law, cf. Lemerle, , The Agrarian History of Byzantium (Galway 1979) 27 ff.Google Scholar; see now Medvedev, I. P., Nomos Georgikos (Leningrad 1984) 93 ff.Google Scholar
13 Geoponica sive Cassiani Bassi Scholastici de re Rustica Eclogae, Beckh, H. (ed.) (Leipzig 1895)Google Scholar = Geoponica.
14 Lemerle, P., Dagron, G., and Ćirković, S., Actes de Saint-Pantéléèmôn = Archives de l'Athos ix (Paris 1982) 65–76Google Scholar, esp. 72 (commentary) and 74 (text) = Xylourgou Inventory.
15 Miklosich, and Müller, , Acta et diplomata iv. 202Google Scholar = Gerontios Will. Cf. Angold, , A Byzantine Government in Exile (Oxford 1974) 121–46.Google Scholar
16 Miklosich, and Müller, , Acta et diplomata iv. 267Google Scholar = Melissenos Will. Cf. Ahrweiler, Hélène, ‘L'Histoire et la géographic de la région de Smyrne entre les deux occupations Turques (1081–1317), particulièrement au XIIIe siècles’, Travaux et Mémoires i (1965) 172.Google Scholar
17 Uspenskij, F. J. and Bénéshévich, V. V., Vazelonskie Akty. Actes de Bazélon (Leningrad 1929)Google Scholar, Act 118 of the thirteenth century = Spelianatopolous Will.
18 Bompaire, J., Actes de Xéropotamou = Archives de l'Athos iii (Paris 1964) 71–88Google Scholar, esp. 77 (commentary) and 80, 84 (texts) = Skaranos Will.
19 Stefan, G., Barnea, I., and Comsa, M., Dinogetia I (Bucarest 1967) 392Google Scholar; Barnea, I., ‘Dinogetia—Ville Byzantine du Bas-Danube’, Βνζαντινά 10 (1980) 265Google Scholar = Dinogetia; Spinei, V., Realităţi şi politice în Moldova Meridionala în secolele X–XIII (Iaşi 1985)Google Scholar = Spinei. I am grateful to Nubar Hamparţumian for this reference.
20 Diaconu, P. and Baraschi, Silvia, Păcuiul lui Soare. Aşezarea medievală secolele XIII–XV (Bucarest 1977)Google Scholar = Păcuiul lui Soare.
21 Miller, S. G., ‘Excavations at Nemea’, Hesperia 14 (1975) 162Google Scholar and pl. 39d–ƒ = Nemea.
22 Information from Professor Speros Vryonis, Jun.
23 Benaki Museum, παραδοσιακές καλλιέργειες (Athens 1978)Google Scholar = Benaki.
24 Demarches, Ch. G. and Kapnas, N. I., Ὀ Ἐλληνικός Πόντος Μόρφες καὶ είκονες ζωῆς (Athens 1947)Google Scholar = Demarchos and Kapnas. There is a wealth of other material from the Pontos, e.g. in Athanasiades, S., Ἰστορία καὶ λαογραφία τῆς Σάναας 2 vols. (Thessalonike 1967–1968).Google Scholar
25 Bryer, CS vii.
26 Smith, A. C., The Architecture of Chios (London 1962)Google Scholar, esp. 47 and fig. 116 (= Smith, Chios).
27 A notable exception in the dearth of wall-painted evidence is Mouriki, Doula, ‘An Unusual Representation of the Last Judgement in a Thirteenth-century Fresco at St. George near Kouvaras in Attica’, Δελ. τῆς Χρ. Ἀρχ. Ἔτ 8 (1975–1976) a145–71Google Scholar = Mouriki.
28 Chepina, M. V., Miniatury Khludovskoy Psaltiri (Moscow 1977) pl. 106.Google Scholar
29 Weitzmann, K., ‘The Selection of Texts for Cyclic Illustration in Byzantine Manuscripts’, in Byzantine Books and Bookmen. A Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium (Washington DC 1975), 94 and fig. 39.Google Scholar
30 Pelekanides, S. M., Christou, P. C., Ch. Tsioumis, , and Kladas, S. N., The Treasures of Mount Athos. Illuminated Manuscripts ii (Athens 1975)Google Scholar ( = Athos ii), 371 (where the sledge is oddly identified as a plough) and pl. 347; Kaplan, M., ‘Quelques remarques sur les paysages agraires Byzantins (VIème siècles–milieu XIème’ Revue du Nord (1980) (= Kaplan) fig. 5.Google Scholar
31 Kaplan, fig. 6; Galavaris, G., The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory Nazianzenus (Princeton 1969) pl. 16 fig. 103Google Scholar; Schlumberger, G., L'Épopèe Byzantine à la fin du dixième siècle, 3 vols. (Paris 1896–1905, reprinted Darmstadt 1969) (= Schlumberger), iii. 125.Google Scholar
32 Kaplan, fig. 2; Haussig, H. W., tr. Hussey, J. M., A History of Byzantine Civilization (London 1971)Google Scholar (= Haussig) 415 pls. 82, 83; Bibliothèque Nationale, Byzance et la France médiévale (Paris 1958) 15 pl. xiiiGoogle Scholar; Schlumberger, i. 513, 517.
33 O(mont), H., Bibliothèque Nationale, Evangiles avec peintures Byzantines du XIe siècle (Paris 1908) i pl. 33Google Scholar; Schlumberger, i. 473.
34 Athos, ii fig. 299; Kaplan, fig. 1.
35 Furlan, I., Codici greci illustrati della Biblioteca Marciana iv (Milan 1981)Google Scholar ( = Furlan) fig. 20.
36 Uspenskij, T., L'Octateuque de la Bibliothèque du Sérail à Constantinople (Munich-Sofia 1907)Google Scholar, Album, 270 pl. xli, 316 pl. xlvii; Bréhier, L., Le Monde Byzantin iii (Paris 1950)Google Scholar pl. xvi; Koukoules, , BBP v pl. viii.Google Scholar
37 Strzygowski, J., ‘Eine trapezuntinische Bilderhandschrift vom Jahre 1346’, Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft 13 (1890) 241–63Google Scholar; Bryer, , CS vii. 392–3 figs. 1, 9, 29, 31.Google Scholar
38 Haussig (or maybe Hussey), 416 pl. 85.
39 Rice, Tamara Talbot, Everyday Life in Byzantium (London 1967) 188 fig. 80.Google Scholar Helen Nixon Fairfield is credited with the redrawing.
40 Weitzmann, , Ancient Book Illumination (Harvard 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ( = Weitzmann) 26 30; Kádár, Z., Survivals of Greek Zoological Illuminations in Byzantine Manuscripts (Budapest 1978)Google Scholar; Diehl, C., Manuel d'art Byzantin ii (Paris 1926) 603Google Scholar; Fossier, R. (ed.), Le Môyen Age ii (Paris 1982) 205Google Scholar; Bryer, A., Trautman, T., and Young, L. K., Byzantium and the Ancient East (London 1969) 12Google Scholar (for illustrations of the Ps.-Oppian). Spatharakis, I., ‘Observations on a Few Illuminations in Ps.-Oppian's Cynegetica MS. at Venice’, Thesaurismata 17 (1980), 22–35 pls. i–viiiGoogle Scholar, makes some observations which he suggests may apply to other manuscripts: that (1) not all ‘scientific’ miniatures are fully explained by the text, and some are not even related to it; (2) a figure in Byzantine costume does not necessarily imply that it was invented or added by a Byzantine artist; (3) bizarre figures suggest that the artist did not have a model; (4) the copying artist usually did not read the passage which he was illustrating, but copied his model blindly; (5) a miniature, fully explained by a text, was definitely invented for it when the passage which it illustrates or the scene are original; and (6) a miniature which is not explained by the text, or contains more details than the text, has been copied from somewhere else.
41 Cf. Browning, R., ‘Byzantine Scholarship’, Past & Present, 28 (1964) 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; White, , Roman farming (London 1970) 45–6Google Scholar; Geoponica, Agricultural Pursuits, tr. Owen, T. (London 1805).Google Scholar
42 Podestà, G., ‘Le Satire Lucianesche di Teodoro Prodromo’, Aevum 19 (1945) 247.Google Scholar I am most grateful to Dr Roddy Beaton for this reference and discussion, but any error in linking Prodromos with Tzetzes is my own.
43 West, M. L., Hesiod, Works and Days (Oxford 1978)Google Scholar ( = West), esp. 60 86; cf. the same's ‘The Medieval Manuscripts of the Works and Days’ CQ 24 (1974) 161–85. The Scholia Vetera and those of Proclus are in Pertusi, , Scholia Vetera in Hesiod Opera et Dies (Milan 1955) (= Pertusi)Google Scholar; the scholia of Tzetzes and Moschopoulos are in Gaisford, T., Poetae Minores Graeci ii (Oxford 1820) (= Gaisford).Google Scholar
44 Weitzmann. 23.
45 West, 83–4.
46 Colonna, A., ‘Homerica et Hesiodea’, Bollettino del Comitato per la preparazione dell' Edizione Nazionale del Classici Greci e Latini 3 (1955) 45–55 Pl. 1Google Scholar; Turyn, A., Codices graeci Vaticani saeculis XIII et XIV scripti annorumque notis instructi (Vatican City 1964).Google Scholar
47 F. A. Paley, The Epics of Hesiod, with an English Commentary pl. opposite p. xxxiv; Weitzmann, fig. 28; Furlan, iv. 27.
48 Colonna, , ‘L'Esamplare Φ degli Erga Esiodei’, Bollettino del Comitato per la preparazione dell'Edizione Nazionale dei Classici Greci e Latini 6 (1958)Google Scholar (= Colonna) 22.
49 West, 83.
50 West, 83; Colonna, 21.
51 Colonna, 21.
52 Gaisford, ii. 226; West, 69; Wilson, N. G., Scholars of Byzantium (London 1983)Google Scholar ( = Wilson) 191.
53 Gaisford, ii. 228 33, 242–5; Colonna, 21.
54 White, Implements 58.
55 Andriotes, 265; Rečnik na makedoniskiot jazik iii (Skopje 1966) 529. I thank Drs Harry Davis, Dimitrios Tziovas, and Michael Ursinus for discussion.
56 Belting, H., ‘Byzantine Art Among Greeks and Latins in Southern Italy’, DOPapers 28 (1974) 1–30.Google Scholar
57 West, 79–80.
58 Wilson, 249.
59 West, 82–3; Furlan, iv. 25–7 pl. 4 (the plough in our Fig. 10, in colour) figs. 17–19; Turyn, , Dated Greek Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in the Libraries of Italy (Urbana–Chicago-London 1972)Google Scholar.
60 Furlan, iv. fig. 20.
61 Mazal, O., Byzanz und das Abendland (Vienna 1981) 367 8 pl. 76Google Scholar.
