The Epistolary Habit in Byzantium

As we draw near the centenary of Ioannes Sykoutris' paeans to Byzantine epistolography's neglected lyricism, and following more than three decades of diligently "redeeming Byzantine epistolography," we seem no closer to a convincing account of Byzantine epistolary culture. The accumulation of insights afforded by recent scholarship remain disparate in focus, incommensurate in evidence, and divergent in conclusions. Can the dissimilar framings –historical, sociological, literary, etc.– be reconciled or is epistolography inherently too diverse in its motives to be collectively 'redeemed'? This study proceeds by drawing a methodological distinction between the study of letter-writing as a historical practice and letter collections as both a contributing element of epistolary culture and as an artefact.