Apostolos Spanos

• Madshaven, Julie Madelen; Omlin, Christian Walter Peter & Spanos, Apostolos (2025). Making Historical Consciousness Come Alive: Abstract Concepts, Artificial Intelligence, and Implicit Game-Based Learning. Education Sciences. 15(9). doi: 10.3390/educsci15091128. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  As new technologies shape education, helping students develop historical consciousness remains a challenge. Building on Nordic curricula that emphasize students as both “history-made” and “history-making” citizens, this paper proposes an approach that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) with implicit digital game-based learning (DGBL) to learn and develop historical consciousness in education. We outline how traditional, lecture-driven history teaching often fails to convey the abstract principles of historicity (the idea that individual identity, social institutions, values, and ways of thinking are historically conditioned) and the interpretation of the past, understanding of the present, and perspective on the future. Building on Jeismann’s definition of historical consciousness, we identify a gap between the theory-rich notions of historical consciousness and classroom practice, where many educators either do not recognize it or interpret it intuitively from the curriculum’s limited wording, leaving the concept generally absent from the classroom. We then examine three theory-based methods of enriching teaching and learning. Game-based learning provides an interactive environment in which students assume roles, make decisions, and observe consequences, experiencing historical consciousness instead of only reading about it. AI contributes personalized, adaptive content: branching narratives evolve based on individual choices, non-player characters respond dynamically, and analytics guide scaffolding. Implicit learning theory suggests that embedding core principles directly into gameplay allows students to internalize complex ideas without interrupting immersion; they learn by doing, not by explicit instruction. Finally, we propose a model in which these elements combine: (1) game mechanics and narrative embed principles of historical consciousness; (2) AI dynamically adjusts challenges, generates novel scenarios, and delivers feedback; (3) key concepts are embedded into the game narrative so that students absorb them implicitly; and (4) follow-up reflection activities transform tacit understanding into explicit knowledge. We conclude by outlining a research agenda that includes prototyping interactive environments, conducting longitudinal studies to assess students’ learning outcomes, and exploring transferability to other abstract concepts. By situating students within scenarios that explore historicity and temporal interplay, this approach seeks to transform history education into an immersive, reflective practice where students see themselves as history-made and history-making and view the world through a historical lens.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2025). Greek Codices of the Byzantine Menaion: History, Types, and Content. In Alexopoulos, Stefanos; Frøyshov, Stig; Royé, Stefan & Wade, Andrew (Ed.), Byzantine Liturgical Books: An Introduction. Brepols. ISSN 9782503607573. p. 287–299. doi: 10.1484/m.cbm-eb.5.136805. Full text in Research Archive
• Madshaven, Julie Madelen; Spanos, Apostolos; Omlin, Christian Walter Peter; Reichert, Frank & Simonsen, Christian Robere (2025). AI-ASSISTED GAME-BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES. INTED Proceedings. doi: 10.21125/inted.2025.1217. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2024). BloomGPT: Using ChatGPT as Learning Assistant in Relation to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - 14th International Conference The Future of Education. Filodiritto Editore. ISSN 9791280225603. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  BloomGPT is a project combining ChatGPT to Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. We have developed a web application which might be used by the students of any subject, at primary, secondary and higher education. The use of the application is based on Bloom’s six cognitive learning processes (remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating) and the taxonomy’s four types of knowledge (factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive). The application has been already pilot-tested in an undergraduate History course at the University of Agder. According to the students’ feedback, using the application helped them prepare for the classes, be more active during interactive lectures and seminars, and improving their conceptual knowledge (by using ChatGPT as a discussion partner in Socratic dialogues we have designed), their procedural knowledge (as they can better understand how a historian or a history student operates), and their metacognitive knowledge (by reflecting on their own work by comparing it to the work of ChatGPT or by rethinking their own use of the application, individually and collectively). The paper discusses positive and challenging dimensions in using the application and presents our plans for improving it both as teaching and learning assistant. Our future plans include the integration of ChatGPT to assessments and the final exam of the relevant courses, as well as making prompt engineering an active element of learning. The paper functions as an invitation to colleagues and groups who would like to cooperate with us in co-creating an open-source platform that will combine a charge-free LLM to Bloom’s taxonomy and other learning theories and methods.

• Lazareva, Aleksandra; Vindbo, Sondre & Spanos, Apostolos (2024). Student experiences with using ChatGPT in history classes. In Chova, Luis Gómez; Martínez, Chelo González & Lees, Joanna (Ed.), INTED2024, 18th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, March 4th-6th, 2024, Valencia, Spain, Conference Proceedings. International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED). ISSN 9788409592159. p. 2335–2342. doi: 10.21125/inted.2024.0644. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). Political Approaches to Byzantine Liturgical Texts. In Eriksen, Roy Tommy & Young, Peter (Ed.), Approaches to the Text: From Pre-Gospel to Post-Baroque. Fabrizio Serra Editore. ISSN 9788862276955. p. 63–81. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). Was Innovation Unwanted in Byzantium? In Nilsson, Ingela & Stephenson, Paul (Ed.), Wanted Byzantium. The Desire for a Lost Empire. Uppsala universitet. ISSN 9789155489151. p. 43–56. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos & Zarras, Nektarios (2010). Representations of Emperors as Saints in Byzantine Textual and Visual Sources. In Borgolte, Michael & Schneidmüller, Bernd (Ed.), Hybride Kulturen im mittelalterlichen Europa/Hybride Cultures in Medieval Europe. Akademie Verlag. ISSN 9783050046952. p. 63–78. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper discusses principles and expressions of Byzantine political ideology, concentrating on the sacred character of the imperial authority and office. Furthermore, it examines the representation of the holiness of emperors in textual and visual sources, using by way of example the cases of empress Irene (797-802), and emperors Nikephoros II Phocas (963-969), John III Vatatzes (1221-1254) and Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425), all of whom were celebrated as saints in Byzantine Greek hagiographical and/or hymnographical texts.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2010). Imperial Sanctity and Politico-Ecclesiastical Propaganda in Byzantium (Ninth-Fifteenth century). In Michaels, Axel (Eds.), Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISSN 9783447062039. p. 197–213. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2010). "To every innovation, anathema"(?) some preliminary thoughts on the study of Byzantine innovation. In Knudsen, Harald; Falkenberg, Joyce Eileen S; Grønhaug, Kjell & Garnes, Åge (Ed.), Mysterion, strategike og kainotomia : et festskrift til ære for Jonny Holbek. Novus Forlag. ISSN 9788270995851. p. 51–59. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A very well established notion in Byzantine (and generally, medieval) studies is that Byzantium was a civilization, one of the most characteristic features of which was its conservatism. This general idea influenced the evaluation of innovation in Byzantium, which has been presented by modern scholars as either absent or as being decisively opposed to. The article makes a preliminary effort of reflecting over this notion by studying lexicographical and other textual sources and questioning whether the negative evaluation of Byzantine innovation has not been as thorough as it should and, probably, methodologically incorrect.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2010). Leimoniako Zitima. Anekdota patriarchika eggrafa apo to Archeio tou Mitropoliti Methymnes Nicephorou Glyka (1881-1888) [=The Leimoniakon Issue. Unpublished patriarchal documents from the Archives of the Bishop of Methymna Nicephoros Glykas (1881-1888)], Hagia Sion. Diocese of Mytilene. p. 73–120. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Archives at Leimonos Monastery, Lesbos, Hellas, consist of some 2,500 documents. A part of the Archives, namely the Archives of Nicephoros Glykas, the Bishop of Methymna [1881-1896], that consist of 332 documents, is related to the so-called Leimoniakon issue. By Leimoniakon issue is meant a composite conflict between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Diocese of Methymna on the one side, and the local authorities and the monks of Leimonos Monastery on the other. The main point of the Leimoniakon issue was the claim of the local authorities to use a part of the revenues of the rich Leimonos Monastery to build up a new school in the conterminous village (today: Kalloni) and to support the educational needs of the area. This conflict should be considered within the framework of the rise of the bourgeoisie in Lesbos in the second half of the 19th c. and its effort to share some of the authority that the Church was exercising over the Greek people. The whole problem influenced the social, educational, economic, political, and ecclesiastical life of the province for some twenty years and resulted in acts like the occupancy of the monastery by local people and the monks(!) and the excommunication of the protagonists by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This paper presents the edition of thirty-seven patriarchal letters related to the Leimoniakon issue. The majority of them is addressed to the abbot and the brotherhood of the Leimon monastery, while some are sent to the bishop of Methymna Nicephoros Glykas and the local authorities. Most of these letters were hitherto unpublished. Their content demonstrates the efforts of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to find a solution to the problem, which arose because of the claims and movements of the local authorities.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2009). He Sylloge Cheirografon tes Mones Leimonos [=The Collection of Manuscripts at the Monastery of Leimon]. In Spanos, Apostolos & Kalamatas, Athanasios (Ed.), Hiera Mone Leimonos. Historia - Palaiografia - Techne. Praktika Synedriou, Mone Leimonos 27-30 Septembriou 2001 (=The Holy Leimon Monastery. History - Palaeography - Art. Conference Proceedings, Leimon Monastery, 27-30 September 2001). Bartzoulianos. ISSN 9789606817137. p. 35–51. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Paper presenting the manuscript collection at the Monastery of Leimon, Lesbos, Greece, published in the Acts of a conference held at the Monastery in 2001.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2008). Two groups of bookbindings of the Byzantine type, products of a Constantinopolitan(?) scriptorium, in Byzantine manuscripts at Leimonos Monastery, Vivlioamphiastis 3. The Book in Byzantium. Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Bookbinding. Proceedings of an International Symposium. Athens 13-16 October 2005, Edited by Niki Tsironis. Hellenic Society for Bookbinding - Institute for Byzantine Research/Na. p. 287–315. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper presents two groups of post-Byzantine bookbindings in Byzantine manuscripts at Leimonos monastery, Lesbos, Greece. These bookbindings are made in a scriptorium that operated, most probably in Constantinople, in the second half of the 16th century. The study is based on the examination of the decorative tools and the technique used by the bookbinder(s).

• Spanos, Apostolos (2004). Chronological and other questions on the Vita of Saint Ignatios, the founder of Leimonos Monastery. Gregorios ho Palamas : dimeniaion theologikon kai ekklesiastikon periodikon, organon tes Hieras Metropoleos Thessalonikes. ISSN 1011-3010. 87, p. 55–68. Full text in Research Archive

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• Spanos, Apostolos (2026). Decontesting Historical Consciousness. Routledge. ISBN 9781041290209. 176 p. doi: 10.4324/9781003767657. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Decontesting Historical Consciousness provides a comprehensive exploration of historical consciousness, redefining it not just as an academic concept but as a fundamental human state of mind essential for navigating the modern world. By approaching historical consciousness from an ontological perspective, and by viewing humans and the world as both “history-made” and “history-making,” the text illuminates how our understanding of the past directly shapes our individual well-being and collective survival. After an overview of how historical consciousness has been defined over time, this book offers a new ontological definition of the concept. Then it proceeds to analysing the historicity of the world and the human, the historicity of time and historical narratives, and the ways in which history is used. Further, the book discusses the relation of historical consciousness to historical knowledge and historical thinking. A distinctive feature of the work is the introduction of original typologies, including an eleven-part model of historical thinking and a three-tiered quality level of consciousness: innate, reflective, and scholarly. The author also bridges the gap between theory and practice by examining the application of history in politics, education, and entertainment, while utilizing Bloom’s taxonomy to categorize historical knowledge. Designed for scholars, students, and practitioners in history, history education, philosophy, and sociology, this book is an essential resource for those seeking to enhance historical thinking and self-awareness. Its unique “two-timensional” versus “three-timensional” approach makes it a compelling read for anyone interested in how historical narratives and “biocultural” evolution influence contemporary democratic participation and global crises like climate change.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2025). Hva er historiebevissthet? Fagbokforlaget. ISBN 9788245060188. 240 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Vi mennesker er historieskapte og historieskapende. Vi er formet av fortiden, kulturen og tiden vi lever i, og våre forventninger til fremtiden, og vi skaper både vår fremtid og vår fortid. Å forstå dette er å bli bevisst sin egen plass i en vedvarende historisk evolusjon. Denne boka undersøker hva historiebevissthet er, og hvorfor den er avgjørende for hvordan vi forstår oss selv, samfunnet og verden. Forfatteren utforsker forholdet mellom nåtid, fortid og fremtid, drøfter hvordan vår bruk av historie henger sammen med identitet, verdier og handlinger, og viser hvordan historiske narrativer og minner danner grunnlaget for både kunnskap og politikk. Hva er historiebevissthet? kombinerer historie, filosofi og bevissthetsteori i en original analyse av menneskets historiske eksistens. Den henvender seg særlig til studenter i historie, historiedidaktikk, filosofi og samfunnsfag, men vil være interessant for alle som ønsker å forstå hvordan fortiden lever i nåtiden og former fremtiden.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2021). Games of History: Games and Gaming as Historical Sources. Routledge. ISBN 9780367358907. 200 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Games of History provides an understanding of how games as artefacts, textual and visual sources on games and gaming as a pastime or a “serious” activity can be used as sources for the study of history. From the vast world of games, the book’s focus is on board and card games, with reference to physical games, sports and digital games as well. Considering culture, society, politics and metaphysics, the author uses examples from various places around the world and from ancient times to the present to demonstrate how games and gaming can offer the historian an alternative, often very valuable and sometimes unique path to the past. The book offers a thorough discussion of conceptual and material approaches to games as sources, while also providing the reader with a theoretical starting point for further study within specific thematic chapters. The book concludes with three case studies of different types of games and how they can be considered as historical sources: the gladiatorial games, chess and the digital game Civilization. Offering an alternative approach to the study of history through its focus on games and gaming as historical sources, this is the ideal volume for students considering different types of sources and how they can be used for historical study, as well as students who study games as primary or secondary sources in their history projects.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2013). Λειμωνιακό Ζήτημα. Ιστορική προσέγγιση και έκδοση εγγράφων από το Αρχείο Νικηφόρου Γλυκά (=Leimoniakon Issue. Historical Approach and Edition of Documents from the Archives of Nikephoros Glykas). Portal forlag. ISBN 9788292712887. 565 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Archives at the Leimonos monastery consist of some 2,500 documents. A part of the Archives (namely the Archives of Nicephoros Glykas, the Bishop of Methymna [1881–1896], that consist of 332 documents) is related to the so-called Leimonos Issue. By the term is meant a composite conflict between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Diocese of Methymna on the one side, and the local authorities and the monks of Leimonos monastery on the other. The conflict, the main point of which was the claim of the local authorities to use a part of the revenues of the rich Leimonos monastery for supporting the educational needs of the area and building up a new school in the conterminous village (today: Kalloni), must be considered within the framework of the rise of the bourgeoisie in Lesbos in the second half of the 19th c. and its conflict with the Church for sharing the authority that the Church was exercising over the Greek people. The whole problem influenced the social, educational, economic, political, and ecclesiastical life of the province for some twenty years. The book, which was originally my MA dissertation (University of Athens, 1999), consists of: (a) historical introduction; (b) the annotated edition of 243 documents (most of them hitherto unpublished); (c) five appendices containing the edition of six more documents indirectly related to the subject, twenty-six articles published in newspapers and journals in 1881–1885, and topographical data on towns, villages and settlements recorded in the documents; (d) a glossary of Turkish words that appear in the documents. The book sheds light to the most important problem that the province of Methymna faced during the 19th century. A lot of information is given about the Leimonos monastery, as well as the educational system, the economy and the everyday life in northern and western Lesbos, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Diocese of Methymna, and the main problems of the Orthodox Church during the second half of the nineteenth century.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2010). Codex Lesbiacus Leimonos 11. Annotated Critical Edition of an Unpublished "Menaion" for June. De Gruyter Brill. ISBN 9783110221299. 452 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The book is an annotated critical edition of an unpublished collection of hymnographical texts, preserved in the eleventh-century Greek manuscript 11 of the library of Leimonos monastery, Lesbos, Greece. This important codex is a Menaion for June comprising thirty akolouthiai on saints; nineteen of them are hitherto unpublished. The edition of the texts is accompanied by an introduction, a liturgical, palaeographical, and hymnographical commentary, appendices of unpublished hymns preserved in manuscripts other than Lesbiacus Leimonos 11, and indices. The introduction examines codex Lesbiacus Leimonos 11 and its importance from a liturgical, hymnographical, and palaeographical perspective. It is divided into four chapters. The first presents the liturgical environment of the period from the ninth century, when most of the texts edited were composed, to the eleventh, when the production of the codex could be placed, and the liturgical books used in the period, the structure of the akolouthiai and the festal calendar of the Byzantine church. The second chapter deals with the content of the texts edited. Chapter Three presents briefly the life and the hymnographical work of the authors of the texts. The last chapter of the introduction is devoted to the manuscript tradition of the texts.

• Spanos, Apostolos & Kalamatas, Athanasios (2009). Hiera Mone Leimonos. Historia - Palaiografia - Techne. Praktika Synedriou, Mone Leimonos 27-30 Septembriou 2001 (=The Holy Leimon Monastery. History - Palaeography - Art. Conference Proceedings, Leimon Monastery, 27-30 September 2001). Bartzoulianos. ISBN 9789606817137. 17 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Acts of a conference held at the Monastery of Leimon in 2001. It contains twelve papers on the history of th monastery, its founder St Ignatios Agallianos, the libary of the monastery, its collection of icons, the erchitecture and the decoration of its main church (katholikon).

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• Spanos, Apostolos (2026). Digital innovation, analog inertia: Cultural path dependence in technosocial transitions. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digitalization is frequently framed as a forward-looking disruption, yet it is increasingly constrained by the persistence of analog ways of thinking and doing. This paper investigates the phenomenon of “analog inertia”, arguing that cultural identities and practices formed in pre-digital landscapes often cause frictions within contemporary technosocial transitions. While digital solutions offer new architectures for facing social challenges, several actors relevant to these challenges often operate on the basis of cultures (i.e. patterned and commonly accepted cognitive frameworks and social roles and practices) that remain tied to analog traditions. Drawing on the conference theme of Digital Pasts, Presents and Futures, the paper argues that, at least in some cases, analog inertia is not merely a technical reluctance but a defensive manifestation of cultural identity; individuals and institutions often replicate analog power structures and relational norms to maintain a sense of keeping their self-identity intact. Whether in the reorganization of family life or the digitization of institutional governance, “new” technologies are frequently repurposed to serve “old” identities, cognitive frameworks and social roles and practices, leading to a state of path dependence that limits the transformative potential of innovation. Furthermore, focusing on the difference between digitalization and digitization, the paper argues that on several occasions, digitization is the way in which analog inertia fights against digitalization. By critically analyzing these transitions, the paper illustrates how imagined digital futures are often digitized mirrors of analog pasts. To understand the present technosocial condition, we should move beyond the technical “what” of innovation and address the cultural “who” and “how”—the persistent, analog-identified human agents and their sometimes digitized but essentially analog ways of moving into the present and future.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2026). AI, laziness, stupidity and analog path dependence. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  One of the challenges of integrating AI into education stems from systemic and human "laziness", defined as the natural drive to conserve energy through minimal effort. Because humans are biologically wired to take the path of least resistance, they often fall into path dependence, clinging to familiar yet outdated methods rather than adapting to more effective ones. When both human users and AI systems rely strictly on these low-effort shortcuts, it results in suboptimal outcomes and collective losses, ultimately reflecting a lack of genuine intelligence rather than meaningful progress.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2025). AI-assisted and game-based flipped classroom in history teaching. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2025). ChronoSpace: AI-Assisted Game-Based Flipped Classroom for Teaching History. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2022). Den historieskapte marionetten. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2022). Den historieskapte marionetten. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2020). Innovation as a mode of historical existence. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2017). Innovation and Innovations in Byzantium. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2017). Approaching Innovation in Byzantium: theoretical and methodological challenges. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2016). Innovation approaches to historical temporalities. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2016). Towards a multidisciplinary study of innovation. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper focuses on theoretical blind spots in the study of innovation and the current discourses. It is based on the hypothesis that innovation has become the recent decades an “essentially contested concept” (Gallie 1956). Innovation discourses seem to overlook the complexity of innovation, as both a phenomenon and a concept. Defining innovation has been, more often than not, limited to dictionary-type definitions, approaching innovation in a unidimentional way, responding to the needs of the current student. The paper proposes and discusses five different approaches to innovation, namely as (a) a content, i.e. an idea, a practice, or an artefact; (b) a process (of implementation, adoption, adaptation of an idea/practice/artefact); (c) a historical situation (as the Koselleckian Zustand); (d) a phenomenon, in other words how an innovation is experienced by the unit of adoption and/or the social units around it; and (e) a concept, i.e. the synchronic and diachronic onomasiology and semasiology of terms related to innovation. A central working question is whether both the theoretical and the practical innovation discourses need, accordingly, five different definitions of and approaches to innovation. Furthermore, the paper approaches innovation as a historical phenomenon by taking into consideration theories of historical layers and temporalities. Another working question is related to the more general concepts, or phenomena, in relation to which innovation may be understood better. In other words where should innovation be placed in a relevant “ladder of abstraction” (see Sartori 1970).

• Spanos, Apostolos (2016). Is Innovation an Essentially Contested Concept? Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Introduction to the historical study of innovation. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Historical approaches to the concept of innovation. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Innovation in Byzantium. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). "Historical Approaches to the Idea of Innovation". Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The historical study of innovation, both as a concept and as a historical phenomenon, seems to suffer from an underdeveloped theorization. The lack of a historical definition of innovation, for example, often results in an approach based on a vague understanding of the concept and a hazy use of the term. The lecture focuses on the contemporary idea of innovation, approaching it from a historical perspective. Its main aim is to discuss: a) some of the primary innovation concepts, b) aspects related to the temporal dimension of innovation, c) the possibility of a general «historical» definition of innovation, and d) a historical typology of innovation.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). "Towards a Historical Definition of Innovation: Conceptual Challenges". Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Rethinking innovation in Byzantium. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Was Byzantium really a traditional civilisation, sceptical, if not hostile, toward innovation? How is this possible for a civilisation that survived for over a millennium and produced striking innovations, not only in the material world but also in politics, religion, literature and other intellectual fields? Is the perception of the Byzantines as anti-innovative a result of the lack of research focused on Byzantine innovation? Furthermore, how do Byzantinists approach the concept of innovation and the understanding of time orientation that comes along?

• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Iconoclasm and the Macedonian renaissance: an introduction. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Research, scientific paradigms and path dependence. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). History and Historiography: use, misuse, and abuse. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2015). Editing Byzantine texts. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). Rethinking Innovation: the Battle between the Old and the New. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). The political side of Byzantine icons. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). The invisible side of Byzantine icons. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). Ancient Greece, Byzantium and Modern Greek Identity. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2014). Nightmares of the Byzantine scribe. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2013). Liturgical texts and imperial propaganda. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2013). Approaches to the relationship between state and church in the period of Iconoclasm and the Macedonian dynasty. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2013). Studying Byzantine texts: the canonization of the emperor John III Vatatzes. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2012). Byzantium, Metaphysics, and the "World of Nothing". Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2012). Å drepe i Guds navn (Katedralskole). Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2012). Å drepe i Guds navn (Dahlske). Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2012). Modern Greeks and Byzantines: An introduction to the Byzantine Civilization. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Βυζαντινά χειρόγραφα, κείμενα και γνώση (=Byzantine manuscripts, texts and knowledge). Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Μεταβυζαντινά χειρόγραφα (Post-Byzantine manuscripts). Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Aυτοκρατορική αγιότητα στο Βυζάντιο: Ιωάννης Γ´ Βατάτζης (=Imperial sanctity in Byzantium: John III Vatatzes). Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Politiske noter i bysantinsk hymnografi. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Menaion. Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2011). Byzantine innovation: Not wanted? Full text in Research Archive
• Spanos, Apostolos (2008). Emperors and Saints. Imperial sanctity and politico-ecclesiastical propaganda in Byzantium. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper discusses aspects of Byzantine Church ritual and its dynamics in the period from the 8th through the 15th c., particularly cases of imperial sanctity, as well as cases in which sanctification became a tool of the imperial policy or propaganda. It may be divided into three parts that present briefly: (a) Byzantine emperors and empresses celebrated as saints and the historico-political background of their canonisation. (b) Efforts by emperors to use sanctification as a political tool, by establishing for example the cult of members of their dynasties as saints. (c) Cases of political sanctification employed by the Church for its own political purposes.

• Spanos, Apostolos (2007). An annotated critical edition of an unpublished Byzantine Menaion for June: Codex Lesbiacus Leimonos 11. Universitetet i Bergen. ISSN 9788230804261. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The present thesis is an annotated critical edition of an unpublished collection of hymnographical texts. The collection, some of the texts of which was in use in the Byzantine and (later) the Orthodox Church between the 9th and the 17th c., is preserved in the 11th-12th-century Greek Manuscript 11 of the Library of Leimonos Monastery, on the island of Lesvos, Greece. This important codex is a Menaion for June comprising thirty akolouthiai on saints celebrated by the Orthodox Church. Twenty of these texts are hitherto unpublished. The introduction examines codex Lesb. Leimonos 11 and its importance from a palaeographical, liturgical, and hymnographical perspective. It is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 presents briefly the liturgical environment of the period from the 9th c., when most of the texts edited were composed, to the 11th-12th, when the production of the codex could be placed. It also discusses the liturgical books used in the period, the structure of the akolouthiai and the festal calendar of the Byzantine Church. Chapter 2 deals with the content of the texts edited. The content of each of the akolouthiai is presented along with some information on the saints celebrated, hagiographical and liturgical texts related with them, and the composition of the akolouthiai. Chapter 3 presents briefly the life and the hymnographical work of the authors of the texts edited below, namely Joseph the Hymnographer, George of Nicomedia, Theophanes Graptos and Clement. Chapter 4 is devoted to the manuscript tradition of the texts. It comprises an analytical palaeographical and codicological description of codex Lesb. Leimonos 11, followed by the description of a closely related manuscript, codex Hierosolymitanus Sabaiticus 70, and a brief description of all manuscripts transmitting the texts edited, and an examination of their relations. The chapter closes with a brief note on the principles and conventions adopted in the present edition. The Commentary discusses liturgical, palaeographical, and hymnographical aspects of the edition. The thesis closes with full Bibliography and Plates with facsimiles of selected folios of manuscripts cited. The edition of the texts (Volume II) is preceded by a list of abbreviations and signs and is accompanied by an apparatus criticus and an apparatus fontium. Unpublished hymns and stanzas preserved in manuscripts other than Lesb. Leimonos 11 are included in the Appendices following the Texts.

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