Books by Floris Bernard
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 50, May 2018
The witty and self-assertive poetry of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous provides unique... more The witty and self-assertive poetry of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous provides unique snapshots of eleventh-century Constantinople at the height of its splendor and elegance. Their collections, aptly called “various verses,” greatly range in length and style—including epigrams, polemics, encomia, and more—and their poems were written for a broad range of social occasions such as court ceremonies, horse races, contests between schools, and funerals. Some were inscribed on icons and buildings. Many honored patrons and friends, debunked rivals, or offered satirical portraits of moral types in contemporary society. In some remarkable introspective poems, Mauropous carefully shaped a narrative of his life and career, while Christopher’s body of work is peppered with riddles and jocular wordplay. This volume is the first English translation of these Byzantine Greek collections.
n the mid-eleventh century, secular Byzantine poetry attained a hitherto unseen degree of wit, vi... more n the mid-eleventh century, secular Byzantine poetry attained a hitherto unseen degree of wit, vividness, and personal involvement, chiefly exemplified in the poetry of Christophoros Mitylenaios, Ioannes Mauropous, and Michael Psellos. This is the first volume to consider this poetic activity as a whole, critically reconsidering modern assumptions about Byzantine poetry, and focusing on Byzantine conceptions of the role of poetry in society.
By providing a detailed account of the various media through which poetry was presented to its readers, and by tracing the initial circulation of poems, this volume takes an interest in the Byzantine reader and his/her reading habits and strategies, allowing aspects of performance and visual representation, rarely addressed, to come to the fore. It also examines the social interests that motivated the composition of poetry, establishing a connection with the extraordinary social mobility of the time. Self-representative strategies are analyzed against the background of an unstable elite struggling to find moral justification, which allows the study to raise the question of patronage, examine the discourse used by poets to secure material rewards, and explain the social dynamics of dedicatory epigrams. Finally, gift exchange is explored as a medium that underlines the value of poetry and confirms the exclusive nature of intellectual friendship.
Byzantine poetry of the eleventh century is fascinating, yet underexplored terrain. It presents a... more Byzantine poetry of the eleventh century is fascinating, yet underexplored terrain. It presents a lively view on contemporary society, is often permeated with wit and elegance, and is concerned with a wide variety of subjects. Only now are we beginning to perceive the possibilities that this poetry offers for our knowledge of Byzantine culture in general, for the intellectual history of Byzantium, and for the evolution of poetry itself. It is, moreover, sometimes in the most neglected texts that the most fascinating discoveries can be made.This book, the first collaborative book-length study on the topic, takes an important step to fill this gap. It brings together specialists of the period who delve into this poetry with different but complementary objectives in mind, covering the links between art and text, linguistic evolutions, social functionality, contemporary reading attitudes, and the like. The authors aim to give the production of 11th-century verse a place in the Byzantine genre system and in the historic evolution of Byzantine poetry and metrics. As a result, this book will, to use the expression of two important poets of the period, "offer a small taste" of what can be gained from the serious study of this period.
Book chapters by Floris Bernard
Middle and Late Byzantine Poetry: Texts and Contexts, ed. A. Rhoby and N. Zagklas (Turnhout: Brepols), 13–41, 2018
A Companion to Byzantine Poetry, ed. W. Hörandner, A. Rhoby, and N. Zagklas (Leiden/Boston: Brill), 404–29, 2019
Book epigrams (or metrical paratexts) are a poetic genre at the crossroads between writing and re... more Book epigrams (or metrical paratexts) are a poetic genre at the crossroads between writing and reading. They are narrowly connected to the production and use of the specific manuscript in which they appear. Book epigrams can be considered as inscriptions on books, sharing many features with inscriptions on other material objects (buildings, works of art, etc.). Book epigrams are paratexts, accompanying the main text of the manuscript. They praise the author of the text, express the motives of the patron, record the work of the scribe, admonish the readers, and structure the content of the book. Book epigrams mostly appear in the margins of the manuscript, or at its beginning or end. They stand visually apart through colour and script. Book epigrams are important sources of information about the patronage of books, reading culture, the reception of literature, and metrical developments, etc. A new online database is hoping to pave the way for new, and more comprehensive, research on this genre.
A Companion to Byzantine Poetry, ed. W. Hörandner, A. Rhoby, and N. Zagklas (Leiden/Boston: Brill), 212–36, 2019
Poetry from the period 1025-81 is mainly written by members of the intellectual elite in Constant... more Poetry from the period 1025-81 is mainly written by members of the intellectual elite in Constantinople, for whom writing verse was only one part of being a learned man: a logios. They infuse their poetry with a high degree of authorial self-awareness, wit, and variety. Contemporary education played a great role in the production of poetry. Michael Psellos specialized in didactic poetry (mainly written in politikoi stichoi) and poetry for court occasions. The collections of both John Mauropous and Christopher Mitylenaios reflect many genres and occasions: epigrams for various dedications; invective poems addressed to rivals; funeral poems for family and friends, etc. Mauropous arranged a well-thought-out collection that supports the self-image he wanted to convey to his readers. Mitylenaios’ poetry has a keen eye for the buildings and events in the city of Constantinople. Both Mauropous and Mitylenaios also wrote a considerable amount of hymnographic poetry.
A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography, ed. A. Riehle, vol. 7 (Leiden/Boston: Brill), 125–45, 2020
The letter corpus of Michael Psellos is heterogeneous in many respects. It is transmitted as a sc... more The letter corpus of Michael Psellos is heterogeneous in many respects. It is transmitted as a scattered corpus rather than as a uniform edition. It played an important role as a model in later Byzantine times. With his letters, Psellos built and maintained an extensive social network with individuals from all levels in society. Particularly in the numerous letters to officials in the province, he dealt with a range of practical matters, including career management, monasteries, and taxes. He couched his letters in a discourse of philia, an ideal of friendship that implied commitment to intellectual ideals. Psellos represented himself as a “philosopher” in his letters, but with many modifications and caveats. The linguistic register varied according to the addressee. Thanks to a new edition and a collective volume (including a list of summaries), the future of the study of Psellos’ letters looks promising.
A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography, ed. A. Riehle, vol. 7 (Leiden/Boston: Brill), 307–32, 2020
This essay discusses letter-exchange as a multimedia and partly ritualized form of communication.... more This essay discusses letter-exchange as a multimedia and partly ritualized form of communication. It focuses on the role of the bearer, not only as a channel for the message, but also as a mediator and go-between. Gifts added a material dimension to letter-exchange, and they were subject to subtle codes that often caused a sender to downplay their value and importance. The reception of letters was a ritualized event, consisting of a fixed sequence of gestures, and involving all the senses. Letters were regularly read by others, a phenomenon that one could call “public intimacy”; the reading of letters often stood at the core of a complex semi-public performance, involving extensive mediation, rhetorical dramatization, and ceremony. The essay also examines the impact of social decorum and hierarchy on letters, notably on the forms of address, formulas of deference, the vocabulary with which the letter-writer introduced requests, etc., for which the term “epistolary codes” can be used.
The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature, ed. S. Papaioannou, 2021
This chapter gives an overview of how Byzantines conceptualized “poetry.” It argues that from the... more This chapter gives an overview of how Byzantines conceptualized “poetry.” It argues that from the Byzantine point of view, poetry only differs from prose in a very formal way, namely that it is written in verse. Both prose and poetry belonged to the category of logoi, the only label that was very frequently used, in contrast to the term “poetry,” which was reserved for the ancient poetry studied at schools. Many authors considered (and exploited) the difference between their own prose texts and poems as a primarily formal one. Nevertheless, poetry did have some functions that set it apart from prose, even if these features are for us less expected. The quality of “bound speech” gained a spiritual dimension, since verse was seen as a restrained form of discourse, also from a moral point of view. Finally, the chapter gives a brief overview of the social contexts for which (learned) poetry was the medium of choice: as an inscription, as paratext in a wide sense, as a piece of personal introspection, as invective, as summaries (often of a didactic nature), and as highly public ceremonial pieces.
Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period. The Golden Age of Laughter?, ed. I. Nilsson and P. Marciniak, 2021
Byzantine Authors and Their Time. Expression, Ideology, and Society, ed. V. Vlyssidou, 2021
The Poems "To oneselF" oF John mauroPous: TradiTions and selF-rePresenTaTive sTraTegies "Poetry t... more The Poems "To oneselF" oF John mauroPous: TradiTions and selF-rePresenTaTive sTraTegies "Poetry to oneself" seems the most natural translation of the Byzantine poetic genre εἰς ἑαυτόν 1 . it may be an anachronistic rendering, however, since the Byzantine concept of ἑαυτὸν surely does not correspond with the psychological self-awareness that is implied when a modern Westerner uses the term "the self". it would also be wrong, as we will see, to read these poems as reflections of the inner emotional world of the author. Yet, it may still surprise us that Byzantine poetry, which we usually think of as void of self-expression (or "lyricism"), comprises a genre that explicitly takes the self as its subject and where the reader encounters an "i" that speaks about itself. But what "self" is meant when Byzantine authors chose to adopt a first person voice and when they, or later compilers, provided their poem with the title εἰς ἑαυτόν? To what degree is this "self" a paper construct, obeying to (or constrained by) purely literary or rhetorical conventions? Can we posit that By zantines made a distinction between a poet of a poem and a poet in the poem, i.e. a persona 2 ? how can we relate this poetry to self-fashioning strategies employed by Byzantine authors 3 ? This paper will by no means solve these questions, but rather offer some
The acts of taking up the pen and circulating a text under one’s own name were fraught with ethic... more The acts of taking up the pen and circulating a text under one’s own name were fraught with ethical tensions in Byzantium. Assuming authorship of texts contravened the Christian ideals of humility and self-effacement, and could incur the accusations of ambition and self-importance, all the more so if language and style were skilful and sophisticated. Nevertheless, it is exactly skilful writing that displayed the intellectual abilities of the author and could bring social advancement and material profits. This tension between social ambitions and ethical implications is particularly outspoken in the eleventh century, when a new elite of self-conscious intellectuals sought to gather social capital on the basis of their intellectual precedence. At the same time, other cultural and ideological groups made their voice heard.
This paper attempts to lay bare the various sets of representations (‘discourses’) that take issue with the ethical implications of authorship in the eleventh century. This can be done through an analysis of the ambiguous terms with which ‘skilful language’ (to use a neutral term) is denominated. The well-known habit to reject erudition and learnedness in prologues is also taken into consideration. On the one hand, the different discourses can be situated along the ideological and cultural fault lines that run through our period. But these tensions are also to be found in one and the same person. I discuss here the examples of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous: these polyvalent intellectuals developed different strategies to cope with the ethical issues that ambitious authorship provoked.
Geschenke erhalten die Freundschaft: Gabentausch …, Jan 1, 2011
This paper investigates the letters by which Michael Psellos took care of his educational network... more This paper investigates the letters by which Michael Psellos took care of his educational network. He remains in touch with his former teachers (mainly Mauropous), and his former classmates, appealing to their shared bond, supported by common manners and memories of jokes. As a teacher, he maintained contact with the relatives and protectors of his pupils, reassuring them that they were in good hands. His teaching is presented as a social asset, helping young candidates in their beginning careers. Many recommendation letters sent to officials in the province introduce his former pupils. Conversely, Psellos used his relationships with former pupils when they had become important officials, in order to circumvent official hierarchies. To this end, he represented their teacher-student relationship as a sacrosanct and eternal union. This is greatly helped by a vocabulary of kinship; especially the uncle-nephew relationship provided a convenient template.
The Holy Apostles. A Lost Monument, a Forgotten Project, and the Presentness of the Past, edited by Robert Ousterhout and Margaret Mullett, Harvard University Press, 2020, pp. 145–56., 2020
Articles by Floris Bernard
In a letter to his friend Iasites (Sathas 171), Michael Psellos proposes to give the letter itsel... more In a letter to his friend Iasites (Sathas 171), Michael Psellos proposes to give the letter itself in exchange for a horse. Exploiting the polysemy of alogon and logos in Greek, Psellos is able to frame this playful representation of a gift exchange in a philosophical opposition between materiality and reason. This allows him to present his intellectual competences as an exclusive kind of cultural capital that deserves material support from other members of society.
Asteiotes is an age-old cultural concept in Greek-speaking culture that gained a new importance a... more Asteiotes is an age-old cultural concept in Greek-speaking culture that gained a new importance and vigour in the Byzantine eleventh century, when Constantinople was perceived as the centre of cultural and social life. In many texts of authors of the intellectual elite, the concept (together with the related concept of politikos) is used to define a certain type of man who is able to combine his education (paideia) with a certain set of behavioural conventions (ethos) that he had assimilated in an unaffected way. Humour, correct pronunciation, physical appearance, and a sensitivity to social decorum were all aspects of this. Asteiotes found a counterpart in the concept of agroikia, a distinction that was based on a spatial opposition between city and countryside. It is important to note that the concept often had ambiguous ethical overtones, which had to be carefully negotiated.
Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 2015
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Books by Floris Bernard
By providing a detailed account of the various media through which poetry was presented to its readers, and by tracing the initial circulation of poems, this volume takes an interest in the Byzantine reader and his/her reading habits and strategies, allowing aspects of performance and visual representation, rarely addressed, to come to the fore. It also examines the social interests that motivated the composition of poetry, establishing a connection with the extraordinary social mobility of the time. Self-representative strategies are analyzed against the background of an unstable elite struggling to find moral justification, which allows the study to raise the question of patronage, examine the discourse used by poets to secure material rewards, and explain the social dynamics of dedicatory epigrams. Finally, gift exchange is explored as a medium that underlines the value of poetry and confirms the exclusive nature of intellectual friendship.
Book chapters by Floris Bernard
This paper attempts to lay bare the various sets of representations (‘discourses’) that take issue with the ethical implications of authorship in the eleventh century. This can be done through an analysis of the ambiguous terms with which ‘skilful language’ (to use a neutral term) is denominated. The well-known habit to reject erudition and learnedness in prologues is also taken into consideration. On the one hand, the different discourses can be situated along the ideological and cultural fault lines that run through our period. But these tensions are also to be found in one and the same person. I discuss here the examples of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous: these polyvalent intellectuals developed different strategies to cope with the ethical issues that ambitious authorship provoked.
Articles by Floris Bernard
By providing a detailed account of the various media through which poetry was presented to its readers, and by tracing the initial circulation of poems, this volume takes an interest in the Byzantine reader and his/her reading habits and strategies, allowing aspects of performance and visual representation, rarely addressed, to come to the fore. It also examines the social interests that motivated the composition of poetry, establishing a connection with the extraordinary social mobility of the time. Self-representative strategies are analyzed against the background of an unstable elite struggling to find moral justification, which allows the study to raise the question of patronage, examine the discourse used by poets to secure material rewards, and explain the social dynamics of dedicatory epigrams. Finally, gift exchange is explored as a medium that underlines the value of poetry and confirms the exclusive nature of intellectual friendship.
This paper attempts to lay bare the various sets of representations (‘discourses’) that take issue with the ethical implications of authorship in the eleventh century. This can be done through an analysis of the ambiguous terms with which ‘skilful language’ (to use a neutral term) is denominated. The well-known habit to reject erudition and learnedness in prologues is also taken into consideration. On the one hand, the different discourses can be situated along the ideological and cultural fault lines that run through our period. But these tensions are also to be found in one and the same person. I discuss here the examples of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous: these polyvalent intellectuals developed different strategies to cope with the ethical issues that ambitious authorship provoked.