Authors and Texts in Byzantium (Variorum Collected Studies)

Professor Kazhdan's approach to the study of Byzantine texts is to see them as works created by humans, for humans and about humans, not as a system of imitative exercises on ancient or biblical topics and styles. When authors reused or adapted older models, he would ask why they did that and argues that in this opposition of traditional language and new content lies one of the keys to the understanding of Byzantine culture. This approach does not exclude the use of the texts as sources for what happened, and these articles demonstrate just how much can, with care, be extracted or deduced. However, his major aim has been to analyze the historical background, the social ideas and artistic approaches of Byzantine authors as revealed in what they wrote. These authors include literary figures, and there are studies of the intellectual culture of the later Empire, but the emphasis is more particularly on the often anonymous writers of saints lives and the 8th-10th centuries. The volume ends with a section of additional notes and references and a detailed index.