Sofia Kotzabassi – författare

This is the first comprehensive scholarly publication of the rich holdings of Greek manuscripts and miniatures in Princeton, New Jersey, housed in the Firestone Library and the art museum of Princeton University, in the Scheide Library, and in Princeton Theological Seminary. This important material represents both a broad range of time--from the early Byzantine period through the mid-nineteenth century--and a broad range of content, from Byzantine copies of classical texts to Gospel books, Lectionaries and patristic homilies, hymns and texts of the liturgy, medical books, and Holy Land pilgrimage guides. Among the manuscripts are some spectacularly illustrated works, key monuments in the history of Byzantine illumination: an eleventh-century codex of John Klimax's Heavenly Ladder with vivid and unusual depictions of monastic life; evangelist portraits from a number of artistic periods and centers; extraordinary pages of pure ornament; and fine examples of post-Byzantine liturgical illustration of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.Among the most significant texts are a sixth-century palimpsest with Greek hymns in an extremely early form of musical notation, and a thirteenth-century copy of Aristotle's Organon, heavily annotated by the renowned Byzantine scholar and teacher John Chortasmenos (ca. 1370-1430). The collection also includes a fascinating eighteenth-century genealogical chronicle--a 45-foot-long roll with 562 illustrations of biblical events and personalities from the Creation to the Ascension of Christ, a work that was probably produced in the area of present-day Romania. This collection offers insight into many aspects of the artistic and intellectual life--theological, monastic, scholarly, ecclesiastical--of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world. It also contributes to the history of Greek philology and the development of the Greek book over more than a millennium, from the earliest centuries of manuscript production down to the period when, long after the appearance of printing, liturgical texts continued to be copied by hand and lavishly illuminated.The catalogue provides codicological and art-historical analysis of all 64 manuscripts and leaves, along with detailed information on their content, provenance, and bindings; extensive bibliographies; and ample plates, almost all of them in color.

This volume presents a broad array of contributions on Byzantine literature and culture, in which well-known Byzantinists approach topics of ceremonial, education, historiography, hagiography, homiletics, law, philology, philosophy, prosopography, rhetoric and theology. New editions and analyses of texts and documents are included. The essays combine traditional scholarship with newer approaches, thus reflecting the current dynamics of the field.

The Monastery of Pantokrator, founded by John II Komnenos and his wife Piroska-Irene, is not only one of the most important and most impressive monastic complexes of the Komnenian age, it is also one of the few to occupy a key position in the life of Constantinople in the Palaiologan age,given that itsmortuary chapel (Heroon) was also the last resting place of many members of the latter dynasty. The first attempt to chronicle its history, based on the texts known at the time, was undertaken by G. Moravscik ( 932). Interestwas rekindled by P. Gautier's critical edition of its Typikon ( 97 ), and more recently by restoration work on its buildings. This volume brings together a comprehensive selection of all the texts concerning or connected with the Monastery of Pantokrator, and through themit demonstratesthe Monastery'simportance and its role throughout the history of the Byzantine Empire—a role that has received insufficient attention, given that older studies have tended to focus on the 2th century. The texts cover the situation in Constantinople before the Monastery was founded, the historical and cultural context within which it was established, its Typikon (monastic formulary), the descriptions of Slav and Western travellers, the Byzantine texts (homiletic, historical, hagiographic, and poetic) relating to the Monastery and its history from the 2th to the 5th century, the Byzantine officials associated with it, and the celebration of the principal festivals in its churches. It also contains critical editions of and commentaries on the two versions of the Synaxarion of Irene Komnene, a speech referring to the Empress's associate in the construction of the Monastery, another on the translation of the icon of St. Demetrios from the Church of St. Demetrios in Thessalonica to the Monastery of Pantokrator, an Office of the Translation of the Holy Stone, the verse Synaxarion composed for the consecration of the Monastery, and the known and unpublished poems by Byzantine poets ( 2th- 5th c.) relating to it, as well as an extensive bibliography.

Unter den Märtyrern des Bilderstreits nimmt die heilige Theodosia von Konstantinopel eine besondere Stelle ein. Ihr Martyrium und ihr Kult erfuhren unter der Herrschaft der byzantinischen Palaiologendynastie (1259-1453) eine außerordentliche Blüte in Hagiografie und Gesellschaft. Im Gegensatz zu den spärlichen Informationen, die aus der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit stammen, stammt aus der Palaiologenzeit eine größere Zahl von Zeugen und Nachrichten über die Heilige, ihre Reliquien und ihre Wundertaten. Neben den rhetorischen Enkomia, die die einfachen Synaxaria ersetzt haben, finden wir Erwähnungen über sie in Geschichtswerken, in der Dichtung und der Hymnografie sowie in den Reiseberichten der russischen Pilger.Kotzabassi untersucht und kommentiert diese Texte ausführlich und bietet auf Basis aller bekannten Handschriften eine kritische Edition dieser Texte, von denen einige zum ersten Mal überhaupt herausgegeben werden.