Twenty Great Names for Twenty Years
The second instalment of Porphyra’s celebratory 20×20 project marks both continuity and reflection. Edited by Lorenzo M. Ciolfi under the direction of Nicola Bergamo, this volume gathers ten contributions that exemplify the journal’s intellectual breadth and international reach. The essays range from literary and theological inquiry to environmental history and digital humanities, reaffirming Porphyra’s commitment to methodological openness and critical rigour.
Among the distinguished contributors are Anthony Kaldellis, who examines authorship and intolerance in Late Antiquity; Mattia Cosimo Chiriatti, whose study of Gregory of Nyssa explores the intersections of rhetoric, theology, and imperial ideology; Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, with a stimulating reflection on the “Byzantine Anthropocene”; and Filippo Ronconi, who revisits manuscript studies as a living, itinerant discipline. Other essays engage with multilingualism, Byzantine natural philosophy, divination practices, numismatic digitisation, and post-Byzantine memory, reflecting a field that remains global in scope and relevance.
The accompanying editorial statement, penned by Nicola Bergamo, situates this publication within the broader history of independent Byzantine scholarship. It celebrates two decades of Porphyra while acknowledging the challenges facing non-institutional academic publishing and announcing the journal’s forthcoming application for inclusion in the ANVUR “Classe A” list in 2025.
Ultimately, this issue stands as a testament to the resilience and vitality of the Porphyra community — a collective affirmation that Byzantine studies, far from being an antiquarian pursuit, continue to illuminate the present with intellectual depth and humanistic conviction.
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