Supplementa Byzantina – serie

The anonymous tale of Alexander and Semiramis goes back to a Persian-Ottoman version of Turandot material reworked according to the conventions of late Byzantine literary romance. Both versions are critically annotated in this edition, which also provides a detailed introduction about the origin of the narrative material, its place in fourteenth-century Byzantine literary history, and the linguistic analysis of the text. A word index and a translation complete the edition.

The "Theology in a Thousand Verses", written by Leon Magistros Choirosphaktes, an outstanding tenth-century Byzantine diplomat, is a philosophical and theological didactic poem addressed to a young emperor (perhaps Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus). The main objective of the present edition is to provide a linguistically accessible text. Handed down in a single manuscript (Vat.gr.1257) under inauspicious conditions, the poem had been hidden away to this day and is printed here in its entirety for the first time since its creation some ten centuries ago. It is accompanied in this book by a translation and a commentary intended primarily to clarify the inherently difficult and sometimes obscure text. The volume also includes four indexes.

This analytical volume examines the various aspects of "De emendanda vita monachica", combining this with the question of whether this text by Eusthatios of Thessalonica with its polemical fireworks and learned allusions was really intended for the monks of the diocese, who are portrayed as being uneducated, or was actually aimed at an unnamed readership. This question forms a leitmotif through the various chapters of the study in which the author locates the work historically within Eustathios' biography and the context of contemporary monastic life, analyzes its place in literary history together with the linguistic devices deployed to establish the different stylistic levels and to influence the psychology of the readers and paints in the theological and hermeneutic background. A detailed commentary is appended.This volume compliments the edition published in the series "Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae". Both volumes are available as a set .

This volume offers the first critical edition of the vast Commentary on the Pentecostal iambic canon (traditionally ascribed to St John the Damascene) composed by Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica. The attribution of the hymn to the Damascene was, in principle, called into question by Eustathius himself, who eventually suggested to have it adopted into Damascene’s paternity only out of ecclesiastical obedience.The Commentary is probably the last text Eustathius wrote. It can be regarded as the summa of his method of work, his style of exposition, his scholarly interests and literary tastes. Moreover, it can be read as the first Byzantine attempt to create a fusion between a method of work which originated from the exegesis of classical texts and the modes of theological interpretation connected in turn with liturgical experience and pastoral practice. The edition of the text is accompanied by three apparatuses, a complete range of indices, and exhaustive Prolegomena where the editors shed light on the Commentary as such – its genesis and date, its audience, its discussion of the traditional attribution, its sources – and on history of its manuscript tradition, with a special focus on the Constantinopolitan didaskaleion of Prodromos-Petra.

In addition to the Berlin series of Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, the internationally renowned and interdisciplinary Supplementa Byzantina series, founded in 1968, publishes works on topics from the entire field of Byzantine literature. These include critical editions of non-historical works, commentaries on Byzantine and post-Byzantine texts as well as innovative anthologies and monographs from the fields of Byzantine reception, digital humanities and the history of science. All manuscripts are assessed by the editors and an external reviewer. The single-blind peer review procedure applies.

In addition to the Berlin series of Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, the internationally renowned and interdisciplinary Supplementa Byzantina series, founded in 1968, publishes works on topics from the entire field of Byzantine literature. These include critical editions of non-historical works, commentaries on Byzantine and post-Byzantine texts as well as innovative anthologies and monographs from the fields of Byzantine reception, digital humanities and the history of science. All manuscripts are assessed by the editors and an external reviewer. The single-blind peer review procedure applies.