Publicly performed rituals and ceremonies form an essential part of medieval political practice and court culture. This applies not only to western feudal societies, but also to the linguistically and culturally highly diversified environment of Byzantium and the Mediterranean basin. The continuity of Roman traditions and cross-fertilization between various influences originating from Constantinople, Armenia, the Arab-Muslim World, and western kingdoms and naval powers provide the framework for a distinct sphere of ritual expression and ceremonial performance. This collective volume, placing...

Metaphrasis: A Byzantine Concept of Rewriting and Its Hagiographical Products represents a first and authoritative discussion of rewriting in Byzantium. It brings together a rich variety of articles that treat the topic of hagiographical rewriting from various angles.The contributors discuss and comment on different kinds of texts in Greek and other languages, including Apophthegmata Patrum, Passions, Saints’ Lives, Enkomia, Miracle Collections, Synaxaria, and Menologia which date from late antiquity to late Byzantium. The volume offers a series of case studies examining how the same...