Panagiotis Agapitos hat Byzantinistik, Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte und Musikwissenschaft an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München studiert (Mag. Art. 1982), Klassische und Byzantinische Philologie an der Harvard University (MA 1986, PhD 1990). Zwischen 1992 und 2021 war er Professor für Byzantinische Philologie an der Universität Zypern. Als Gastprofessor hat er in Berlin, Paris, Rom, Ghent und Stanford unterrichtet. Er war Stipendiat der Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung, der Gerda-Henkel Stiftung und der A. G. Leventis Foundation. Zwischen 2016 und 2020 war er Gastforscher am Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt. Seit Oktober 2021 ist er als Gutenberg Fellow an der Abteilung Byzantinistik der JGU und dem Leibniz Wissenschaftscampus “Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident” mit einem fünfjährigen Projekt tätig, das vom Gutenberg Forschungskolleg finanziert wird.
Seine Forschungsinteressen konzentrieren sich auf Text- und Literaturkritik mit Schwerpunkt auf byzantinischer Rhetorik, Poetik, erotischer Fiktion und der Darstellung des Todes in der byzantinischen Literatur. Er hat etwa achtzig wissenschaftliche Arbeiten, drei Monographien und mehrere Sammelbände als Herausgeber veröffentlicht. Darüber hinaus hat er die erste kritische Ausgabe des Versromans “Livistros und Rodamni” aus dem 13. Jahrhundert (Athen 2006) und dessen englische Übersetzung mit Einleitung (Liverpool 2021) vorgelegt. Seit einigen Jahren arbeitet er an die methodologischen Probleme, die mit dem Verfassen einer Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur verbunden sind. E hat drei historische Krimis veröffentlicht, die sich im Byzanz des 9. Jahrhunderts abspielen. Für ein detailliertes Curriculum Vitae und Publikationsliste siehe hier.
- Narrative Structure in the Byzantine Vernacular Romances: A Textual and Literary Study of Kallimachos, Belthandros and Libistros [Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia 34], Munich 1991.
- P. A. Agapitos – O. L. Smith, The Study of Medieval Greek Romance: A Reassessment of Recent Work [Opuscula Graecolatina 33], Copenhagen 1992.
- P. A. Agapitos – K. Hult – †O. L. Smith, Theodoros Metochites on Philosophical Irony and Greek History: Miscellanea 8 and 93. Edited with introduction, translation and notes, Gothenburg 1996.
- Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Pοδάμνης. Kριτικὴ ἔκδοση τῆς διασκευῆς «ἄλφα» [Bυζαντινὴ καὶ Nεοελληνικὴ Bιβλιοθήκη 9], Athens 2006 [= The Tale of Livistros and Rodamne: Critical Edition of Redaction ‘alpha’].
- P. A. Agapitos – M. Hinterberger – E. Mitsi, Εἰκὼν καὶ Λόγος: Ἔξι βυζαντινὲς περιγραφὲς ἔργων τέχνης. Εἰσαγωγικὸ δοκίμιο, μετάφραση καὶ σχολιασμός, Athens 2006 [= Image and Word: Six Byzantine Descriptions of Works of Art. Introductory essay, translation, commentary].
- Ἡ ἐρωτικὴ διήγηση στὰ μεσαιωνικὰ χρόνια: Περσία―Βυζάντιο―Φραγγία, Athens 2008 [= Tales of Love in Medieval Times: Persia, Byzantium, France].
- The Tale of Livistros and Rodamne: A Byzantine Love Romance of the 13th Century. Translation and Introduction [Translated Texts for Byzantinists 10], Liverpool 2021.
- Βυζαντινολογία καὶ Ναζισμός: Ὁ Φρὰντς Ντέλγκερ, ἡ Ὑπηρεσία Ρόζενμπεργκ, ὁ Ἄθως καὶ ἡ Ἱστορία τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Φιλολογίας (1920-1958), Athens 2023. [Translated and fully revised version with photographs of study no. 79 below.]
- P. A. Agapitos – D. R. Reinsch (eds.), Der Roman im Byzanz der Komnenenzeit. Referate des Internazionalen Symposiums an der Freien Universität Berlin (3. bis 6. April 1998) [Meletemata. Beiträge zur Byzantinistik und Neugriechischen Philologie 8], Frankfurt a.M. 2000.
- P. A. Agapitos – M. Pieris (eds.), «Τ’ ἀδόνιν κεῖνον ποὺ γλυκὰ θλιβᾶται»: Ἔκδοση καὶ ἑρμηνεία τῆς ἑλληνικῆς δημώδους γραμματείας στὸ πέρασμα ἀπὸ τὸν Mεσαίωνα στὴν Ἀναγέννηση (1400-1600). Πρακτικὰ τοῦ 4ου Διεθνοῦς Συνεδρίου Neograeca Medii Aevi, Herakleion 2002 [= Edition and interpretation of Greek vernacular literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (1400-1600). Acts of the 4th International Conference ‘Neograeca Medii Aevi’].
- P. Odorico – P. A. Agapitos (eds.), Pour une «nouvelle» histoire de la littérature byzantine: problèmes, méthodes, approches, propositions. HERMENEIA. Actes du colloque international philologique (Nicosie, mai 2000) [Dossiers Byzantins 1], Paris 2002.
- P. Odorico – P. A. Agapitos (eds.), La vie des saints à Byzance: genre littéraire ou biographie historique? HERMENEIA. Actes du deuxiéme colloque international philologique (Paris, juin 2002) [Dossiers Byzantins 4], Paris 2004.
- P. Odorico – P. A. Agapitos – M. Hinterberger (eds.), L’écriture de la memoire: la littérarité de l’historiographie. HERMENEIA. Actes du troisiéme colloque international philologique (Nicosie, mai 2004) [Dossiers Byzantins 7], Paris 2006.
- P. Odorico – P. A. Agapitos – M. Hinterberger (eds.), «Doux remède…»: Poésie et poétique à Byzance. HERMENEIA. Actes du quatriéme colloque international philologique (Nicosie, mai 2004) [Dossiers Byzantins 7], Paris 2009.
- P. A. Agapitos – L. B. Mortensen (eds.), Medieval Narratives between History and Fiction: From the Center to the Periphery of Europe (c. 1100-1400), Copenhagen 2012.
- A Post-Byzantine Musical Anthology: MS Greek 21 in the Houghton Library, Harvard Library Bulletin 35 (1987 [appeared in 1989]) 150–164.
- The ‘Rhetorical’ Legitimation of Basileios I in the Vita Basilii, in: Abstracts of Papers (15th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Univ. of Massachussets at Amherst), Amherst 1989, pp. 11–12.
- Michael Italikos. Klage auf den Tod seines Rebhuhns, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 82 (1989) 59–68.
- Ἡ εἰκόνα τοῦ αὐτοκράτορα Bασιλείου A΄ στὴ φιλομακεδονικὴ γραμματεία 867–959, Hellenika 40 (1989) 285-322 [= The image of Emperor Basil I in Pro Macedonian literature 867-959].
- The Erotic Bath in the Byzantine Vernacular Romance Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, Classica et Medievalia 41 (1990) 257–273.
- Textkritisches zu Kallimachos und Chrysorrhoe, Hellenika 41 (1990) 33–41.
- Lemmata “Centaur”, “Herakles”, “Oppianos”, “Orpheus”, “Ovid”, “Phoenix”, “Proteus”, “Satyr”, “Vergil”, in: A. P. Kazhdan (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, New York-Oxford 1991.
- E. Mitsi – P. A. Agapitos, Eἰκὼν καὶ λόγος: ἡ περιγραφὴ ἔργων τέχνης στὴ βυζαντινὴ γραμματεία, Annales d’Esthétique 29-30 (1990/91) 109–126 [= Image and Word: the description of works of art in Byzantine literature].
- Libistros und Rhodamne: Vorläufiges zu einer kritischen Ausgabe der Version A, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 42 (1992) 191–208.
- Ἡ ἔμμεση παράδοση τοῦ δημώδους μυθιστορήματος Λίβιστρος καὶ Pοδάμνη, Hellenika 42 (1991/92) 61–74 [= The indirect transmission of the vernacular romance of Livistros and Rhodamne].
- Byzantine Literature and Greek Philologists in the Nineteenth Century, Classica et Medievalia 43 (1992) 231–260.
- Ἡ χρονολογικὴ ἀκολουθία τῶν μυθιστορημάτων Kαλλίμαχος, Bέλθανδρος καὶ Λίβιστρος [= The chronological sequence of the romances Kallimachos, Velthandros and Livistros], in: N. M. Panagiotakis (ed.), Ἀρχὲς τῆς νεοελληνικῆς λογοτεχνίας. Πρακτικa τοῦ δευτέρου διεθνοῦς συνεδρίου Neograeca Medii Aevi (Bενετία 1991), Venice 1993, vol. II, pp. 197–234.
- Ἕνα ἀκόμη σπάραγμα τοῦ μυθιστορήματος Λίβιστρος καὶ Pοδάμνη: Ὁ βατικανὸς κώδικας Barb. gr. 172, Hellenika 43 (1993) 337–359 [= One further fragment of Livistros and Rodamne: the Vatican manuscript Barb. gr. 172].
- P. A. Agapitos – O. L. Smith, Scribes and Manuscripts of Byzantine Vernacular Romances: Palaeographical Facts and Editorial Implications, Hellenika 44 (1994) 61–80.
- Byzantium in the Poetry of Kostis Palamas and C. P. Cavafy, Kάμπος. Cambridge Papers in Modern Greek 2 (1994) 1–20.
- Tοῦ ἔρωτα καὶ τῶν πικρῶν βασάνων: Mιὰ διακειμενικὴ ἀνάγνωση τοῦ τρίπτυχου ποιήματος «δός μου ὁρισμὸν» τοῦ Mιχάλη Ἐφταγωνίτη, Comparaison 7 (1996) 97–117 [= ‘Of love and bitter torment’: An intertextual reading of the triptych poem “give me a command” by Michalis Eftagonitis].
- Ἡ ἀφηγηματικὴ σημασία τῆς ἀνταλλαγῆς ἐπιστολῶν καὶ τραγουδιῶν στὸ μυθιστόρημα Λίβιστρος καὶ Pοδάμνη, Thesaurismata 26 (1996) 25–42 [= The narrative function of the exchange of letters and songs in Livistros and Rodamne].
- Πρὸς μιὰ κριτικὴ ἔκδοση τοῦ μυθιστορήματος Λίβιστρος καὶ Pοδάμνη: Προβλήματα
- μεθόδου [= Towards a critical edition of Livistros and Rodamne: Issues of method], in: J. M. Egea – A. Javier (eds.), Prosa y Verso en Griego Medieval. Rapports of the International Congress «Neograeca Medii Aevi III» (Vitoria 1994), Amsterdam 1996, pp. 1–16.
- Kaiser Johannes VII. Palaiologos als Addressat einer Monodie des Theodoros Potamios, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 90 (1997) 1–7.
- Parisinus Coislinianus 287. Περιγραφὴ τοῦ χειρογράφου, in: Nεοφύτου Πρεσβυτέρου Mοναχοῦ καὶ Ἐγκλείστου (as below no. 113), pp. xxiii–xxviii.
- Teachers, Pupils and Imperial Power in Eleventh-century Byzantium, in: N. Livingstone – Y. L. Too (eds.), Pedagogy and Power: Rhetorics of Classical Learning [Ideas in Context 50], Cambridge 1998, pp. 170–191.
- Narrative, Rhetoric and ‘Drama’ Rediscovered: Scholars and Poets in Byzantium Interpret Heliodorus, in: R. Hunter (ed.), Studies in Heliodorus [Cambridge Philological Society. Supplementary Volume 21], Cambridge 1998, pp. 125–156.
- Ὁ λογοτεχνικὸς θάνατος τῶν ἐχθρῶν στὴν «αὐτοβιογραφία» τοῦ Nικηφόρου Bλεμμύδη, Hellenika 48 (1998) 29–46 [= The literary death of enemies in the ‘autobiography’ of Nikephoros Blemmydes].
- SO Debate “Quellenforschung and/or Literary Criticism. Narrative Structures in Byzantine Historical Writings”: A Comment, Symbolae Osloensis 73 (1998) 24–29.
- Metamorphoseon permulti libri: Byzantine Literature Translated into Modern Greek, in: P. Magdalino – D. Ricks (eds.), Byzantium and the Modern Greek Identity [Center for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London. Publications 4], London 1998, pp. 63–74.
- Mischung der Gattungen und Überschreitung der Gesetze: Die Grabrede des Eustathios von Thessalonike auf Nikolaos Hagiotheodorites, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 48 (1998) 119–146.
- Seneca’s Thyestes and the Poetics of Multiple Transgression, Hellenika 48 (1998) 231–253.
- Dreams and the Spatial Aesthetics of Narrative Presentation in Livistros and Rhodamne, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53 (1999) 111–147.
- Ἱερώνυμος Tραγωδιστὴς ὁ Kύπριος: ἕνας μουσικὸς καὶ γραφέας τῆς ὅψιμης ἀναγέννησης [= Hieronymos Tragodistes the Cypriot: a musician and scribe of the Late Renaissance], in: N. Oikonomides (ed.), Ἡ ἑλληνικὴ γραφὴ κατὰ τοὺς δέκατο πέμπτο καὶ δέκατο ἕκτο αἰῶνες [Ἐθνικὸ Ἵδρυμα Ἐρευνῶν. Ἰνστιτοῦτο Bυζαντινῶν Ἐρευνῶν. Διεθνῆ Συμπόσια 7], Athens 2000, pp. 283–300.
- Der Roman der Komnenenzeit. Stand der Forschung und weitere Perspektiven, in: Agapitos–Reinsch, Der Roman im Byzanz (as above nr. 8), pp. 1–18.
- Poets and Painters: Theodoros Prodromos’ Dedicatory Verses of his Novel to an Anonymous Caesar, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 50 (2000) 173–185.
- Ἔκδοση καὶ ἑρμηνεία τῶν κειμένων: σκέψεις γιὰ τὴ δυναμικὴ διαπλοκὴ τῶν μεθόδων [= Editing and intepreting texts: thoughts on a dynamic intertwining of methods], in: H. Eideneier – U. Moennig – N. Toufexis (eds.), Θεωρία καὶ πράξη τῶν ἐκδόσεων τῆς ὑστεροβυζαντινῆς, ἀναγεννησιακῆς καὶ μεταβυζαντινῆς δημώδους γραμματείας. Πρακτικὰ τοῦ διεθνοῦς συμποσίου ἐργασίας Neograeca Medii Aevi IVa (Ἰανουάριος 1999, Ἀμβοῦργο), Herakleion 2000, pp. 93–99.
- Ἡ θέση τῆς αἰσθητικῆς ἀποτίμησης σὲ μιὰ «νέα» ἱστορία τῆς βυζαντινῆς λογοτεχνίας [= The place of aesthetic appreciation in a “new” history of Byzantine literature], in: Odorico–Agapitos, Pour une «nouvelle» histoire (as above no. 10), pp. 185–232.
- Πρὸς μιὰ κριτικὴ ἔκδοση τῶν ἐπιταφίων λόγων τοῦ Mιχαὴλ Ψελλοῦ: ἡ μονωδία “Eἰς τὸν τοῦ ἀκτουαρίου Ἰωάννου άδελφόν” (OrFun. 16) [= Towards a critical edition of Michael Psellos’ funeral orations: the monody “On the brother of aktouarios John (OrFun. 16)], in: Λόγια καὶ δημώδης γραμματεία τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ Mεσαίωνα. Άφιέρωμα στὸν Eὔδοξο Θ. Tσολάκη. Πρακτικὰ τῆς Θ΄ Ἐπιστημονικῆς Συνάντησης τοῦ Tομέα M.N.E.Σ. τοῦ Ἀριστοτελείου Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης (Mάϊος 2000), Thessaloniki 2002, pp. 139–160.
- Ancient Models and Novel Mixtures: The Concept of Genre in Byzantine Funerary Literature from Patriarch Photios to Eustathios of Thessalonike, in: G. Nagy – A. Stavrakopoulou (eds.), Modern Greek Literature: Critical Essays, New York-London 2003, pp. 5–23.
- Mortuary Typology in the Lives of Saints: Michael the Synkellos and Stephen the
- Younger, in: Odorico–Agapitos, La vie des saints (as above no. 11), pp. 103–135.
- Ἀπὸ τὸ “δρᾶμα” τοῦ Ἔρωτα στὸ “ἀφήγημαν” τῆς Ἀγάπης: τὸ ἐρωτικὸ μυθιστόρημα στὸ Bυζάντιο (11ος-14ος αἰώνας) [= From the “drama” of Eros to the “tale” of Love: the romance of love in Byzantium (11th-14th centuries), in: Christina G. Angelidi (ed.), Tὸ Bυζάντιο ὥριμο γιὰ ἀλλαγές: Ἐπιλογές, εὐαισθησίες καὶ τρόποι ἔκφρασης ἀπὸ τὸν ἑνδέκατο στὸν δέκατο πέμπτο αἰώνα [Ἐθνικὀ Ἵδρυμα Ἐρευνῶν. Ἰνστιτοῦτο Bυζαντινῶν Ἐρευνῶν: Διεθνῆ Συμπόσια 13], Athens 2004, pp. 53–72.
- Ἀπὸ τὴν Περσία στὴν Προβηγγία: ἐρωτικὲς διηγήσεις στὸ ὕστερο Bυζάντιο [= From Persia to the Provence: tales of love in late Byzantium], in: E. Grammatikopoulou (ed.), Tὸ Bυζάντιο καὶ οἱ ἀπαρχὲς τῆς Eὐρώπης [Ἐθνικὸ Ἵδρυμα Ἐρευνῶν. Ἐπιστήμης Kοινωνία 34], Athens 2004, pp. 119–153.
- Zwischen Grauen und Wonne: Das Bad in der byzantinischen Literatur, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 54 (2004) 19–37.
- Genre, Structure and Poetics in the Byzantine Vernacular Romances of Love, Symbolae Osloenses 79 (2004) 7–54 and 82–101 (on pp. 54–82 comments by C. Cupane, E. Jeffreys, M. Hinterberger, M. Lauxtermann, U. Moennig, I. Nilsson, P. Odorico and S. Papaioannou).
- Writing, Reading and Reciting (in) Byzantine Erotic Fiction, in: B. Mondrain (ed.), Lire et écrire à Byzance [Centre de recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance. Monographies 19], Paris 2006, pp. 125–176.
- Blemmydes–Laskaris–Philes, in: M. Hinterberger – E. Schiffer (eds.), Byzantin-ische Sprachkunst. Studien zur byzantinischen Literatur gewidmet Wolfram Hörandner zum 65. Geburtstag [Byzantinisches Archiv 20], Berlin-New York 2007, pp. 1–19 (and Plates I–II).
- Literary Criticism, in: E. Jeffreys – J. Haldon – R. Cormack (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, Oxford 2008, pp. 77–86.
- Public and Private Death in Psellos: Maria Skleraina and Styliane Psellaina, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 101 (2008) 555–607.
- From Persia to the Provence: Tales of Love in Byzantium and Beyond, Acme: Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università degli Studi di Milano 63 (2010) 153–169 [short version of no. 6].
- In Rhomaian, Frankish and Persian Lands: Fiction and Fictionality in Byzantium and Beyond, in: Agapitos–Mortensen (as above no. 13), pp. 235–367.
- The ‘Court of Amorous Dominion’ and the ‘Gate of Love’: Rituals of Empire in a Byzantine Romance of the 13th Century, in: A. Beihammer – S. Constantinou – M. Parani (eds.), Royal Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in the The Medieval Mediterranean: Comparative Perspectives [The Medieval Mediterranean 91] Leiden 2013, pp. 389–416.
- Grammar, Genre and Patronage in the Twelfth Century: A Scientific Paradigm and its Implications, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 64 (2014) 1–22.
- Anna Komnene and the Politics of Schedographic Training and Colloquial Discourse, Nea Rhome 10 (2013) [2014] 89–107.
- Karl Krumbacher and the History of Byzantine Literature, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 108 (2015) 1–52.
- Contesting Conceptual Boundaries: Byzantine Literature and its History, Interfaces— Medieval European Literatures 1 (2015) 62–91.
- Learning to Read and Write a Schedos: The Dictionary of Par. gr. 400, in P. Odorico -S. Efthymiadis – I. D. Polemis (eds.), Vers un poètique à Byzance: Mélanges offerts à Vassilis Katsaros [Dossiers Byzantins 16], Paris 2015, pp. 11–24.
- New Genres in the Twelfth Century: The schedourgia of Theodore Prodromos, Medioevo Greco 15 (2015) 1–41.
- Late Antique or Early Byzantine? The Shifting Beginnings of Byzantine Literature, Istituto Lombardo–Accademia di Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti: Classe di Lettere e Scienze Morali e Storiche 146 (2012 [2015]) 3–38.
- Literary Haute Cuisine and its Dangers: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Schedography and Everyday Language, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 69 (2015) 225–241.
- Bloody Metalanguage? Crime Fiction in Greece, 1991–2011, in: B. Sagaster – M. Strohmaier – S. Guth (eds.), Crime Fiction in and around the Eastern Mediterranean [Mîzân: Studien zur Literatur in der islamischen Welt 23], Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 93– 102.
- ‘Words Filled with Tears’: Amorous Discourse in the Palaiologan Romances, in: M. Alexiou – D. Cairns (eds.), Greek Tears and Laughter: Late Antiquity, Byzantium and Beyond [Edinburgh Leventis Classical Studies, 8], Edinburgh 2017, pp. 353–374.
- John Tzetzes and the Blemish Examiners: A Byzantine Teacher on Schedography, Everyday Language and Writerly Disposition, Medioevo Greco 17 (2017) 1–57.
- Dangerous Literary Liaisons: Byzantium and Modern Hellenism, Byzantina 35 (2017) 33–126.
- P. A. Agapitos – D. Angelov, Six Essays by Theodore II Laskaris in Vindobonensis gr. 321: Edition, Translation, Analysis, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 68 (2018) 39–75.
- The Word as Animated Image: Inscribed Texts in the Frescoes of the Church of the Virgin Mary at Laghouderá, Cyprus (AD 1192), in: A. Papageorghiou – C. Bakirtzes C. Hadjichristodoulou (eds.), The Church of the Panagia tou Arakos, Nicosia 2018, pp. 89–96.
- The Bookseller’s Parrot: A Fictional Afterword, in: A. Goldwyn – I. Nilsson (eds.), A Critical Guide to Medieval Greek Romance, Cambridge 2019, pp. 321–339.
- Vom Aktualisierungsversuch zum kommunikativen Code: Johannes Tzetzes und der Epilog seiner Theogonie für die sebastokratorissa Eirene, in: A. Külzer (ed.), Herbert Hunger und die Wiener Schule der Byzantinistik: Rückblick und Ausblick, Vienna-Novisad 2019, pp. 271–290.
- Franz Dölger and the Hieratic Model of Byzantine Literature, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 112 (2019) 707–780.
- A. Andreou – P. A. Agapitos, Of Masters and Servants: Hybrid Power in Theodore Laskaris’ Response to Mouzalon and in the Tale of Livistros and Rodamne, Interfaces—Journal of Medieval European Literatures 6 (2019) 96–129.
- Vom Dokument zum literarischen Werk: Philologisch-literarisches zur neuen Ausgabe der Akten des Nicaenum II von Erich Lamberz, in: W. Brandes – A. HasseUngeheuer – H. Leppin (eds.), Konzilien und Kanonisches Recht in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter: Aspekte konziliarer Entscheidungsfindung [Forschungen zur byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte, N.F. 2], Boston-Berlin 2020, pp. 263–278.
- The Insignificance of 1204 and 1453 for the History of Byzantine Literature, Medioevo Greco 20 (2020) 1–56.
- Literature and Education in Nicaea and its Legacy: An Interpretive Synthesis, Medioevo Greco 21 (2021) 1–37.
- Visually Demolished and Textually Reconstructed: Performing the Middle Ages in Contemporary Crime Fiction, in: L. James – O. Nicholson – R. Scott (eds.), After the Text: Byzantine Enquiries in Honour of Margaret Mullett [Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies, 32], London 2021, pp. 41–55.
- Greek, in: M. Chinka – C. Young (eds.), Literary Beginnings in the European Middle Ages, Cambridge 2022, pp. 255–275.
- The Politics and Practices of Commentary in Komnenian Byzantium, in: B. van den Berg – D. Manolova – P. Marciniak (eds), Byzantine Commentaries on Ancient Greek Texts: 12th – 15th Centuries, Cambridge 2022, pp. 41–60.
- ‘Middle-Class’ Ideology of Education and Language, and the ‘Bookish’ Identity of John Tzetzes, in: I. Stouraitis (ed.), Ideologies and Identities in the Medieval East Roman World [Edinburgh Byzantine Studies, 2], Edinburgh 2022, 146–163.
- Afterword: Forging Textual Realities, or How to Write a ‘Byzantine Mystery Story’, in: M. Kulhankova – P. Marciniak (eds.), Byzantium in the Popular Imagination: The Modern reception of the Byzantine Empire, London–New York 2023, 264–271.
- The Periodization of Byzantine Literature: From a Historical to a Literary Model, in: A. Riehle – I. Grimm-Stadelmann (eds.), Anekdota Byzantina. Studies for Albrecht Berger on his 65th Birthday, Berlin–Boston 2023, 1–20.
- ‘These Devices are the Writer’s Own Technique’: Eustathios of Thessalonike and the Redefinition of Rhetorical Genres, in: L. Silvano – A. M. Taragna – P. Varalda (eds.), Studies in Honour of Enrico Maltese, Ghent 2023, 63–97.
- “The Force of Discourses:” Literary Production in the Komnenian Era, in: B. van den Berg – N. Zagklas (eds.), Byzantine Poetry in the Long Twelfth Century, Cambridge — forthcoming.
- The Poetics of Exoticism: The ‘Greek’ Cligès and the ‘Latin’ Livistros (in preparation).
- Byzantine Literature Within a Medieval Eurasian Literary Supersystem: Amorous Tales and the Practice of Narrative Fiction (in preparation).
- Authorial Self-portraits in Komnenian Byzantium: Neophytos the Recluse and his Catechetichal Visions (in preparation).
The Gutenberg Project has as its main goal to present a new narrative account of literary production in Byzantium from the mid-11th century to the end of the 15th century, but at the same time to establish the methodological prerequisites to also present textual production from the 4th to the mid-11th century.
Often Byzantine literature is defined as “the textual production written in Greek between the 4th and the 15th centuries.” It is not so simple, however, because (1.) within the Byzantine Empire, texts were written in other languages, but Greek texts were also written outside the Empire; (2.) Byzantine texts were separated by older scholarship into an archaizing and a vernacular group according to the supposed linguistic idiom in which they were written; (3.) Byzantine texts were divided according to their subject matter into secular, religious, and scientific writing and were also treated separately; (4.) not all scholars agree that the Byzantine Empire began in the early 4th century, since for several decades Late Antiquity has claimed “Early Byzantium” as a new historical period; (5.) the so-called vernacular texts from the 12th to the 15th centuries were indiscriminately assigned to Modern Greek literature.
Such divisions, however, do not correspond to actual practice, for example, when authors from quite different social backgrounds composed secular, religious, and scientific texts in both archaic and vernacular idioms; when one finds several of these groups united in one and the same manuscript; when scholars and teachers of rhetoric from different periods regard, on the one hand, “late antique” texts as a central part of their literary heritage and, on the other, also compose vernacular texts.
Accordingly, the project will develop an innovative “literary periodization model” to holistically interpret Byzantine textual production. This approach will be supported by a selection of literary theories (post-structuralist narratology, semiotics, aesthetics, reception and performance theory) and historical approaches (contextualization, socio-economic history, gender and postcolonial studies). In this way, Byzantine texts are read within a “horizontal” axis of open interpretation (i.e., they are seen as dynamic carriers of meaning within their specific social, cultural, and political environments) rather than understood exclusively within a “vertical” axis of closed taxonomy (i.e., they are not seen as examples of fixed genres in an ahistorical sequence of abstract variations). In this way, the boundaries imposed by older research will be removed and Byzantine textual production will be understood as part of a broad “medieval Eurasian literary system,” wherein texts written in Greek will be read in their interrelationships with texts written in Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. In this way, it will be possible to bring Byzantine literature more into the center of international medievalist research and literary studies.
Within the project, three networking activities will be organized for the LWC: an international symposium on “Byzantine literary history and theory: the Eurasian context,” an international workshop on “Genre, taxonomy and the materiality of Byzantine Texts,” and a series of four guest lectures on specific topics, such as the place of scientific literature within a Byzantine literary history, or the problematic division between religious and secular writings. In this way, the research program of the LWC is substantially complemented by the presence of philology and literary history.