Excerpta Historica Constantiniana: An Encyclopaedia from Tenth-Century Byzantium?

Abstract When approaching Byzantine-Greek texts that organize knowledge in one way or another, Byzantinists encounter similar issues to those facing Arabists working on pre-modern Arabic literature. In this article, I discuss two of these more specifically: (1) The layout of the medieval manuscripts...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rafiyenko, Dariya (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2020
In: Journal of Abbasid Studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, Pages: 243-263
Further subjects:B Macedonian Renaissance
B Byzantine encyclopaedism
B navigation tools
B manuscript layout
B hierarchical structure of a text
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Abstract When approaching Byzantine-Greek texts that organize knowledge in one way or another, Byzantinists encounter similar issues to those facing Arabists working on pre-modern Arabic literature. In this article, I discuss two of these more specifically: (1) The layout of the medieval manuscripts has been hitherto systematically neglected, although many manuscripts contain chapter headings, lists of contents and other features that provide “reading aids” or “finding devices” and thus offer clues as to how the text they contain were conceived and designed to be read; and (2) The term “encyclopaedia” has been used in too vague a fashion with regard to Byzantine works of the tenth to twelfth centuries CE and has to be reconsidered. This article discusses both issues with reference to the example of the Excerpta historica Constantiniana (henceforth, Excerpta ), apparently a reference work, written in Ancient Greek in Constantinople in the tenth century CE . The goal is to make a description of the Excerpta available to Arabists, laying the ground for future study of the two traditions in comparative perspective.
ISSN:2214-2371
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Abbasid Studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22142371-12340055