First published 2012 by Ashgate Publishing.
Byzantine poetry of the eleventh century is fascinating, yet underexplored terrain. It presents a lively view on contemporary society, is often permeated with wit and elegance, and is concerned with a wide variety of subjects. Only now are we beginning to perceive the possibilities that this poetry offers for our knowledge of Byzantine culture in general, for the intellectual history of Byzantium, and for the evolution of poetry itself. It is, moreover, sometimes in the most neglected texts that the most fascinating discoveries can be made.
This book, the first collaborative book-length study on the topic, takes an important step to fill this gap. It brings together specialists of the period who delve into this poetry with different but complementary objectives in mind, covering the links between art and text, linguistic evolutions, social functionality, contemporary reading attitudes, and the like. The authors aim to give the production of 11th-century verse a place in the Byzantine genre system and in the historic evolution of Byzantine poetry and metrics. As a result, this book will, to use the expression of two important poets of the period, "offer a small taste" of what can be gained from the serious study of this period.
Author(s): Floris Bernard, Kristoffel Demoen (eds.)
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2016
Language: English, French
Pages: XII+244
Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Part I: Introduction
1. Giving a Small Taste / Floris Bernard and Kristoffel Demoen 3
Part II: Contexts
2. Cultural Change? The Context of Byzantine Poetry from Geometres to Prodromos / Paul Magdalino 19
3. Gifts of Words:
The Discourse of Gift-giving in Eleventh-century Byzantine Poetry / Floris Bernard 37
Part III: Genres
4. The Byzantine Didactic Poem – A Neglected Literary Genre? A Survey with Special Reference to the Eleventh Century / Wolfram Hörandner 55
5. The Reader in Eleventh-century Book Epigrams / Klaas Bentein and Kristoffel Demoen 69
6. Historical Figures Appearing in Epigrams on Objects / Anneliese Paul 89
Part IV: Authors
7. 'Διὰ βραχέων ἐπέων' (K 83.2) Stratégies de composition dans les calendriers métriques de Christophore Mitylenaios / Lia Raffaella Cresci 115
8. The Accentuation in the 'Various Verses' of Christophoros Mitylenaios / Marc De Groote 133
9. On the Inscriptional Versions of the Epigrams of Christophoros Mitylenaios / Andreas Rhoby 147
10. A Few Thoughts on the Influence of Classical and Byzantine Poetry on the Profane Poems of Ioannes Mauropous / Claudio De Stefani 155
11. The 'Dioptra' of Philippos Monotropos: Didactic Verses or Poetry? / Eirini Afentoulidou-Leitgeb 181
Part V: Books
12. The Perils of Travel: Mark the Monk and 'Bodl. E.D. Clarke' 15 / Marc Lauxtermann 195
13. Poésies à la marge, réflexions personnelles? Quelques observations sur les poésies du 'Parisinus graecus' 1711 / Paolo Odorico 207
Bibliography 225
Index of Authors and Texts 237
General Index 241
