Barber Charles - Michael Psellos on literature and art: a Byzantine perspective on aesthetics

Michael Psellos on Literature and Art

Michael Psellos in Translation

Miniature portrait of Michael Psellos and his pupil Michael Doukas, Ms Pantokrator 234, fol. 254 (12th century). Holy Monastery of Pantokrator, Mount Athos.
Used with permission.

Michael Psellos on Literature and Art

A Byzantine Perspective on Aesthetics

edited by

CHARLES BARBER
and STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

Copyright 2017 by the University of Notre Dame

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Psellus, Michael, author. | Barber, Charles, 1964 editor.

Title: Michael Psellos on literature and art : a Byzantine perspective on aesthetics / edited by Charles Barber and Stratis Papaioannou.

Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. | Series: Michael Psellos in translation | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017001226 (print) | LCCN 2017016284 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268100506 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268100513 (epub) | ISBN 9780268100483 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268100489 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268100490 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268100497 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Aesthetics, Byzantine. | ArtPhilosophy. | LiteraturePhilosophy.

Classification: LCC BH137 (ebook) | LCC BH137 .P7413 2017 (print) | DDC 801/.9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001226

ISBN 9780268100513

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at .

Contents

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

JEFFREY WALKER

ANTONY LITTLEWOOD

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

ANTONY LITTLEWOOD

ANTONY LITTLEWOOD

ELIZABETH A. FISHER

STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

CHARLES BARBER AND DAVID JENKINS

CHARLES BARBER AND DAVID JENKINS

ANTHONY KALDELLIS

CHRISTINE ANGELIDI

CHARLES BARBER AND ELIZABETH A. FISHER

ELIZABETH A. FISHER

CHARLES BARBER, DAVID JENKINS, AND STRATIS PAPAIOANNOU

CHARLES BARBER

CHARLES BARBER

The present volume is the third in the project Michael Psellos in Translation, following two earlier works: Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters: The Byzantine Family of Michael Psellos, edited by Anthony Kaldellis (2006) and Psellos and the Patriarchs: Letters and Funeral Orations for Keroullarios, Leichoudes, and Xiphilinos, translated by Anthony Kaldellis and Ioannis Polemis (2015). Like those volumes, this one too is the result of a collaborative effort. It is divided into two parts, the first devoted to Psellos literary theory and the second to his visual aesthetics; Stratis Papaioannou was responsible for the review and writing of ; the names of the two editors or those of further contributors have been further identified in the chapters.

We have neither followed nor imposed absolute rules for the rendition of Psellos demanding Greek into English, though we have generally attempted to err on the side of the literal meaning. We have also tried to create some consistency in the translation of recurrent rhetorical terms. The most important and common among these are cited also in their original Greek form within square brackets [ ], and have been gathered in a List of Rhetorical Terms at the end of the book. When necessary, though rarely, Greek terms have been simply transliterated and explained with a footnote.

Square brackets are used also for line and page numbers as well as for necessary explanatory remarks or simply supplementary words for the sake of clarification. Angle brackets < > have been employed either (a) to indicate words that have been added by editors of the Greek originals in places where a lacuna in the text has been identified or (b) to include words and phrases that were deemed necessary to complete the meaning in English.

The names of most Byzantine persons have been transliterated into English, thus: Psellos and not Psellus, Ioannes Sikeliotes and not John of Sicily, and so forth.

We would like to thank the many contributors to this volume for their efficiency and patience, the two anonymous reviewers who provided much useful commentary, as well as Stephen Little, our editor at the University of Notre Dame Press, for supporting this project; Matthew Dowd undertook the copyediting of the book and we are grateful for his exemplary work. The editors would also like to thank the Center for Hellenic Studies for allowing us to include in this volume slightly revised versions of Elizabeth A. Fishers introductions to and translations of Psellos Encomium for Kyr Symeon Metaphrastes and his Discourse on the Miracle that Occurred in the Blachernai Church, which are also available at: http://chs.harvard.edu/wa/pageR?tn=ArticleWrapper&bdc=12&mn=5478.

Stratis Papaioannou would also like to thank: Dr. Byron MacDougal who, with utmost care, precision, and adeptness, reviewed the English as well as the translations of ; the Classics Department at Brown University for generously funding the project; David Konstan, who commented on the translation of several passages, and Ioannes Polemis, who read the critical edition of the Letters, as both offered precious suggestions; and Charis Messis, who, with his usual wisdom, discussed the contents of the book at various stages of its creation.

Charles Barber would like to thank: the University of Notre Dame and Princeton University for the sabbatical leaves that made work on this project possible.

Psellos Texts

Chronographia edited by D. R. Reinsch, Michaelis Pselli Chronographia. 2 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

Concise Answers to Various Questions edited by L. G. Westerink, Michael Psellus, De omnifaria doctrina. Utrecht: J. L. Beijers, 1948.

Concise History edited by W. J. Aerts, Michaelis Pselli Historia Syntomos. Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Series Berolinensis 30. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990.

Criscuolo 1990 edited by U. Criscuolo, Michele Psello, Epistola a Giovanni Xifilino. Byzantina et Neo-Hellenica Neapolitana 1. Naples: Bibliopolis, 1973; new ed., 1990.

Discourse Improvised about the Style of the Theologian edited by (a) P. Levy, Michael Psellus: De Gregorii Theologi charactere iudicium, accedit eiusdem de Ioannis Chrisostomi charactere iudicium ineditum, 4663. Diss. Straburg; Leipzig: R. Noske, 1912. (b) A. Mayer, Psellos Rede ber den rhetorischen Charakter des Gregorios von Nazianz. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 20 (1911): 27100, at 4860. Both editions are cited: the paragraph number refers to the paragraph divisions in Levys edition, while the numbers refer to the lines in Mayers edition.

Encomium for his Mother edited by U. Criscuolo, Michele Psello: Autobiografia; encomio per la madre. Naples: DAuria, 1989.

G Letters: edited by P. Gautier, Quelques lettres de Psellos indites ou dj dites.