Description

In Byzantium the epigram as a genre was highly appreciated. A considerable number of epigrams is still preserved in situ as inscriptions. Their analysis is the aim of the four planned volumes of the project Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Uberlieferung [Byzantine epigrams on objects]. More than 300 and such epigrams preserved on stone, which are treated in the present third volume, are known from the project period 600 AD to 1500 AD. In a detailed introduction as well as in the whole volume the significance of metrical stone inscriptions for Byzantine cultural history is highlighted. On the basis of the preserved material, stone epigrams can be divided into two big groups, namely dedicatory and tomb epigrams. In both cases verses do not only inform us about the foundation act or the death but they are also means for the self-representation of the donor and the deceased, i. e. the emperor and (mainly) the aristocracy. The main part of the book consists of critical editions of the more than 300 epigrams, their German translation, as well as a commentary focusing on philological, linguistical and historical matters; also palaeographic questions are treated concerning the date of the stone epigrams. Images (colour as well as black and white) of almost all epigrams are presented in the tables. Also in this third volume of the series the omnipresence of inscriptional epigrams in Byzantium is stressed and the long underestimated meaning of inscriptions for Byzantine society is highlighted.