Dan Batovici
@danbatovici.bsky.social
1K followers 500 following 110 posts
FWF START Award 2024 at Uni Vienna 2024: GenAut.univie.ac.at | Co-host of @tetraseminar.bsky.social TeTra.univie.ac.at | Co-editor RBECS.org | Bits and bobs in manuscript studies, and the reception of EC literature.
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petertarras.bsky.social
#NewPublication
#OpenAccess
#ChristianEast
harrassowitz-v.bsky.social
👉 NEW AND OPEN ACCESS

The book critically reappraises the history of slavery in Ethiopia, highlighting its dynamics, the domestic slave trade, legal reforms, local interpretations of slavery and abolition, and the memory of enslavement.
#openaccess

www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/isbn_9783447...
Cover of the advertised book.
Reposted by Dan Batovici
tetraseminar.bsky.social
Next Thursday 9 October, Eleanor Baker (@eleanormaybaker.bsky.social) will explore the world of Middle English book curses. All welcome!
Reposted by Dan Batovici
arturoviaggia.bsky.social
Doing research on clothing as textile, text or image in Early Christianity/Byzantium like me? Send us a proposal when the CfP opens on Oct. 15!

#SartorialTheology
catacombsociety.bsky.social
We will be organizing an ONLINE session for the 2026 annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago -- "Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity." We'd love to consider your proposal!

CfP opens on October 15.
Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity
For this online session organized by the International Catacomb Society, we are seeking papers that address the theme “Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity”. Garments were a defining aspect of Roman society, serving as markers of status, gender, ethnicity, profession, and so on, part of what Terence Turner coined as “the social skin.” The curation and adornment of the body were not necessarily personal choices, but determined by custom, and sometimes mandated by law, locating individuals within a complex of social categories. But garments are not limited to material forms. They can also be verbalized as text, appearing in literary sources as conveyors of meaning, in the form of metaphor, allegory, or symbol. They also appear visualized in art, not simply displaying what actual garments looked like, but part of the code of the overall composition, contributing to the image’s meaning. Early Christians both subscribed to and challenged the sartorial norms of Roman society and produced material, verbal, and visual garments that created and conveyed meaning. For this session we are looking for papers that specifically address meaning-making through material, textual, and/or visual clothing in Early Christian contexts. This could include textiles with embroidered images, or other material remains; allegorical exegesis of biblical garments, or symbolic interpretations of ascetic or episcopal garments; or, interpretations of garments as represented in catacomb frescoes, or on sarcophagi, or in the mosaics of churches. Alternatively, the complex messaging in garments adorned with both Christian and traditional iconography, such as Dionysian imagery, presents another lens through which to explore the "social skin" of Early Christianity.
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relicsclerics.bsky.social
Warsaw Late Antique Seminar. The programme for Winter Semester is ready. Take a look!
More on the seminar's website...
Reposted by Dan Batovici
jennisifire.bsky.social
If you would like to hear me talk about the main interventions of Gender Violence in Late Antiquity, check out this podcast interview with @mikemotia.bsky.social His careful engagement with my work really made this a great experience. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j... @ancientjewreview.bsky.social
Jennifer Barry,
Podcast Episode · New Books in Late Antiquity · 09/29/2025 · 52m
podcasts.apple.com
danbatovici.bsky.social
Our colleague's paper in the project online seminar: Maria Thomas, "Mary Magdalene in a Twelfth-Century Syriac Fenqitho Manuscripts from Jerusalem."

More details here: genaut.univie.ac.at/?page_id=671
GenAut | Maria S. Thomas "Mary Magdalene in a 12th Century Syriac Manuscripts from Jerusalem"
YouTube video by The GenAut Project
youtube.com
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Reposted by Dan Batovici
antike-kolleg.bsky.social
Das Digital Classicist Seminar Berlin setzt sein Programm im WiSe 2025/26 fort. Diesmal widmet sich die Reihe den Potenzialen und Grenzen digitaler Methoden in den Altertumswissenschaften. Der erste Termin findet am 14. Oktober statt.

lmy.de/sUVNw
Reposted by Dan Batovici
janetspittler.bsky.social
Conference announcement/call for papers! You’ll note that there’s no theme beyond “new research on apocryphal Christian literature.” We truly just want to hear about whatever interests you most in apocryphal Christian literature right now. More info here: www.nasscal.com/meetings/
danbatovici.bsky.social
Nice contextualisation from Dénes Harai – less about the literary character and more about the late medieval Vlad individual.
royalhistsoc.org
'Counting the Stakes: A Reassessment of Vlad III Dracula': new in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/46iJfIU

In this new article, Dénes Harai reconsiders the victims of 'Vlad the Impaler' (c.1431-76), the historical inspiration for Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula #Skystorians 1/2
First page of 'Counting the Stakes: A Reassessment of Vlad III Dracula’s Practice of Collective Impalements in Fifteenth-Century South-eastern Europe', by Denes Harai, new research article in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.

Abstract: 'Dubbed ‘the Impaler’ by his contemporaries, Vlad III Dracula (c. 1431–76), was accused of the slaughter of between 40,000 and 100,000 individuals, 20,000 of them allegedly impaled at the Wallachian capital Targovişte. Although historians have often considered these figures
inflated, none of the numerous studies dedicated to the voivode of Wallachia have undertaken a methodical evaluation of the extent of this exaggeration. This article takes up this historiographical challenge by examining all available documentation. In so doing, it provides a full reassessment of the practice of impalement in fifteenth-century south-eastern Europe. Contrary to assumptions of previous scholarship, Vlad’s use of impalement was influenced simultaneously by pre-existing Hungarian and Ottoman practices. Quantitative analysis shows that only 7–10 per cent of the impalements claimed by sources can be considered plausible and proposes a new data-driven estimation of Vlad’s impaled victims. Finally, a comparison with other rulers shows that, while Vlad ordered collective impalements more frequently, the average number of victims per impalement was similar to that elsewhere in
south-eastern Europe.' Image of Vlad III Dracula from c.1488 text: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, public domain.
danbatovici.bsky.social
This piece is just out, part of this volume: brill.com/display/title/70849

Happy to send a pdf out to anyone interested.
Reposted by Dan Batovici
chancebonar.bsky.social
The digital version of God, Slavery, and Early Christianity is officially out! If you're interested in ancient Mediterranean slavery's effects on Christian thought and practice, this is for you.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...
God, Slavery, and Early Christianity
Cambridge Core - History of Religion - God, Slavery, and Early Christianity
www.cambridge.org
danbatovici.bsky.social
Later today, at 4pm CET:

Ángel Narro (València), "Thecla’s Increasing Authority from Early Christianity to Late Antiquity"

genaut.univie.ac.at/?page_id=671
Reposted by Dan Batovici
ullamr.bsky.social
The Annales recruiting an editor!
annales.ehess.fr
🚨 Les #Annales recrutent un éditeur/une éditrice bilingue anglais-français 🚨

L'offre d'emploi est à retrouver ici
👉 recrutement.ehess.fr/offre-emploi...

Poste à pourvoir à partir du 1er novembre 2025
⚠️ Candidatures à envoyer avant le 8 octobre 2025
EHESS - recruitment area
Niveau de recrutement : Ingénieur d’études (Catégorie A)
recrutement.ehess.fr
danbatovici.bsky.social
Meet our team! Starting today: Maria S. Thomas

The GenAut Project: "The Followers of the Apostles as Literary Characters" genaut.univie.ac.at
‪@dekayra.bsky.social‬
Reposted by Dan Batovici
nasscal.bsky.social
The NASSCAL First Fridays Workshop 2025/2026 season begins Sept. 5 at 12:00 (EDT) with Julia Snyder's essay "Apostles Behaving Badly? Violence in the Acts of Philip." Contact us if you would like to participate.