Too Elusive to Grasp: Assessing the Debate Over the Historicity of the Letter Collection of Isidore of Pelusium

The letter corpus transmitted under the name of Isidore of Pelusium is the largest surviving Byzantine collection (ca. 2,000 letters), yet its past and future exploitation is greatly hampered by the uncertainty about its historicity and date. Some viewed it as a later literary fiction, many as a genuine correspondence from the early fifth century CE, while others remained sceptical. Has the problem been adequately addressed, or perhaps resolved? Not really. This paper will critically review the debate over the historicity of Isidore’s letter collection, highlighting the strengths and flaws of each approach to a problem that is intrinsic to Isidore’s corpus itself and seems incapable of wholly satisfactory solution.