Inscribing Sacred Matter: Reading and Writing Inscriptions on Byzantine Relics

Reliquary of the Holy Blood, 10th–11th century (Venice, Tesoro di San Marco, inv. nr. 62). Image Source: http://www.meravigliedivenezia.it/en/virtual-objects/TSM_024.html

Date: Dec 5, 2024 Time: 12:00 PM–1:30 PM Location: Zoom

Brad Hostetler, Kenyon College, examines the role of inscriptions in the identification and veneration of relics.

About the Speaker

Brad Hostetler, Kenyon College

Brad Hostetler is Associate Professor of Art History at Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio). He specializes in the art and material culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a focus on text and image relationships. His current book project examines the nature and meaning of relics and reliquaries in Byzantium through the lens of inscriptions, including the ways in which epigraphic texts mediate and guide the faithful’s engagement with, and understanding of, sacred relics. He is co-editor, with Lynn Jones (Florida State University), of Ethiopian Objects in the Blick-Harris Study Collection: Art, Context, and the Persistence of Form (Peregrinations, vol. VII/1, 2022). His research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.