Acknowledgements
When carrying out interdisciplinary research on the relation between Byzantium and the Czech lands, any single person is sure to reach their limits. I am happy, therefore, to acknowledge how indebted I am to the many people who have contributed to the writing of this book, which would otherwise not have been completed successfully. I am particularly grateful to the supervisor of my doctoral thesis from Charles University in Prague, Jan Bouzek (1935â2020), also to my mentor from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in PreÅ¡ov, Slovakia, Alexander Avenarius (1942â2004), as well as to my mentor from the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, Rudolf Chadraba (1922â2011). I would also like to acknowledge the contribution brought by other members of the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc who have supported my research, namely Pavol Äerný, Ivo Hlobil, and Ladislav Daniel. I am especially indebted to archaeologists Josef Bláha and Eduard Droberjar for providing valuable information in the fields of Slavonic and Germanic archaeology respectively. I have greatly benefited from my numerous conversations on topics regarding the tradition of Sts. Cyril and Methodius with now Director Emeritus of the Slavonic Institute of the Czech Academy of Arts in Prague, VladimÃr VavÅÃnek, and with the late scholar of Greek culture and language Růžena Dostálová. My OTEP Fellowship at Balliol College in Oxford, UK, was a considerable asset when studying the topic of, and later writing this book, as were the lectures I attended there offered by experts such as Sebastian Brock, Nicholas Gendle, Metropolitan Kallisos Ware, Basil Osborne, Dimitri Obolensky, and Stephen Runciman. I also greatly benefited from the time I spent as a fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, including the meetings with professors of Jerusalem University and the Israel Exploration Society. I express my gratitude to many other colleagues who it would be impossible to list here in full.
As English is not my mother tongue, this text has had to be polished by several people, namely George Woodman O.B.E., Timothy Jones, Václav BaláÄekâs company âÄeské pÅekladyâ, Naomi Collyer, Thomas Prentis, and Alice Isabella Sullivan. I would like to express the greatest thanks to my wife Manuela Eugenia Gheorghe for her linguistic advice and her unconditional support, both of which have helped me achieve this final form of the text.
Marcella Mulder, Irini Argirouli, Alessandra Giliberto, and Peter Buschman at Brill, as well as the editors of this series, Florin Curta and DuÅ¡an Zupka, have been encouraging collaborators throughout the bookâs editorial preparation.