Dr Charalambos Dendrinos - Senior Lecturer in Byzantine Literature and Greek Palaeography Director, The Hellenic Institute
Dr Dendrinos’ research interests focus on Byzantine literature and Greek palaeography, including Byzantine hagiography and Orthodox theology; the transmission of Greek texts in Byzantium and the West; printed and digital editions of unpublished texts by Byzantine authors, especially of the Palaeologan period (13th-15th c.), in particular those by Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425) and members of his intellectual entourage.
Dr Dendrinos is a Byzantinist specialising in editions of Greek texts from manuscripts. Born and educated in Athens, where he earned his BA with major in History at the American College of Greece (1990), he subsequently pursued MA and PhD studies, under the distinguished Byzantinist Julian Chrysostomides (†2008) at Royal Holloway (1991-96). His doctoral thesis is an annotated critical edition of Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus’ unpublished treatise On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. Founding member of the Porphyrogenitus Project compiling an electronic Lexicon of Abbreviations and Ligatures in Greek Minuscule Hands, Dr Dendrinos has been involved in editorial and palaeographical projects in collaboration with The British Library, Lambeth Palace Library, and the University of Patras. As part of his UG teaching, he has been exploring perceptions of The Holy Man in different religions and traditions in East and West, assessing the place and role of holy men and women in history, looking at ways in which holiness and the sacred can help us to better understand a period, a society and a culture. As part of the Independent Essay module he is supervising students interested in Hellenic Themes from Antiquity to the Modern period, while in the Concepts in History module he is co-conducting with Dr Simone Gigliotti a series of seminar classes exploring perceptions of Memory and Remembrance focusing on WW1 and the Holocaust. On PG level Dr Dendrinos offers students training in reading, transcribing, and editing Greek medieval texts from manuscripts, which is necessary for an in-depth study of Byzantine history, literature and culture. He also supervises MPhil/PhD students in relevant subjects. Dr Dendrinos is the Director of The Hellenic Institute at Royal Holloway.
More information about his research is available via PURE
Email - Ch.Dendrinos@rhul.ac.uk
Webpages -
Electronic Edition of Encomium on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I by George Etheridge
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library
Thomas de Aquino Byzantinus International Project
Expertise
Byzantine Literature
Greek Palaeography
Editions of Greek Tests
Greek Manuscripts
Byzantine Scribes
Hellenic Studies
Media Experience
Appearance as Byzantine scribe copying mediaeval Greek text in BBC Two Horizon Science documentary “Archimedes’ Secret” on the history and the re-discovery of the famous Byzantine palimpsest codex containing mathematical treatises by Archimedes (14 March 2002, 9.00pm)
