Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081-1204)

Explores the rich poetic culture of twelfth-century Byzantium and studies its contexts of production and consumption.

Explores the abundant poetic production of an especially fertile period in Byzantine literary history. Examines schools as important venues for the composition and use of verse texts, sheds new light on the relationship between poetry, patronage and power, and offers the first editions and interpretive studies of hitherto neglected works.The twelfth century was one of the most fertile periods in Byzantine literary history and this volume is the first to focus exclusively on its abundant poetic production. It explores the broader sociocultural tendencies that shaped twelfth-century literature in both prose and verse by examining the school as an important venue for the composition and use of texts written in verse, by shedding new light on the relationship between poetry, patronage and power, and by offering the first editions and interpretive studies of hitherto neglected works. In this way, it enhances our knowledge of the history of Byzantine literature and enables us to situate Medieval Greek poetry in the broader literary world of the medieval Mediterranean.