Patronage and Power in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean: Monumental Donor Epigraphy on Mt Athos (10th-17th centuries)

• Applicant: Dr. Nicholas Melvani
• Subject Area: Ancient History ; Early Modern History ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566598059

The monastic community of Mt Athos is one of the most important religious centres of southeastern Europe; the donor inscriptions still preserved in its buildings represent public statements of political authority and pious patronage. Their commissioners were active across the expanse of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world and their reading audiences came from every corner of the Christian universe. Some of these texts were embellished by donor portraits, thus providing additional insights into patrons’ strategies of self-presentation. In addition, the inscriptions exhibit strong indications of orality. The inscribed invocations and commemorations echo actual prayers and orations recited in the presence of patrons, monastics, and pilgrims. By examining and understanding the displayed texts, the proposed project will provide exhaustive answers to the questions: What kinds of messages were promulgated by donor epigraphy? Who commissioned and executed the inscriptions? What kinds of viewing audiences did they envisage? The project’s ambition is also to disambiguate the elusive and frequently misunderstood concept of patronage: Who were donors and what can we learn about their motivations? Does their capacity as lay benefactors of a major spiritual center reveal anything about the place of these individuals in, and about their impact on, the world? The project will: a. compile a digital corpus of Athonite donor inscriptions; b. analyze the texts; and c. elucidate broader issues of patronage in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean / Eastern Europe. The research will be structured in three Work Packages: 1. the collection of material during trips to Athos and the digital edition of the inscriptions; 2. the contextualization of the inscriptions within their physical space and the historical framework, and 3. the discussion of the social phenomenon of patronage during one Workshop and one International Conference. The digital corpus will be published in open access mode and the proceedings of the Conference will be edited in a collective volume. The proposed project would generate comprehensive epigraphic data, which would map instances of development over consecutive historic periods (10th - 17th century). This evidence would provide the scope for a nuanced interpretation of the function of publicly visible texts within a sacred landscape. This will reveal wider networks of economic interests, church leadership, intellectual exchange, and patronage embedded within Mount Athos. By bringing together the expertise of the two PIs in Byzantine epigraphy and their multi-disciplinary methodology combining history, art history, and literature, the project will address the donor inscriptions of Athos for the first time as public texts which established contact between patrons and audiences. The results of the proposed research would thus offer fresh insights into the issues relevant to other religious centres from a global perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Partner Organisation: Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Cooperation Partner: Ida Toth, Ph.D.