The Archive of Musical Iconography and Literary Sources

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The Archive of Musical Iconography and Literary Sources was founded in 1996 by university professor Alexandra Goulaki-Voutira as an independent workshop, that supported both courses and research on the field of Musical Iconography in the School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It was soon established as an autonomous research project and received funds from the university and other institutions.

The Archive worked for the collection, documentation and cataloguing of images and literary sources related to Greek music, dance and performing arts (to the extent that they involve music) from antiquity to modern times. Using interdisciplinary cataloguing methods and systematization criteria combined with the use of digital technology, the Archive of Musical Iconography and Literary Sources aimed to render its data accessible to wider audiences and to promote cooperation between scholars of different fields, thus allowing for the development of new approaches on the research of Greek music. Moreover, cooperation and exchange of information and data between cataloguing centers has always been one of the Archive’s foremost aspirations.

The Archive’s digital database, MITOS, was designed according to the material’s special cataloguing requirements. The structure and search engine of the digital database allows for individualized searches using a wide variety of search criteria concerning the object on which music representation has been depicted and/or the representation’s iconographical and musical parameters such as theme, context, musical instruments, musicians and dancers involved etc.

Since its foundation the Archive of Musical Iconography and Literary Studies developed significant actions in Greece and abroad (exhibitions, research projects, conferences, publications etc).

Scientific consultants:  Associate Prof. Dr. G. Papadelis (Musical Acoustics and Informatics), Assistant Prof. Dr. M. Alexandru (Historical Musicology with specialization in Byzantine Music), prof. Dr. A. Pilali-Papasteriou (prehistoric archeology), prof. emeritus Dr. D. Themelis (Historical Musicology), prof. emeritus Dr. K. Tsantsanoglou (classical philology), prof. D. Tsitsikli (classical philology).

Computer engineering: M. Stoikos, G. Karagiannis, D. Mamanginidis

Personnel: G. Christodoulou, A. Roumpi, O. Zachartzi, A. Zgialtou

Researchers: S. Angelidou (musical iconography), O. Bobou (classical archeology), M. Fafalios (byzantine archeology), A. Gavrilis (byzantine philology), Ch. Giliopoulou (musical iconography), S. Gourbatsi (musical iconography), M. Kappas (byzantine archeology), Eir. Mitoussi (classical philology), G.-A. Moschou (musical iconography), A. Mystakidis (musical iconography), M. Nassioula (classical archeology), I. Paraskevopoulou (byzantine philology), E. Patsi (Art History), A. Roumpi (musical iconography), E. Sotiroudi (byzantine philology), G. Theocharis (byzantine archeology), E. Tsangkaraki (prehistoric archeology), A. Tsaprani (classical archeology), E. Tsolakopoulos (classical philology), A. Tyflopoulos, (classical philology), Th. Veleni (Art history), E. Velli (byzantine philology), M. Voutsa (musical iconography), O. Zarchartzi (musical iconography), A. Zgialtou (musical iconography)