Byzantium in the Eleventh Century: Being in Between

by Marc D. Lauxtermann (Editor), Mark Whittow (Editor)

Overview

The eleventh century in Byzantium is all about being in between, whether this is between Basil II and Alexios Komnenos, between the forces of the Normans, the Pechenegs and the Turks, or between different social groupings, cultural identities and religious persuasions. It is a period of fundamental changes and transformations, both internal and external, but also a period rife with clichés and dominated by the towering presence of Michael Psellos whose usually self-contradictory accounts continue to loom large in the field of Byzantine studies. The essays collected here, which were delivered at the 45th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, explore new avenues of research and offer new perspectives on this transitional period. The book is divided into four thematic clusters: 'The age of Psellos'studies this crucial figure and seeks to situate him in his time; 'Social structures' is concerned with the ways in which the deep structures of Byzantine society and economy responded to change; 'State and Church' offers a set of studies of various political developments in eleventh-century Byzantium; and 'The age of spirituality' offers the voices of those for whom Psellos had little time and little use: monks, religious thinkers and pious laymen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367885335
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/12/2019
Series:	Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marc D. Lauxtermann is Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature and Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford University. He hails from Amsterdam. He has written extensively on Byzantine poetry and metre, and is the co-editor of a recent book on the letters of Psellos. Further research interests include translations of oriental tales in Byzantium, the earliest grammars and dictionaries of vernacular Greek, and the development of the Greek language in the eighteenth century.

Mark Whittow is the University Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at the University of Oxford. Recent or forthcoming publications include 'Byzantium’s Eurasian Policy in the Age of the Türk Empire', in Maas and Di Cosmo's Entangled Empires: Rome, Iran, China, and the Eurasian Steppe in Late Antiquity (2017); 'Byzantium and the Feudal Revolution' in Howard-Johnston and Whittow's The Transformation of Byzantium (2017); 'The End of Antiquity in the Lykos Valley' in Şimşek's, The Lykos Valley and Neighbourhood in Late Antiquity (2016).

Table of Contents

List of figures viii

Notes on contributors ix

Acknowledgements xi

Abbreviations xii

Introduction Marc D. Lauxtermann xv

Section I The age of Psellos 1

1 From 'encyclopaedism' to 'humanism': the turning point of Basil II and the millennium Paul Magdalino 2

2 Michael Psellos and the eleventh century: a double helix of reception Michael Jeffreys 19

3 Authorial practices and competitive performance in the works of Michael Psellos Floris Bernard 32

4 L'administration provinciale dans la correspondance de Michel Psellos Jean-Claude Cheynet 45

Section II Social structures 61

5 The Peira and legal practices in eleventh-century Byzantium James Howard-Johnston 63

6 Beyond the great plains and the barren hills: rural landscapes and social structures in eleventh-century Byzantium Peter Sarris 77

7 Aristakes Lastivertc'i and Armenian urban consciousness Tim Greenwood 88

Section III State and Church 107

8 The second fall: the place of the eleventh century in Roman history Mark Whittow 109

9 Storm clouds and a thunderclap: east-west tensions towards the mid-eleventh century Jonathan Shepard 127

10 Urbane warriors: smoothing out tensions between soldiers and civilians in Attaleiates' encomium to Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates Dimitris Krallis 154

11 Leo of Chalcedon: conflicting ecclesiastical models in the Byzantine eleventh century Judith Ryder 169

12 Re-interpreting the role of the family in Comnenian Byzantium: where blood is not thicker than water Peter Frankopan 181

Section IV The Age of Spirituality 197

13 From competition to conformity: saints' lives, typika, and the Byzantine monastic discourse of the eleventh century Dirk Krausmüller 199

14 Eleventh-century monasticism between politics and spirituality Barbara Crostini 216

15 The rise of devotional imagery in eleventh-century Byzantium Georgi R. Parpulov 231

Index 248