Maria Conterno holds a Ph.D. in Byzantine History and Civilization, Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence, and a Diploma in Greek Paleography, Vatican School of Paleography, Diplomatics and Archives Administration.  She works primarily on interactions between Greek and Syriac culture in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium.  She is now publishing (in Italian translation) the Syriac version of Themistius’ oration Perì Philìas, along with other two of his speeches,  which came down to us respectively in Syriac and Arabic. Her doctoral dissertation, which is being turned into a monograph, focuses on the question of the Oriental sources of Theophanes the Confessor’s Chronographia, proposing a substantial revision of the theory of the so-called ‘Circuit of Theophilus of Edessa’ which is the commonly accepted explanation of the similarities of the Chronographia with some later Syriac chronicles. She is currently doing further research on the Syriac sources related to the Monoenergetic-Monotheletic dispute. Both this new project and the previous one are part of a wider research plan aimed at investigating the survival of Greek culture and literature, and the mutual influences with the Syriac ones, in the Eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire immediately before, during and after Arab conquests