SICILIAN INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES
The Sicilian Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (ISSBI) is a Centre that promotes and organizes studies and scientific research on post-classical Hellenism in Sicily and Southern Italy, in the fields of history, literature, art, agiography, paleography, in the age of Byzantine rule (6th- 9th century) as well as in the period of byzantine influence during the Norman age. The Centre carries out its aims by publishing scientific studies and organising congresses, conferences, seminars, specialized courses, and engaging in any other relevant activity.
The Institute started its activities in 1954 and was officially recognised by a Sicilian Regional Act, which granted the Institute a financial contribution, in 1960. In 1981 it was recognised as a Legal Entity by the President of the Italian Republic. The Institute has 120 members (60 of them are correspondent members). Governing bodies of the Institute are a President, a Managing Council and an Executive Board.
The Institute Library is specialized in the fields of byzantine and medieval studies: a special section is reserved to the books that belonged to the famous byzantinist S.G.Mercati (1877-1963).
The ISSBI edits several series of publications (“Testi”, “Monumenti”, “Quaderni”, “Quaderni di poesia neogreca”) and exchanges its publications with about 200 similar Italian and Foreign institutions. It has already published 46 books in the fields of Greek agiography in Sicily and Southern Italy, civil and religious Greek culture during the Norman rule, continuity of Greek language in Southern Italy, archaeology in Byzantine Sicily, medieval rock painting in Sicily, Byzantine mosaics of Norman age and other themes in Byzantine studies.
Main ISSBI publications:
In the series of “Monumenti”
- Giuseppe Agnello, Le arti figurative nella Sicilia Bizantina, 1962
- Ernst Kitzinger, I Mosaici di S. Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo, 1990
- Aldo Messina, Le chiese rupestri del Val Demone e del Val di Mazara, 2001
In the series of “Testi”
- Eustazio di Tessalonica, La espugnazione di Tessalonica, con prefazione di Bruno Lavagnini, testo di Stilpon Kyriakidis, traduzione di Vincenzo Rotolo, 1961
- Testi neogreci di Calabria, a cura di Giuseppe Rossi Taibbi e Girolamo Caracausi, 1959, 19942
- Vita di Sant’Elia il giovane, testo inedito con traduzione italiana, pubblicato e illustrato da Giuseppe Rossi Taibbi, 1962
- Les actes grecs de S. Maria di Messina, Enquête sur les populations grecques d’Italie du sud et de Sicile (XIe-XIVe S.) par André Guillou, 1963
In the series of “Quaderni”
- Byzantino-Sicula, Scritti di G. Agnello, E. Follieri, V. Laurent, B. Lavagnini, A. Pertusi, G. Schirò, A. Tusa. Monumenti – Omiletica – Monachesimo – Sigilli – Umanesimo – Agiografia – Monete, 1966
- Byzantino-Sicula II, Miscellanea di scritti in memoria di Giuseppe Rossi Taibbi, 1975
- Byzantino-Sicula III, Miscellanea di scritti in onore di Bruno Lavagnini, 2000
- Byzantino-Sicula IV, Atti del I Congresso Internazionale di Archeologia della Sicilia Bizantina, 2002
Address: Via Noto 34, 90141 Palermo, Italy
Tel: +39 091 6259541
Fax: +39 091 308996
Email: direzione@issbi.org
Url: www.issbi.org