UniSalento

Francesco G. Giannachi

Francesco G. Giannachi is a Byzantinist and a native speaker of “griko” the modern Greek dialect spoken in Southern Apulia (Italy). He is currently Associate Professor in Byzantine Civilization at the University of Salento. He deals broadly with transmission and tradition of Greek texts (ancient, medieval and modern). He is interested both in highbrow and popular literature. As far as the former is concerned, he has studied Greek metrics, their reception in the Byzantine Middle Ages with a focus on the transmission of the choral sections of tragedy (Sophocles) and choral poetry (Pindar). As for the latter he has explored topics related to the history of agriculture and folk medicine in ancient, Byzantine and post-Byzantine times. For several years he has been collaborating with the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften within the project V.LA.C.H. (Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage, coordinated by Prof. Thede Kahl, www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/team/community-consultants/greek/) in the area field research, recording and transcription of oral tradition texts in the Greek-speaking area of Salento, known as Grecìa Salentina.