Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Sophia and Choros: The Making of Sacred Space in Byzantium
2 Inspiriting in the Byzantine Consecration (Kathierōsis) Rite
3 Icons of Breath
4 Aural Architecture
5 Material Flux: Marble, Water, and Chant
6 The Horizontal Mirror and the Poetics of the Imaginary
7 Empathy and the Making of Art in Byzantium
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Bissera V. Pentcheva is Professor of Art History at Stanford University and the author of Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium and The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium, both also published by Penn State University Press.
“The interdisciplinary methods of exploration and the development
of digital technology in the cultural heritage preservation of the
Hagia Sophia’s aural and visual environment in Pentcheva’s book are
intriguing, well-researched, and rich to a depth previously
unexplored. Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium is
worth adding to any collection exploring new innovations in
archeoacoustical, art historical, and architectural research in
Byzantine or medieval periods.”—Marianne R. Williams ARLIS/NA
Reviews
“Evocatively rendered in careful prose, new photography, and
recorded sound, this synthetic account breathes new life into a
remarkable, elusive monument. Highly recommended.”—M. Rautman
Choice
“Reminds us not only how much the study of aurality in Byzantine
studies has yet to offer but also what the hidden aspects of Hagia
Sophia might still yield.”—Mati Meyer caa.reviews
“Pentcheva’s book is a bold and at times thrilling attempt to
decipher the building as living architecture.”—Amy Papalexandrou
Speculum
“This handsome volume reflects the author’s deep and sustained
engagement of more than a decade with the sensory world of
Byzantine worshippers as they experienced objects, ritual
performance, and Hagia Sophia’s architectural setting.”—Nina
Macaraig Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
“In this forceful study we come to understand how sound and image
come alive in architecture. Hagia Sophia does important work in
paving the way towards a multisensorial analysis of architecture
that does not prioritize or privilege one sense over another nor
flatten distinctions between the senses.”—Emanuela Vai Art
History
“This erudite, highly original book explores the ways in which the
sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia engaged all the senses in a
rich and dynamic exchange of air, sound, fragrance, movement, and
light between heaven and earth to create an all-enveloping
spiritual experience for the worshipper. Using sources ranging from
modern acoustic science to sixth-century poetry, Pentcheva
establishes a fluid, multisensory, kinetic interpretive model that
will transform our understanding of Byzantine sacred
space.”—Deborah Howard,coauthor of Sound and Space in Renaissance
Venice
“Pentcheva’s Hagia Sophia dares us to think creatively about the
materials we study and all those things that we cannot definitively
prove or validate within conventional art historical frameworks. It
is a book that glimmers and murmurs to us about the past, densely
filling in our mental images of these spaces and rituals with
smells and sounds.”—Roland Betancourt Art Bulletin
“Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium is, simply
put, an extraordinary achievement, an unprecedented exploration of
the liturgical experience afforded by the Great Church of
Constantinople in its nine-century career (532-1453 CE) as a
Christian holy place.”—Brian A. Butcher Reading Religion
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