Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Translations -- A Note on Transliteration of Greek (and Related Matters) -- A Note on the End Notes -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction -- Prelude: Letter 44 of Nikephoros Ouranos -- What This Book Does and How It Does It -- A Christian Empire -- Letter 26 of Nikephoros Ouranos -- A Comparison -- Civil Law -- Canon Law/Penitentials -- Men in the Life of Mary the Younger -- Prospect -- 1 Eroticism and Desire in Epistolography -- How to Read Byzantine Epistolography -- Letters of Theodoros Daphnopates -- Letter 18 -- Letter 17 -- Desire's Dreams and Visions in Letters of an Emperor and His Friend -- Dreams and Visions in the Suda -- A Letter from Constantine -- A Letter from Theodoros -- Two Letters of Symeon the Logothete -- Conclusion -- 2 Histories of Masculine Beauty and Desire: The Case of Emperor Basil I -- Historiographies from the Mid-Tenth Century -- Narrative of the Rise of Basil I -- Summary of Things to Come -- Amorous Language -- Theophilitzes and Hetaireiai -- The Emperor's Horse -- Grappling and a Naked Scourging -- Basilikinos/Basiliskianos: Handsome Competition -- Eagle and Ganymede -- Male Backsides and Romans -- Conclusion -- 3 Framing the Brotherhoods of Emperor Basil I -- Basil's Brotherhoods in the Historiographies -- Nicholas -- John -- Other Brothers -- Liturgies for the Adelphopoiesis Ritual -- A Tenth-Century Prayer: "A Thing Flowery and Much-desired by Us, The Sweet Scent of Love" -- Framing "A Thing Flowery and Much-desired by Us, The Sweet Scent of Love" -- Scripture -- Court Ceremonial and Epistolography -- Conclusion -- Appendix of Prayers -- 4 Revisiting the Bachelorhood of Emperor Basil II -- Introduction -- The State of the Question of Basil's Bachelorhood -- Symeon the New Theologian's Evidence.

This paper examines annotations inscribed in three manuscripts by Demetrios Laskaris Leontares (1418 – post-1475), an aristocrat whose possession or use of a dozen codices is documented. Palaeographic and historical criteria place all three texts in his adolescence around the 1430s. The primary focus is tenth-century Laur. gr. 55.4, a well-known collection of military treatises, in which successive generations of the Laskaris Leontares family inserted notices on personal and imperial events (1408-50). Overlooked by previous scholarship, on blank folio 197v Demetrios Leontares penned and signed a short letter addressed to an emperor, which constitutes a rare autograph specimen of Byzantine epistolography. This item was previously transcribed by Bandini (1768), who declined to edit and interpret its 'barbaric and utterly illiterate' script. Providing a new edition and first translation, this study situates the text within the evolution of epistolographic conventions in the early fifteenth century, as evidenced in contemporary letters and/or prescribed in letter-writing manuals. Whether interpreted as a draft or copy of an actual letter or a classroom exercise, this short private text adds uncommon 'domestic' and documentary dimensions to the study of Late Byzantine rhetoric, ideology and epistolary culture. The investigation widens to include two other undated annotations that can likewise be assigned to Demetrios Leontares' youth: a co-ownership notice in recently commissioned Marc. gr. Z. 399 (5r) and a previously unpublished missive to an unnamed relative in twelfth-century Vat. gr. 586 (429v). Collective consideration of these three modest informal texts assists in clarifying their contexts and chronology, while elucidating broader themes of children, education, language and books in an aristocratic household.

John Apokaukos (ca. 1155–1233), the metropolitan of Naupaktos, was a church and political figure of the early thirteenth century and an outstanding Byzantine writer. So far the collection of Apokaukos' letters has been studied mainly as a historical source. This paper has made a philological analysis of his epistles with the question raised how the author's self is portrayed. This research has shown that Apokaukos' letters formed an individual image of the author extending beyond epistolary clichés. This image is not without internal contradictions: on the one hand, Apokaukos portrays himself as a decrepit old man, enduring punishment for his sins, and on the other, he appears proud of his achievements and erudition, ready to stand up for his rights or defend the interests of his eparchy. Moreover, when the author speaks of his weakness and insignificance, he is not always serious, for the self-abasement sometimes turns into a caricature: for example, the author emphasizes his gluttony using grotesque comparisons. The author's image is not static: Apokaukos often portrays himself as a doubter, hesitating over two opinions and changing his position under the influence of circumstances. This paper has analysed the author's image in Apokaukos' letters in the context of Byzantine epistolography in the Komnenian renaissance. Some common tendencies have been determined in the epistles of John Apokaukos, Michael Psellos, John Tzetzes, and Theodore Prodromos. ; Митрополит Навпактский Иоанн Апокавк (ок.1155–1233) – церковный и политический деятель начала XIII в., выдающийся византийский писатель. Эпистолярное собрание Апокавка, включающее 156 писем, до сих пор исследовалось в основном как исторический источник. В настоящей статье проводится филологический анализ писем – ставится вопрос о том, как в них изображается авторское «я». Исследование показывает, что в письмах Апокавка складывается индивидуальный образ автора, выступающий за рамки эпистолярных клише. Этот образ не лишен внутренних противоречий: с одной стороны, Апокавк изображает себя ветхим, больным и страдающим за свои грехи, а с другой – предстает гордым своими достижениями, ученостью, готовым вступиться за свои права или защищать интересы митрополии. При этом, когда автор говорит о своей слабости и ничтожности, он не всегда серьезен – самоуничижение порой превращается в карикатуру: например, автор подчеркивает свое чревоугодие, прибегая к гротескным сравнениям. Образ автора не статичен: Апокавк зачастую изображает себя сомневающимся, колеблющимся между двумя мнениями, меняющим свою позицию под влиянием обстоятельств. Образ автора в письмах Апокавка рассматривается в контексте византийской эпистолографии Комниновского ренессанса. Отмечается ряд общих тенденций в письмах Иоанна Апокавка, Михаила Пселла, Иоанна Цеца и Феодора Продрома.

This paper commemorates Margarita Adol'fovna Poljakovskaja (1933–2020), the head of the Ural school of Byzantine studies and the respected authority in the history and culture of late Byzantium. The author makes the reader acquainted with Professor Poljakovskaja's academic biography, the topics of her researches, and the results of her studies in various aspects of the Byzantine history from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. The paper has revealed a few key topics studied by Professor Poljakovskaja: monastic properties in late Byzantine cities; Byzantine rhetoric and epistolography; social and political thought; intellectual life; social structures in the Byzantine society; palace ceremonies and court culture; and the Byzantines' emotional world and daily life. It has been stated that although Professor Poljakovskaja used abundant and varied methodology produced by historical and philological researches, she preferred the anthropological approach. Her attention concentrated on a person and the person's notion of the time and self. Reconstructions of intellectual and social life in the period of decline of the Byzantine empire loomed large in the historian's studies, and the key topic of her researches was the problem of the "person, society, and power". ; Статья посвящена памяти Маргариты Адольфовны Поляковской (1933–2020), главы Уральской школы византиноведения, признанного специалиста по истории и культуре поздней Византии. Автор знакомит читателя с научной биографией профессора Поляковской, тематикой ее работ и результатами ее исследований различных аспектов византийской истории XIII–XV вв. Выделяются несколько ключевых тем, которые разрабатывала М. А. Поляковская: монастырские владения в поздневизантийских городах, византийская риторика и эпистолография, общественно-политическая мысль, интеллектуальная жизнь, социальные структуры византийского общества, дворцовый церемониал и придворная культура, эмоциональный мир византийцев и повседневность. Отмечается, что М. А. Поляковская использовала богатый и разнообразный методологический инструментарий историко-филологических исследований, отдавая, однако, предпочтение антропологическому подходу. В центре ее внимания находился человек и его представления о времени и окружающем мире. Важное место в работах этого историка отводилось реконструкции интеллектуальной и общественной жизни периода упадка Византийской империи, а центральной темой ее исследований была проблема «человек, общество и власть».

Introduction. Many cultures consider the first day of the new year a holiday which supposes the performance of specific rituals and rites. The traditions of New Year celebrations reflect the nature of this or that civilization, its historical experience, and religious and world-viewing constants. The said is to the full extent actual for the Byzantine civilization. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct the general scenario of official celebrations, to trace its evolution, and to analyse the folk tradition related to it. Methods and materials. The main sources of the given research are liturgical books, treatises on ceremonies, and epistolography. Analysis. In Byzantium, the New Year was celebrated on September 1 at different levels: church, state, and public. Despite its origin from the laity, the Byzantines viewed this holiday primarily as religious as it opened both the new year cycle and the church calendar. By the tenth century, there developed the order of service (akolouthia) for the first day of the new year. The patriarch served special liturgies in St Sophia's Church and performed a crucession. The emperor was not allowed to participate in the church rituals. In Late Byzantium, the climax of the New Year ritual was the public prayer made in the imperial capital, in the Forum of Constantine, in the presence of the emperor. The ceremonial protocol documented that the ruler must participate in the New Year service. The ordinary people of Byzantium widely celebrated this holiday, spending this day in going to church, paying visits, and exchanging greetings. Conclusions. The enlarging of the programme of palatial ceremonies with the emperor's appearance in the New Year celebration shows, from the one hand, the strengthening of the secular component of the holiday and, on the other hand, the trend to sacralization of the palatial life. The comparison of the scenario of the New Year celebration that existed in the Age of the Palaiologoi with the official holiday on such a case in the pre-Petrine Russia shows an important Byzantine influence on Russian culture of celebration and church policy.