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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.
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.
Price: $345.00
Pages: 432
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Brill's Companions to the Byzantine World
Publication Date:
26 June 2020
ISBN: 9789004413696
Format: Hardcover
"This is an important Companion, a landmark". [...] Its authors are the obvious and the best. Some papers are more like handbook articles, some more like essays, but they connect well together perhaps because much of the group is in constant conversation.[...] There is no question that a student approaching the study of Byzantine letters in 2020 with this book in hand could possibly feel alone: it is a true Companion." - Margaret Mullet, in: The Byzantine Review, 2020
"This volume aims to fill a gap in the field of Byzantine studies by drawing together over fifteen analyses of various, distinct phenomena relating to Byzantine epistolography. Each study demonstrates engagement with current research trends either by developing insights into longestablished epistolographical themes, such as friendship and friendship networks, or by identifying and introducing more innovative topics like epistolographic performance and rituals of epistolary exchange. [...] the volume delivers a highly comprehensive and engaging range of studies exploring innovative subjects that any astute scholar of middle to late Byzantine history will appreciate." - Catherine Rosbrook, in: The Classical Review
"This volume aims to fill a gap in the field of Byzantine studies by drawing together over fifteen analyses of various, distinct phenomena relating to Byzantine epistolography. Each study demonstrates engagement with current research trends either by developing insights into longestablished epistolographical themes, such as friendship and friendship networks, or by identifying and introducing more innovative topics like epistolographic performance and rituals of epistolary exchange. [...] the volume delivers a highly comprehensive and engaging range of studies exploring innovative subjects that any astute scholar of middle to late Byzantine history will appreciate." - Catherine Rosbrook, in: The Classical Review
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.