Awards

• Nominated for The Haskins Medal 2022

Overview

Experiencing the resonant acoustics of the church of Hagia Sophia allowed the Byzantine participants in its liturgical rituals to be filled with the Spirit of God, and even to become his image on earth. Bissera Pentcheva’s vibrant analysis examines how these sung rites combined with the church’s architectural space to make Hagia Sophia a performative place of worship representative of Byzantine religious culture in all its sensory richness. Coupling digital acoustic models and video with a close examination of liturgical texts and melodic structures, Pentcheva applies art-historical, philosophical, archeoacoustical, and anthropological methodologies to provide insight into the complementary ways liturgy and location worked to animate worshippers in Byzantium. Rather than focus on the architectural form of the building, the technology of its construction, or the political ideology of its decoration, Pentcheva delves into the performativity of Hagia Sophia and explains how the “icons of sound” created by the sung liturgy and architectural reverberation formed an aural experience that led to mystical transcendence for worshippers, opening access to the imagined celestial sound of the angelic choirs. Immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully illustrated, this exploration of Hagia Sophia sheds new light on sacred space, iconicity, and religious devotion in Byzantium. Scholars of art and architectural history, religious studies, music and acoustics, and the medieval period will especially appreciate Pentcheva’s field-advancing work.

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9780271077260

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Reviews

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 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 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 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

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 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 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

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

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

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 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 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

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 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 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 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

Author Information

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.

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