Abstract
Book epigrams, or metrical paratexts, abound in Byzantine manuscripts. These compositions are the joining link between verse inscriptions, written on any kind of support, and manuscript anthologies, which transmit literary epigrams. Byzantine book epigrams have been collected in an online Database (DBBE, www.dbbe.ugent.be), hosted by Ghent University, with the scope of gathering and making available a large corpus of metrical paratexts dating up to the 15th century.
This paper offers some reflections on the aesthetics of books as presented in book epigrams. In the first part of the lecture I will present some epigrams that clearly refer to the physical or spiritual beauty of the book in which they are inscribed.
Moreover, I will discuss some book epigrams potentially dealing with images in their double function of pieces of poetry and of “objects” themselves. Firstly, metrical captions frequently explain, comment upon and enhance the presence of manuscript miniatures. These captions are often clustered in cycles that appear in one or more manuscripts featuring similar miniatures. Secondly, epigrams can also replace miniatures and perform a peculiar visual function. Book epigrams can be placed where manuscript miniatures might be expected to be found and describe miniatures that are actually not present in the manuscript.
The relationship between text and image in book epigrams is a bidirectional one. This fluid interrelation make metrical paratexts a particularly suitable corpus to investigate how words and images coexist on the manuscript folio.
Practical information
This lecture will be given at the international conference “Versus ad picturas. Text/Image Relationship in Greek, Latin and Arabic poetry between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages” (University of Strasbourg, 28-30 September 2022). It is part of the session “Culture grecque. Antiquité tardive et littérature byzantine”.
The conference Versus ad picturas, conceived within the framework of the research of the international group GIRPAM on Greek and Latin poetry in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages and in particular the activities of the Gutenberg Chair 2021 on biblical poetry, aims to contribute to the study of the relationship between the images we now call artistic, painted on walls, fabrics, stained glass or parchments, and the verses that often accompany them materially or ideally, and that are now increasingly recognized as indispensable to their cultural understanding and social location.
Date & time: Thursday 29 September 2022, 10:00 am
Location: the lecture will be broadcast via streaming: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84177136590?pwd=ZXV1YVBLYUQzM1hBdVNiSmlIS0U1Zz09
- Meeting ID: 841 7713 6590
- Passcode: 754872
More information about this conference and the full programme can be found here.