Romanos the Melodist (died after 555) lived during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I (491-518). Due to the high lyricism and intense drama of his poems, he has rightly been described as the Pindar of ecclesiastical poetry. His poetic greatness earned him universal recognition and acclaim in Constantinople. The increased interest in the person…
Theophylaktos Simokatta (c.580-c.640), a byzantine historiographer, had an interest in abstract thought, theological issues and natural knowledge. He wrote, besides history, Ethical Epistles, On Predestined Terms of Life and Quaestiones Physicae, a short work on the various problems of natural phenomena. This minor work is written in the form of a dialogue (question-answer format). The text deals with some supposed…
The earliest Physiologus collection was probably created in a third-century Egyptian ascetic community. At the beginning a modest and poorly written booklet containing fascinating stories, it underwent numerous transformations through different times and places. The present contribution will highlight the main landmarks of these transformations with special attention to book formats and manuscript contexts in…