How many words do you know to describe the land? Language reveals a lot about a people. In the village of Bova, in Southern Italy’s Calabria, the Museo della Lingua Greco-Calabra “Gerhard Rohlfs” takes a closer look at this connection between the calabresi and their land, specifically the community that speaks an ancient Calabrian Greek language in the Aspromonte Mountains, way down south in the toe of Italy.
BOVESIA: GRECO-CALABRO– CALABRIAN GREEK IN BOVA, CALABRIA
Bova, at the heart of the Bovesia, is the last bastion of Greek speakers in the Province of Reggio Calabria. (The other Southern Italian enclave of historically Greek-language communities is the Grecìa Salentina near Lecce in the Salento peninsula on the heel of the boot.) In Calabria, the dialect spoken by an ever-dwindling handful of people is called grecanicoorgreco-calabro. This Greek dialect is one of Italy’s official minority languages.
How long have they been speaking Greek in Calabria? Does this language stem from the time of Greater Greece, beginning in the 8th century BC or from the Byzantine Period from the 6th to 12th centuries AD? Scholars differ on this point. Although Calabrian Greek has followed its own developmental path, it is categorized as a modern Greek language with Calabrian and Italian influences. Interesting to note, however, that the grecanico in Calabria also contains numerous ancient-Greek words, which have long disappeared from the language spoken in Greece today.
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Languag
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language in Bova explores different aspects of the language through photos, historic documents and artifacts, as well as audio-visual material. Gerhard Rohlfs (1892 – 1986) was a German linguist, whose area of study was Romance languages, in particular, those spoken in Southern Italy. Often referred to as an “archeologist of words,” he asserted that Italian-Greek descended directly from the days of Magna Graecia, contending that the ancient Romans had not been able to Latinize the entire Italian peninsula.
The museum is located in what is often referred to as Bova Superiore, the old town located on the top of a hill, complete with numerous churches and castle ruins. Along the streets of historic Bova and down a hillside trail, the farmer’s life is also remembered in the Sentiero della Civiltà Contadina – Path of Rural Culture, with large millstones, olive and bergamot oil presses, drinking troughs, and other objects relating to the agrarian existence of the bovesi (people from Bova) not so long ago.
Museums and even the attractions help keep memories of the old town and the old life alive. Many bovesi moved to the coastal town of Bova Marina and much further beyond.
Today, Bova, Calabria counts fewer than 500 residents. Although it has its fair share of abandoned houses, many have been renovated to the point that the historic center has been named one of the Borghi più belli d’Italia (Italy’s most beautiful villages) as well as one of only eighteen in Italy to be named a Gioiello d’Italia (Jewel of Italy).
Willgrecanicosurvive?
Very few young people speak their native tongue, and with the focus on English and other languages, Latin and even ancient Greece in the schools, the prospects are less than rosy. Several cultural groups and schools offer classes, but learning a modern language is difficult, no less an ancient one. To dedicate the proper amount of time and energy, there must be a very strong motivation.
Shiny! RBML recently acquired a facsimile of the Oxford Menologion – a mid-14th century prayerbook possibly from Thessaloniki. The text has a pictorial calendar of the saints for the full year, which are illustrated in 103 full-page miniatures and 2 texts in Greek.
How many words do you know to describe the land? Language reveals a lot about a people. In the village of Bova, in Southern Italy’s Calabria, the Museo della Lingua Greco-Calabra “Gerhard Rohlfs” takes a closer look at this connection between the calabresi and their land, specifically the community that speaks an ancient Calabrian Greek language in the Aspromonte Mountains, way down south in the toe of Italy.
BOVESIA: GRECO-CALABRO– CALABRIAN GREEK IN BOVA, CALABRIA
Bova, at the heart of the Bovesia, is the last bastion of Greek speakers in the Province of Reggio Calabria. (The other Southern Italian enclave of historically Greek-language communities is the Grecìa Salentina near Lecce in the Salento peninsula on the heel of the boot.) In Calabria, the dialect spoken by an ever-dwindling handful of people is called grecanicoorgreco-calabro. This Greek dialect is one of Italy’s official minority languages.
How long have they been speaking Greek in Calabria? Does this language stem from the time of Greater Greece, beginning in the 8th century BC or from the Byzantine Period from the 6th to 12th centuries AD? Scholars differ on this point. Although Calabrian Greek has followed its own developmental path, it is categorized as a modern Greek language with Calabrian and Italian influences. Interesting to note, however, that the grecanico in Calabria also contains numerous ancient-Greek words, which have long disappeared from the language spoken in Greece today.
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Languag
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language in Bova explores different aspects of the language through photos, historic documents and artifacts, as well as audio-visual material. Gerhard Rohlfs (1892 – 1986) was a German linguist, whose area of study was Romance languages, in particular, those spoken in Southern Italy. Often referred to as an “archeologist of words,” he asserted that Italian-Greek descended directly from the days of Magna Graecia, contending that the ancient Romans had not been able to Latinize the entire Italian peninsula.
The museum is located in what is often referred to as Bova Superiore, the old town located on the top of a hill, complete with numerous churches and castle ruins. Along the streets of historic Bova and down a hillside trail, the farmer’s life is also remembered in the Sentiero della Civiltà Contadina – Path of Rural Culture, with large millstones, olive and bergamot oil presses, drinking troughs, and other objects relating to the agrarian existence of the bovesi (people from Bova) not so long ago.
Museums and even the attractions help keep memories of the old town and the old life alive. Many bovesi moved to the coastal town of Bova Marina and much further beyond.
Today, Bova, Calabria counts fewer than 500 residents. Although it has its fair share of abandoned houses, many have been renovated to the point that the historic center has been named one of the Borghi più belli d’Italia (Italy’s most beautiful villages) as well as one of only eighteen in Italy to be named a Gioiello d’Italia (Jewel of Italy).
Willgrecanicosurvive?
Very few young people speak their native tongue, and with the focus on English and other languages, Latin and even ancient Greece in the schools, the prospects are less than rosy. Several cultural groups and schools offer classes, but learning a modern language is difficult, no less an ancient one. To dedicate the proper amount of time and energy, there must be a very strong motivation.
I’ve been making this Double Wide Byzantine pattern for decades. This one is special because it’s the first one I’ve done with welded links! I’m prepping for a drop of all new all welded chains here on my Insta!
I made this from 16 gauge 300 series Stainless Steel wire that I turned and cut into links, assembled, and welded by hand. This beast is heavy and tough and dripping with power, if you’re into that sort of stuff.
I love this wildly chunky double wide Byzantine bracelet! It’s got some little tricks to make it all sit right. The first trick is to make the center links of the parallel sets a smaller AR than the ones that sandwich each of them. This makes them all know where to be instead of bunching up all weird, like they do otherwise with three link Byzantine. The other trick is to connect the two Byzantine strands through the four apposing cage links so that they all point symmetrically together towards the center of the connector links. When you do these two tricks together, the smaller parallel links also provide just enough extra space needed for the connector links ♂️
I love making Micro Maille! This one is a classic Byzantine necklace I made from 22 gauge Stainless Steel. To make these tiny links I wrap the 22 gauge wire around a piece of 14 gauge wire.
Panel depicting two angels in a scene from the Nativity; possibly from the Infancy of Christ window in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, PA, 03.SG.10.
In this stained-glass window fragment from 12th-century France, two winged angels, dressed in white robes with murrey-colored mantles, are positioned on either side of a yellow Star of Bethlehem. The star is a clear reference to the journey of the Wise Men, described in the Gospel of Matthew: “When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was” (2:9).
The two angels gesture downward to a curving line at the bottom of the fragment. This was originally the top of the opening of the cave in which the birth of the Christ Child took place. The choice of a cave, instead of a stable, as the location of the Nativity miracle, suggests that this window was influenced by Byzantine examples. (The earliest Christians located the birth of Jesus in a cave, and this was the standard depiction in Byzantine art of the 12th century.)
Every day, from December 1 through December 25, a new work of Nativity art from the Glencairn Museum collection will appear on the home page of our Advent calendar (Follow the Star: A 2021 Advent Calendar). To receive these in your newsfeed, follow our social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr).
This week, I’ll be taking a look at a Byzantine baked cheesecake - that’s quick, simple, and very tasty! It seems to be based on an earlier Greek recipe for a baked cheesecake, but was adapted to suit the tastes of Medieval Byzantine elite cuisine!
In any case, let’s now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!
Method 1 - Whisk Ingredients To begin with, we need to place our cheese in a bowl. I used ricotta here, because it has a good texture and is widely available, but other soft Greek cheeses would work well - such as myzithra or anthotyro. Into this, pour 150g of honey, and whisk it well. Crack an egg one at a time into the bowl, whisking it until it’s well combined before adding two more. Chicken eggs would have been used in this period, along with wildfowl and pidgeon eggs - so you can use these here too if you happen to have any. Finally, to thicken the mixture up a little, add a tablespoon or two into the mixture, whisking together as you go. I used plain wheat flour, which has a lower bran content than what would have been widely available in Late Antiquity, but it results in a smoother, finer cake when you’re finished.
2 - Bake Cheesecake Preheat your oven to 180C/356F while you pour your mixture into a tin.
Make sure you grease your baking tin before you pour in your batter. Your batter should be silky smooth as you’re pouring it in. Smooth out the top, and place it into the middle of your preheated oven. Let this bake for about 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven. It should be done when the top of it has turned a lovely golden colour, and the centre of the cake doesn’t jiggle when you wiggle it. The top of it will slowly fall down while it’s cooling, but don’t worry - that’s what’s meant to happen!
3 - Decorate Cheesecake Let the cake cool for about 5 minutes in the pan before you try and take it out and top it. When it’s cooled slightly, pour some more honey over the top, along with some ground cinnamon. Cinnamon would have been used by the elites of Byzantine society, as they would have had more access to expensive spices than Western Europe (given the Byzantine Empire’s proximity to the spice trade routes of the Near and Middle East). In any case, serve up warm and dig in!
Double-headed eagle of Byzantium (T-Shirt / Tank-Top /more).
In Byzantine heraldry, the double-headed eagle is a charge associated with the concept of Empire – the heads represent the dual sovereignty of the emperor both in secular and religious matters and/or dominance over both East and West. The early Byzantine Empire continued to use the (single-headed) imperial eagle motif. The double-headed eagle appears only in the medieval period, by about the 10th century in Byzantine art.
