Gavriil - Ioannis Boutziopoulos

• MA in Antiquity, Pathway of Byzantine Studies, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, UK. Dissertation: “The Byzantine Urban Administration through Sigillographic Research: The case of Cherson”.  Supervisor: Dr Archibald Dunn.

• BA in History, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. Dissertation: "Titles and offices of royal service in the sources of early and middle Byzantine history". Supervisors: Dr Demosthenes Stratigopoulos, Dr George Tsigaras.

My name is Gavriil-Ioannis Boutziopoulos and I am a 2nd year PhD candidate in Byzantine Studies in the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. My doctoral research focuses on “the Byzantine Elite’s Titles in the 11th – 13th centuries and the rise of the provincial aristocracy” and it is supervised by Dr Archibald Dunn.

I studied History at the Department of History and Ethnology (School of Classics and Humanities) of Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, where as an undergraduate student I focused my academic interests on the medieval civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. During my studies I worked as an intern in the General State Archives and in museums where I had my first research experience.

After my graduation in 2017 I moved to the UK to start my MA in Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham. During this course, I focused on the history of the administrative system and the court culture of the Byzantine Empire through manuscripts and sigillographic data mainly from the 10th to 13th centuries. In my Master Thesis I examined the urban administration of the Byzantine City of Cherson in Crimea.

Since the beginning of 2018 I have been working at the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE), in research projects as a Greek manuscripts’ transcriber.

Apart from my studies I am also interested in the education of the Greek speaking populations who live in the UK. I have been involved in Greek schools in West Midlands as a teacher and I have also participated as a co-author in a recent publication about the preparation of non-native Greek speakers for the GCSE exams in Modern Greek language, which has been approved by the Cypriot Ministry of Education.

 

PhD title

The Byzantine Elite’s Titles in the Eleventh to Thirteenth century and the rise of the provincial aristocracy.  

Supervisor

Dr Archie Dunn

Course

Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies PhD/MA by Research (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)

My PhD examines the Byzantine court titles between 11th – 13th centuries, a period which lacks sources, such as the Byzantine bureaucratic and ceremonial catalogues. For this reason, this research aims to work on sources which, despite the fact that do not provide straightforward information, can illustrate the reality of that era with alternative means. In this regard, I examine sigillographic, palaeographic data and monastic records, epigraphic evidence and literature in order to create an analysis for all the titles of these three centuries. This analysis will include hierarchical positions of the titles and prosopographical information of the Byzantine provincial elite. I also examine their attire, for which I rely on textual references contemporary to the period in question but also to earlier sources such as ceremonial records, miniatures and frescos.  

The study of Byzantine court titles has constituted a significant aspect of Byzantine Studies, but it has used a narrow range of sources. Now, the development of online databases (seals, manuscripts, inscriptions) lets us to expand greatly the study of Byzantine elites. This is important because it will analyse definitions of the elite across the provinces and the successor Byzantine states, and make clear what these titles do tell us about the elite’s evolution. By achieving this, we will understand better the nature of the Late Byzantine society and the relations between the crown, the court and the provinces.

Participation in Research Projects

• In February 2018 I started working at the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE) through the WorkLink as a transcriber in the Codex Zacynthius Project under the supervision of Professor Hugh Houghton and Dr Amy Myshrall. I was member of the team that transcribed the overtext of the palimpsest, the Gospel Lectionary (Lectionary 299) which is dated to the 12th century. Our work was reconciled and put together by Dr Myshrall and now it can by found at the Cambridge Digital Library (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-10062/1). In April 2019 I started working as a Greek Manuscript transcriber at the CATENA project, ITSEE.
• Academia.edu: https://bham.academia.edu/GabrielJohnBoutziopoulos

Selected papers

05/11/2019 “Transcriber’s View”. Presentation at the workshop Codex Zacynthius: Retracing the Words of Scribes and Early Christian Writers, Oriel College, University of Oxford, UK. (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/itsee/news/2019/codex-zacynthius-study-day.aspx ).