"E-Rhetoric" at Konvens 2026
Hamburg, University of Hamburg, 15th of September 2026
Konvens is the Konferenz zur Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache (KONVENS) 2026, organized under the auspices of the GSCL, the DGfS-CL, the ÖGAI, and SwissNLP. This year’s KONVENS takes place in Hamburg, September 14 – 17 under the special theme “Context Matters: NLP Beyond Text”. "E-Rhetoric" is there with a paper by Nicklas Sindlev, Aglae Pizzone and Tariq Yousef, titled 'Error-Analysis-Guided Post-Correction for Automated Medieval Greek HTR' presented by Nicklas at the session "Historical NLP and cultural heritage". The paper investigates post-correction of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) for Vaticanus graecus 2228, a 14th-century Medieval Greek manuscript. Using fine-tuned byte-level ByT5 models trained on synthetic HTR error patterns, it examines the effects of model training, line-polygon quality, contextual input, and clean-text sources. Results show that post-correction can substantially reduce transcription errors, particularly with automatically detected line polygons and training data incorporating external Greek texts. However, the improvements also demonstrate that post-correction complements rather than replaces accurate layout analysis and HTR. You can see the program here and download the full paper here.
"E-Rhetoric" results presented in Aarhus
KLS Seminars, School of Culture and Society, Arhus University, 4th of September 2026
What a better way to start the academic here than presenting the new HTR model (CER 3.3) developed within the project "E-Rhetoric" to an audience of colleagues from classics and discuss of the epistemic shifts AI has brought upon the field.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" and "Method" in a joint thematic session at the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies
Vienna, 25th of July 2026
When the Corpus Hermogenianum, which had formed the backbone of rhetorical education in the Byzantine Empire, came to Europe in the wake of the migration of Byzantine intellectuals, it was an instant success, fueled by the demand of the new bourgeois classes for a practical component in education. Thirty years after the first printed edition by Aldo Manuzio (1508), Hermogenes became central in the pedagogy of Johannes Sturm and Melanchthon, while Aphthonius’ progymnasmata were the best-selling textbook of the Renaissance, later reaching Mexico and South America. The corpus however did not come alone. It was often interwoven with Byzantine pedagogical exegeses. Planudes’ commentary already circulated in France before and after the Aldine edition. An 11th-century copy of the Corpus, Basel Univ. Bibl. F.IV.19, glossed by George Baiophoros in the early 1400s, made its way to Basel, possibly to serve the needs of Latin students learning Greek. In 1571, Andreas Darmarios sold a copy of John Doxapatres’ commentary on On Invention to Antonio de Covarrubias. The Dutch scholar Gerhard Johan Vossius (1577-1649) read his Hermogenes together with John Tzetzes’ commentary. And Antonio Bonfini’s first complete translation of Hermogenes into Latin was offered as a response to George of Trebizond’s take on Hermogenean theory. After discussing progress made in recovering and editing Byzantine commentaries on Hermogenes, this session, convened by Aglae Pizzone and Vessela Valiavitcharska, explores the notion of “deep receptions,” challenging current historiographies about the transfer of knowledge between East and West. It will thus map an interconnected transnational trajectory, showing how Byzantine material on Hermogenes contributed ideas and theories to the creation of a new European intellectual framework. The session's speakers are: Daria Resh, Baukje van den Berg, Manfred Kraus, Elisabetta Barili, Ugo Valori, Byron McDougall. Check all the abstracts here.
The "life" of a show-stopper: "A Rhetoric for the Empire" key-manuscript Voss. gr. Q1 presented at the Dumbarton Oaks Symposium "Book Biographies: Towards a Cultural History of Byzantine Manuscripts"
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC 24th of April 2026
Aglae Pizzone presents the paper . Voss. gr. Q1 is an exceptional witness to John Tzetzes’ commentary on the Corpus Hermogenianum, preserving not only its complete text but also Tzetzes’ own editorial interventions. Its layered material and textual structure reveals the fluidity of Tzetzes’ roles as copyist, commentator, compiler, and author, while situating the manuscript within the broader intellectual practices of twelfth-century Byzantine rhetoric. Functioning both as an authorial book and a working manuscript, it also reflects Tzetzes’ relationships with patrons, particularly the elusive Nikephoros. Ultimately, the manuscript demonstrates how Tzetzes used the material affordances of the book to assert authorial control, shape his literary identity, and secure his legacy. Full abstract and program here.
"Method" at the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Studies workshop "Bilingualism, Grammar, and Language Learning among Greeks, Latins, and Ottomans", convened by Joshua Robinson and Vessela Valiavitcharska
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC 23rd of April 2026
Aglae Pizzone explores the canonization through print of the Grammar of Konstantinos Laskaris, the first book ever to have been printed in Greek in the paper “’Lost in edition’: Constantine Lascaris’ Approach to Grammar between Manuscript and Print”. By exploring the fringe spaces between commission, manuscript production and market commodification via Aldus Manutius' press, this contribution interrogates mechanisms of cultural appropriation and try to understand what gets loss with the printing process when it comes to discourses about the linguistic heritage of Greek and the Byzantine grammatical tradition. For a full abstract and program, click here.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" and "E-Rhetoric" join forces with Central European University and the ERC project This_one_There, GA 101142567 to set up the workshop "Middle Byzantine Hermeneutic"
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Central European University, Vienna, 20th-21st of November 2025
This hands-on, work-in-progress workshop, organized by Cosimo Paravano, Baukje van den Berg and Aglae Pizzone, brings together researchers engaged in projects related to grammatical, rhetorical, and philosophical education and scholarship in Middle Byzantium. Byzantine teachers and scholars produced commentaries on grammatical treatises, rhetorical handbooks, and philosophical texts to make ancient authorities relevant within new cultural, ideological, and intellectual frameworks. Their work reveals much about their scholarly practices, pedagogical aims, and intellectual agenda in educating the Byzantine elite and reflecting on the workings of language and literature. By facilitating the exchange of ideas, problems, and material, the workshop intends to benefit the participants’ individual research projects, which often involve preparing the first critical editions and interpretive studies of key texts in Middle Byzantine hermeneutics. From "A Rhetoric for the Empire" and "E-Rhetoric" Ugo Valori, Elisabetta Barili and Nicklas Sindlev Andersen presented their research. Full program here.
"E-Rhetoric" participates in the workshop "Analyser, lire, éditers les papyrus et les manuscripts grecs" organized by the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva
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University of Lausanne, Lausanne,
11th-12th of June 2025
The workshop brought together practitioners delaing with HTR from different perspectives and aims. Aglae Pizzone and Nicklas Sinlev Andersen presented the work done on Vienna, Phil. gr. 130 and Vat. gr. 2228 targeted at facilitating the transcription and future edition of John Doxapatres' exegesis on Hermogenes. Full program here.
Aglae Pizzone brings research from "A Rhetoric from the Empire" to the 2nd Gutemberg Symposium in Vienna
Central European University, Vienna, 4th-5th of June 2025
The symposium "Education and Literature in a Medieval Eurasian Context", organized as a collaboration between CEU (Baukje van den Berg) and the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Panagiotis Agapitos) was designed to explore the role of school training and education in the production and consumption of literature in Byzantium within a broader medieval Eurasian context. Within this framework, Aglae Pizzone presented a talk on "Cognitive Conflict and How to Create It: Lessons from the Byzantine Classroom". The talk delved into the ways graphic circular patters are used to exemplify examples of cognitive conflict mobilized by rhetorical figures such as the periodos. It also showed how middle Byzantine commentators had divergent opinions on the suitability of such a tool in the framework of the encomium, designed to foster a sense of community rather than to elicit conflict, even if simply at cognitive level. Check the full program here.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" 6th workshop
"E-Rhetoric" kick start
Odense, University of Southern Denmark
4th-5th of February 2025
The sixth workshop of "A Rhetoric for the Empire" was accompanied by the launch of E-Rhetoric, so that the two project might proceed aligned, as they build on one another. "E-Rhetoric" will build on the ground truth produced by the mother-project, while the latter will reach its goals faster thanks to the facilitated transcription afforded by the HTR developed by the former. Team members also brought in their issues and unresolved problems for a shared discussion, enriched by the presence of advisory board's member Vessela Valiavitcharska. This is particularly crucial as the post-docs are approaching the end of their contracts. Full program here.
Elisabetta Barili in Rennes at the conference Les schemata isagogica dans les prolégomènes, de l’Antiquité tardive au Moyen Âge: Regards croisés sur la philosophie, la grammaire, la rhétorique et la médecine
This international conference brings together experts in the history of various areas of knowledge to investigate one of the most pervasive structural elements from the toolkit of medieval exegetes: the schema isagogicum. A schema isagogicum is an introductory conceptual framework that leads the learner from basic principles into a systematic field of knowledge. Elisabetta's paper examines the role of schemata isagogica in Byzantine rhetorical commentaries, with particular focus on Middle Byzantine exegeses of Hermogenes’ corpus – the cornerstone for rhetorical education. By analyzing the prolegomena of commentators such as John Sikeliotes, John Doxapatres, and John Tzetzes, the paper explores how isagogical schemes – originally developed in philosophical traditions – were appropriated and adapted for rhetorical purposes, creating a significant point of intersection between the two disciplines. This approach not only harmonized rhetorical theory with principles of logic but also revealed the deep mutual influence and interdependence between rhetoric and philosophy. Furthermore, the paper traces isagogical strategies from Late Antique rhetorical exegesis into the Byzantine period, demonstrating their persistence as a didactic, methodological, and hermeneutic tool that shaped knowledge and interpretation across disciplinary boundaries. Full program here.
Rennes, Université de Rennes 2,
24th of January 2025
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" at the 50th Byzantine Studies Conference. Session Desperately Seeking Doxapatres: Middle Byzantine Culture and
the Corpus of Hermogenes
New York, City University of New York
25th of October 2024
The session - co-organized by Byron McDougall and Aglae Pizzone - zooms in on a disregarded middle Byzantine commentator, John Doxapatres (11th), author of a massive exegesis on Issues, Invention and Type of style, and a recurring name in later commentary. The various contributions to panel are designed to become the core of an edited volume aiming at putting more flesh around the name of this intellectual. While the project will provide fresh evidence by providing access to previously unpublished material, this panel and the planned volume have the ambition of providing a historical and cultural reading of Doxapatres' work, by connecting it with the legal and rhetorical interests of his time. Full program here.
Aglae Pizzone presents results of "Necessity by design" at her inaugural lecture
Odense, University of Southern Denmark, 17th of September 2024
Inaugural lectures (tiltrædelsesforelæsning) are a Danish academic tradition: newly appointed professors at a Danish university offer a public lecture to mark symbolically the beginning of the new post. It typically presents their scholarly field, research interests, and intellectual perspective to the university community. In this lecture, “Epistemic shock, the Greek Way: How to unsettle knowledge and promote change” presents some of the results of "Necessity by design" Aglae explores how cognitive conflict and epistemic shock can challenge established beliefs and generate new knowledge.
Drawing on ancient Greek and Byzantine sources, it traces metaphors of circularity, movement, and transformation in processes of learning and thought.
From Socrates and Plato to Aristotle and Byzantine rhetorical theory, the lecture examines how rhetoric can disrupt habitual ways of seeing and reasoning.
It highlights the relationship between language, visual form, embodied experience, and decision-making, with particular attention to the rhetorical figure of periodos and its geometric representation.
Ultimately, the lecture proposes that knowledge may emerge not through linear progression alone, but through turning, revisiting, and collectively changing perspective.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" 5th workshop
Odense, University of Southern Denmark
16th of September 2024
The workshops are back on campus! While the primary aim of the meeting (program here) was to consolidate the talks for the October session at the Byzantine Studies Conference, the gathering also represented a fantastic opportunity to organize the surprise delivery of the price for the best dissertation at the Faculty of Humanities to Elisabetta Barili. The price was handed over by the dean Simon Møberg Torp and by the head of the Doctoral School Louise Nyholm Kallestrup.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" and "Necessity by design" at the 24th Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Rhetoric
Vancouver 25 July 2024
This panel was designed to give an overview of the efforts done across projects to contextualize the middle-Byzantine commentaries on Hermogenes against the background of the Byzantine classroom. What purpose did they fulfilled? If they are to be seen as tools leading to an efficient mastering of language in public settings, how do they adapt to changing societal and cultural needs? And how did voices of different exegetes intersected establishing a dialogue across centuries? Speakers of the panel included: Chiara D'Agostini, Manfred Kraus, Elisabetta Barili and Aglae Pizzone. More details in the program here (p. 9).
Leeds 4 July 2024
Diagrams have recently received special attention by medievalists for their variety of uses in a plurality of contexts. Their study allows us to better understand the ways different fields of knowledge were approached and taught within the classroom. The session "Imaginary Lines: Rethinking Knowledge Representation in Byzantium" focuses on on diagrams found in Byzantine manuscripts of rhetorical, philosophical, and scientific content. Presenters included: Chiara D'Agostini, Ugo Valori, Renate Burri and Divna Manolova. For more contents, check the panel here.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" fourth workshop
Danish Institute of Athens
11th of June 2024
The effort of disseminating the project's results as effectively as possible goes on. This time, taking advantage of Aglae Pizzone's fellowship at the Danish Institute in Athens, "A Rhetoric for the Empire" shows up in Greece, reaching out to the local community of Byzantinists working on rhetoric but also on Byzantine legal culture, with the participation of members of the advisory board (Vessela Valiavitcharska and Stratis Papaioannou). Full program to be downloaded here.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" moves out of campus: the third workshop takes place in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II
Thinking through Rhetoric: The Corpus Hermogenianum in Byzantium
16th of February 2024
Napoli National Library holds the manuscript II E 5, possibly from the end of the 12th, packed with late antique scholia and middle Byzantine commentaries on Hermogenes, including excerpts of Tzetzes' exegesis. No location could have been more apt to bring together "A Rhetoric for the Empire" and "Necessity by design" together invited speakers such as Manfred Kraus, Stratis Papaioannou and Francesco Giannachi for a live streamed event tackling intersections between rhetoric, narrative, poetry and the law. Full program here.
EHESS Paris 18 January 2024
Observatory Visit 23 January 2024
Chiara D'Agostini and Aglae Pizzone presented their project "Necessity by design" at the Observatoir de Paris to the EIDA team and participated in the seminar "Savoirs situés de la distance. Etudes de cas" at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, where they gave papers titled respectively The measure of geography in 12th-century Byzantium: space, rhetoric and diagrams (Chiara d'Agostini) and Espace de raisonnement : l'hypographé entre les mots et les lignes (Aglae Pizzone).
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" second on-campus workshop
Odense, University of Southern Denmark, 7-8th of December 2023
The workshop opens by bringing us close to the manuscripts , with a discussion of Tzetzes’ handwritten notes and the challenge they pose for the modern editor. The conversation then moves from individual scholarly practice to the tools and methods through which rhetorical knowledge was studied and transmitted in the fourteenth century, with particular attention to Aristotle’s Rhetoric. After this, the focus shifts to the unexpected meeting of rhetoric and geometry, asking what a mathematical diagram can reveal when it appears within a rhetorical manuscript. Barili turns to the literary dimension of rhetorical practice: she explores how Tzetzes draws on Pindar and transforms earlier poetic voices into part of his own rhetorical performance, by breathing new life in ancient metaphors drawn from archaic lyrical poetry.The first day closes by bringing these different perspectives together, encouraging discussion about the relationships between textual learning, imitation, visuality, and intellectual creativity. The second day begins with an investigation of how rhetorical methods operate between concrete observation and abstract reasoning, reconsidering what it meant to learn and apply a method in Byzantine education. Visual material returns to the foreground as diagrams and informal drawings are examined as clues to oral teaching and the practical training of argumentation. The workshop then turns to commentary, exploring how John of Sardis' interpretation of Hermogenes can shed light on the evolution of Christian rhetoric. A final paper extends this interest in commentary to John Geometres and his engagement with Gregory of Nazianzus, bringing rhetoric, literary interpretation, and theological learning into dialogue. Check the full program here.
Campus visits by Giovanna Cifoletti and Vessela Valiavitcharska
Odense, University of Southern Denmark, 29th of November-8th of December 2023
2023 ended with a bang. Giovanna Cifoletti, advisor of "Necessity by design" came to the Danish Institute forAdvanced Study to present her thought-provoking idea: "Early modern (European) symbolic algebra: a rhetorical project?" (6th of December) in a talk addressed to SDU broader community. You can read about her presentation here. The talk aptly fell within the one-week visit by Vessela Valiavitcharska, who very generously was available to provide advice and guidance to Ugo Valori (A Rhetoric fot the Empire) for his PhD project and give feedback to the project's participants presenting their WiP during a two-day workshop. You can find the program of the week here.
Elisabetta Barili represents "A Rhetoric for the Empire" at the XIVèmes Rencontres internationales des jeunes chercheurs et chercheuses en études byzantines
Paris, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 7th October 2023
Elisabetta in Paris to take her research on John Tzetzes to an intrenational audience interested in memory practices in Byzantium. The conference, entitled La Mémoire et la trace: commémorer, transmettre, perpétuer/Memory and marks: commemorating, transmitting, and perpetuating aims to map both how we remember Byzantium/how we make the most of the traces left by elusive Byzantine worlds and how memory was cultivated, activated, practiced, leveraged in Byzantium. Elisabetta's presentation shows how memory constituted a crucial element of Byzantine school education, being the fundamental tool for acquiring, maintaining, and distributing knowledge. Even though no rhetorical treatise discussed memory as a crucial aspect of a rhetor’s skills (beyond Longinos’ On Memory), this technical ability played a significant role in rhetorical training. In this respect, John Tzetzes’ Commentaries on Hermogenes offer invaluable information about the function of memory in the practice of rhetorical learning. By looking specifically at formulaic refrains, diagrams, and didactic headings, this paper aims to define the mnemonic toolbox used by Tzetzes to guide pupils in the acquisition of rhetorical knowledge. Through the analysis of unattested variant readings, it also examines Tzetzes’ recourse to his phenomenal memory when teaching, demonstrating that sometimes his prodigious skill faltered. Finally, the paper seeks to highlight the Commentaries’ memorial function, focusing on the association of Tzetzes’ name with that of the great Hermogenes.
You can download the whole program of the event here.
"A Rhetoric for the Empire" kick-start workshop
Odense, University of Southern Denmark, 13rd-16th of June 2023
The core members of the team, plus invited guests (Margaret Mullett, Enrico Prodi, Baukje van den Berg, Chiara d'Agostini and Stratis Papaioannou, Rogelio Toledo Martin) laid out and discussed the challenges ahead. You can download the program here.
"Necessity by design" goes to Berlin
Max Plank Institute for the History of Science in Berlin
3rd-10th of October 2022
The visit gave us the opportunity to present our research hypothesis and first findings to advisory board members Divna Manolova and Serafina Cuomo as well as to receive feedback from colleagues working in an array of different fields. Interest in visualization strategies and their theoretical as well as cognitive underpinnings was the glue that kept all of us together and sparked stimulating conversations. We were motivated to look deeper into notions of accuracy and relationality and how they impacted the construction of rhetorical theory.
NeccessitybyDesign