The Letters of Psellos

The Letters of Psellos PDF Author: Michael Jeffreys
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198787227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
The Letters of Psellos is the first detailed study of the correspondence of Michael Psellos, a leading Byzantine intellectual, politician, and writer of the eleventh century. Psellos' corpus of over 500 letters represents a historical source of great significance for the study of society and culture of the time: literary masterpieces in and of themselves, yet often complex and difficult to understand in their entirety, they not only rebound with subtlety and humor, but also offer invaluable information on myriad subjects ranging from the political culture of Byzantium and its civil administration to social codes, religious beliefs, and popular culture. This volume consists of two complementary parts designed to make Psellos' letters as widely accessible as possible, both to the specialist academic community and to a wider non-specialist audience. The first part contains five essays offering detailed historical and literary analyses of a considerable number of the letters across a range of different topics, including the financial management of monasteries, the friendship of Psellos and John Mauropous, and the challenges posed by Psellian irony. While the essays are supplemented by individual appendices containing the translated text of the pertinent letters, the second part of the book presents annotated summaries in English of the entirety of Psellos' correspondence, compiled over many years as part of the Prosopography of the Byzantine World project and supported by substantial excursuses and notes. The result is an engaging and accessible shortcut into these bewildering and fascinating letters and an essential resource for the study of eleventh-century Byzantine society and culture through the pen of one of its pre-eminent figures.

The Letters of Psellos

The Letters of Psellos PDF Author: Michael Jeffreys
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198787227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

Get Book

Book Description
The Letters of Psellos is the first detailed study of the correspondence of Michael Psellos, a leading Byzantine intellectual, politician, and writer of the eleventh century. Psellos' corpus of over 500 letters represents a historical source of great significance for the study of society and culture of the time: literary masterpieces in and of themselves, yet often complex and difficult to understand in their entirety, they not only rebound with subtlety and humor, but also offer invaluable information on myriad subjects ranging from the political culture of Byzantium and its civil administration to social codes, religious beliefs, and popular culture. This volume consists of two complementary parts designed to make Psellos' letters as widely accessible as possible, both to the specialist academic community and to a wider non-specialist audience. The first part contains five essays offering detailed historical and literary analyses of a considerable number of the letters across a range of different topics, including the financial management of monasteries, the friendship of Psellos and John Mauropous, and the challenges posed by Psellian irony. While the essays are supplemented by individual appendices containing the translated text of the pertinent letters, the second part of the book presents annotated summaries in English of the entirety of Psellos' correspondence, compiled over many years as part of the Prosopography of the Byzantine World project and supported by substantial excursuses and notes. The result is an engaging and accessible shortcut into these bewildering and fascinating letters and an essential resource for the study of eleventh-century Byzantine society and culture through the pen of one of its pre-eminent figures.

Psellos and the Patriarchs

Psellos and the Patriarchs PDF Author: Michael Psellos
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780268175146
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Contains translations of the funeral orations written by Michael Psellos, the leading Byzantine intellectual of the eleventh century, for the three ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople.

Michael Psellos

Michael Psellos PDF Author: Stratis Papaioannou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067529
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This book explores Michael Psellos' place in the history of Greek rhetoric and self-representation and his impact on the development of Byzantine literature. Avoiding the modern dilemma that vacillates between Psellos the pompous rhetorician and Psellos the ingenious thinker, Professor Papaioannou unravels the often misunderstood Byzantine rhetoric, its rich discursive tradition and the social fabric of elite Constantinopolitan culture which rhetoric addressed. The book offers close readings of Psellos' personal letters, speeches, lectures and historiographical narratives, and analysis of other early Byzantine and classical models of authorship in Byzantine book culture, such as Gregory of Nazianzos, Synesios of Cyrene, Hermogenes and Plato. It also details Psellos' innovative attention to authorial creativity, performative mimesis and the aesthetics of the self. Simultaneously, it traces within Byzantium complex expressions of emotion and gender, notions of authorship and subjectivity, and theories of fictionality and literature, challenging the common fallacy that these are modern inventions.

Michael Psellos on Literature and Art

Michael Psellos on Literature and Art PDF Author: Michael Psellos
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268100519
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
The ambition of Michael Psellos on Literature and Art is to illustrate an important chapter in the history of Greek literary and art criticism and introduce precisely this aspect of Psellian writing to a wider public.

Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters

Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters PDF Author: Michael Psellos
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780268024154
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book contains the works that Psellos wrote about his family, including a long funeral oration for his mother that features unique recollections from a childhood spent in Constantinople; a funeral oration for his young daughter Styliane, which includes a detailed description of her physical appearance and a moving account of her illness and death; a legal work pertaining to the engagement of his second, adopted, daughter; and various letters and other works that relate to the private life of this Byzantine family.

Fourteen Byzantine Rulers

Fourteen Byzantine Rulers PDF Author: Michael Psellus
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141904550
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This chronicle of the Byzantine Empire, beginning in 1025, shows a profound understanding of the power politics that characterized the empire and led to its decline.

A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography

A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900442461X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography offers the first comprehensive introduction and scholarly guide to the cultural practice and literary genre of letter-writing in the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Legal Culture and the Roman Legal Tradition, 867–1056

Byzantine Legal Culture and the Roman Legal Tradition, 867–1056 PDF Author: Zachary Chitwood
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316864502
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This social history of Byzantine law offers an introduction to one of the world's richest yet hitherto understudied legal traditions. In the first study of its kind, Chitwood explores and reinterprets the seminal legal-historical events of the Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty, including the re-appropriation and refashioning of the Justinianic legal corpus and the founding of a law school in Constantinople. During this last phase of Byzantine secular law, momentous changes in law and legal culture were underway: the patronage of the elite was reflected in the legal system, theological terms from Orthodox Christianity entered the vocabulary of Byzantine jurisprudence, and private legal collections of uncertain origins began to circulate in manuscripts alongside official redactions of Justinianic law. By using the heuristic device of exploring legal culture, this book examines the interplay in law between the Roman political heritage, Orthodox Christianity and Hellenic culture.

The Argument of Psellos' Chronographia

The Argument of Psellos' Chronographia PDF Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004452869
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book is a philosophical interpretation of Michael Psellos' Chronographia, an acknowledged masterpiece of Byzantine literature. Anthony Kaldellis argues that although the Chronographia contains a fascinating historical narrative; it is really a disguised philosophical work which, if read carefully, reveals Psellos' revolutionary views on politics and religion. Kaldellis exposes the rhetorical techniques with which Psellos veils his unorthodoxy, and demonstrates that the inner message of the text challenges the Church's supremacy over the intellectual and political life of Byzantium. Psellos consciously articulates a secular vision of Imperial politics, and seeks to liberate philosophy from the constraints of Christian theology. The analysis is lucid and should be accessible to anyone with a general knowledge of Byzantine civilization. It should interest all who study the history of ancient and medieval philosophy.

Byzantine authors

Byzantine authors PDF Author: John William Nesbitt
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004129757
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The volume presents students and researchers with texts and translations of Byzantine letters, treatises, speeches, teaching aids, and instructional guides.