From Persia to Egypt, from Egypt to Ethiopia: The Transmission of Knowledge in Some Recent Conferences (2010-2012)

What I intend to report in this review is the outline of what appears to me as a new trend in the studies on the Christian East and the broader Christian culture of the late antique Mediterranean world, including the West: the historico-critical research is trying in recent times to emphasize not only the inter-church relations, the theological and ecclesiological debate, the exchange of texts, but also the transmission of knowledge and the transfer of complexes of documentation between one place and another of the Christian universe - or rather “multiverse”, given the variability in the evolution of the Christian culture in the different regions of the Mediterranean area. The focus is therefore shifting from church relations to transmission of knowledge in its broadest meaning. Four congresses are here examined.

La trasmissione del sapere in tre recenti congressi dedicati al tardoantico: quello sulla storiografia organizzato dall'Université d'Angers, quello sul sapere in area Mesopotamica organizzato dal Pontificio Istituto Orientale, quello di Studi copti organizzato da Sapienza Università di Roma e Augustinianum, una cui sezione è dedicata alle relazioi culturali tra Etiopia e Egitto; quello dedicato al Mediterraneo in fase tardoantica e medievale, organizzato dall'Università di Cordova.