A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-41369-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 929 g

Reihe: Brill's Companions to the Byzantine World

A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography introduces and contextualizes the culture of Byzantine letter-writing from various socio-historical, material and literary angles. While this culture was long regarded as an ivory-tower pastime of intellectual elites, the eighteen essays in this volume, authored by leading experts in the field, show that epistolography had a vital presence in many areas of Byzantine society, literature and art. The chapters offer discussions of different types of letters and intersections with non-epistolary genres, their social functions as media of communication and performance, their representations in visual and narrative genres, and their uses in modern scholarship. The volume thus contributes to a more nuanced understanding of letter-writing in the Byzantine Empire and beyond.


Contributors are: Thomas Johann Bauer, Alexander Beihammer, Floris Bernard, Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis, Carolina Cupane, Niels Gaul, Cecily J. Hilsdale, Sofia Kotzabassi, Florin Leonte, Divna Manolova, Stratis Papaioannou, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Alexander Riehle, Jack Tannous, Lena Wahlgren-Smith.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Riehle, Alexander

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Byzantinische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Byzantine Epistolography: a Historical and Historiographical Sketch

Alexander Riehle

Part 1: Contexts for Byzantine Epistolography

1 Letter Writing in Antiquity and Early Christianity

Thomas Johann Bauer

2 Syriac Epistolography

Jack Tannous

3 Letter Collections in the Latin West

Lena Wahlgren-Smith

Part 2: Byzantine Letter-Writers in Context

4 Michael Psellos

Floris Bernard

5 The Letters of Demetrios Kydones

Florin Leonte

Part 3: Forms and Functions of Byzantine Epistolography

6 Epistolography and Rhetoric

Sofia Kotzabassi

7 Epistolography and Diplomatics

Alexander Beihammer

8 Didacticism in Byzantine Epistolography

Florin Leonte

9 Epistolography and Philosophy

Divna Manolova

10 Epistolary Culture and Friendship

Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis

11 Epistolary Communication: Rituals and Codes

Floris Bernard

12 The Epistolographic Self

Stratis Papaioannou

13 The Letter in the Theatron: Epistolary Voice, Character, and Soul (and Their Audience)

Niels Gaul

14 Letters and Letter Exchange in Byzantine Art

Cecily J. Hilsdale

15 Letters in Narrative Literature

Carolina Cupane

Part 4: Byzantine Epistolography and (Post-)Modern Theory

16 Letters and Network Analysis

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

17 Letters and New Philology

Alexander Riehle

General Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Alexander Riehle (Ph.D. 2011, University of Munich) is Assistant Professor of Classics at Harvard University. He has published on Byzantine epistolography and rhetoric, and is currently preparing an edition and translation of the letter-collections of Nikephoros Choumnos.