This book gathers vital contributions examining rhetoric in the Middle Byzantine Period, focusing on the ‘corpus Hermogenianum.’ This much-read compendium of treatises and exercises was first consolidated in the fifth and sixth centuries CE, then successively copied and commented on until the end of the Empire in the East. A staple in the curriculum for the education of those entering service in the imperial administration, military, or the church, the corpus generated an array of commentaries that is still understudied. This volume examines the entangled, dialogic nature of these texts. With a focus on the period from the ninth to twelfth centuries, this book aims to provide a more integrated understanding of the exegetical work done around the corpus Hermogenianum. In doing so, it shows how generations of Byzantine scholars grappled with key political and philosophical issues of their time. It represents a significant advance in the study of Byzantine rhetoric and political culture.
Part I. Conceptual Nodes.-
1. The Organon of Rhetoric: An Anonymous
Byzantine Discussion on Porphyrys Isagoge, the Corpus of Hermogenes, and the
Rhetorical Curriculum (Byron MacDougall).-
2. Guided by Method. Spatial and
Temporal Negotiations of techne in the Byzantine Hermogenian Tradition (Aglae
Pizzone).-
3. Visualization Strategies in the corpus Hermogenianum:
Preliminary Remarks on Byzantine Rhetorical Diagrams (Chiara DAgostini).-
4.
Diagrams and the Visual-Oral Nexus in Argumentation Training (Vessela
Valiavitcharska). Part II. Exegetical Networks.- 5. Christian Rhetoric in
John of Sardis Commentary on Pseudo-Hermogenes On Invention (Daria Resh).-
6. John Geometres Commentary on Gregory of Nazianzus Oration 45 (Maria
Mushinskaya).-
7. John Tzetzes and Minucianus: Polemic and
Self-Representation in the Commentary on Hermogenes (Elisabetta Barili).-
8.
In the Footsteps of John Geometres: A Comparative Study of Four Byzantine
Commentaries on Pseudo-Hermogenes "On the Method of Forceful Speaking" (Anna
Bistaffa).-
9. Interpretive Strategies and Exegetical Polyphony in the
Commentary on Pseudo-Hermogenes On the Method of Forceful Speaking by
Gregory of Corinth (Baukje van den Berg).
Aglae Pizzone is Professor of Ancient and Medieval Greek in the Department of Language, Culture, History and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark and Chair of Humanities at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study at that university.
