Eva Nyström

Researcher in Greek

Contact info

Department of Linguistics and Philology
Box 635
SE-751 26 Uppsala
Sweden

Phone: +46 (0)18 471 14 23
Fax: +46 (0)18 471 10 94
Email: Eva.Nystrom@lingfil.uu.se

Visiting Address

Department of Linguistics and Philology
Thunbergsvägen 3H, House 9 (map), Room 9-3064
English Park Campus. Centre for the Humanities (map)

Current Research interests

Book history, Codicology, Byzantine literature, Byzantine and modern reception of classical literature.

I am at present working as a research fellow within the project The Ancient Tradition at the Dept of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University. I am also a Cataloguer of Manuscripts at Skara Stifts- och Landsbibliotek, within the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond project "Recataloguing and digitisation of collections of old books and manuscripts".

Publications

Containing Multitudes: Codex Upsaliensis Graecus 8 in Perspective (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 11). Uppsala, 2009.

reviewed in The Medieval Review (TMR 10.03.24)
and Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR 2009.09.46)

(with Ingela Nilsson) "To compose, read, and use a Byzantine text: aspects of the chronicle of Constantine Manasses", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 33:1 (2009) 42-60.
"Looking for the purpose behind a multitext book", accepted for publication by EUT (Edizioni Universitarie di Trieste) in the series 'POLYMNIA'.
"Kring en 1400-talshandskrift i Uppsala universitetsbibliotek", Bysantinska Sällskapet. Bulletin 21 (2003) 39-45.

Awards

Receiver of the Benzelius Award from The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala for my doctoral thesis, in August 2010.

Education

Postgraduate studies in Greek, Uppsala University, 2000 - 2009.
Library and information science, Swedish School of Library and Information Science, Borås, 2006.
Undergraduate and MA studies in classics, Uppsala University, 1989 - 1994.
Teacher's education in music theory, Royal College of Music, Stockholm, 1986 - 1988.
Undergraduate studies in musicology, Uppsala University, 1983 - 1986.

Thesis Abstract

Containing Multitudes: Codex Upsaliensis Graecus 8 in Perspective (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 11), Uppsala, 2009. ISSN 0283-1244 (340 pp.)

This study employs as its primary source a codex from Uppsala University Library, Codex Upsaliensis Graecus 8. Its aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the Late Byzantine and post-Byzantine miscellaneous book. It is argued that multitext books reflect the time and society in which they were created. A thorough investigation of such books sheds light on the interests and concerns of the scribes, owners, and readers of the books. Containing some ninety texts of different character and from different genres, Codex Upsaliensis Graecus 8 is a complex creation, but still an example of a type of book that was common during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This study takes a comprehensive view of the book in its entirety, making sense of its different parts in relation to the whole with the help of codicology and textual analysis. With that approach the original idea of the book is brought to the fore, and the texts are studied in the same context that the main scribe Theodoros chose and the early owners and readers of the book encountered.

Through a systematic codicological analysis, the overall structure of the codex is explored and suggestions are made concerning the provenance. The examination of the scribal work procedure becomes a means to profile this otherwise fairly unknown scribe. The texts are grouped and characterized typologically to illustrate connections throughout the whole book as well as in relation to the separate structural units. The role of micro-texts and secondary layers of inscription is also considered. From the perspective of usability the texts are divided into four categories: narrative texts, rhetorical texts, philosophical-theological texts, and practical texts. Three texts are studied in greater depth, as examples of the width of the scribe's interests and the variety of the book's contents.

The book may be ordered here through Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.