Teaching Greek in Eleventh-Century Byzantium. Schedography and Its Methods (TeaGre)

Schedography is a Byzantine method of teaching Greek grammar that was popular from the eleventh century to the early modern period. The study of this method enables a better understanding of 1) which kind of Greek was taught and how its teaching was conducted in medieval schools; 2) the influence of school curriculum on writing and reading practices in Byzantium; 3) the purposes of Byzantine education and cultural politics. The existent studies offer sound, but general, overviews and several schedographic sources are unedited. Furthermore, there is the lack of a consistent approach to the study of the edited schedographic sources.

My project addresses this issue by looking at the eleventh century, when this method began to spread. I will frame schedography within the context of eleventh-century Byzantine culture and of contemporary school practices. Furthermore, I will examine the most relevant source for this period, the handbook by Longibardos, to describe its teaching method through a linguistic and stylistic analysis. My project will also lead to a critical edition of Longibardos’ handbook and other unedited eleventh-century schedographic remnants.

TeaGre will offer both the first study of schedography and its early evolution as well as a consistent linguistic and stylistic approach to schedographic sources. The simultaneous presence of the ERC-funded projects MELA and EVWRIT at Ghent University places my MSCA Fellowship within a context of substantial and innovative research on Classical, Late Antique and Medieval Greek language and education. The edition of Longibardos and eleventh-century schedographic texts will also expand the database for the study of Greek literature and language that is currently being developed at Ghent University. Through this fellowship, I will improve my professional profile into a more complete Greek scholar and my project will provide me with the proof of concept for my further research on this topic.