Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing

Description

This handy reference guide makes it easier to access and understand histories written in Greek between 600 and 1480 CE. Covering classicizing histories that continued ancient Greek traditions of historiography, sweeping, fast-paced 'chronicle' type histories, and dozens of idiosyncratic historical texts, it distills the results of complex, multi-lingual, specialist scholarship into clear explanations of the basic information needed to approach each medieval Greek history. It provides a sound basis for further research on each text by describing what we know about the time of composition, content covered by the history, authorship, extant manuscripts, previous editions and translations, and basic bibliography. Even-handed explanations of scholarly debates give readers the information they need to assess controversies independently. A comprehensive introduction orients students and non-specialists to the traditions and methods of Byzantine historical writing. It will prove an invaluable timesaver for Byzantinists and an essential entry point for classicists, western medievalists, and students.

Leonora Neville is an historian of Byzantine culture and society. Her work on Byzantine historical writing has dealt with how Byzantine authors interacted with classical models of history writing and culture, and tried to shape contemporary opinion by writing history. In Anna Komnene: The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian (2016), asking questions about what made history writing an activity for men helped Neville understand Komnene's self-presentation and manipulation of gender ideals in her Alexiad. In Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium: 'The Material for History' of Nikephoros Bryennios (Cambridge, 2012), she explored how Bryennios appealed to cultural memories of ancient Roman masculinity to evaluate the protagonists in his history. Her research on Byzantine social history has led to various studies of power and coercion in Byzantine society including Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society: 950-1100 (Cambridge, 2004). She is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and the John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Professor of Byzantine History at the University of Wisconsin. She was the co-winner of the 2007 edition of the Prize in Memory of Nikolaos Panagiotakis. A passionate teacher, she has developed the first graduate class on teaching in the University of Wisconsin history department.

'The venerable tradition of Roman history writing flourished long after the capital's move to Constantinople and the emergence of a Greek-speaking literary class to record its medieval fortunes. The surviving source material reflects a variety of voices - from church leaders and monks to bureaucrats, scholars, generals, and members of the imperial family - who wrote from their own distinctive perspective about the times in which they lived. Neville offers a concise introduction to a complex historiographic field by focusing on 52 important authors between the 7th and 15th centuries. ... Medievalists and nonspecialists alike will be well served by this engaging introduction to the literary tradition of a rich historical world. Recommended.' M. Rautman, Choice