90554 - Production and Tradition of Greek Texts in Byzantium (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students learn to gain knowledge both about mechanisms of production of Byzantine literary as well as documentary texts and about the practices of material preparation of the related manuscript witnesses, within the Byzantine millennium, with particular reference to Middle and Late Byzantine Era. Moreover, students build abilities, on the one hand, in critically evaluating problems connected to the study of textual transmission and critical edition, also through a consideration of periods and genres of Byzantine literature and of the principal themes related to Mediaeval Greek in its highest register, on the other hand, in interpreting typology and function of the examined artefacts.

Course contents

After an introduction to the Byzantine civilization, with particular reference to the transmission of ancient texts in the Greek Middle Ages as well as to epochs and genres of Byzantine literature, the course is divided into two parts:

1. Rhetoric, historiography and documentary production in the shadow of the imperial and patriarchal chanceries at Constantinople: symbols and ideology in Byzantium during the Palaeologan era. Anthology of passages from (a) the historiographic work by Georgius Pachymeres (one of the most known intellectuals belonging to the patriarchal bureaucracy), (b) the oration De Constantinopoli (Βυζάντιος ἢ περὶ τῆς βασιλίδος μεγαλοπὀλεως) of Theodorus Metochites (an imperial functionary of highest rung), and (c) from arengas of imperial and patriarchal documents issued during the considered age.
2. Examples from the manuscript tradition of Greek rhetors of the Roman imperial and early Byzantine age (Aelius Aristides, Libanius, Synesius). The focus will be a palaeographical and textual-historical analysis of specimina from manuscripts of Roman imperial and late-antique rhetoric, which were produced in the environments of the imperial and patriarchal chanceries at Constantinople in the 14th Century.
   
   

Readings/Bibliography

General studies:

• C. Mango, La civiltà bizantina, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 1992 (2. ed.) [Engl.: Byzantium. The Empire of New Rome, New York, Ch. Scribner's Sons, 1980].
  
• A. Kambylis, Compendio della letteratura bizantina, in H.G. Nesselrath (Dir.), Introduzione alla filologia greca, Italian Edition by S. Fornaro, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 2004, pp. 446-478.
  

For the 1st part:

Studies:

• G. De Gregorio, Working in the Imperial and Patriarchal Chanceries, in S. Kotzabassi (Ed.), A Companion to Intellectual Life of the Palaeologan Period, Leiden, Brill, 2022 (Brill's Companions to the Byzantine World, Ed. W. Brandes, 12), chapt. 11 [available from December 2022].
• A. Rhoby, Theodoros Metochites' Byzantios and Other City Encomia of the 13th and 14th Centuries, in Villes de toute beauté. L'ekphrasis des cités dans les littératures byzantine et byzantino-slave. Actes du colloque international, Prague, 25-26 novembre 2011, éd. par P. Odorico - Ch. Messis, Paris, Centre d’études byzantines, néo-helleniques et sud-est européennes, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2012, pp. 81-99.
• A. Voudouri, Representations of Power in the Byzantios oration of Theodore Metochites: Illusions and Realities, in Parekbolai 3 (2013), pp. 107-130 [https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/parekbolai/article/view/3995].

Texts:

• Georgius Pachymeres: Georges Pachymérès, Relations historiques, I: libb. 1-3; II: libb. 4-6; III: libb. 7-9; IV: libb. 10-13; V: Index, éd. A. Failler, Paris, Institut français d’études byzantines, 1984, 1999, 2000 (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, XXIV/1-5) [selected passages].
• Theodorus Metochites: Theodorus Metochites, Orationes, edd.
  I. Polemis - E. Kaltsogianni, Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 2019 (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, BT 2031) [selected passages taken from Or. 11, Byzantios, ibid., pp. 431-552].
• Handout with passages from critical editions of documentary sources, which were issued by the imperial and patriarchal chanceries in the Palaeologan age; images of the relevant original documents will also be available.
  

For the 2nd part:

• For the palaeographical and textual-historical exegesis, there will be available facsimiles from manuscript witnesses of Aelius Aristides, Libanius and Synesius, which were written by scribes of the Constantinopolitan chanceries in the 14th century.
  

Non-attending Students

To be added to the above indicated bibliography:

• A.E. Laiou, The Correspondence of Gregorios Kyprios as a Source for the History of Social and Political Behaviour in Byzantium or, on Government by Rhetoric, in Seibt (ed.), Geschichte und Kultur der Palaiologenzeit. Referate des Internationalen Symposions zu Ehren von Herbert Hunger (Wien, 30. November bis 3. Dezember 1994), Wien 1996 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 241 = Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik, 8), pp. 91-108.

Non-attending students are recommended to contact the professor before they start preparing the exam.

Teaching methods

The adopted teaching method will be that of frontal lessons; during the course, students will be involved in the collation of manuscripts and in the reading and commentary of the presented texts.

Assessment methods

Oral interview. The judgment criteria will include an extensive evaluation about the acquired knowledge (translation, exegesis and analysis of the presented texts, display of the main addressed issues), about the use of a good standard technical vocabulary, as well as about the ability in framing the production of the medieval literary texts and the reception of ancient literature in Byzantium in the historical and cultural context of which these phenomena are an expression.

Teaching tools

During the course, reproductions of manuscripts and specimina of critical edition of the presented texts will be provided in both paper and digital format. Teaching support material will be regularly downloadable from the platform page dedicated to the course on the web site https://virtuale.unibo.it/.

Office hours

See the website of Giuseppe De Gregorio