I am an Italian DPhil student in Medieval and Modern Languages, interested in the figure of Andronikos Palaiologos (XIII-XIV century), the nephew of the Byzantine emperor Michael the VIII. He was a skilled writer who wrote several literary works, some of which are still unedited. My job is to produce an edition of the still unpublished texts along with a commentary. This means that I mostly work with medieval manuscripts, which are contemporary to Andronikos, editing their texts.
In addition to my research, I am attending a Modern Greek course at Oxford’s Language centre. I am still a beginner but I really enjoy studying this language. I am also attending once a week a reading class of Byzantine Greek at the Ioannou centre for Classical and Byzantine studies. During Hilary term I attended both the class of Byzantine epigraphy and Greek paleography.
I am very happy to be part of Exeter College’s community. I had the great opportunity to live in College accommodation last year and I had the best time with everyone there, getting to know people from all over the world. There are a lot of seminars organised by the College and, even if I am not always able to go, I find them very interesting.
I was awarded the Frangiscatos Scholarship and am sincerely thankful for receiving this support all the way to the end of my DPhil, which would not have been possible without such support. It is a real privilege to have been chosen for this scholarship and I am very grateful for the help it gives the Byzantine studies community by helping its scholars.
