Byzantine studies & the natural world
Przemysław
Marciniak
Professor · University of Silesia in Katowice
Exploring Byzantine literature, its cultural afterlives, and the relationships between humans and the natural world.
Reading Byzantium
Rethinking its worlds
I am a Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, working on Byzantine literature and culture.
I have held visiting professorships and fellowships at Princeton University, Dumbarton Oaks, LMU Munich, Freie Universität Berlin, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Freiburg and Hamburg Institutes for Advanced Study, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Study in Cologne, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris.
I am interested in satire and performance, the reception of Byzantium in European culture, and the ways Byzantine authors understood animals, plants and the natural world.
My recent projects explore conceptions of nature, human–animal relations and the cultural history of insects. Alongside close reading, I use digital approaches to investigate the Greek hexaemeral tradition and the relationships between its texts.
Discover the Hexaemera research02 / Curriculum vitae
An academic trajectory
Appointments
- 2018–present
- ProfessorUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
- 2011–2018
- Associate ProfessorUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
- 2003–2011
- Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Classical Philology, University of Silesia
- 2000–2003
- LecturerDepartment of Classical Philology, University of Silesia
Academic qualifications
- 2018
- Title of ProfessorConferred by the President of Poland
- 2010
- HabilitationUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
- 2003
- PhDUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
- 1995–1999
- MA in Classical PhilologyUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
Institutional service & leadership
- 2025–2028
- Member, Steering CommitteeMAPS · Swiss National Science Foundation
- 2024–2028
- Member, Research CouncilNational Science Centre, Poland
- 2024–2028
- Member, Governing BoardUniversity of Silesia in Katowice
- 2024–2025
- DirectorCentre for Studies on Byzantine Literature
- 2015–2018
- DirectorCentre for Studies on Byzantine Literature and Reception
- 2014–2018
- Head of DepartmentClassical Philology
03 / Publications
Publications
Books, edited volumes, articles
and contributions to collective works.
56 publications
- Work in progressMonographs
Reading Creation Environmentally: Byzantine Hexaemeral Literature and the Natural World, Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press, work in progress).
- ForthcomingMonographs
Insects and Culture in Byzantium, Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
- 2026Edited volumes
Turning over a New Leaf: Perspectives on Byzantine Nature, eds. P. Marciniak and T. Schmidt (Harrassowitz, 2026, in production).
In production - 2026Edited volumes
Microhistories Retold: Insects in the Premodern World, ed. P. Marciniak (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2026).
- 2026Book chapters
“All the Emperor’s Men: Uncovering Byzantium in the Nineteenth-Century Press,” in Byzantium Beyond Byzantium, eds. A. C. Pirtea, G. Rossetto, and N. Zagklas (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2026), 437–455.
Read on Academia.edu ↗ - 2026Book chapters
"Orthodoxy, the Church and the Reception of Byzantium," in The Cambridge Companion to the Byzantine Church, eds. A. Mellas and B. Neil (Cambridge: CUP, 2026), 555–566.
- 2026Articles
"Byzantine Animals: Forgotten Citizens of a 'Forgotten' Empire," Animal History 2.1 (2026), 5–18.
- 2026Book chapters
“Byzantium’s Journey Through Centuries: Byzantium as a Literary Inspiration,” in The Routledge Handbook of the Modern Reception of Byzantium, eds. N. Bhalla and D. Kotoula (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2026), 503–517.
Publisher / DOI ↗ - 2025Book chapters
"Byzantine Mime: A Marginalized Profession?," in Marginalization and Marginal Groups in Byzantium, ed. D. Ariantzi (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2025), 197–209.
- 2024Edited volumes
Routledge Handbook of Byzantine Human-Animal Relations, eds. P. Marciniak and T. Schmidt (Abingdon: Routledge, 2024).
- 2024Book chapters
"Animals We Love: Pets and Companion Animals in Byzantium?," in Routledge Handbook of Byzantine Human-Animal Relations, eds. P. Marciniak and T. Schmidt (Abingdon: Routledge, 2024), 332–341.
- 2024Articles
"Writing a Byzantine Zoobiography: The Case of the Octopus," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 117.3 (2024), 669–692.
- 2024Articles
"How to Lament a Fallen Mouse? A Parody of Ancient Lament in the Katomyomachia by Theodore Prodromos," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 117.1 (2024), 157–168.
- 2023Edited volumes
Byzantium in the Popular Imagination: The Modern Reception of the Byzantine Empire, eds. M. Kulhankova and P. Marciniak (London: Bloomsbury, 2023).
- 2023Book chapters
"Singing and Performing Gender in the Sacred Space: Music and Theatre," with A. W. White, in Routledge Handbook of Gender in Byzantium, eds. C. Messis and M. Meyer (Abingdon: Routledge, 2023), 510–523.
- 2023Book chapters
"Fantastical Byzantium: The Imagery of Byzantium in Speculative Fiction," in Byzantium in the Popular Imagination, eds. M. Kulhankova and P. Marciniak (London: Bloomsbury, 2023), 249–260.
- 2023Book chapters
"Animals of Constantinople: Some Initial Remarks," in Anekdota Byzantina: Festschrift für Albrecht Berger, eds. I. Grimm-Stadelmann et al. (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2023), 435–442.
- 2023Articles
"I nomi degli insetti a Bisanzio tra sviluppi eruditi e tradizioni popolari," RursuSpicae (2023).
Read article ↗ - 2023Articles
"Byzantine Cultural Entomology (4th to 15th Centuries): A Microhistory of Byzantine Insects," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 77 (2023), 177–193.
- 2022Edited volumes
Byzantine Commentaries to Ancient Literature, eds. P. Marciniak, B. van den Berg, and D. Manolova (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022).
- 2022Book chapters
"Performing the Medieval Greek Romance from Digenis Akritis to the Erotokritos," with A. J. Goldwyn, in Orlando Furioso and the Arabs, ed. M. Wyatt (Florence, 2022).
- 2022Book chapters
"Manuel Philes' Metaphrasis of a Certain Work of Lucian on the Painting Depicting the Wedding of Alexander," in Sources for Byzantine Art History, Vol. 3, ed. F. Spingou (Cambridge: CUP, 2022), 114–120.
- 2022Articles
“Other’s Within: Byzantine Mimes as a Marginalised Profession?,” Journal of Australian Early Medieval Studies 18 (2022), 201–215.
- 2021Edited volumes
Edited cluster "Humans and Animals on the Move", Viator 52.1 (2021), 1–114.
- 2021Book chapters
"Constantinople as a (Unwilling) Multireligious Space (330–1453)," in Geographies of Encounter, eds. M. Burchardt and M. Ch. Giorda (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 140–153.
- 2021Book chapters
"Performing Byzantium: Byzantium in Early Modern European Theatre," in The Reception of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe, eds. J. Ransohoff and N. Aschenbrenner (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2021), 205–221.
- 2021Book chapters
"Two Poems on the Chariot Race," with K. Warcaba, in Greek Epistolary Poetry in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Renaissance, eds. A. Riehle and K. Kubina (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021), 143–148; 184–191; 325–328.
- 2021Book chapters
"The Power of Old and New Logoi: The Philopatris Revisited," in Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period, eds. P. Marciniak and I. Nilsson (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 179–190.
- 2021Articles
"The Executioner and His Drugs: Nikephoros Basilakes on Sophocles," Listy Filologické / Folia Philologica 2021 (3–4), 347–364.
- 2021Articles
“Humans and Animals on the Move,” Viator 52.1 (2021), 1–6.
- 2020Edited volumes
Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period: The Golden Age of Laughter?, eds. P. Marciniak and I. Nilsson (Leiden: Brill, 2020).
- 2020Articles
"Of False Philosophers and Inept Teachers: Theodore Prodromos' Satirical Writings," Byzantina Symmeikta 30 (2020), 131–147.
- 2020Articles
"Michael Haplucheir's Dramation: A Reappraisal," Symbolae Osloenses 94 (2020), 1–17.
- 2019Articles
"The Paradoxical Enkomion and the Byzantine Reception of Lucian's Praise of the Fly," Medioevo Greco 19 (2019), 80–94.
- 2019Translations
Nie tylko dialogi. Recepcja Lukiana w Bizancjum [Not Only Dialogues: The Reception of Lucian in Byzantium], with J. Kucharski and K. Warcaba (Katowice, 2019).
- 2019Articles
“Teaching Lucian in Middle Byzantium” (2019).
Text available for free reuse, without acknowledging the authorship. For details see my ORCID.
- 2018Book chapters
"Oriental as Byzantium: Some Remarks on Similarities between Byzantinism and Orientalism," in Imagining Byzantium, eds. A. Gietzen et al. (Mainz, 2018), 34–40.
- 2018Book chapters
"Katomyomachia as a Byzantine Version of Mock-Epic," with K. Warcaba, in Middle and Late Byzantine Poetry: Text and Context, eds. A. Rhoby and N. Zagklas (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), 97–110.
- 2018Book chapters
"Heaven for the Climate, Hell for the Companionship: Byzantine Satirical Katabaseis," in Round Trip to Hades, eds. G. Ekroth and I. Nilsson (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 342–355.
- 2017Book chapters
"Laughter on Display: Laughter and Performance in Byzantium," in Greek Laughter and Tears, Edinburgh Leventis Studies 8, eds. M. Alexiou and D. Cairns (Edinburgh: EUP, 2017), 232–242.
- 2017Articles
"A Pious Mouse and a Deadly Cat: The Schede tou Myos Ascribed to Theodore Prodromos," Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 57 (2017), 507–527.
- 2017Articles
"The Beard and Its Philosopher: Theodore Prodromos on Philosophic Beards in Byzantium," with J. Kucharski, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 41.1 (2017), 1–10.
- 2016Edited volumes
The Reception of Byzantium in European Culture since 1500, eds. P. Marciniak and D. Smythe (Farnham: Ashgate, 2016).
- 2016Articles
"Reinventing Lucian in Byzantium," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 70 (2016), 209–224.
- 2015Articles
"Prodromos, Aristophanes and a Lustful Woman: A Byzantine Satire by Theodore Prodromos," Byzantinoslavica 73 (2015), 23–33.
- 2014Book chapters
"How to Entertain the Byzantines? Mimes and Jesters in Byzantium," in Medieval and Early Modern Performance in the Eastern Mediterranean, eds. E. Vitz and A. Öztürkmen (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), 125–149.
- 2014Book chapters
"And the Oscar Goes to … the Emperor! Byzantium in Cinema," in Wanted! Byzantium, eds. I. Nilsson and P. Stephenson (Uppsala, 2014), 247–255.
- 2014Articles
"Racing with Rhetoric: Byzantine Ekphrasis of a Chariot Race," with K. Warcaba, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 107.1 (2014), 97–112.
- 2013Articles
"Theodore Prodromos' Bion Prasis: A Reappraisal," Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 53.1 (2013), 219–239.
- 2013Articles
"The Undead in Byzantium: Some Notes on the Reception of Ancient Literature in Twelfth-Century Byzantium," Troianalexandrina 13 (2013), 95–111.
- 2011Book chapters
"Laughing Against All the Odds: Humour and Religion in Byzantium," in Humour and Religion: Challenges and Ambiguities, eds. H. Geybels and W. Van Herck (London: Continuum, 2011), 141–155.
- 2010Articles
"Der Mythos des Falls Konstantinopels in der Literatur zwischen dem 17. und dem 20. Jahrhundert," Acta Byzantina Fennica 3 (2009–2010), 196–214.
- 2009Monographs
Ikona dekadencji. Wybrane problemy europejskiej recepcji Bizancjum od XVII do XX wieku [The Icon of Decadence: Selected Problems of the European Reception of Byzantium], (Katowice, 2009).
- 2009Book chapters
"The Byzantine Sense of Humour," in Humor in der arabischen Kultur, ed. G. Tamer (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2009), 127–135.
- 2007Book chapters
"Byzantine Theatron — A Place for Performance?," in Theatron: Rhetorische Kultur in Spätantike und Mittelalter, ed. M. Grünbart (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2007), 275–283.
- 2004Monographs
Greek Drama in Byzantine Times (Katowice, 2004).
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