Memoirs of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
| Autor: | Milton V. Anastos |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1998 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Speculum. 73:950-964 |
| ISSN: | 2040-8072 0038-7134 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0038713400142058 |
| Popis: | The passing of Milton V. Anastos (b. New York, 10 July 1909; d. Los Angeles, 3 April 1997; elected a Fellow, 1967) marks a crucial turning point in the domain of Byzantinology as in the broader realm of medieval studies in the Western Hemisphere. Within a very short period Byzantinists mourned the passing of Robert Browning, Alexander Kazhdan (continuators of the British and Russian schools of Byzantine studies), and Jelisaveta Stanojevich Allen (a graduate of the University of Belgrade and its program of Byzantinology). All four scholars shared a common intellectual milieu not only by virtue of their Byzantine interests but also because at different points of their careers they came to be affiliated with Harvard University's Byzantine institute at Dumbarton Oaks: Browning and Kazhdan at the twilight of their careers, Allen throughout her career as professional librarian, and Milton Anastos at the dawning of his career. Milton was one of the handful of younger scholars who constituted the original resident scholars of Dumbarton Oaks in 1941, when the Bliss family gave the magnificent buildings, grounds and gardens, library, and art collection to Harvard. In a sense his Byzantinological development was coterminous with that of Dumbarton Oaks, a development that also involved the preparation of two generations of younger Byzantinists under his watchful eye. With the exception of his tour of duty in the OSS during World War II, Milton remained attached to Dumbarton Oaks and Harvard University, pursuing his research in the former and teaching in the latter, until his decision to leave the East Coast to take a position at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1964, when he was appointed Professor of Byzantine History and Literature in the departments of classics and history. Upon their marriage in 1965, Dr. Rosemary Park, then president of Barnard College, joined Milton in Los Angeles as vice-president of UCLA, which at that time was on the way to becoming a major institution of higher learning. The two together, with his son Milton, Jr., and his wife, constituted a loving and intimate family milieu within which the life and values of scholarship flourished. From the time of his graduation from Harvard with the A.B. in classical languages and literature, the aspiring young scholar set out on the long road to Byzantium, desiring to ascertain what had happened to the Greek culture of late antiquity. His intellectual journey was consistent in its planning, incessant in its pursuit, and successful in attaining a profound comprehension of the famous, but elusive, Byzantine civilization. Milton leaves behind a long manuscript entitled "The Mind of Byzantium," the result of a lifetime spent in pursuit of that topic, in which he recorded the structure and much of the content of his thoughts concerning the mind-set of Byzantium as expressed in written texts, monuments of art, and numismatics. Much of "The Mind of Byzantium" has appeared in finished, well-polished monographs and articles over the years, whereas other segments remain unpublished in manuscript. Of the many finished and published works the following are a representative sample: In volumes 7 and 8 of the National History of Greece (Athens, 1978-79) there appeared a detailed outline of the parts of "The Mind of Byzantium" dealing with law, philosophy, literature, theology, and science (written in modern Greek), a total of 122 very large sized pages. In the realms of paganism, theology, patristics, science, and political theory one notes but a few of the more remarkable pieces: "Porphyry's Attack on the Bible," in The |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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