Contact information
Baukje van den Berg (PhD 2016, University of Amsterdam) is a Byzantinist with a background in Classics. Her research focuses on Byzantine scholarship, Byzantine education and the role of ancient literature in Byzantine culture.
Prior to coming to CEU, Baukje was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Silesia in Katowice (2017) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2018–2019). In 2020 she was a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Key Publications
Monographs
In preparation: John Tzetzes on Ancient Poetry
Edited volumes
B. van den Berg and N. Zagklas eds. Forthcoming. Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081–1204): New Texts, New Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
B. van den Berg, D. Manolova, and P. Marciniak eds. 2022. Byzantine Commentaries on Ancient Greek Texts, 12th–15th Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
M.P. de Bakker, B. van den Berg, J.J.H. Klooster eds. 2022. Emotions and Narrative in Ancient Literature and Beyond: Studies in Honour of Irene de Jong. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
J.J.H. Klooster and B. van den Berg eds. 2018. Homer and the Good Ruler in Antiquity and Beyond. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Articles and book chapters (selection)
2023. Twelfth-Century Scholars on the Moral Exemplarity of Ancient Poetry. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 63: 103–129 [available here].
2022. Eustathios of Thessalonike on Comedy and Ridicule in Homeric Poetry. In Byzantine Commentaries on Ancient Greek Texts, 12th–15th Centuries. Ed. B. van den Berg, D. Manolova, and P.T. Marciniak. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2022. How to Write and Enjoy a Tale of Disaster: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Emotion and Style. In Emotions and Narrative in Ancient Literature and Beyond: Studies in Honour of Irene de Jong. Ed. M.P. de Bakker, B. van den Berg, J.J.H. Klooster, 716–727. Leiden/Boston: Brill. [DOI]
2021. Playwright, Satirist, Atticist: The Reception of Aristophanes in Twelfth-Century Byzantium. In Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period: The Golden Age of Laughter? Ed. P.T. Marciniak and I. Nilsson, 227–253. Leiden/Boston: Brill. [DOI]
2021. Eustathios’ Homeric Commentaries: Translating Homer and Spoliating Ancient Traditions. In Spoliation as Translation: Medieval Worlds in the Eastern Mediterranean. Convivium Supplementum. Ed. I. Jevtić and I. Nilsson, 116–131.
2020. John Tzetzes as Didactic Poet and Learned Grammarian. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 74: 285–302. [available on JSTOR]
2018. Homer and the Good Ruler in the ‘Age of Rhetoric’: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Excellent Oratory. In Homer and the Good Ruler in Antiquity and Beyond. Ed. J.J.H. Klooster and B. van den Berg, 219–238. Leiden/Boston: Brill. [DOI]
2017. The Wise Homer and His Erudite Commentator: Eustathios’ Imagery in the Proem of the Parekbolai on the Iliad. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 41.1: 30–44. [DOI]
2017. Eustathios on Homer’s Narrative Art: The Homeric Gods and the Plot of the Iliad. In Reading Eustathios of Thessalonike. Trends in Classics Supplementary Volumes 46. Ed. F. Pontani, V. Katsaros, and V. Sarris, 129–148. Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter. [DOI]
2017. ‘The Excellent Man Lies Sometimes’: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Good Hypocrisy, Praiseworthy Falsehood, and Rhetorical Plausibility in Ancient Poetry. Scandinavian Journal of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 3: 15–35. [open access]
Recent Courses
Byzantine Texts on Arts and Aesthetics [Advanced Medieval Greek Reading Seminar]
Byzantine Writers on the Lives of Emperors and Saints [Advanced Medieval Greek Reading Seminar]
Byzantine Literature between Court, Church and School
Byzantine Secular Literature (330–1453): Between Tradition and Innovation
Women in Byzantine Literature
Men of Letters: Selected Readings from Byzantine Epistolography [Advanced Medieval Greek Reading Seminar]
Students and Scholars in Byzantium: Education and Erudition in the Medieval World
Historiography II: Grand Debates in Mediterranean History
MA Thesis Seminar
PhD Supervision
2019– Juan Bautista Juan López, ‘Shipwrecked Philosophy: Manuel Gabalas’s Allegorical Readings of Odysseus’s Wanderings’
2021– Anja Božič, ‘Praising Saints and Praising Eloquence: Humanist Public Oratory in Honor of St. Jerome’ (with Cristian Gașpar)
2022– Dunja Milenkovic, ‘Competence and Competitivity of a Byzantine Intellectual: The Case of Theodore Prodromos’ (with György Geréby)
2022– Aleksandar Andjelovic, ‘Crossing Discursive Boundaries: Education and Learning in Michael Psellos’ Orations and Letters to Patriarchs and Monks (1050-1078)’, University of Vienna (as external supervisor)
