From Istanbul to Byzantium

Paths to Rediscovery, 1800-1955

From Istanbul to Byzantium: Paths to Rediscovery, 1800-1955 explores the pivotal role of Istanbul in the emergence of a new and international and local awareness of the city’s Byzantine heritage. Beyond looking at various moments in the city’s life from 1800 to 1955, the exhibition also considers the dynamic of Istanbul as a center of gravity attracting the monetary and intellectual wealth of empires to further knowledge of Byzantium, ultimately resulting in the emergence of Byzantine studies as a discipline.

The accompanying volume brings together thirteen scholarly papers by Beatrice Daskas, Ceren Abi, Firuzan Melike Sümertaş, Mertkan Karaca, Philipp Niewöhner, Edhem Eldem, Pınar Aykaç, Kerim Altuğ, Jean-Michel Spieser, Elena N. Boeck, Jonathan Bardill, Barbara Bessac and Rémi Labrusse, focusing on archaeology, history, art history, architectural history, urbanism, museology, cultural heritage, as well as an explanatory introduction by the exhibition curator Brigitte Pitarakis.

Publication Date: 2021
Number of Pages:650
ISBN: 978-605-4642-97-7

8-9 Foreword
İnan and İpek Kıraç 

10-17 Introduction
Brigitte Pitarakis 

20-39 Aya Sofia Kibir Giamy Scheriffy: The Fossati Brothers, the Ottoman Capital and the “Superb
Imperial Mosque of Hagia Sophia”
Beatrice Daskas 

40-55 Byzantine Archaeology during the First World War and the Allied Occupation (1914–1923): Destruction, Exploration, and Protection
Ceren Abi 

56-141 Catalogue nos. 1-43

144-163 Fellow-Citizens around a Shared Heritage: Tradition, Erudition, and Cultural Interchange in Late Ottoman Istanbul
Firuzan Melike Sümertaş 

164-177 Writing the Byzantine Past, Reconfiguring the Ottoman Present: Byzantine Art in the Late Ottoman Art Historiography
Mertkan Karaca 

178-191 The Discovery of Byzantine Galata: The Case of St. Benoît
Philipp Niewöhner 

192-255 Catalogue nos. 44-66 

258-273 Byzantium in Istanbul: The Byzantine Collections of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums
Edhem Eldem 

274-333 Catalogue nos. 67-96

336-359 From the “Quartier Incendie” to an “Archaeological Park”: An Early Urban Archaeological Conservation Experience in the Sultanahmet District (1912–1953)
Pınar Aykaç 

360-389 The Rediscovery of Byzantium in Newspapers during the Construction of Istanbul (1913–1960)
Kerim Altuğ 

390-457 Catalogue nos. 97-127

460-473 Considering Byzantium: From Seventeenth-Century Scholars to Twentieth-Century Academics
Jean-Michel Spieser 

474-485 Mosaics and Mavericks: Nikodim Kondakov’s Pioneering Studies of the Chora (1880–1886)
Elena N. Boeck 

486-511 Ernest Mamboury’s Contribution to the Archaeology of Byzantine Constantinople
Jonathan Bardill 

512-575 Catalogue nos. 128-154

578-587 Stage Crafts and the Art of Performing Byzantium in Fin-De-Siècle Paris and London
Barbara Bessac 

588-597 Byzantine Modernism: An Account of the First International Exhibition of Byzantine Art in Paris, 1931
Rémi Labrusse 

598-636 Catalogue nos. 155-176

637-649 Bibliography for the Catalogue

From Istanbul to Byzantium

Pera Museum and Istanbul Research Institute’s exhibition From Istanbul to Byzantium: Paths to Rediscovery, 1800–1955, curated by Brigitte Pitarakis, explores the central role of the Ottoman capital in shaping the emerging discipline of Byzantine studies.

From Istanbul to Byzantium