Byzantine Historiographical Prefaces (4th?15th Centuries) A Study on the Praxis and Culture of Writing History in Byzantium

Paperback, Pages: 268 pages, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:6 tables b/w., Language(s):English, Greek , *new . ISBN 9782503612515. In recent years a lively debate has developed on the features of Byzantine historiography. The increasingly dominant tendency today is to treat historical texts more as pleasant literary narratives than as systematic historical accounts of the political and military history of Byzantium. The present study aims to contribute to this debate by revisiting the voices of the Byzantine authors themselves, focusing on the extant historical prefaces from the Early, Middle, and Late Byzantine eras. This seemed timely, more than a century after the publication of ?einrich Lieberich?s fundamental work on Byzantine historiographical proems. Obviously, not all prefaces are of equal interest: some serve a purely conventional function, while others are composed more thoughtfully and merit more careful attention. The book?s goal is twofold: firstly, to outline the details of the prefatory function of the Byzantine historiographical proems as microtexts; secondly, to detect and evaluate the theoretical views expressed by the authors of each period regarding the genre of Byzantine historiography. This will expand our knowledge of how the Byzantines wrote (praxis) and thought (culture) about historiography. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Chronological list of proems of Byzantine Historiography discussed in this book with the location of their main presentation Introduction 1. Current research in Byzantine historiography: a few necessary observations 2. The Byzantines and historiography 3. The proems of Byzantine historiography in modern bibliography 4. Significance and function of a proem 5. Why and How to treat proems of Byzantine historiography separately 6. The proems of classical Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman historical works: an introduction to the narrative patterns and ideas available to Byzantine authors Chapter 1: The prefatory communication situation in Byzantine historiography 1a. Length: from zero to over hundreds words 1b. Location: preludial and sometimes internal 1c. Time of composition 1d. Person(s) addressed: educated friends and scholars, the emperor himself 1e. Authorship: the writer himself 1f. Form: title and boundaries 1g. Special generic features: metrical, epistolary and rhetorical proems 1h. Writing methods: originality and mimesis Chapter 2: The content of the preserved proems of Byzantine historiography: eloquence in the service of the author?s specific expectations 2a. A few introductory remarks 2b. The elaborated proems of Byzantine historiography: a detailed overview 3c. The conventionally functional proems of Byzantine historiography: an overview Chapter 3: Theoretical aspects of Byzantine historiography: the evidence of the proems 3a. The profile of the author 3b. The essence / value of history writing 3c. The practices of history?writing 3d. The profile of the reader/listener 3e. Conclusion: Final remarks and answers to current research questions Bibliography Index