Material Culture and Well-Being in Byzantium (400–1453)

Studies on everyday life commonly focus on housing conditions, eating and drinking, clothing, hygiene and medical care, professions, land and sea communications, and generally, on production and consumption. Material objects are dominant in these areas; nevertheless, mental aspects can also frequently be considered the carrier and/or symbol of concepts or values. For this reason, an international symposium held in Cambridge in 2001, which counted the Viennese Institute of Byzantine Studies among its organizers, was intent upon including the concept of "well-being" in its multi-facetted aspects, in the material, legal and philosophical-religious dialogue. The symposium's proceedings, consisting of twenty-three contributions preceded by an introduction discussing the current state of research and future plans, accordingly deal with, among other things, town planning, perfume in the secular sphere as well as that of the church, magical practices and holy physicians, clothing as a status symbol, and forms of abundance and shortage in the Byzantine diet.