New Testament Book Epigrams. Some New Evidence from the Eleventh Century
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Klaas Bentein
Abstract
The article offers an edition, translation and commentary of eight so-called book epigrams. They all stem from eleventh-century manuscripts containing the New Testament or commentaries on it, more specifically the Paris. Coisl. 199, the Vindobon. Theol. Gr. 302, the Paris. Coisl. 26, and the Vatic. Gr. 363. While most of them are unedited, the second one is a conflation of known epigrams, and the third an unknown version of a previously edited epigram.
Although book epigrams are frequently encountered in Byzantine manuscripts, the genre has not received much attention. In the track of the recently increasing interest in manuscripts as cultural artifacts in their own right, our commentary focuses on the relationship between epigram and manuscript, and the process of copying. It also discusses textual problems, structure, content, function, vocabulary, and metrical features of the poems.
The analysis is enriched by parallels from other, mostly contemporary, book epigrams, which were collected during an ongoing database project at Ghent University. The comparison shows, among other things, that the material belonging to this genre is ‘recyclable’: it is constantly re-used, sometimes with slight but meaningful modifications.
© 2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- The Date of Theognostos' Orthography: A Reappraisal
- New Testament Book Epigrams. Some New Evidence from the Eleventh Century
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- Niketas Stethatos der „Beherzte“?
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- II. Abteilung
- III. Abteilung
Articles in the same Issue
- The Date of Theognostos' Orthography: A Reappraisal
- New Testament Book Epigrams. Some New Evidence from the Eleventh Century
- Echi del Romanzo e di Procopio di Gaza in Filagato Cerameo
- Kritisches Zu Kaiserzeitlichen und Byzantinischen Epigrammen
- Proposte di Correzioni al Testo dei Nuovi ‘Morceaux Choisis’ di Michele Psello
- Niketas Stethatos der „Beherzte“?
- Anastasius of Sinai: Biblical Scholar
- Byzantine Responses to the Battlefield Tactics of the Armies of the Turkoman Principalities: The Battle of Pelekanos (1329)
- Ewole שדח שאד: The Announcement of the New Moon in Romaniote Synagogues
- Byzantine Lead Seals and Other Minor Objects from Mystras: New Historical Evidence for the Region of Byzantine Lakedaimon
- Sirmian Martyrs in Exile Pannonian Case-Studies Anda Re-Evaluation of The St. Demetrius Problem
- Urban or Rural? Theoretical Remarks on the Settlement Patterns in Byzantine Epirus (7th–11th Centuries)
- II. Abteilung
- III. Abteilung
