The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature

by Papaioannou, Stratis

• ISBN13: 9780197815007
• ISBN10: 0197815006
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780197567111
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-08-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

This volume, the first ever of its kind in English, introduces and surveys Greek literature in Byzantium (330 - 1453 CE). In twenty-five chapters composed by leading specialists, The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature surveys the immense body of Greek literature produced from the fourth to the fifteenth century CE and advances a nuanced understanding of what "literature" was in Byzantium.

This volume is structured in four sections. The first, "Materials, Norms, Codes," presents basic structures for understanding the history of Byzantine literature like language, manuscript book culture, theories of literature, and systems of textual memory. The second, "Forms," deals with the how Byzantine literature works: oral discourse and "text"; storytelling; rhetoric; re-writing; verse; and song. The third section ("Agents") focuses on the creators of Byzantine literature, both its producers and its recipients. The final section, entitled "Translation, Transmission, Edition," surveys the three main ways by which we access Byzantine Greek literature today: translations into other Byzantine languages during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages; Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts; and modern printed editions. The volume concludes with an essay that offers a view of the recent past--as well as the likely future--of Byzantine literary studies.

Author Biography

Stratis Papaioannou is Director of Research at the Institute of Historical Research of National Hellenic Research Foundation (EIE, Athens), as well as Principal Investigator of the international research project Retracing Connections. His previous publications include Michael Psellos: Rhetoric and Authorship in Byzantium and, as editor and translator, Christian Novels from the Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastes. He has also published Michael Psellus, Epistulae, and Saints at the Limits: Seven Byzantine Popular Legends.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
List of Figures

1) What is Byzantine Literature? An Introduction
Stratis Papaioannou

I. Materials, Norms, Codes
2) Language
Martin Hinterberger
3) Book Culture
Filippo Ronconi and Stratis Papaioannou
4) Theory of Literature
Stratis Papaioannou
5) Biblical Hermeneutics
Fr. Maximos Constas
6) Memory: Selection, Citation, Commonplace
Charis Messis and Stratis Papaioannou
7) The Reception of Classical Literature and Ancient Myth
Anthony Kaldellis
8) Translations I: From Other Languages into Greek
I. Latin
Réka Forrai
II. Syriac
Pablo Ubierna
III. Arabic
Charis Messis and Stratis Papaioannou
IV. Georgian
Nikoloz Aleksidze
V. Neo-Latin Languages
Carolina Cupane

II. Forms
9) Orality and Textuality (With an Appendix on the Byzantine Conceptions)
Charis Messis and Stratis Papaioannou
10) Narrative: Theory and Practice
Ingela Nilsson
11) Rhetorical Practice
Alexander Riehle
12) Rhetorical Figures
Vessela Valiavitcharska
13) A Rhetorical Genre(?): The Invective (9th - 15th c.)
Ioannis Polemis
14) Rewriting
Stephanos Efthymiadis
15) Poetry?
Floris Bernard and Kristoffel Demoen
16) Inscriptions
Ivan Drpi?
17) Metrics and Prose Rhythm
Wolfram Hörandner and Andreas Rhoby
18) Sacred Song
Stratis Papaioannou
19) Recitation and Chant: Types of Notation, Modes of Expression
Sandra Martani

III. Agents
20) Authors (With an Excursus on Symeon Metaphrastes)
Stratis Papaioannou
21) Readers and their Pleasures
Stratis Papaioannou

IV. Translation, Transmission, Edition
22) Translations II: Greek Texts into Other Languages (4th - 15th c.)
I. Latin
Réka Forrai
II. Coptic
Arietta Papaconstantinou
III. Syriac
Pablo Ubierna
IV. Armenian
Theo Maarten van Lint
V. Georgian
Nikoloz Aleksidze
VI. Arabic
Alexander Treiger
VII. Slavic
Sergey Ivanov and Anatolii Turilov
23) Modes of Manuscript Transmission (9th - 15th c.)
Inmaculada Pérez Martín
24) Textual Criticism
Caroline Macé

Postscript
25) Thoughts on the Recent Past and the Future of Byzantine Literary Studies
Margaret Mullett

Glossary of Rhetorical Figures [Vessela Valiavitcharska]
Index of Personal Names and Titles of Anonymous Texts