Calendar: 1927-1928 Page 481

xii SOME DEBTS TO BYZANTINISM decorating the outer walls with coloured brick and marble Byzantine church architecture has left its mark on Venice and farther West and in our own London the beautiful Greek church is Moscow Road gives an idea of its more prominent features In the field of art as applied to small objects such as manuscripts metal and ivory works and jewellery the Byzantine artists showed very high degree of skill Their illuminations are marked by most careful attention to minute detail fine colour effects and excellent portraiture The manuscripts often give us interesting pictures of the appearance of the foreign peoples with whom the Empire was brought into contact Byzantine jewellery in its fondness for precious stones carries on tradition which had been in vogue in the Greek and Roman world since the Eastern conquests of Alexander the Great and carries on the later Roman tradition when jewellery of an Oriental type was very popular But very large proportion of the minor artistic pro- ducts of the Byzantine Empire are inspired by Christianity and this really gives its unity to Byzantine art as whole Those who study the products of Byzantine artists will not readily agree with some critics that they are lifeless and childish Six main items of debt to the Byzantine Empire have thus been suggested its services to the West as bulwark of civilization its influence in moulding the culture of the peoples with which it came into close contact its missionary activity and upholding of Christianity in Eastern Europe its conservation of ancient Greek literature and of the Greek language its contribution to the revival of learning in the West by means of its teachers and finally its contribution to the world's art It may seem that little more study might be profitably devoted especially in England to the history language and art of this great Empire Such study might lead to wider and more intelligent com- prehension of the problems of the Nearer East and thus to an increase of friendship between East and West Mediaeval and modern Greece cannot properly be understood without comprehension of her historic connection with the Byzantine Empire The Great Idea" may have receded into impracticability but historical facts remain Here again those who devote most of their time to classical Greek literature or archaeology would be none the worse for some knowledge of the period interventing beween the Athens of Pericles and Demosthenes and the Athens of to-day Ignorance breeds prejudice and prejudice misunderstanding The average student's time is too short and his immediate necessities are too pressing to enable him to devote himself to profound study of the modern Greek language and its connection with the classical or to close study of the varying fortunes of Greece from the time of Alexander the Great to the present day Yet numerous works are available which can give him fair understanding of these interesting subjects without an excessive expenditure of time and think that classical students might find recreation and profit in them One of the functions of the Koraes Professorship should be to give what help is possible to any who desire