Nicolas Campagnoli
PhD candidate - 1st cohort
Classical Philology/ Greek
Research project
"History through Excerpts in Byzantium. Studies on the Excerpta Salmasiana between Autonomy, Heteronomy and Source Research"
My project aims to explore the origins and structure of the Excerpta Salmasiana. Excerpta Salmasiana are a collection of historical excerpts written around the 10th century in Byzantium. It is a collection with a very complex and controversial origin and transmission. Indeed, Excerpta Salmasiana play an important role in the so-called "Johannine Question", i.e. in the scholarly debate surrounding the figure and work of the late antique historian John of Antioch, which is still an open problem in Byzantine historiography. Moreover, Excerpta Salmasiana are a reservoir for other historiographical traditions that are also not without problems: Julius Africanus, Johannes Malalas, Cassius Dio, Agatias and finally the so-called Epitome, "one of the most intricate problems of Byzantine historiography". An examination of Excerpta Salmasiana in relation to the traditions that flow into it and the modus excerpendi of the compiler is therefore the first aim of my research. In addition, it will attempt to grasp the relationship of Excerpta Salmasiana to other contemporary works, such as the tradition of the Chronikon of Symeon Logothetes and the well-known Lexicon Suda. Although the collection draws on earlier material, it represents an independent and original intellectual operation in which the juxtaposition of excerpts from earlier authors creates a new narrative and interpretation of history. Investigating this aspect, i.e. the autonomy of the collection as a literary product, constitutes the second aim of my project.
Curriculum Vitae
Since Jan. 2023 PhD at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena within the research group "Autonomy of Heteronomous Texts in Antiquity and Middle Ages" Title of the dissertation: Excerpta Salmasiana. Eine byzantinische Exzerptensammlung aus einer verlorenen Chronik (submitted on June 8, 2026)
Master's degree in Classical Philology with focus on Greek Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Title of the Masterthesis: Der Prolog des neugriechischen Teseidas. Specimen kritischer Ausgabe (Gesamtnote: 1)
Semester abroad at the Alma Mater Studiorum - Università degli Studi di Bologna
Bachelor's degree in Classical Philology at the Università degli Studi di Milano. Titel of the Bachelorthesis: Il sistema di illuminazione nella Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae di Paolo Silenziario (Gesamtnote: 110 cum laude/110)
Akademische Positionen und Mitgliedschaften
Co-editor of the proceedings of the 2nd Doctoral Student Conference
Member of the American Boccaccios Association
Co-organizer of the 1st Ph.D. Conference “(Re)Create. Towards a Theory of Heteronomous Texts” (Jena, September 5–7, 2024)
Member of AISB – Associazione Italiana di Studi Bizantini
Studentische Hilfskraft im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts „Commentaria byzantina in Aristotelem“ an der Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Presentations
Wien (AT): The Chronicler’s Workshop. George Kedrenos and the Use of Sources for the Roman History of the Regal and Republican Periods
Jena: Eine byzantinische Exzerptensammlung aus einer verlorenen Chronik. Die Excerpta Salmasiana zwischen Autonomie, Heteronomie und Quellenforschung
Rom (IT): Selezionare la storia a Bisanzio. La prefazione degli Excerpta historica Constantiniana come teoria dell’excerptio
Boston (USA): East and Back. The Demotic Greek Translation of Boccaccio’s Theseid Between Greece and Venice
Jena: In der Werkstatt des Exzerptors. Der Verarbeitungsprozess der Chronographia des Johannes Malalas in den Excerpta Salmasiana
Certaldo (IT): Sulla fortuna di Boccaccio in Oriente. Il caso della traduzione in greco volgare del Teseida
Jena: Scientific Literature in Middle-Byzantine Excerpt Collections
Oxford (EN): The Reception of Manethoʼs Egyptian Chronicle in Julius Africanusʼ Chronographiae
Augsburg: Excerpta Salmasiana. Textgeschichtliche Überlegungen im Spiegel der byzantinischen Chronographie
Jena: ExSalm I 22 und Eusebius’ Liste der Olympiadensieger
Jena: Dealing with Byzantine Excerpt Collections. The Excerpta Salmasiana as Case Study
Jena: Excerpta Salmasiana. Die Verortung der Sammlung im Rahmen der Johannischen Frage