The Rhetorical Curriculum and Stasis Theory in Middle Byzantium and Beyond: John Doxapatres on Hermogenes

Sometimes quantity has a quality all its own. Such is the case with the extensive and unedited commentary on Hermogenes' On Issues by John Doxapatres (11th century), which this paper contextualizes against the Byzantine exegetical tradition both before and afterwards. Drawing from my work preparing a first edition of the text, I highlight Doxapatres' contributions to stasis theory; his engagement with earlier generations of commentators; and his discussions about the role of stasis theory in education and the rest of the rhetorical curriculum. Particular attention is paid to Doxapatres' comments, both explicit and implicit, regarding the relation of stasis theory to the study of logic and the Organon. As in the Prolegomena to his commentaries published by Rabe, in the Stasis commentary Doxapatres offers an approach to Hermogenes informed by a robust engagement with the exegetical traditions of both the rhetorical and the philosophical curricula. In his commentary devoted to On Forms of Style, for example, Doxapatres had taken the work of his predecessor John Sikeliotes as a starting point for exploring how to use Platonic and Porphyrian understandings of philosophical universals as tools for thinking through and with the Hermogenian stylistic forms. Here too in the Stasis commentary we find Doxapatres using Porphyry to walk his readers through Hermogenes, and having them read On Issues with constant reference to the Isagoge. Finally, I attempt to sketch the significance of Doxapatres' commentary and his philosophically engaged readings for the subsequent reception of Hermogenian stasis theory in Byzantium and more broadly.